PMDG and Dynamic Lighting

[Captain Kevin 586]

2 hours ago, Clement75 said:

but my point being that Dynamic Lighting is basically unusable right now even with a very good computer,

Speak for yourself. I haven't had any issues with dynamic lighting since I started running P3D V4. Starting at 11:47 in this video, you can see it running just fine on my end.

 

[downscc 1,327]

Ditto Kevin... I don't have problems with dynamic lighting.  There are some sceneries that when dynamic shadows slider is full right will kill my system but only a few.  All things considered, I'm very happy that we have a simulator platform that is advancing. 

[Luke 782]

An unrelated question - dynamic lighting seems to work only at the start of a flight, not the end, for me. As an example, I land at ImagineSim KATL in the PMDG and have no dynamic lighting. I then restart the sim with the same aircraft, same time, and the same gate, and it seems to work.

Is this a PMDG or an ImagineSim problem?

Cheers!

 

[MattS 45]

6 hours ago, Captain Kevin said:

Speak for yourself. I haven't had any issues with dynamic lighting since I started running P3D V4. Starting at 11:47 in this video, you can see it running just fine on my end.

 

Keep in mind you're running a VERY vanilla setup, with what appears to be little to no add-ons (eye candy).

May I respectfully suggest that you check out some 747 cockpit youtube videos. These might help you fine-tune your airmanship and procedures. Captain Boeing has some great content. Thanks for posting!

[skysurfer 76]

What AA settings do you guys use? Honestly it is hard to believe it will be smooth with 8xSSAA at night with DL. Not that I am arguing, just really hard to believe.

Thanks

[Captain Kevin 586]

1 hour ago, MattS said:

Keep in mind you're running a VERY vanilla setup, with what appears to be little to no add-ons (eye candy).

Okay, so during the length of this stream, I was running the PMDG Boeing 747-400, Active Sky, REX Sky textures, FSDreamteam JFK, Aerosoft EGLL and EDDF, FlyTampa EHAM, along with VPilot, GSX, and PFPX. But please, tell me more about how I'm running little to no add-ons. Mind you, I have plenty of other add-ons installed in addition to everything I listed.

1 hour ago, MattS said:

May I respectfully suggest that you check out some 747 cockpit youtube videos. These might help you fine-tune your airmanship and procedures. Captain Boeing has some great content. Thanks for posting!

I never did claim to be a professional at this. If anything, this would have been the first time in a little over a month that I had fired up P3D V4 and flown a flight, given the limited time I have available for work. Really, if that's what you're going to get out of the video, you've missed my point completely regarding dynamic lighting. People can't just go around claiming "Dynamic Lighting is basically unusable right now even with a very good computer" when I can turn around and prove that it works fine for me, as I have just done.

[MattS 45]

1 hour ago, Captain Kevin said:

Okay, so during the length of this stream, I was running the PMDG Boeing 747-400, Active Sky, REX Sky textures, FSDreamteam JFK, Aerosoft EGLL and EDDF, FlyTampa EHAM, along with VPilot, GSX, and PFPX. But please, tell me more about how I'm running little to no add-ons. Mind you, I have plenty of other add-ons installed in addition to everything I listed.

Again, I said "appears". Your setting don't "appear" to be very high, and most of us run Orbx scenery which you have omitted from your list and are readily apparently missing. Your traffic at KJFK is zero, and at EGLL it is minimal. Both unrealistic. But I understand you were on vatsim. I refer to a previous comment about AA settings? Also, I could not tell you were running any aftermarket weather add-ons. Everything looks very vanilla. Vpilot, GSX, PFPX, have nothing to do with the current conversation. I also assume that you are running a single monitor? What refresh rate? Your video (framerate) at several key points was choppy and not smooth. What are your hardware specs? Let's keep in mind that everyone has a different setup and different settings.

Quote

I never did claim to be a professional at this. If anything, this would have been the first time in a little over a month that I had fired up P3D V4 and flown a flight, given the limited time I have available for work. Really, if that's what you're going to get out of the video, you've missed my point completely regarding dynamic lighting. People can't just go around claiming "Dynamic Lighting is basically unusable right now even with a very good computer" when I can turn around and prove that it works fine for me, as I have just done.

I'm sorry if your feelings are hurt Kevin, but if you post a video you should open yourself to constructive criticism. I started out by watching this video so see the dynamic lights issue (or no issue in your case as you say), and I watched it much further. I'm sure that was the purpose of you creating this video - for people to watch?. I have often seen you offer somewhat "professional" opinions and advise on this forum, and I am troubled to see you closed to receiving a little bit of courteous advice yourself.

I offered very polite and sincere comments to your video. I could have purposely tried to embarrass you on this forum, but that is not the type of person I am. I repeat, that there are numerous real world youtube videos available that have not only helped me, but could also help you too. In addition, there are a handful (maybe 5-6) real world pilots on the PMDG forums that offer fantastic advice (especially in the 747 forum). There are a number of frauds on these forums and I caution all readers to be wary. It is quite easy to spot the real deal pilots. These are the guys that should perk your ears when they offer advice. 

I personally ran a 4790K overclocked and found that DL was a heavy hit on performance. I upgraded to an 8700K and I still see a slight hit, but it is very manageable now. You are in the minority to say that DL offers no performance hit to you (no issues as you've said). I have always been concerned that those that say that DL has no effect on them are almost always the most "loyal" PMDG forum posters. Even though it is a P3D issue...

And you need to sign your posts like all of us have to do, or your posts should be deleted (as stated by PMDG staff). And yes, I've heard your arguments before and you are clearly trying to circumvent the spirit of the forum policy.

Edited June 12, 2018 by MattS

[skysurfer 76]

Good point on monitors here. I run triple monitor set with 4xSSAA. If I use higher settings I am pretty much done. Even with 4xSSAA I may have some micro freezes.  

[Captain Kevin 586]

1 hour ago, MattS said:

Again, I said "appears". Your setting don't "appear" to be very high, and most of us run Orbx scenery which you have omitted from your list and are readily apparently missing. Your traffic at KJFK is zero, and at EGLL it is minimal. Both unrealistic. But I understand you were on vatsim. I refer to a previous comment about AA settings? Also, I could not tell you were running any aftermarket weather add-ons. Everything looks very vanilla. Vpilot, GSX, PFPX, have nothing to do with the current conversation. I also assume that you are running a single monitor? What refresh rate? Your video (framerate) at several key points was choppy and not smooth. What are your hardware specs? Let's keep in mind that everyone has a different setup and different settings.

The settings are actually quite high, though I suppose I could go higher if I really wanted to. Shadows, water, and weather are maxed out. Autogen is admittedly at dense, though scenery complexity is maxed out. AA is at 8xMSAA, texture filtering at antistrophic 16x, and texture resolution is at 4096x4096. I'm also running a 3-monitor setup, with P3D running on only one monitor. The other two monitors are there for weather, charts, flight plan, and live stream information. As for hardware, I'm running an i7-8700K, Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti, 1 TB EVO 850 SSD, 16 GB RAM, Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Gaming 5 motherboard. I think that just about covers it, but if you need to know anything more, feel free to ask. I'm aware that everyone has a different setup and different settings, which is why I'm saying you (in general, not you specifically) can't just make a blanket statement like "Dynamic Lighting is basically unusable right now even with a very good computer." If you as an individual can't get dynamic lighting to work for whatever reason, fine, I get it. I'm aware that there are some people that are having issues with it. But as you can see, it works fine on my end, and Dan states he doesn't have a problem with it, either.

1 hour ago, MattS said:

I'm sorry if your feelings are hurt Kevin, but if you post a video you should open yourself to constructive criticism. I started out by watching this video so see the dynamic lights issue (or no issue in your case as you say), and I watched it much further. I'm sure that was the purpose of you creating this video - for people to watch?. I have often seen you offer somewhat "professional" opinions and advise on this forum, and I am troubled to see you closed to receiving a little bit of courteous advice yourself.

I'm not offended at all, but at the same time, you should also understand that I don't have a whole lot of time to fly in the first place, so I freely admit that my flying skills aren't going to be the best, nor am I necessarily going to be doing everything by the book. In any event, the video was a past broadcast of a live stream I did right after I had gotten off work. Best time to be doing it? Probably not, and definitely not at 04:26 AM.

1 hour ago, MattS said:

I personally ran a 4790K overclocked and found that DL was a heavy hit on performance. I upgraded to an 8700K and I still see a slight hit, but it is very manageable now. You are in the minority to say that DL offers no performance hit to you (no issues as you've said). I have always been concerned that those that say that DL has no effect on them are almost always the most "loyal" PMDG forum posters. Even though it is a P3D issue...

Yes, I'm aware that it was acknowledged as a P3D issue. Actually, it was because of the issues that I had read about that I was concerned about switching to P3D V4 in the first place, and I was originally going to hold off until that got sorted out since I didn't want to take the chance that I'd be getting P3D V4 only to run into these issues right out of the box, as the Boeing 747-400 is so far the only plane I've been flying. When Jetline Systems built this computer, I addressed this concern with them, and I guess they were able to get P3D V4 set up for me to where this wasn't an issue. Prior to me getting this computer, I was actually running FSX on a laptop, and I finally got fed up last January when I was doing a live stream and fried the laptop twice to the point where it shut down twice mid-stream. Only then did I actually go ahead and buy a new computer to run P3D V4.

[skysurfer 76]

"AA is at 8xMSAA"

Kevin. Thanks for sharing that.

If I set my AA at 8xMSAA my sim will be very smooth with all my addons but I cannot look at the flickering lights at the distance, it really kills all my desire to fly at night. I did research and looks like there are many others who has the same issue with night lightning in P3D4. My opinion is that AA is a real issue in P3D4. To reduce night lights flickering I have to go with higher settings but it will cost me lots of fps. I purchased top of the line graphic card hoping it would improve DL issue but that was not the case. I think even if you install Volta on your PC it won't make any difference. 

Thanks  

[Ephedrin 418]

Okay, night lighting in P3D should be improved, I think everyone here will agree. But... what has this to do with PMDG? They use what is there... with MSAA it‘s quite okay, the rest.. as even 2xSSAA brings latest graphic cards to their limit this is something LM has to adress. I personally avoid flying at night due to the flickering lights in P3D. But as I enjoy watching my scenery and almost exclusively fly from and to hq addon airports (yes, i have a lot) there isn‘t much I miss avoiding the night. I mean... look at the flares that appear to be runway lighting on addon airports... that‘s horrible. But when I fly at night I have no performance hits with DL and 8xMSAA. SSAA is no option anyway for me with my GTX970.

[honanhal 1,420]

3 hours ago, Ephedrin said:

Okay, night lighting in P3D should be improved, I think everyone here will agree. But... what has this to do with PMDG? 

Dynamic lighting being only partly functional in P3D is not at all PMDG’s fault, and fixing it is out of their control. That’s absolutely true. What IS within their control, though — and this is what people are asking for — is making their night lighting work with DL turned off. They’ve made it clear they won’t do it, and I’ve given up hoping they will. But it’s not a crazy request. And it certainly “has to do with PMDG.

I flew the 747 out of a freeware airport recently that had something wonky about the night lighting. It was fine by day, but at night it brought my sim (only running MSAA at 1080p, by the way, with a 1070) to a crawl. I turned off DL, and frames shot back up to normal. Now, so far is any of this up to PMDG? No, of course not. But the fact that I had to taxi out without being able to see anything is, because with DL off the taxi lights don’t work —even though the tech is there to make them work. That’s frustrating. That’s why this request doesn’t go away.

James

[Ephedrin 418]

1 hour ago, honanhal said:

Dynamic lighting being only partly functional in P3D is not at all PMDG’s fault, and fixing it is out of their control. That’s absolutely true. What IS within their control, though — and this is what people are asking for — is making their night lighting work with DL turned off. They’ve made it clear they won’t do it, and I’ve given up hoping they will. But it’s not a crazy request. And it certainly “has to do with PMDG.

I flew the 747 out of a freeware airport recently that had something wonky about the night lighting. It was fine by day, but at night it brought my sim (only running MSAA at 1080p, by the way, with a 1070) to a crawl. I turned off DL, and frames shot back up to normal. Now, so far is any of this up to PMDG? No, of course not. But the fact that I had to taxi out without being able to see anything is, because with DL off the taxi lights don’t work —even though the tech is there to make them work. That’s frustrating. That’s why this request doesn’t go away.

James

I understand the problem James, but to say it in the way Kyle uses to do that‘s like you buy a sports car, drive on a bad road, constantly hitting and grinding the ground and then ask the car‘s manufacturer to remove the lowering, for free. They have created the 747, their 747 has DL modeled into the model itself, it‘s not just an effect file like on previous versions and have set a prizing for the work that went into it. I really don‘t see the point why PMDG should put another number of hours into it for actually downgrading their product just because other developers don‘t do their homework. Be it this freeware dev or LM themselves. 

Tell the county/state to fix their roads... basically. 

[cannonplug 126]

3 hours ago, honanhal said:

It was fine by day, but at night it brought my sim (only running MSAA at 1080p, by the way, with a 1070) to a crawl

I've seen this happen at some of these freeware airports. To solve this I use the trick of spinning around (the view with the hat switch) for 360 degrees and this always frees things up for me.

[honanhal 1,420]

29 minutes ago, wsmeier said:

I've seen this happen at some of these freeware airports. To solve this I use the trick of spinning around (the view with the hat switch) for 360 degrees and this always frees things up for me.

Thanks — it’s a very helpful trick, although for whatever reason didn’t help with this one. Oh well!

James