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WebMaximus

For the PTA and ENVTEX experts in here

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5 minutes ago, swiesma said:

@Nyxx is absolutely right there. Full Ack. I use the Thopat preset and it is so nice. I agree, the nights are pretty dark. But that's the same in reality. On my last night flight from Greece to Germany all i could see where some lights on the ground, the rest was pitch black - and that's what I get in P3D.

Also to add to that. You can set up a "Day" setting profile within P3D and a "Night" one. When I finally get v4 next week I will do just that. I will turn Autogen trees down to low as you cannot not see them at night until very low. I will turn lots of thing to match a night scene and  that should help DL fps also. FSX and P3D have always been way to bright at night.


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1 hour ago, J van E said:

I still haven't bought PTA because all screenshots I see look too dark and the colors are too saturated. Very unrealistic.

From my point of view you're completely right when it comes to saturation we see in nearly all screenshots.

I have mine set to 0.59 in game and irc the digital color or whatever its named in the NVCP i also lowered a bit. 

But on top of that i use PTA since the first day and i love it. 

 

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Did any of you guys test out the PTA presets that come with ENVTEX called PTAbsolute and recommended to be used when you also use ENVTEX?

Haven't tried it out myself yet but instead I've been using URP which I think is also very good. Will do some more playing around though with PTA and different presets to see which one I like best.

As for PTA presets, those I heard most of are the Thopat one and one called Adam something where the latest one I think is Adam_PTA_25_04 but of course these are only a couple of hundreds out there.

I guess the hardest and most time-consuming thing is to find which one you prefer but I agree without these P3D looks pretty washed out once you've seen these shader mods in action. For someone who only watched screenshots I would recommend to at least find some good YouTube clips. IMO it's once you get up in the air you see the real different with all shadows, how the mountains in the far distance have this blueish tint to them just like IRL etc etc.

It's really the kind of thing that can transform your simulator!


Richard Åsberg

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50 minutes ago, WebMaximus said:

Did any of you guys test out the PTA presets that come with ENVTEX called PTAbsolute and recommended to be used when you also use ENVTEX?

After trying the different presets, this is the one I ended up with (specifically, the one with less haze). Thopat and Adam's preset look good at lower altitudes, but this is the one I liked best up high. It's all very subjective, of course, as well as dependent on monitors and other variables. So your experience is likely to be different. But it only takes a few minutes of your time to try it out...


Walter Meier

 

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Nice to hear someone using these presets provided by ENVTEX because up until now I've rarely seen anyone using them.

I'm just about to do my first flight using the preset simply called normal (no less and no more haze) and see how I like it.

Also looking forward to next version of these presets that should be close to release according to one of the ENVTEX developers mentioned earlier in this thread.


Richard Åsberg

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I have a question regarding PTA.

When using a preset that will modify your Prepar3D.cfg file what is the best thing reverting those modifications if you decide you don't want to use this preset?

I found an option in PTA under the Actions menu called Restore initial config file which will restore my Prepar3D.cfg but as far as I can tell that will restore the file from what it looked like at the time PTA did this backup. However the file might have changed since then meaning using that option I would miss out of any changes done to the file between the time of the initial backup and now when restoring it.

I'm all new to PTA so might be something I'm missing here but to me it seems weird there isn't a simple and proper way restoring whatever is changed including Prepar3D.cfg by a preset you apply.


Richard Åsberg

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In theory, PTA shouldn't even include an option to modify the Prepar3D.cfg because it is illogical. PTA is about shader files and that is all.

What I do as a hack, is save a default shader file in PTA with any cfg changes I use but no shader tweaks, and revert back to that when I need too.

Then, when there is a new shader preset I want to try, I make sure that the option to tweak the cfg in the preset is turned off.

Unfortunately, if you are not aware of it, some PTA presets do modify the cfg file.

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Got it and thanks for the explanation.

After posting about this I also had a look in the PTA documentation and it does mention this and how it will make an initial backup of your Prepar3D.cfg but again that might not be the version of the file you want to restore if other things changed since this initial backup was made.

Personally I think it's very convenient PTA can make changes directly to your Prepar3D.cfg file such as automatically setting the recommended HDR values for that particular preset.

However, with that functionality in place there should also be functionality that will allow you to fully revert everything back to what it looked like prior to applying the preset and not only when PTA was installed/used for the first time.

Let's hope this will get some attention for next version of PTA. Until then just like you say you need to make sure to always check if a preset you want to try out will do any changes to your Prepar3D.cfg file so you're aware of this before it's too late.


Richard Åsberg

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4 hours ago, WebMaximus said:

Let's hope this will get some attention for next version of PTA. Until then just like you say you need to make sure to always check if a preset you want to try out will do any changes to your Prepar3D.cfg file so you're aware of this before it's too late.

Personally I detest this type of backup. It would be fine if this would be the only program doing it but it is not. unless the USER keeps track of the order in which they use various programs, it can easily become a mess. Consider - you have programs A, B & C. Each program, when first run creates a backup of the p3d.cfg file and makes changes. So you run program A and it creates backupA, but later you run program C and it creates backup C which is really programA. Then you use program B which creates backup B which is really ProgramC. Now, you uninstall program A which restores the ORIGINAL, thus losing program B & C mods.

See where I am going with this?

I'd like the dev's to either discontinue the auto backup or caution the user to keep close track.

Same thing will happen when you install a new P3D Client over an installation that has been modified by several progams, etc.

Messy, IMHO.

Vic


 

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On 10/4/2017 at 0:12 PM, WebMaximus said:

Nice to hear someone using these presets provided by ENVTEX because up until now I've rarely seen anyone using them.

I use them as well (the less-haze one in particular).  Most of the popular presets look way too dark and saturated for me.   It's "dramatic", but seems a lot less realistic to my eye.  PTAbsolute adds rich haze and shadows without making everything look cartoonish.   To me, anyway.

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2 hours ago, vgbaron said:

Personally I detest this type of backup. It would be fine if this would be the only program doing it but it is not. unless the USER keeps track of the order in which they use various programs, it can easily become a mess. Consider - you have programs A, B & C. Each program, when first run creates a backup of the p3d.cfg file and makes changes. So you run program A and it creates backupA, but later you run program C and it creates backup C which is really programA. Then you use program B which creates backup B which is really ProgramC. Now, you uninstall program A which restores the ORIGINAL, thus losing program B & C mods.

See where I am going with this?

I'd like the dev's to either discontinue the auto backup or caution the user to keep close track.

Same thing will happen when you install a new P3D Client over an installation that has been modified by several progams, etc.

Messy, IMHO.

Vic

Very true what you say.

I guess the best option would be if any application that makes a change would also when you get rid of it not restore a backup that might by then be old but instead remove only what was added and/or restore the value.

This can still cause issues if a value is restored that was further modified by a second add-on but at least it would be less risk than restoring a backup of the complete file.

This is a tricky routine to get perfectly correct in all situations, that for sure.

Personally I try to avoid add-ons requiring changes to be done to global config files since it might affect other add-ons in a bad way if you're of of luck and depending on what parameters and values are changed.

If changes indeed are required for an add-on to work correctly, that add-on should clearly let you know exactly what will be added and/or changed so you at least know what will happen. Sadly that is rarely the case.

2 hours ago, kaosfere said:

I use them as well (the less-haze one in particular).  Most of the popular presets look way too dark and saturated for me.   It's "dramatic", but seems a lot less realistic to my eye.  PTAbsolute adds rich haze and shadows without making everything look cartoonish.   To me, anyway.

This has been my experience as well and is also the main reason why I just like you prefer the PTAbsolute presets.

I have tried all of them and maybe I'm blind or maybe it's dependent on the current weather and visibility but can't say I noticed much of a difference. So far I've mainly used the one called Natural but since I did think the haze was a bit too much looking far out in the distance I also tried the one called Less haze but again...don't really think there was much of a difference.

Speaking about the PTAbsolute presets it will be most interesting to see what is about to come announced by Maxime (one of the ENVTEX developers) earlier in this thread. I remember it was said this new preset would use some new stuff never seen before.


Richard Åsberg

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Guys, I read some articles but I still don't understand what is the difference between PTA and Envtex & Envshade add-ons.
Could you please clarify this more?

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8 minutes ago, tecto said:

Guys, I read some articles but I still don't understand what is the difference between PTA and Envtex & Envshade add-ons.
Could you please clarify this more?

Hi...

PTA gives you the ability to modify the shaders to your hearts content, share these mods, and load presets by other users at will...

ENVSHADE - provides you with two canned shader mods - High Quality and High Performance - that TOGA determined looks best... It's either on or off - without modification...

I'm enjoying ENVSHADE myself...

ENVTEX is a texture replacement program (similar to REX textures direct) that works well with ASCA - or without - I like it very much as well...

Regards,
Scott 


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Ok so I understand that PTA and Envshade do the same things, however with PTA I can set all things manually. Right?

I have REX texture direct with soft clouds - is it reasonable to switch to Envtex - do both make the same things?

Or is it reasonable to use them both - Envtex and REX?

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11 minutes ago, tecto said:

Ok so I understand that PTA and Envshade do the same things, however with PTA I can set all things manually. Right?

I have REX texture direct with soft clouds - is it reasonable to switch to Envtex - do both make the same things?

Or is it reasonable to use them both - Envtex and REX?

Hi...

Sounds like you have the shader part down...

ENVTEX and REX are very similar - the advantage to ENVTEX is it has built in full support for ASCA - if you use REX with ASCA you break the "dynamic" aspect of ASCA... ASCA swaps sky textures as the weather changes - hence the "dynamic" label... I have REX as well and they do have nice textures - wish they would make it fully compatible with ASCA but they probably want to keep the incentive for those awaiting the new REX weather engine...

Regards,
Scott 


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