Does anyone recommend Black Marble?

[Matthew James de Bohun 55]

At the moment on P3D I use Orbx Vector and lights. The one massive problem I have is shimmering distant lights. I've Googled and tried everything to get rid of it to no avail.

So given the hefty price tag does it mean Black Marble comes with a plethora of optimisation options which can eliminate or vastly reduce the shimmering issue?

Or is it still a problem with this add on?

[captain420 3,099]

Try using the lights configuration tool inside FTX Central and change the size from normal, to large. Maybe that will help with the shimmering.

[DLWbluues 17]

Black marble is good but you really need a KILLER system to use it if you are flying anything with a highly detailed VC. BM brought my system to it's knees with anything PMDG. I believe they do have a money back guarantee if it doesn't work out. 

[dmarques69 316]

I also like to have some feedback about Black marble, because what they ask is not cheap...

Base $39.99 Vector $59.99 3D Bridges $29.99 Traffic Pack $29.99

And subscriptions 1 or 2 years? so you have to pay 159 to have the full product, which is very expensive just to have night lights, and still have to pay a subscription every year!?...i really dont understand, if someone could explain...

https://shop.chrisbelldesigns.com/shop/platform/3-PREPAR3D v4/

[brucewtb 247]

2 hours ago, captain420 said:

Try using the lights configuration tool inside FTX Central and change the size from normal, to large. Maybe that will help with the shimmering.

Tried this and it makes no difference to the shimmering - very annoying. 8xsSSAA helps but tanks FPS.

Bruceb

[Mitch24 194]

I don't get how anyone thinks that this looks realistic... looks like someone took some crayon on the roads 

[captain420 3,099]

That's ugly. Although I've seen some pretty nice shots with Black Marble, but to me its not worth the price of admission, plus thats another addon to add to the long list of addons I already have to start along with launching P3D.

[ChrisKSDF 13]

Black Marble looks completely different than that in later versions of P3D, much closer to what you see at night in XP11 than what's in that pic. I'm not even sure why they would still have that shot up on their site. It really looks fantastic under P3Dv4.

That said, I can't recommend it because, as others have stated above, it made my sim unflyable. It didn't seem to have much of an effect on frame rates, but it introduced constant microstuttering over any populated area on my 3 image generators, each of which is running an i7700, Titan XP, and 32gb of RAM. I run locked at 50Hz with Vsync on (50fps), and the computers are simply providing an out-the-window view for my Aerowinx-based 744 sim, so no fancy panels or anything are running.

So far, BM has been the only addon I've thrown at P3Dv4 that's caused any performance impact whatsoever, so it was uninstalled within 20 minutes.

[fluffyflops 1,847]

5 hours ago, DLWbluues said:

Black marble is good but you really need a KILLER system to use it if you are flying anything with a highly detailed VC. BM brought my system to it's knees with anything PMDG. I believe they do have a money back guarantee if it doesn't work out. 

Correct.  My old system couldn't run it the new one can. Buts it's the bomb

[Matthew James de Bohun 55]

Hmmmmm interesting feedback. Thanks everyone.

I wish Orbx or someone would completely overhaul the night lighting. I love night flying but the current experience just leaves me with a flat Meh feeling!

[mikealpha 266]

Overall it adds really gorgeous night nighting, I`d say it is similar to X-Plane11. By default it`s cheated a bit with oversized lights almost as big as Autogen houses, but you can adjust that to your liking in the Configurator.

That`s the good news. The bad news : Black Marble Vector really brings even my new I7-8700K with GTX1080Ti down to the knees, especially in road intense areas like Los Angeles or London Heathrow. 

So I can only recommend Black Marble base, it adds night lighting to your existing vector data. Looks good e.g. with UTX Ultimate Terrain. 

Mike

[Matthew James de Bohun 55]

37 minutes ago, mikealpha said:

Overall it adds really gorgeous night nighting, I`d say it is similar to X-Plane11. By default it`s cheated a bit with oversized lights almost as big as Autogen houses, but you can adjust that to your liking in the Configurator.

That`s the good news. The bad news : Black Marble Vector really brings even my new I7-8700K with GTX1080Ti down to the knees, especially in road intense areas like Los Angeles or London Heathrow. 

So I can only recommend Black Marble base, it adds night lighting to your existing vector data. Looks good e.g. with UTX Ultimate Terrain. 

Mike

So if I use just base that will work in tandem with Orbx vector, with base just providing the lighting is that right?

[Matthew James de Bohun 55]

Ok I just purchased Black Marble base to try it out but i'm not receiving any confirmation E-mails. Not a very encouraging start! 

[mikealpha 266]

43 minutes ago, Matthew James de Bohun said:

So if I use just base that will work in tandem with Orbx vector, with base just providing the lighting is that right?

Yes, exactly !

[fluffyflops 1,847]

It's a good product.  You need a good system, but it's good.