P3D5.2 P3Dv5.2 - first impressions good

[andy1252 3,846]

I just spotted this today, and thought I'd try it out. I've pretty much abandoned P3D since MSFS arrived - I got 5.0 when it came out and was both impressed and disappointed at the same time. It seemed able to run stuff like TrueEarth at high settings where v4 had struggled (to put it politely), but it was still full of stutters and pauses on my system (in sig). 5.1 didn't improve matters either.

I have very much gotten in to MSFS now, and much prefer it for my own style of simming, but I had been thinking about all the aircraft I would never see again sitting in my P3D hangar. There are literally hundreds of them, and although I have ported a few across to MSFS the majority won't go, so I thought that maybe I'd take some time and try a completely clean install of P3D, put only a minimal amount of scenery back on and just use it for the aircraft. And lo and behold - a new version of P3D pops up!

So I renamed my 5.1 folders, completely uninstalled it, and did a fresh full install of 5.2. And I have to say I'm impressed. No more stutters and random pauses - it all runs rather smoothly. I've only put the Orbx global stuff back on, and then just their So-Cal and KPSP to check things out so far, but I've got all the sliders maxed, the EA stuff all on, and it seems to be quite happy. Interesting to see that my CPU seems to be using all possible processors (so a full 32 active threads in my case) and is hitting 60-70% busy, but the graphics card (titan RTX, 24 gb) is way down at around 20% and using maybe 6 Gb vram tops - at 4k and max sliders. That was on a test flight at full speed in the raptor and although the scenery was noticeably popping it wasn't too obtrusive.

So overall, I gotta say "job well done" to LM. To be honest, I wasn't expecting it to happen until maybe a v6 release, but this is impressive.

Still not going to draw me back from MSFS, that is so far ahead in terms of visuals and that's what's important for me, but I shall continue to experiment with this release and gradually reinstall a bit more scenery, and then I have got a playground for all those aircraft that haven't yet (and maybe never will) arrived for MSFS.

I'm NOT looking to start an MSFS vs P3D thread here, but I thought my experience in terms of CPU/Vram usage might be of interest to some folk. I certainly read it as a sign that LM have done some reasonably significant re-coding in this release, and anything to help the graphics along these days, when you can't get hold of a new card even if you could afford it, gets my vote.

[YMMB 234]

I pretty much replicated you, decided to download the full P3Dv5.2 package in a "just in case I change my mind" moment before leaving for work.

Completely scrubbed everything later that night and with the ORBX library outside of the sim folders already it was a one click process to have them appear back in sim.

Only issue is the dark cockpits in sim with default aircraft, tonight I reinstall PMDG's 737 NGUx and B747/748 which are the only reason I have kept P3D installed until now.

Again like you, not interested in a sim this vs sim that thread, just wanted to say P3D has definitely improved and runs a little better than I achieved in P3D5.1.

It will be interesting to see what PMDG achieves with their products in MSFS...their series of YouTube vids on the DC-6 are very impressive.

Edited June 11, 2021 by YMMB

[B777ER 2,485]

57 minutes ago, YMMB said:

Completely scrubbed everything later that night and with the ORBX library outside of the sim folders already it was a one click process to have them appear back in sim.

What do you mean 1 click process? I have all but my Orbx Global and OpenLC installed outside the sim in Orbx library. 

[johnbow72 2,722]

I ,  like you Andy had pretty well switched over to all my flying in MSFS  . But recently I have been enjoying Orbx TE region's in XP11 . After reading your early assesment for P3DV5.2 , looks like P3D will be going back on the HD this weekend .

[sholay 45]

Hmmm, I am running P3D 4.5 on laptop on 4GB GTX1050M on Medium settings.

I tried P3D 5.1 and with same settings it was smoother but kept crashing due to lack of VRAM. So, I requested refund.

Now I wonder if 5.2 made things any better and I can hope it'll work OK.

 

Cheers,

&

[rmeier 473]

Agree with Andy...

After resolving the initial performance issue with AIG, I made my first flight in v5.2 with Manfred Jahn's C-47 (with the new Active Sky and Chaseplane fixes). With EA on, I thought the VC looked excellent (not too dark).

Where I used to run about 4.2 - 4.4 VRAM, last night's flight held steady at 3.1...and a very smooth flight (no stutters) with fps looked at 30 and no variation even at a 3rd Party add-on airport.

Very happy with this latest P3D update!

[Ebertr 50]

Today I updated from 5.1 to 5.2. My initial impression is very positiv.

Updated components:
- P3D Client
- P3D Content

- P3D.cfg and shaders deleted

- ActiveSky P3D
- ASA (not sure if this still makes sense with EA)

- AI Lights Reborn

- ViewGroups and SinglePass configuration was takenover from 5.1

Pro:
- EA seems to be much improved compared to 5.1
- Dynamic lights artifacts I was faced to are history
- Lower framerate (at least on ground), but very smooth
- Color shade more natural (to achieve these I was using a tweak with 5.1)
- New menu to change Dynamic lights setting live
- Taxi lights and landing lights illuminate the ground much better than with 5.1.

- Spot test of some AddOn airports. No problems encountered

Cons:
Thunder lightning looks not very natural (in plain language said it's a disaster)

Waiting for an update of FFTF Dynamic. The noted lower frame rate might be related to this issue.

Ruediger

[YMMB 234]

On 6/11/2021 at 11:14 AM, B777ER said:

What do you mean 1 click process? I have all but my Orbx Global and OpenLC installed outside the sim in Orbx library. 

I'm not in front of my sim pc however if you have your ORBX scenery installed in a separate external folder to the sim folders then within ORBX Central there is an option to resync the scenery with your sim which is literally a one click step to reintegrate the newly installed sim with the untouched scenery.

Thus you never have to physically reinstall software or edit the scenery library within sim.

Edited June 17, 2021 by YMMB