Add-on Scenery in P3Dv4

[richjb2 195]

With all the recent talk about compatiablity issues and "how not to ruin a good P3Dv4 installation" on the PMDG forum, I have a question to ask.  How do you know that a commercial or freeware scenery add-on is truely P3Dv4 compatiable? 

Outside of Orbx and PMDG, I havd not done anything to my new P3Dv4 installation.  I will problably keep P3Dv4 restricted to PMDG airplanes; however, I would like to upgrade my scenery and airports, both payware and freeware.  Right now, I'm reluctant to do anything.

My question to AVSIM and the other freeware hosts, would it be possible to provide a seperate distingisher on the download or library pages for freeware scenery and airports that are known/demonstrated to be P3Dv4 compatiable (i.e., compatiable with the V4 SDK)? I understand that this places more burden on the AVSIM and the developer; but it would be welcomed I beleive by the users.

Throwing this out for discussion. 

For those in the U.S., Happy 4th!

Rich Boll

Wichita, KS

 

[vgbaron 3,473]

it's really up to the developer and the community. It would be a monumental task to vet every scenery download. Basically one has to take the dev's word that it is V4 compatible and report if it is not.

The easiest way is to install the scenery to a dummy folder (if possible) and you can see if they use the proper format. In many cases you can use the Lorby freeware tool P4AO to install it correctly.

Vic

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

1 hour ago, richjb2 said:

How do you know that a commercial or freeware scenery add-on is truely P3Dv4 compatiable? 

Keep it separate from your simulator, don't let it install anything into your base simulator folders. Then turn on the content error log in P3D (first page of the settings) and check its contents. If the logfile is empty, then the addon at least is error-free according to the sim. That does not mean that it is depicted 100% correctly, that it was V4 optimized or that it uses any of the new features. But at least it shouldn't cause problems.

Best regards

[downscc 1,327]

When one spends everyday in this "hobby," one tends to form an opinion about different developers.  The best indication I've seen so far of the difference between and great developer and not so good is the product support.  There are exceptions but in general if the developer has a forum and customer posts are replied to in a timely manner then the scenery products tend to be what they say they are.  There are a few that don't have active forums but will respond quickly to email but they tend to fall into the middle of the pack quality wise.