Just wiped my v2.0 and did a new install of v2.3 and have to say P3D now looks gorgeous in every way. The cloud shadows make me almost speechless...

 

My graphic settings are overall probably just one notch below all maxed out (many slides are all the way to the right) and I still get 30-40fps around a dense area like KPIT. Without any tweaks on Vsync etc just unlimited fps P3D runs pretty much silk smooth and stuttering free. Very impressive.

 

I always complained that v2.0 was too dark and gloomy but now the brightness and contrast in P3D are almost perfect without HDR. With HDR on though everything is still too dark, so now I'm wondering what is the advantage of having HDR?

 

I'm now hesitant to add anything to this pristine P3D v2.3 install. I remember P3D uses same ground textures as FSX, how come the default P3D now looks so much better than a default FSX?

It's the HDR!! The new lighting system has given P3D the face-lift that everyone was looking for from 3rd party software.

 

 Jazz

But I was flying specifically with HDR off since I found HDR is too dark...

 

So LM made a new lighting system in v2.3 that makes the same FSX textures look so much better? Whatever they did, I'm so impressed.

But I was flying specifically with HDR off since I found HDR is too dark...

 

I also thought it was to dark - revisit it - I will not fly without it now

 

look into this tweak it will help a lot I went with 4.0 setting

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/449501-faster-hdr-transistion-time-tweak/

It took a while for me to get used to it as well, coming from the washed out look of fsx. Like Rich, I never turn the hdr, off. Likewise with the cloud shadows, and reflections, are a must have now.

 

  Jazz

If you take a set of sky textures (the daylight ones only) and lighten up the first two pixels across the top starting from the upper left corner it will brighten things up considerably with HDR on. I used PhotoShop and programmed an "action", IIRC I did brightness & contrast just lightening them by a factor of 50. The Action can be run on an entire folder of files so it walks through a set of sky textures in about 15 seconds. Don't try to run it from the main texture folder obviously, first backup your sky textures then copy them to a temporary folder and modify them there. Keep your backup handy in case you don't like them.

 

I did the transition time tweak Rich linked above but to me it was still too dark although things do lighten up quicker.

 

Here's a before & after, maybe I overdid it, lol:

 

 

Jim

Jim,

Your Photoshop "tweak" really looks great.....

For so many of us without Photoshop skills, wish there was a "way" we could achieve your results.  Maybe LM will include a slider in the future????

 

Tom

Nice job Jim - gotta luv photoshop - my favorite program

 

Tom thats a great idea

Could this effect be achieved using Gimp? aka, the poor man's photoshop? 

 

  Jazz

 

 

But I was flying specifically with HDR off since I found HDR is too dark..

I'm still thinking it's too dark! I switched it off and get 5% higher FPS too. I switch instead my monitor to full RGB and this gives me the light in the middle between HDR on and HDR off.

Spirit

I think it also depends a lot on your monitor settings. I have a Samsung monitor and I am using the Game MagicBright preset whenever I start P3D with HDR on. I also use that transition time tweak: wouldn't use HDR without it. This combination really makes the sun shine in P3D.

I think it also depends a lot on your monitor settings. I have a Samsung monitor and I am using the Game MagicBright preset whenever I start P3D with HDR on. I also use that transition time tweak: wouldn't use HDR without it. This combination really makes the sun shine in P3D.

I agree, Jeroen, I also have a Samsung with the Dynamic Contrast Control feature. I never fly during dawn,day, or dusk without it enabled. I love this feature of my Samsung, in that it reacts in live time...as designed, to give you the best light to dark screen elemental depth. With this and HDR on....well....hook-in-mouth. This is why I am hesitant to leave this older monitor. One of Samsung's best features, ever.....

Could this effect be achieved using Gimp? aka, the poor man's photoshop? 

 

  Jazz

 

Sure it could, it's just a matter of lightening up those two pixels, but the problem is there are 90 tiny little .bmps that need to have this done to them and that's where the "actions" in PhotoShop come in handy. I don't know if Gimp has any sort of macro function, if so use it, if not I guess you'd need to do each texture individually. I did this to a set of HDE v2 sky textures incidentally, they were intended for FS9 and therefore 24 bit, they need to be converted to 32 bit for FSX and P3D 1x/2x otherwise they'll crash the sim.

 

Check the graphic below, there's a row of pixels across the top of each sky texture that controls all sorts of lighting effects in the sim, this is how "Shade" works incidentally so I suppose it might also be possible to make a Shade preset that actually lightened those two pixels rather than darkened them, I haven't tried that. I suppose you'd need to inject Shade into FSX then steal the sky textures out of the FSX\texture folder and copy them into the P3D\texture folder, I haven't heard whether Shade supports P3D2 directly.

 

I'm guessing most are using REX which I don't have, I assume if you were to load a REX theme it would overwrite your sky textures so you'd need to work around that somehow.

 

 

 

 

Check the graphic below, there's a row of pixels across the top of each sky texture that controls all sorts of lighting effects in the sim, this is how "Shade" works incidentally so I suppose it might also be possible to make a Shade preset that actually lightened those two pixels rather than darkened them, I haven't tried that. I suppose you'd need to inject Shade into FSX then steal the sky textures out of the FSX\texture folder and copy them into the P3D\texture folder, I haven't heard whether Shade supports P3D2 directly.

With EMT one can also install Shade for P3D v2.3 and use it.

Spirit

 

 

I have a Samsung monitor and I am using the Game MagicBright preset

Same same

Spirit

With EMT one can also install Shade for P3D v2.3 and use it.

 

I need neither :smile: