1. HARDWARE TESSELLATION

 

First of all, I am impressed that one major issue of P3D 2.5 with some photo textures has been addressed, namely that photo scenery looked washed out or overexposed when hardware tessellation was enabled. This was the reason why I had to switch it off in V2.5. In V3, this problem has been solved. Thus, hardware tessellation can be enabled and photo scenery textures look normal. Well done LM!

 

2. HDR ON & OFF

 

I was neever satisfied with HDR in V2.5. Now in V3, HDR parameters can be adjusted, but it is still my impression that HDR OFF looks more natural. Especially in the VC, the panels look overexposed with HDR enabled (e.g. PMDG). If you adapt the lighting with the sliders to adapt the lighting for the look of the cockpit, this of course also affects the outside scenery - often in a negative way. Thus, it is difficult to adapt HDR in a way that both the VC AND the outside scenery look good. For this reason I prefer to have HDR OFF, which just looks right.

 

I wonder what others think.

I think the colors look rather dull without HDR enabled to be honest. Taken, you can now adjust the HDR settings, but I still haven't found a suitable config for either day or night flying.

I also tried some configs for HDR yesterday and the best result is: turning HDR off!

 

As you mentioned it looks the most natural to me. I leave it off  :wink:

For me, HDR off with full RGB in Nvidia panel.

Yes, HDR ended up as OFF here too.

I have tried adjusting HDR settings, but I just can't make HDR look natural.

I think the colors look rather dull without HDR enabled to be honest. 

 

 

I have to agree.  The colours in FSX and P3D have always been significantly under-saturated.  I find that the addition of a saturation slider is much more convenient, but finding an optimal setting is difficult.  I suspect settings will also vary from situation to situation (ie, night v day....overcast v clear etc).  The optimum balance between light and colour is quite subjective but also very easy to turn into a cartoon like appearance 

Same here, since v3 I turned HDR off and I'm happy with it.

Under v2.5, I was using a tweaked HDR shader.

 

V3 offers definitely a more natural and better feeling with reproduced colors.

 

I did not see the Tesselation problem in 2.5 as it was always enabled to reduce the load on my (too small) CPU

...glad someone brought this up...virtually all experiences and youtube vids...including my own look.....mehhhhh...washed out and lifeless, compared to previous versions of P3d.

 

I cant find a happy medium with the latest Nvidia update ans my GTX 770.

 

Give me my v2.x vibrancy back!

 

Regards,

 

Chas

I always had HDR off in 2.5 but I used a program called Shade which made the simulator look stunning. I am also finding that having HDR off in v3 also looks better to me, especially at night. I just need to figure out how to get Shade to work in v3!!

I always had HDR off in 2.5 but I used a program called Shade which made the simulator look stunning. I am also finding that having HDR off in v3 also looks better to me, especially at night. I just need to figure out how to get Shade to work in v3!!

Check out this site Flic1. It works for me in V3.    www.reshade.me

I am flying with it both on and off, depending on what the scenario might be.

 

The bloom effect looks very good within sunrises or sunsets with clouds as it makes the clouds and sky have a nice golden look.

 

Brightness can be used to enhance the look of things in situations that are sunny and where one might wear sunglasses. As an example, I use higher brightness settings when I am flying in the summer in places that are hot like Phoenix, Arizona. Another example is to have a higher level brightness on a sunny day when flying in snow covered mountains. Gives a nice effect.

 

I do have to say that HDR off also looks really good, but all in all I am glad that this functionality is available so the user can define certain visual parameters.

For v2.5 I had 2 different HDR files . One for day and one for night.

Together with 2 Sweet Fx files , also one for day and one for night.

 

Next week I will dive into the HDR/SweetFx thing after I have finished my Project Magenta setup.

Colors do look bland in fsx but I can't stand HDR! Especially at nights - it's soooo fake. Nights are bright, glass displays look silly!

 

So it's off for me

 

But on in XP10 hehe

For those who find the colors too bland without P3D HDR enabled and have an Nvidia card - did you set 'Output Dynamic Range' to 'Full' in Nvidia Control Panel/Display/Change Resolution?

For those who find the colors too bland without P3D HDR enabled and have an Nvidia card - did you set 'Output Dynamic Range' to 'Full' in Nvidia Control Panel/Display/Change Resolution?

Thank you very much! Works great, and I prefer to use this parameter with HDR enabled!