Prepar3D Tweak Assistant (PTA)

[Adamski_NZ 951]

Eric - I made some comparison shots:

 

20_06 with recommended HDR settings:

 

20_07 with recommended HDR settings:

 

20_07 with recommended HDR settings but sky saturation boosted to *full* (2.00):

 

There appears to be almost no difference between 20_06 and 20_07. Boosting Sky saturation from 1.05 to 2.00 in 20_07 (3rd pic) does indeed colour the VC, though I'd still say it wasn't excessive (though the sky itself was totally overblown). If you download those shots to your PC and cycle through them in Windows Preview, then the differences are easier to spot.

 

So ... not quite sure what's going on!

 

@Mike - thanks for the encouragement! I must say it's probably time to just sit back and enjoy P3D for a while. There's a limit to how much you can tweak the tweaks to the tweaks!

 

As ever, though, I'm really appreciative of any feedback - and to hear how the preset performs on other people's systems (like Eric's!).

 

Adam.

[simmerhead 885]

Unless people use color calibrated monitors, results will look different from system to system.

[Adamski_NZ 951]

Unless people use color calibrated monitors, results will look different from system to system.

Absolutely right ... BUT ... if they post their screenshots somewhere, they can be compared side-by-side with other systems (as you'd be viewing all of them on the same monitor). The "V" key captures raw video output - not what we end up seeing on our monitors.

 

Ideally, Eric should post a similarly set up shot here, then we can compare it to mine. BTW, Eric - mine were taken at exactly mid-day (NZAA/Summer), clear sky. Our sky textures may also be different - and they can have quite an effect;-)

 

Adam.

[Cruachan 705]

Our sky textures may also be different - and they can have quite an effect

 

Hi Adam,

 

You are so right. I have tried quite a few sets since starting to use PTA and, overall, I am finding that the ENVTEX collection provide the best balance. Right now, here in Central Scotland, munching a piece of toast while looking out at a beautiful *pale blue clear sky bridged by a single white contrail. Not bad at all, looks very close to what I'm enjoying in P3D these days!

 

AS2016 + ASCA (Full Dynamic, Clouds and Structures, No Skies) + ENVTEX (Skies - yes, no clouds, rain or snow), ASCA Mode = ENVTEX (ASCA with only Envtex sky textures).

 

Preset 20_07 seems to be okay with PTA 2.01, at least as far as I can tell so far.

 

Edit: *High cirrus clouds have appeared! Looks even better now 😀

 

Regards,

Mike

[B777ER 2,485]

Adam, I'm thinking it was likely the sky texture that ASCA loaded that somehow messed it up. I will reload v7 on Saturday afternoon and have another go at it. Thanks for the screens, shows its on my end!

[Wanthuyr Filho 83]

KNOSSOS, it worked like a charm, thank you!

Airports and their shadowing are now looks terrific. Just wow.

 

Now, after you explained this, it's kinda obvious that object lightning should be the same as terrain lightning to avoid mismatching. But maybe it is worth to mention this somewhere in PTA?

 

 

 

I followed this approach, but then my cloud shadows are not showing up anymore, despite the shader settings is already at "0.5". What may be wrong in here?

[B777ER 2,485]

Eric - thanks for the feedback! I'm not gettting anything over-blue on my system - but I'll play with some extreme saturation settings to see if I can make your problem appear. Just a double-check: you have HDR enabled in P3D - and they're the recommended settings for that preset (they're very different to 20_06)?

 

Anyone else get this? Or is everybody too busy looking at the landscape, like me? LOL!

I reinstalled your latest version and its working great. In fact I am using the sky textures from that Russian chap on the PTA site with ASCA. The combination of your preset and those sky textures is so bloody realistic. In fact Adam, your version 7 is just spot on. Don't think you need to mess with the daytime stuff at all anymore. I also reverted to v. 3.3.5 of the client side of P3D. Way too many issues with VAS and performance issues interacting with AS16/ASCA.

 

Adam, one question. Does this preset eat up a lot of VAS?

[r0xbeat 3]

Hi guys,

one short question:

 

I start PTA, open my favorite preset and apply this one, but after restart of PTA it shows me, that the default preset ist loaded.

Any ideas how to solve this?

[Cruachan 705]

I start PTA, open my favorite preset and apply this one, but after restart of PTA it shows me, that the default preset ist loaded.

Any ideas how to solve this?

Hi,

 

The behaviour of PTA, as you have described it, seems perfectly normal to me. All you need to be aware of is that no preset becomes active in the sim until you 'Apply' it in PTA. So, you can load any preset you want to examine its settings. If you don't go on to 'Apply' it then nothing else happens: the shader cache is not deleted and no changes are made to those 8 files in the ShadersHLSL folder. Your previous 'Applied' Preset will remain active in the sim until you 'Apply' a different one.

 

Mike

[r0xbeat 3]

Hi Mike,

 

ok, thanks for your reply.

 

I just was suprised, why its shows me the defoult prerset, becouse sometimes it schows the last upplied preset also after restart.

 

Brgrds

Sergej

[Adamski_NZ 951]

Don't think you need to mess with the daytime stuff at all anymore. I also reverted to v. 3.3.5 of the client side of P3D. Way too many issues with VAS and performance issues interacting with AS16/ASCA.

 

Adam, one question. Does this preset eat up a lot of VAS?

 

I think I agree with you about the daytime stuff!. I'm messing around with water at the moment, but it's unlikely to change significantly.

 

As far as I'm aware, there's nothing PTA can introduce that will affect VAS in any way - other than having to enable terrain shadowing etc., which you may not have had enabled before.

 

 

I start PTA, open my favorite preset and apply this one, but after restart of PTA it shows me, that the default preset ist loaded.

Any ideas how to solve this?

 

I think I know what you mean - that the preset doesn't become the default .ini automatically loaded when you next run PTA (and shows in the PTA window title bar) <?>.

 

If/when you applied the latest PTA update, did you make sure you just replaced the old EXE, retaining the previous file/folder structure? That's the only thing I can think of. My 2.01 works fine - I'm just about to apply 2.02.

[r0xbeat 3]

I think I agree with you about the daytime stuff!. I'm messing around with water at the moment, but it's unlikely to change significantly.

 

As far as I'm aware, there's nothing PTA can introduce that will affect VAS in any way - other than having to enable terrain shadowing etc., which you may not have had enabled before.

 

 

 

I think I know what you mean - that the preset doesn't become the default .ini automatically loaded when you next run PTA (and shows in the PTA window title bar) <?>.

 

If/when you applied the latest PTA update, did you make sure you just replaced the old EXE, retaining the previous file/folder structure? That's the only thing I can think of. My 2.01 works fine - I'm just about to apply 2.02.

 

Yes, i just replaced the PTA.exe and left the old backup folders.

[Adamski_NZ 951]

Yes, i just replaced the PTA.exe and left the old backup folders.

 

Hmmm ... running as Admin? I just installed 2.03 ... no problems with that one either ...

[KNOSSOS 122]

Yes, i just replaced the PTA.exe and left the old backup folders.

Hi

Pls make sure that you haven't read-only file "settings.res" in PTA folder. Also you could close PTA,

delete this file and start PTA again - it will be re-created.

[Wanthuyr Filho 83]

Terrain Shadows must be enabled? I mean, the slider in any position other than zero?!

This is one of the very few options I don't like to enable because I consider the visual effects too buggy, specially during early and late hours of the day.