How Will P3D V4.4 Benefit from Physically Based Rendering (PBR)?

[Le Français 49]

Hello all!

I just saw an article that P3D V4.4 might support Physically Based Rendering (PBR). Could someone please explain the benefits?

Thank you!

Clem

[vp49p3 134]

 

[Chapstick 345]

Where's this article? That would be huge news for a point release...

Regarding PBR, you can Google X-Plane 11 and PBR to see an example of what it looks like. Basically, airplanes actually look like the materials that they're made of. So, a shiny aluminum airplane will reflect line in a realistic manner. 

That's a pretty lame explanation, but you can get an idea from screenshots in XP11.

[rjfry 199]

P3Dv4.4? or are we talking P3Dv5 next year.

[DJJose 792]

8 minutes ago, rjfry said:

P3Dv4.4? or are we talking P3Dv5 next year.

4.4

[Le Français 49]

On 9/1/2018 at 7:25 PM, Chapstick said:

Where's this article? That would be huge news for a point release...

Regarding PBR, you can Google X-Plane 11 and PBR to see an example of what it looks like. Basically, airplanes actually look like the materials that they're made of. So, a shiny aluminum airplane will reflect line in a realistic manner. 

That's a pretty lame explanation, but you can get an idea from screenshots in XP11.

Thanks! So it’s great but nothing out of this worlds. But hey, at least it’s another step in making P3D better.

[Guest]

Do you have a link to that article?

PBR is different way to calculate light, to leverage it's full potential it requires texture changes on just about everything that has textures (from Terrain to Aircraft to Airports).

Cheers, Rob.  

[DJJose 792]

The truth will be revealed, confirmed, or will leave us all perplexed. 😀

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, DJJose said:

Are you referring to this one:

Thank you for providing the link.

Cheers, Rob.

[Tony P 64]

Looks promising as long as it doesn't take years for our 3rd party friends to catch up.  

[duckbilled 78]

1 hour ago, Rob Ainscough said:

Do you have a link to that article?

PBR is different way to calculate light, to leverage it's full potential it requires texture changes on just about everything that has textures (from Terrain to Aircraft to Airports).

Cheers, Rob.  

So it will basically break every add on that is rendered in the sim?

[rjfry 199]

Well if it`s not compatible with my addons then I will stay with 4.3 till V5. 

[jlund 29]

What does the "full Visual Studio mean?

 

[cowpatz 56]

58 minutes ago, duckbilled said:

So it will basically break every add on that is rendered in the sim?

I wouldn't expect it to as it is a dot point upgrade release. Version 5 is what may break things big time.

[jabloomf1230 1,043]

PBR requires new shaders to be added and the texture format is different. But the older textures and shaders will probably continue to be supported. Old textures can be converted to work with PBR.

[jlohrenz 18]

So will this do anything for outside realism?  I'm dedicated to P3D as I have a cockpit built around it, but I've always admired the night shots from people with xplane, and the day shots, clouds, etc...always looked more realistic than what I can do in my sim.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, duckbilled said:

So it will basically break every add on that is rendered in the sim?

The negativity here is just incredible ... who said anything about "breaking"?  I just indicated for PBR to be leveraged textures need to be updated, this is how it worked in XP10 to XP11 - there are plenty of non-PBR textures in XP11 that didn't break XP11 ... it's just a texture.  I said nothing about P3D other than where did the link come from (which was answered)?

Some of you members will take a statement like "It's 72F and Sunny outside and I'm taking my dog for a nice walk" and 3 thread pages later it's turned in "Hurricane moved in, house is demolished and my dog is dead" ... it's sorta interesting how something can go from one statement of fact and end up being something completely different in just a matter of a few posts.

Cheers, Rob.

[NZ255 42]

59 minutes ago, jlund said:

What does the "full Visual Studio mean?

It's a coding environment. Just for devs 🙂

[downscc 1,200]

9 minutes ago, NZ255 said:

It's a coding environment. Just for devs

I'm not a developer and I've been using Visual Studio and it's predecessors since Win 3.1.  Just a hobbyist. 

The significance of "full Visual Studio" could be very significant to the entire marketplace.  To date, one used plug-ins from Microsoft for FSX or LM for P3D that install a custom interface within the development tools that are used to shade, render or set the properties of objects.  The custom interface is part of the SDK.  The SDK has always been just a subset of what the Visual Studio is capable of, and if this means that the SDK is now going to open up development to the entire suite of Visual Studio tools then that is a big all caps WOW. Airports are going to take on near photogenic qualities.  Gone will be the days of cartoon graphics.

 

[NZ255 42]

23 minutes ago, downscc said:

I'm not a developer and I've been using Visual Studio and it's predecessors since Win 3.1.  Just a hobbyist. 

The significance of "full Visual Studio" could be very significant to the entire marketplace.  To date, one used plug-ins from Microsoft for FSX or LM for P3D that install a custom interface within the development tools that are used to shade, render or set the properties of objects.  The custom interface is part of the SDK.  The SDK has always been just a subset of what the Visual Studio is capable of, and if this means that the SDK is now going to open up development to the entire suite of Visual Studio tools then that is a big all caps WOW. Airports are going to take on near photogenic qualities.  Gone will be the days of cartoon graphics.

 

 Visual Studio doesn't do anything itself. It helps you code programs in a variety of languages.

In this case you can write gauges and programs etc in C++ that interface with the sim via SimConnect or the PDK and you can use the latest VS version as opposed to VS2015

[Dreamflight767 49]

Did they update the airport and nav database?  Why are we jumping so far ahead yet some of the basics are being ignored/skipped.

[jabloomf1230 1,043]

1 hour ago, Dreamflight767 said:

Did they update the airport and nav database?  Why are we jumping so far ahead yet some of the basics are being ignored/skipped.

There are 3rd party versions of most major airports. A 3rd party add-on already provides revised navdata. LM stays away from putting its  partners out of business. 

Edited September 2, 2018 by jabloomf1230

[duckbilled 78]

4 hours ago, Rob Ainscough said:

The negativity here is just incredible ... who said anything about "breaking"?  I just indicated for PBR to be leveraged textures need to be updated, this is how it worked in XP10 to XP11 - there are plenty of non-PBR textures in XP11 that didn't break XP11 ... it's just a texture.  I said nothing about P3D other than where did the link come from (which was answered)?

Some of you members will take a statement like "It's 72F and Sunny outside and I'm taking my dog for a nice walk" and 3 thread pages later it's turned in "Hurricane moved in, house is demolished and my dog is dead" ... it's sorta interesting how something can go from one statement of fact and end up being something completely different in just a matter of a few posts.

Cheers, Rob.

Easy now. There was a question mark after those letters. As long as everything that works in 4.3 works in 4.4, I am fine.  You did say "PBR is different way to calculate light, to leverage it's full potential it requires texture changes on just about everything that has textures (from Terrain to Aircraft to Airports)", so I was questioning whether current stuff will work. That's all.

[TravelRunner404 33]

Right so back to the original post...what can we generally expect to look better?

i have always felt X-plane had a softness to it or blending of environments and objects that made it look better overall. Is that something PBR will help with? Is this something that will change the downtown/autogen buildings? They always seem harsh as if they don’t belong in a way. Will the sim look different right away or is this something that will slowly integrate? I.e. airplanes at first, Add-on airports as the feature is added? Or is it global and can “upscale” some older textures?

 

[dgraham1284 84]

5 hours ago, Rob Ainscough said:

The negativity here is just incredible 

Are you surprised by this Rob?

By the way, great meeting you at FSExpo.