Shadows at play, magic at work and a smile on my face!

[cavaricooper 2,613]

It's been a very long time since I haven't been able to sleep soundly through the night. Last night however, I ​was awake tossing and turning- something was ​nagging at me. I had received the 777 for Prepar3d a couple of days ago, and while I had been testing the freighter, I hadn't installed the 77W.  She was calling.

Quietly, so as not to disturb my sleeping wife, I got up and fired up the two sim computers in the den.  A few minutes with familiar installers had the 77W sitting happily as one of my "favorites" in P3d.  Then (and perhaps because it was 1am and the house was still, and inspiration running amuck) I decided to work on my Prepar3d.cfg and Inspector settings to get the sort of "suspensive environment" I am used to in FSX.  An hour of work later, I was smiling.

It was time to go flying (now 2am local).  Emirates flies the 77W to Hammad from DXB each day, so shouldn't I? At less than one hour, it was a perfect acquaintance flight- a sort of "Let's get to know each other"- short enough, yet long enough, if you know what I mean?

DXB had Tower and Control available- perfect!  Fiddling with PFPX had me flying the Sitat departure out of 30R.  Those familiar with DXB will be familiar with the large stand superstructures that cosset the nose whilst in pre flight.  Head down, I busied myself with the flow and noticed nothing amiss.  It was in the push to face nose east that something happened!  The tug pushed, we cleared the stand and began to turn nose left- and I looked up from my rote start sequence, the bit where I stare at oil pressures and EGT.  Something had caught my eye!

P3d brings with it many improvements, but surely the most immersive, most sublime, is its shadow play.  As we turned, the sun did not, and with a gasp I was thrust into awe.  The limits of the delineated cockpit, the steadiness of a large ship coming about, the unbelievable sensation of the Sun's warmth traversing my outstretched right arm as I reached over to press Recall.... it was all there.

As we taxied down Kilo for K10 everything in my simulated world rocked softly, reflected appropriately, and cast lovely languidly moving shadows, completely emulating the feeling of moving 225T of Boeing over asphalt.

I was so enjoying myself that I was taxying at a very sedate 10Kts, and Dubai Tower had to ask me to expedite taxi so that a Qatari 777 could push.  I did so and the rocking grew.  At a comfortable 20Ks on the long K taxiway, we ​moved towards K10 and I had to force myself away form just LOOKING and finish cockpit checks so that we could cross 30L with lights and strobes on.  We did so, and were cleared for takeoff, with a Qantas flight on TCAS, just establishing.  A rolling takeoff had us blasting out of 30R despite the 70 degree assumed temps (Emirates does not utilize derates).  A lovely turn out over the water and we were cleared, first up to 13,000 and then to our final FL220.

 

​The soft clouds whisking by, the building cumulonimbus, the stated lenticulars, all ​were somehow very different to what I was accustomed to in FSX.  Dimensions, shapes and the magic of light and shadow were never more apparent in my simulator- brilliant!  Emirates Control stayed on for the Qatari flight and I (greatly appreciated BTW) and whilst still away from AFNAN he advised he would provide vectors to ILS 16L.  Streaking through the clear, with some cloud layers above and the fantastic P2d water below, shafts of sunlight streaming through the windows, casting their lovely shadows on every knob, switch, lever and angular bit of metal about- I was captivated.   All too soon we were preparing for descent.  Vectors roughly followed the AFNAN 1M arrival and with a hush we were slipping through the hallowed halls of golden sparkles to establish on a 9 mile final.  

 

At 4 DME I had to pinch myself.  Flaps 30, Speedbrakes armed and manual flight- perfect.  The air was steady, no roiling over the water today, no massive convective bumps, just goose-pimples galore.  Slipping down the ILS, with glorious shadow-play EVERYWHERE, I lost myself in the moment.  The workday was behind me.  The stresses that life brings, not even an afterthought.  All my being was involved in creating that magic slurp of rubber and asphalt on the touchdown markers.  Light glorious light, all that we see, often ignore, yet that which moves us and casts away the darkness- so changes the simulator experience!  It is unimaginable for me to fly with flat light ever again.

 

Idle reverse and we vacated on A7 for E4 to C9- and then suddenly it was over.  I sat there for a long time reliving those precious moments.  P3d is so very new to me, yet has suddenly become so precious.  Farewell my faithful FSX- I have moved on, and as with the NGX it took PMDG to force the issue.

 

Yes, others will share lots of photos and video, however, I again turn to words... I hope I have communicated some of my wonder.......

[pinlifter 502]

Nice write up Carl...I bet the wife never knew a thing   The shadows do look really neat in the 2 or 3 P3D screenshots RSR posted awhile back.  I'm not sure if you're allowed to post more screenshots at the moment of these wild & wicked shadows at play, but I would love to see some more if possible.

 

Hopefully you're one of the 744v2 beta testers when it goes into beta next month this year, as I thoroughly enjoy your posts on the trials and tribulations of testing!

[cannonplug 126]

Farewell my faithful FSX- I have moved on

 

 

Looks like it works. Op check good. Let's release it! :ph34r:

 

Seriously, thanks for your impressions Carl! Really looking forward to this.

 

Best,

[vr-pilot 11]

Carl, your "shadow play" experience sounds fantastic! B)

As a 3D vision "evangelist" I am still waiting for P3D supporting also stereoscopic vision enhancement officially...

[ajpongress 467]

Carl meant to post screenshots but his Etch-a-Sketch is broken.

[mosteen 111]

Thanks for sharing Carl, as said earlier, nice write-up. The feeling of those rare flights where it all fits nicely into place to lull you into a unique ambiance is magic stuff.

 

Cheers,

[~Craig~ 10]

That write-up should be printed, put in plain brown packaging and sold on the top shelf of dubious book stores and Newsagents !!  

 

Really nice write up, thoroughly enjoyed it.  B)

[Werner747 107]

Carl,

 

Outstanding stuff!  You dragged me right into the cockpit there with you.   In fact, I now have sunburn on my right cheek as well!

 

Kind regards

[greggerm 312]

Well done! Prepar3D can really present very visceral experiences!

 

Your write-up really makes me wish wish PMDG would release actual pricing information on their Prepar3D offerings. I'm finally in the market now for the 777, but I'm torn about waiting for the P3D version or just jumping in on the FSX/FSX:SE side.  I don't want to waste time if it turns out the P3D edition will be outside my budget, but I don't want to waste money on the current version if the P3D offering will be within the budget. (shrug)

 

I know it's not in PMDG's nature to do so, but a man can hope, right? All in due time I guess.

 

Keep up the good stories and throw in some pics, too!

 

-Greg

[738NGFREAK 1]

Sensational writing Carl, you should go and write books about FSX/Prepar3d expiriences haha!  

I've got goose bumps only from reading it , wow!!

 

 

Cheers Sven

[Da Flyguy 3]

I am very curious to find out how the extra eye candy will effect the performance of the 777 within P3D.

How does she compare against the FSX version ?.

 

I plan on using internal shadows because it just looks amazing. Do not care much for Autogen and high detail water

so hoping the performance will be okay.

 

Cheers, Rick

[cavaricooper 2,613]

Rick et al-

My sim rig at the moment is a 2600K (4.8GHz) + GTX570. P3d is a TOTALLY different animal than FSX so I am in the midst of a learning curve. That said- the 777 experience in P3d is brilliant. For all of you running the latest Haswells, it will be even better. FWIW the 777 in P3d was the acid test for me. It would decide whether I upgraded now or waited for Broadwell. I'm happy enough to wait. As with all things- your mileage may vary. Stay tuned, I'm sure there will be videos along shortly....

[Da Flyguy 3]

Hi Carl,

 

Thank you for the response.

 

I have the i7 4970 (not sure what name it goes by) and paired up two GTX 780 Ti's

Also use 16 gig of high speed corsair vengeance memory on a Asus Rampage V Extreme MB.

 

I have minimized any tweaking.

Dropped back the settings in NVidia inspector with the exception of Antialiasing-transparency Supersampling which is AA_MODE_REPLAY_SGSSAA_8X (can.t stand jaggies)

 

I youtubed P3d tweaks and came across what for me is a miracle tweak.

They mentioned to add the following line in to the p3d.cfg [Main] directory

 

FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.01

 

I selected an aircraft that previously gave me 29~33 FPS and without changing any settings (except to insert the above mentioned line) It now sits on 43~47 FPS.

So this will hopefully also take care of PMDG's 777.

 

Kind regards, Rick

[liketofly1 11]

Hi Carl,

 

Excellent write up, thanks for sharing. In this flight - did you by any chance use FlyTampa's Dubai scenery? How did your VAS handle all that?

 

kind regards

[cavaricooper 2,613]

Rick-

Yes, I use FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.01 in my [MAIN] section of my .cgf.  With my (now ancient) 2600k and GTX570 I am only using 4x SGSS.  I keep trying to force myself to wait for Broadwell.....

 

Richard-

Yes, I use Fly Tampa's Dubai (and everything else they make- brilliant).  No VAS issues so far.