Prepar3D v5.3 released

[Wolkenschreck 269]

2 minutes ago, F737NG said:

Could you or another mod kindly hive these comments to another thread, please?

Back OT, has anyone thrown the proverbial kitchen sink at their v5.3, without using any affinity masks?

Not sure if this is any longer possible. The sim now creates automatically an affinity mask in the P3D.cfg. The values I posted above for my 7700K (4 cores) were all created by P3D without my input.

With HT off, the sim desired to have this setting:
[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=15
P3DCoreAffinityMask=15
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=2
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=3

After turning HT on in BIOS, the sim went for this:
[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=255
P3DCoreAffinityMask=255
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=2
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=4

I never used any AffinityMask before, so I can't judge how optimized and suitable the selection is.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

18 minutes ago, F737NG said:

Could you or another mod kindly hive these comments to another thread, please?

Not easily, no. Any further discussion of Aerosoft’s policy in this topic will be hidden.

[Steve_Ellis 273]

19 minutes ago, Wolkenschreck said:

Not sure if this is any longer possible. The sim now creates automatically an affinity mask in the P3D.cfg. The values I posted above for my 7700K (4 cores) were all created by P3D without my input.

With HT off, the sim desired to have this setting:
[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=15
P3DCoreAffinityMask=15
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=2
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=3

After turning HT on in BIOS, the sim went for this:
[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=255
P3DCoreAffinityMask=255
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=2
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=4

I never used any AffinityMask before, so I can't judge how optimized and suitable the selection is.

So, it sounds like it is dynamic, will i be right in guessing that you will not be able to manually set it ?

[Wolkenschreck 269]

Well, I have just turned off HT again and restarted the sim. Entries were reverted back automatically to AffinityMask=15. So, the sim does check at startup for any change. However, I do not know what happens with an individual affinity mask that correspondents with the processor settings. But the whole setting would not make sense if we could not adjust it too our liking. Thus, I assume individual affinity mask should be respected. That's something for the hardware experts to check and not a noob like me 😅.

[Ikarus280 93]

I will be holding off on the update as it seems there is a performance loss until there is more clarity, despite LH mentioning otherwise. 

Maybe they have made the value of some sliders stronger than it was on the previous versions, such as the changes from V4 to V5. This could explain the performance loss, considering they have changed the road traffic values as well. 

[jcorstjens 63]

I just and only installed the client of 5.3. First thing I did test is the improvement in rendering. I flew the same segments as yesterday in ORBX South GB HD with the A2A Bonanza. I did experience fewer stutters compared to 5.2 and a very smooth flight. This is only very preliminary test information, but it makes me hopefull that 5.3 performs better. 

[kevinfirth 1,394]

54 minutes ago, Wolkenschreck said:

Not sure if this is any longer possible. The sim now creates automatically an affinity mask in the P3D.cfg. The values I posted above for my 7700K (4 cores) were all created by P3D without my input.

With HT off, the sim desired to have this setting:
[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=15
P3DCoreAffinityMask=15
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=2
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=3

After turning HT on in BIOS, the sim went for this:
[JobScheduler]
AffinityMask=255
P3DCoreAffinityMask=255
MainThreadScheduler=0
RenderThreadScheduler=2
FrameWorkerThreadScheduler=4

I never used any AffinityMask before, so I can't judge how optimized and suitable the selection is.

Sounds like @SteveW will be busy explaining affinity masks again shortly, now it's unavoidable. 🤣

I do note though that this functionality is only what I've been using as per Steve's advice since P3D4, which is to use an AM to separate out the first 2 P3D threads onto separate physical cores (assuming one has enough of them!).  This has always been possible through affinity masks in P3D.

The development over and above that now is simply the ability to use the last three settings to specify exactly which of those cores should be used for which tasks.  In a reasonably strong system I wouldn't expect that to produce massively improved performance though...

[Jude Bradley 659]

Make sure you install simmconnect again, otherwise trackIR will not work. :) 
 

[GodAtum 69]

So is P3D now multi-core?

[kevinfirth 1,394]

3 minutes ago, GodAtum said:

So is P3D now multi-core?

It always has been...

[B777ER 2,486]

4 hours ago, Wolkenschreck said:

No reason to abandon ORBX Global and OLC yet. But for ORBX Global Buildings HD, Trees HD, and Terra Flora it might be worth to first check out whether you like default PBR or not.

Just what I was thinking upon further review. Same with Envtex water textures. 

[Wolkenschreck 269]

So, after some more testing I am fairly certain that my FPS drops are solely related to the road traffic slider. And this does make sense after a second thought: Seeing that all vehicles have now  PBR textures, the sim has to render a lot more. Thus, users with more beefy hardware should not see such a big drop.

Without the road traffic, FPS are NOT worse than in 5.2. For me, FPS are nearly the same as before. But, and that is something Sesquashtoo and jcorstjens mentioned too, the sim seems less stuttery. For the record: Full new install + all add-ons registered via the add-on.xml method.

And sorry for hijacking this thread so much today. Enough from me for the time being.

[micstatic 4,319]

Anybody have shots of pbr trees and buildings vs the orbx ones ?

[B777ER 2,486]

How would one go about ensuring there are no leftover Envtex water textures after uninstalling v5. 2? I have a ton of add-ons so no plans to nuke all my addons. I usually Uninstaller P3D and do a full reinstall in same directory leaving all addons in place. But now with the PBR water textures, no need for the Envtex water texture replacement. My fear is if I don't ensure they are gone then I won't see the new default v5. 3 PBR textures. 

[PilotPete99 915]

Someone asked earlier if we can simply uninstall Scenery, Content, and Client and reinstall each of those v5.3 components. I didn't see if this had been answered. Also, if we uninstall those three components and then just run the full setup as suggested, does this leave the main 68gb P3d file in tact? My P3d setup is a bit messy, with some item installed inside the sim and some installed outside. I am hoping not to created hours of work for myself if possible. Thanks in advance and my apologies if this was already answered.

Cheers, Pete

Edited December 2, 2021 by PilotPete99