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mtr75

IFR pilot's take on clouds in v5

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Hi all,

I'm a RW IFR pilot, who tried v5 when it first came out, got a refund after seeing a lot of issues, but just repurchased it. I just did a flight in the Commander and it's obviously monumentally improved with HF1. But about the clouds:

The look of them from a distance, to me anyway, is sort of cheesy. I really prefer what I'm used to seeing with the REX products in v4.5. However, how the clouds functinon as you fly through them is just night and day in v4.5 vs. v5. The 2D clouds never really bothered me in 4.5 and I could never figure out what everyone got so worked up over. But v5 is just amazing - true immersion in the clouds. There's no transition from outside a cloud to inside it to outside again. You actually fly into it and out of it. It functions like a real cloud. Just amazing.

I think base v5 is a great starting point and the developers will come up with some neat stuff. But the clouds are great, a real improvement.

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Yep, also a real world instrument rated and going through cloud formation is really improved. There still some improvement that could be done to add more diversity in cloud formation and shapes but since my purchase on day 1, i didn’t feel like starting up V4.5 even if I kept a parallel  install. And there are some wow moments like a couple of day ago on an approach in Mexico at dawn with the sun playing nicely through the clouds.

 

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Pierre

P3D when its freezing in Quebec....well, that's most of the time...
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11 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

Simul TrueSKY is still "Beta" implementation in P3D .. https://simul.co/ SDK, cost is only 75 BPS.  Plenty that can be done with it, but LM need to open the door to allow us to fully leverage the possibilities.  

Same with nVidia WaveWorks 2.0 for working ocean waves/beaches, etc.

Just give us the keys LM 🙂

Cheers, Rob.

You know the LM dev - only you can convince them to get the keys 🤣 get Simbol too.  


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9 hours ago, mtr75 said:

But v5 is just amazing - true immersion in the clouds. There's no transition from outside a cloud to inside it to outside again. You actually fly into it and out of it. It functions like a real cloud. Just amazing.

Completely agree with this. In fact, in the past couple of days flying with stuff in V5 with Active Sky, I've chosen to go around a couple of times because of the visibility on finals made it prudent to do so. I know on older version of P3D I'd have been down on the first try or never even have attempted it because the cloud depiction in preceding version was a bit more 'all or nothing' as opposed to being more like it is in real life. 

Similarly, it's been a bit more important to transition early to flying on instruments and watching the artificial horizon rather than the visual horizon when in a turn in V5 with Active Sky, because you definitely lose orientation in a startlingly quick manner, which is similar to how I've found it when flying an aeroplane for real and having that occur.

There are definitely some issues with TruSky which need sorting out, so it's not perfect in every way, but it is absolutely streets ahead of any preceding version of P3D, FS or Xplane with regard to its depiction of flying into IMC.

Edited by Chock
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Alan Bradbury

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I'm a multi IFR instructor and it's convincing enough for me to plan training flights and fly them in the sim to test them before the real thing.

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David Porrett

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1 hour ago, Chock said:

Completely agree with this. In fact, in the past couple of days flying with stuff in V5 with Active Sky, I've chosen to go around a couple of times because of the visibility on finals made it prudent to do so. I know on older version of P3D I'd have been down on the first try or never even have attempted it because the cloud depiction in preceding version was a bit more 'all or nothing' as opposed to being more like it is in real life. 

Similarly, it's been a bit more important to transition early to flying on instruments and watching the artificial horizon rather than the visual horizon when in a turn in V5 with Active Sky, because you definitely lose orientation in a startlingly quick manner, which is similar to how I've found it when flying an aeroplane for real and having that occur.

There are definitely some issues with TruSky which need sorting out, so it's not perfect in every way, but it is absolutely streets ahead of any preceding version of P3D, FS or Xplane with regard to its depiction of flying into IMC.

You and I use the sim the same way. I do go-arounds, even VFR when I cock up an approach (into St. Barts, say) and I try to figure out navigational and mechanical issues without cheating. I try to really practice my decision-making. And you’re 100% right about the transition to instruments, I noticed that today as well!

It’s cool what you say about Active Sky. I was under the impression that when TrueSky is not enabled, the clouds are 2D like v4.5. Am i wrong on that? I would be glad if I am!

I think IFR flight is going to be amazing in v5. Gonna try my first instrument approaches tomorrow in the JF Arrow, or perhaps the Alabeo Seminole if I can get it working. 

Edited by mtr75

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4 minutes ago, DavidP said:

I'm a multi IFR instructor and it's convincing enough for me to plan training flights and fly them in the sim to test them before the real thing.

I’ve been flying the Alabeo Seminole with the G600 and the GTN750. I’m transitioning from a steam gauge Cherokee to one with dual G5’s and the 750 in real life, and it’s really helped getting me used to looking at glass. It’s a great training tool. Great to hear someone with your credentials feeling the same. 

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I think a few people understand don't how LM implemted trueSky in P3d5. trueSky comes in 3 flavors, Unity, Unigine and a"do it yourself" SDK. LM used the latter. The only TrueSky files that are visible to the user are the compiled shader files. There is no way of 3rd parties "accessing" trueSky. All that can be accessed are the standard PDK/SimConnect API weather functions with a few additional items added to enable and disable trueSky.

Further, LM may add access to other trueSky features but they have to be careful about licensing restrictions. The analogous situation is the P3d5 implementation of SpeedTrees. To date, LM has only allowed 3rd parties the option of converting addditional ST vegetation models to MDL format. And to do that a developer needs to buy a ST model or license ST and create a model. 

I think that LM's top priority should be to fix the bugs in its implementation and not to try to do that in parallel with expanding external access to trueSky. Personally, I think that the present implementation of trueSky (and for that matter DX12 and Nvidia Waveworks 2.0) is far better than what was included in previous versions of P3d. And let it stabilize before letting anybody mess with it.

 

 

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The thing I liked best in FSW was that climbing though a cloud layer you get a white out and you loose all sense of direction, very realistic you needed your instruments then, if they can get TS fully integrated with no bugs it would be the biggest boost to V5.

PS for Rob do you still have a Nv-link sli setup I ask because the test I have seen DX12 makes SLI NV-LINK worth while with a big performance boost.   

Edited by G-RFRY
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Raymond Fry.

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True Sky is very realistic but needs some improvement.

At this point I find that clouds look too soft , even with textures at Ultra. Big cumulus clouds look not sharp.

In my realsize cockpit the sun looks way too small and this cannot be adjusted in a file .

The look and feeling of True Sky is a big step forward.

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2 hours ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

No, dropped the two 2080Ti's for single Titan RTX (the VRAM was more important to me).  I've gone back and forth so many times with multi-GPU setup as it was dependent on nVidia driver version and odd visual issues (like buildings that would show thru clouds in SLI but not in single GPU).  Do you have a link to those SLI P3D V5 tests, I'd like to review them.

Cheers, Rob.

I am going by benchmarks I have seen in DX12 games with NV-LINK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbvFb0IHTg0

Check out the DX12 Games results and improvements up to 50%.

The clouds.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/154944674@N05/49876827493/in/dateposted-public/

Short flight test locked FPS 30 as I always have done for years.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/154944674@N05/49877239231/in/dateposted-public/

LEPA taxi with AI traffic 100% and road traffic 40% Global AI shipping installed.

Edited by G-RFRY

 

Raymond Fry.

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38 minutes ago, G-RFRY said:

I am going by benchmarks I have seen in DX12 games with NV-LINK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbvFb0IHTg0

Check out the DX12 Games results and improvements up to 50%.

Unless LM devs have pushed Nvidia to create profile NV-Link (they use their logo on P3Dv5 boot up image) - so there is hope.

I wish LM utilized VR-SLI for Prepar3d properly that would have been just amazing.  Again maybe with Varjo partnership we will see some cool things.  When it happens will move to the solution only then not before.

 


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How I Evaluate Third Party Sim Addon Developers

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I think with NV-LINK you get the benefit of the second cards Vram not so with the old SLI this is how the performance gain comes.


 

Raymond Fry.

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7 hours ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

Actually the SpeedTrees implementation is still open to use with ST SDK, but the ST SDK Indie license is about $6000 and in this niche market it's still "Indie" (for better or worse). 

It's not just that reason because developers can just buy individual ST models and convert them. Actually, ST has a Lumberyard license for indie  developers, but that of course won't work with P3d.

I think that LM is quite content to tighten up the P3d ecosystem as even though the user base loses flexibility, the sim gains stability.

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The Nvidia logo is displayed because P3d5 uses Nvidia Waveworks 2.0 for water motion and dynamics.

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