Looking to buy PTA

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Hello all,

I’m looking for some info on what looks like a pretty cool program,

I’m a long time Simmer since 85’ and truly dedicated since FS 95 and I am frequently on the ORBX forums.

I’ve recently moved on from FSX SE (ran best on my system compared to other versions, FSX gold, P3D V2 ect.) to P3Dv4 and have to say I’m very happy, probably should have done it long ago.

My sim runs perfectly smooth on my system: i7-2700k @4.8 ghz, MSI GTX 1070ti, 16 GB RAM, Windows 7 64bit,P3Dv4.3 (upgrade coming in the near future, just can’t part with my system, it’s been really good to me)

So I have a few questions about PTA before I take the plunge.

1- Is there a noticeable performance impact using this program?

2- Do I have to have HDR enabled in P3D?

3- Is it somewhat similar to what Shade is to FSX?

4- Any issues with ASV4, REX TD or any other addons? I’m assuming not but thought I’d ask

I’m sure these answers are out there somewhere but I’m just to damn lazy to look for them 😉

 

Thanks,

Greg Z

 

 

 

[Adamski_NZ 942]

Hi Greg!

You'll be in for a treat if you go down the PTA route. IMHO even the latest P3Dv4.3 falls a long way short in terms of colouring, contrast and flexibility with how they are applied to individual parts of the scene (aircraft, terrain or sky/clouds). Also - the maths for cloud generation still hasn't been fixed ("blobby" clouds) and water is still a little crude. PTA goes a long way in fixing these graphical glitches.

See my PTA page for more info: http://www.nzfsim.org/index.php?dsp=PTA

1) You should have no problems running PTA with your spec (way better than mine,BTW). The occasional setting/tweak in PTA can impact performance, but it's clearly labelled so you can adjust accordingly.

2) Many of the functions in PTA *do* require HDR to be enabled. I used to hate HDR with a vengeance, but found that the only thing I really disliked was *bloom* (too "cheesy" and unrealistic for me) - so my presets have it set to minimal or even off altogether.

3) Not really similar in *operation* to "Shade" as "Shade" post-processes the complete FS scene in real-time (with a slight memory penalty), whereas PTA writes the changes to P3D before launching the sim - and you can't tweak "live". Swings and roundabouts. I find that once I arrive at a good colour/shading combination, I never need to tweak beyond that - I just let weather conditions and time of day do the rest. I tend to view PTA as a global "fix" for P3D to do what it should do in the first place - rather than a tool to produce "fancy" lighting effects. Anyway -  a fair few of the "Shade" effects are mimicked/reproduced in PTA (but not in real time, of course).

4) Absolutely no issues with any texture creation program (I've run all of them, but mainly REX TD + SkyForce for now).

My response won't be neutral: I'm a HUGE fan of PTA. I've tried all the freeware post-processing types of shading tools, but found them a little unstable (on my system at least). My money went on PTA and I can't see me being tempted to "stray".

Things have been quiet over the last few months or so, as regards PTA - and some people (myself included) got "the wobblies". Normally, I'd be quite happy with something like PTA as it stands (feature-wise) - "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" - but it does require patching each time there's a P3D update or hotfix. So ... we all panic a little with each new P3D version.

Matt patched PTA super-quickly for P3Dv4.3 and has promised more development in future. that's good enough for me (thanks, Matt)!

Take a look at some of the other PTA "tweakers" that post here (like Gerard etc.). Obviously in this section of the forum at least, it's "preaching to the converted". I suppose you'd need to trawl the Reshade equivalents to judge.

To cut a long story short ... just get it! 😍

Adam.

Just to illustrate my PTA philosophy ("realism" not "cheese"), I challenge anyone to produce a screen like this in P3D without PTA (!):

 

 

Edited June 30, 2018 by Adamski_NZ

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@Adamski_NZ

Wow Adam! Thanks for the very detailed reply, very much appreciated!

That is certainly one hell of a shot! Looks great!

I am definitely leaning towards getting PTA and if I do, Matt might have to give you a commission on the sale 😉

 

Thanks again for taking the time to reply

 

Greg Z

 

[Adamski_NZ 942]

All I would like from Matt is to continue to improve an already excellent product! 😄

If you're a frequent ORBX lurker, you should be seeing loads of my pics up there (in "Screenshots"). The vast majority of my shots there will have had no editing beyond basic cropping (or a tiny bit of sharpening). Any of the "product" images I produce for ORBX areas (I'm a beta tester) have no editing whatsoever.

Many ORBX users (and developers) are keen on PTA - and I think there's a great relationship between the two companies. That must say a lot.

Adam.

If you need any more convincing 😉:

Edited June 30, 2018 by Adamski_NZ

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@Adamski_NZ

Another terrific shot! I think I’m sold!

I have seen a lot of yours and many others shots in the ORBX screenshot forum, one of the many reasons I’m looking into getting PTA, they look so good, just want to make sure my old system won’t buckle under the possible load, sounds like it’s not that invasive or that hard on performance, so I think I’ll give it a go!

 

Thanks again

[Adamski_NZ 942]

5 minutes ago, ziggy said:

@Adamski_NZ

I have seen a lot of yours and many others shots in the ORBX screenshot forum, one of the many reasons I’m looking into getting PTA, they look so good, just want to make sure my old system won’t buckle under the possible load, sounds like it’s not that invasive or that hard on performance, so I think I’ll give it a go!

If you *do* happen to find performance a bit of a problem, you could create a duplicate PTA profile/variation with optimised tweaks and use that for heavy-load flights - and switch back to the other preset when you're after pure visuals.

[MattDavies 320]

lol Adam, ever considered a career in Marketing? 😄

Thanks for the in depth reply - worded it better than anything I could have put together!

[Adamski_NZ 942]

😁😁😁

It's always a pleasure to be in a position to write good things about a good product! I was born and brought up in Yorkshire, where "a spade is a spade" so I have been known to be a little uncomplimentary (and blunt) about things that maybe didn't *quite* meet my expectations. I'd be a marketing *disaster*!!!!

Adam.