P3Dv3 -> P3Dv4 graphic settings

[Chunk 251]

My google search skills are not the best, but I’ve tried to find what v3 graphics settings correspond to v4 settings. I know that v4 adds a ton more detail, but would love to see an apples to apples comparison to each setting. My PC is getting long in the tooth and I ran v3 very well, and I’d like the same performance in v4, with the added benefit of no more OOM’s. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Ron

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

Ron,

I'm likely to get some argument here (that's flight sim for you), but the biggest two changes from P3DV3 to P3DV4 are Dynamic Lighting and frame rendering (the latter is likely transparent to all but the most knowledge on video/frame rendering and those who pour over the changes list and SDK/PDK.

If you're getting good performance in V3, then you have nothing to worry about except Dynamic Lighting, which does not have to be used.  For Dynamic Lighting, so long as your processor can bang out 4.2GHz or higher, and you're running a GTX1070 or GTX1080 then you have absolutely nothing to worry about.  But if you're running a lesser system then may have a little work to do in order to use Dynamic Lighting.  But here's the thing, the move from P3DV3 to P3DV4 with Dynamic Lighting disabled is going to give you 64-bit, and that's enough of an improvement right there to warrant the change, and operationally speaking (a.k.a. "in the sim") you should end up with pretty much the same flight sim and experience that you had with V4, although you very well may find it's smoother and better frame rates due to 64-bit (again, that's with Dynmaic Lighting disabled).  For many people with slighting less capable systems than noted above that makes the costs associated with purchasing V4 and having to re-purchase any aircraft. Most third party scenery is for the most part a free update.

Dynamic Lighting allows for lights (aircraft taxi and takeoff lights, airport lighting, vehicle headlights, etc.) to reflect off of objects in the sim.  Back around 2007 before I took the plunge into studying the sim software at deeper levels for working developers and providing flight sim/product tech support I can easily recall saying to people in my flight sim group how much I wishes that my nose gear lights or airport lighting at the terminal would shine (reflect) off other aircraft so I didn't see black aircraft at the terminal at night. Well, that's what you get with Dynamic Lighting and believe me while it sounds like a little benefit it really makes a difference immersion wise.

As far as the other settings go the other settings are going to basically be the same, although you may see a little performance improvement due to 64-bit but it's not nearly the amount that we used to hope it would be.

For my money, the best way to get improved performance was to add a 4K TV/Monitor to your system, though it certainly has to be the RIGHT 4K TV/Monitor. Now, most people who fly airliners don't run their graphics at 4K settings because the amount of memory that has to be processed is going to slow things down. I use large payware airports for just about every flight along with a high-end payware airliner on just about every flight (in fact, I think I can safely say it's that way except for 1 out of every 200 flights or so), so unless I'm creating a product demonstration video (for which i always provide my system specs and settings and I never, ever enhance the video) I run 1920x1080 at 4096. The benefit the 4K provides is that you don't have to use high Anti-Aliasing settings (I run at 2xMSAA and Anisotropic at 16x and the latter setting really doesn't have to be set that high) and my graphics are terrific!

Again, one can certainly make the move to 64-bit and hold off on using Dynamic Lighting until they can upgrade their hardware and if you ask me it's well worth it.  That said, I can certainly understand other not feeling the same way, especially given that you can avoid OOMs in a 32-bit flight sim on most every flight by ensuring you only have two (2) airports enabled, your departure and arrival airports.  In fact, while it's not required to do this with a 654-bit sim it's still not a bad idea to do this.

I hope I've addressed your questions and concerns about the move to 64-bit, but if not then please provide your system specs and I'm sure that others will chime in and give you the benefit of their experience.

My very best wishes!

 

[Wise87 1,280]

Dave

If I read you correctly you say you run your 4K TV at 1920x1080 in the graphics settings in P3D or is that just for making videos?

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

13 minutes ago, Wise87 said:

Dave

If I read you correctly you say you run your 4K TV at 1920x1080 in the graphics settings in P3D or is that just for making videos?

My standard flights are at 1920x1080. I use higher settings for product demonstration videos.

 

[Wise87 1,280]

3 minutes ago, DaveCT2003 said:

My standard flights are at 1920x1080. I use higher settings for product demonstration videos.

 

Sorry for all the questions but do you run 1080 internally in P3D or do you run the 4K TV at 1080 or Native Resolution?

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

1 minute ago, Wise87 said:

Sorry for all the questions but do you run 1080 internally in P3D or do you run the 4K TV at 1080 or Native Resolution?

No problem at all.

The TV settings are not changed from 4K. The graphics card has no changes or tweaks (not using NVIDIA Inspector, no P3D tweaks) and is set for 1920x1080 as is P3D on routine flights.

Best wishes.

 

[Wise87 1,280]

Just now, DaveCT2003 said:

No problem at all.

The TV settings are not changed from 4K. The graphics card has no changes or tweaks (not using NVIDIA Inspector, no P3D tweaks) and is set for 1920x1080 as is P3D on routine flights.

Best wishes.

 

Thanks for the input from a fellow member in the Florida Panhandle :)

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

1 minute ago, Wise87 said:

Thanks for the input from a fellow member in the Florida Panhandle :)

No kidding?  Where you at?  Maybe should PM me that!

 

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

Shoot... I'm sorry, my TV is set at 3840x2160.  Setting it at 1920x1080 would be dumb... I can't believe I wrote that!

 

EDIT:  Oh, I didn't write that.  I walked out of the room and thought that I'd written the TV was at 1920x1080 as well... which as i said would be dumb... lol!

 

 

[vgbaron 3,589]

Umm, Dave - when you start conversing with yourself you're heading down a dark, slippery slope!! DAMHIKT!

Vic

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

1 hour ago, vgbaron said:

Umm, Dave - when you start conversing with yourself you're heading down a dark, slippery slope!! DAMHIKT!

Vic

LOL

[Chunk 251]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

The main answer I was looking for though, was how v3 settings correspond to v4 settings. I have had v4 for awhile now, and I don’t even have dynamic lighting on. I was looking for an answer to this:

If I have scenery complexity at extremely dense in v3, what setting would that equal in v4, just dense?

I saw a post from Rob stating that v4 settings are displaying more as the same settings in v3. I just want the same performance I had in v3, but can’t seem to find a happy medium with my graphic settings. 

Thanks!

[MindYerBeak 73]

On 2/18/2018 at 4:57 PM, Chunk said:

Thanks for the replies everyone!

The main answer I was looking for though, was how v3 settings correspond to v4 settings.

I was looking for the same answer but found nothing. I think  Rob Ainscough mentioned V3 max=v4 medium but I'm not sure.  Maybe Rob sees this and can shed some light.

[HUSSAR 271]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your interesting post above, so your are saying that you set the sim at 1920x1080 but set the TV to 4K 3840x2160?  I haven't thought about setting resolutions differently, I always thought the two should match.  I would imagine there is less stress on the GPU.  I'll give it a try and see if there are any benefits from the setting.

I am experiencing buttery smooth performance using Rob A's pinned display "Setup and Configuration" guide, even went out and purchased the latest Samsung 4K TV to give it a try and I am extremely happy with it.

Robert