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Ray Proudfoot

Why is P3D v3 so dark?

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Hi Ray,

Once you have completed your download/install marathon and have setup P3D the way you like it, turning your attention towards the P3D Tweak Assistant could prove to be a daunting experience for any first time user. A heck of a lot has been written about this wonderful utility and it won't be long before confusion reigns supreme as you wade through all the posts. Instead, I suggest you cut through it all by following these straightforward guidelines:

1. Create a backup of the ShadersHLSL folder in P3D root. Currently PTA modifies 8 of the files in this folder. Many issues that have been encountered by users relates to the fact that PTA, at first run, requires those files to be the default versions. If one or more is not default then errors will be encountered. PTA will create all the necessary backups for you at first run and you can easily restore those default files by selecting the appropriate menu item in the GUI. However, no harm in having a fallback.

2. Successful use of Shader mods in P3D relies on choosing a good set of Sky textures. Poor selection can easily break the results. Before substitution make sure you backup the default textures. I use a set of Sky textures from REX4 Texture Direct as recommended by a PTA Preset Author, Adam (aka adamski).

3. Do yourself a huge favour by avoiding trying to tweak the numerous parameters provided in PTA. There are several very knowledgeable individuals out there who have done an immense amount of work with the common aim of producing optimal visual results in P3D. This magic is embedded in their PTA Presets. Using a Preset is a very easy procedure. You simply load and then Apply the Preset.

I have had the greatest success using Adam's 21.11 Preset. This produces the best results for me. You will find it here along with guidance and recommendations as to the appropriate choice of Sky Textures:

http://www.nzfsim.org/index.php?dsp=PTA

Note:

1. HDR must be active in the sim and Adam's Preset will apply the appropriate values automatically. Take note of the default values.

2. The Prepar3D Shader Cache will be handled (deleted) automatically by PTA each time a Preset is Applied so be prepared for an increase in loading time (plus a black window) the next time P3D is run. This is caused by the time taken for P3D to rebuild the base sim Cache. On my system this lasts for approx 10-12secs before details start to appear. Also, when you load each a/c there will be a brief delay, and for the same reason. Once the base Cache is rebuilt all will be well and loading times will return to normal.

3. Each time you action something in PTA a log item is created at the foot of the GUI window. This way you can easily confirm the absence of any errors. 

The use of PTA has transformed my simming experience. For me the modified colours, texture lighting and use of haze and Rayleigh scattering brings this Simulation as close to reality as I'm ever likely to see. We owe Yuri (aka KNOSSOS) a huge debt of gratitude for the provision of this wonderful utility to our community.

3. Monitor/TV Calibration can be very important for accurate lighting and colours. When I first calibrated my monitor I was surprised to find that the factory brightness setting was reduced from 80% to 22% by the Calibration tool. At first I was very pessimistic about accepting this, but over a few days I soon realised that the colour balance was so much better and P3D, after the application of Adam's 21.11 Shader Preset, now looks incredible! Also, I am finding P3D is now best viewed under more subdued ambient lighting. 

Hope you find time to give this a shot. I don't believe I'm sticking my neck out by saying you won't regret it!

Regards,

Mike

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Thanks Bob but it's clearly aimed at Apple owners.


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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34 minutes ago, Cruachan said:

3. Do yourself a huge favour by avoiding trying to tweak the numerous parameters provided in PTA.

 

NO!!! don't. Learn to use it yourself (yes, it takes some time) and make a preset that works for you. Adam's preset are reasonable, but look cartoonish/gamey, with odd at sunrise and sunsets, as the clouds have odd over-bright values; there are far better ones out there. PTA is a great tool, so do not limit yourself to someone preset, other than a starting point.

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11 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Thanks Bob but it's clearly aimed at Apple owners.

Google to the rescue.   http://www.digitalcitizen.life/why-how-calibrate-monitor-windows-7

http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/calibrate-monitor-windows-10

 


 

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Bob,

Thanks. I'll take a look at that one tomorrow. I have used the Windows 7 calibration utility before but it doesn't take long to see how far out my display is.

Mike,

Thanks for the advice and thorough instructions. Once all my scenery is installed and I've had a chance to have a few flights I'll take a look at that in slower time.


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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P3D is definitely darker than fsx, with or without HDR.  It's a big negative imho.  I don't use hdr because it washes out colors and over does the highlights .  

I believe you can turn off cockpit shadows and it brightens things up inside a little.  But that's no fun.


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Good information on PTA Mike. Thank you .

Turn of hdr and shadows p3d looks like fsx..


Maurice J

I7 7700k 4.7 \ EVGA 1080ti \ G-Skill 32GB \ Samsung 4K TV

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1 hour ago, Novation said:

Adam's preset are reasonable, but look cartoonish/gamey, with odd at sunrise and sunsets, as the clouds have odd over-bright values

Hi Novation,

I'm not going to get into an argument over this. Take a look at the images on Adam's website. These are typical of what I am seeing and I could provide some of my own if you like. I do not know why your experience is as you have stated.

I think we should allow Ray to make up his own mind. I have suggested he starts by applying Adam's latest Preset which, unlike the many other freely available Presets I've tried, I truly believe provides an excellent balance of results. Then, if necessary, Ray can take it from there.

Again I should emphasise, that the choice of Sky Textures will determine how good your results will be. Adam's Preset was tuned using his recommended Sky Textures from REX4 Texture Direct. Other textures are likely to produce different results and this might explain why some other users have found further tweaking to be necessary or have rejected a particular Preset as being unsuitable.

Regards,

Mike

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Hi Ray, just found this thread after taking a break from the Concorde-X forum ;) 

To find out whether the brightness of your monitor is too dark or the brightness of P3D itself, I would look at some screenshots and/or videos of P3D found in the world wide web (there are tons of them out there). If these screenshots will seem dark to you, you can assume that your monitor settings are too dark; if those images will appear OK to you, then it must be an issue with the P3D brightness (or in some cases with the GPU brightness settings). As simple as that!

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2 hours ago, ryanbatcund said:

P3D is definitely darker than fsx, with or without HDR.  It's a big negative imho.  I don't use hdr because it washes out colors and over does the highlights .  

I believe you can turn off cockpit shadows and it brightens things up inside a little.  But that's no fun.

Thanks Ryan. I didn't have the energy to adjust my TV after I'd installed FS Global Ultimate for Europe (5 DVDs) so will experiment tomorrow.

I want to keep cockpit shadows on because that's a really nice feature and my Nvidia 1080 8Gb card can cope with it with ease.


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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57 minutes ago, Afterburner said:

Hi Ray, just found this thread after taking a break from the Concorde-X forum ;) 

To find out whether the brightness of your monitor is too dark or the brightness of P3D itself, I would look at some screenshots and/or videos of P3D found in the world wide web (there are tons of them out there). If these screenshots will seem dark to you, you can assume that your monitor settings are too dark; if those images will appear OK to you, then it must be an issue with the P3D brightness (or in some cases with the GPU brightness settings). As simple as that!

Good advice afterburner, thanks. I'm getting withdrawal symptoms - haven't flown in 2 days now. I hope to test fuel burn tomorrow.


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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On 15/04/2017 at 9:28 PM, Cruachan said:

Then, if necessary, Ray can take it from there.

That is fair enough. I've tried many presest, and I don't like Adam's very much, for the reasons stated, and that is with various sky textures. I would simply say there are better ones out there if your going to try one, but best of all take a little time to learn and make you own; which, OK may not be for everyone, but you'll get far more out of it in the long run.

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I actually think that default P3D is still too bright!! I have made a significant reduction to the brightness (using the HDR sliders) in P3D v3.3.5, because my UK VFR Photographic Scenery of England and Wales can look a bit too "colourful" (and therefore unrealistic) in places during broad daylight.

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Christopher Low

UK2000 Beta Tester

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One thing to also keep in mind when trying to brighten up P3d is how is how are your adjustments going to make it look at night. Night in FSX was a joke, it wasn't close to being dark enough. I think overall it's more from FSX being too bright all around and making users think that is how it's supposed to look. Luckily it's all fixable and you can set it to how you like it.


i7-13700KF, 32gb DDR4 3200,  RTX 4080, Win 11, MSFS

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Dave,

As I'm retired and can fly during daylight hours I can't remember the last time I flew at night. I'm sure it will be pitch black in P3D given how gloomy the lighting is. It reminds me of the last few seconds before a total solar eclipse! :biggrin:


Ray (Cheshire, England).
System: P3D v5.3HF2, Intel i9-13900K, MSI 4090 GAMING X TRIO 24G, Crucial T700 4Tb M.2 SSD, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero, 32Gb Corsair Vengeance DDR5 6000Mhz RAM, Win 11 Pro 64-bit, BenQ PD3200U 32” UHD monitor, Fulcrum One yoke.
Cheadle Hulme Weather

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