Prepar3D v5.3 released

[virtualstuff 758]

4 hours ago, Wolkenschreck said:

Is anyone like me also struggling with more microstuttering in 5.3? (traffic disabled, same settings as in v5)

So far, my start with 5.3 is a bit rough and I have reverted to the 5.2 client for the moment, which at least cured the microstuttering. 

Smooth here no microstuttering 🙂 installed the full (with uninstall scenery/content/client) plus done a rebuild of all cfg and xml files in the two P3D directories 🙂

Running with 95% AIG traffic and FSlabs bus 😎

Edited December 4, 2021 by awf

[SN737 140]

I'm seeing a difference in performance between 5.2 and 5.3 and vol clouds. In 5.2 I could set them to low and I did not suffer such a performance degradation as I'm having now with 5.3. So I correct myself thinking the new PBR cars textures was the issue regarding lower fps comparing it to 5.2.

[ralfpeterfischer 0]

Ich  hatte gestern zufällig in den Foren wegen den dunklen Cockpits bei P3Dv5.2 gesucht und mir die Mühe gemacht, mich der möglichen Lösungen anzunehmen.

Und wie es Gott so will, kam mir der Gedankenblitz, doch mal bei Prepar nach Aktualisierungen zu schauen. So kam ich auf V5.3. und habe es gleich installiert.

Also 1. Die Cockpits strahlen nur so Richtig schön anzusehen.

2. Gibt es nun Probleme mit der Scenery. Beim laden vom Simulator blieb er bei 5% hängen. Also im Simstarter alle außer Orbx und Standart deaktiviert und es funzt erstmal.

3. Ich hatte gestern das Problem, das auf dem Flug von Alaska nach Kamtschatka an ein und der selben Stelle der Flieger bzw Simulator hängen blieb, egal, welches Flugzeug 

ich ausprobierte. Heute mit v5.3 die gleiche Route, ohne Probleme. Das kann aber nicht an den deaktivierten Addons liegen, da ich nur Airports deaktiviert habe.

Somit nehme ich an, dass das Problem mit v5.3 Simulator seitig gelöst wurde.

Also alles in allem scheint diese Version zu halten, was es verspricht. 

Peter Fischer

 

 

 

[Recognition 91]

13 minutes ago, ralfpeterfischer said:

Yesterday I happened to look in the forums because of the dark cockpits at P3Dv5.2 and took the trouble to look at the possible solutions.

And as God wills, the flash of thought struck me to have a look at Prepar for updates. That's how I came up with V5.3. and installed it right away.

So 1. The cockpits are just so beautiful to look at.

2. Are there now problems with the scenery. When loading from the simulator it got stuck at 5%. So in the Simstarter all except Orbx and Standart deactivated and it funzt first.

3. Yesterday I had the problem that on the flight from Alaska to Kamchatka it got stuck in the same place on the plane or simulator, regardless of which aircraft 

I tried. Today with v5.3 the same route without problems. But that can't be due to the deactivated add-ons, as I only deactivated airports.

So I assume that the problem has been solved with v5.3 simulator.

So all in all, this version seems to be doing what it says on the tin. 

Peter Fischer

It might be worth just having P3Dv5.3 scenery....try deactivating Orbx in sim............... Ive been messing around since 5.3 release yesterday with PMDG 777 flying out of EHAM

[tjahns 2]

This post pertains to CPU utilization with P3Dv5.3 on Windows 10 with a Core i9-12900K HT at 4K resolution with the following addons:  PMDG NGXu, MegaScenery Earth photoreal scenery at cruise altitude/speed, Active Sky P3D (mostly clear skies this morning over New Mexico), Navigraph Charts (and 2112 Navadata), GoFlight Interface Tool, aviaServer (for accessing the overhead via a web browser), a PMDG CDU Device Server v1.9.1.1 (to access the CDU(s) on one or more iPads), and also various system utilities running in the background such as Corsair iCue, Gigabyte AORUS ENGINE, and Samsung Magician.

So, I merely allowed P3Dv5.3 to configure it's default Job Scheduler settings, i.e. default CPU Affinity and threading settings (MainThread on Core 0, RenderThread on Core 2, and FrameWorkerThread on Core 4) on my Core i9-12900K in HT mode.  The system is overclocked to 4.8 GHz on all eight (8) P-Cores and default 4.0 GHz clocking on all eight (8) E-Cores.  I am not running Process Lasso nor did I adjust any of the process priorities/affinities in Windows Task Manager.  Further, I used the default "High Performance" power plan in Windows, which apparently results in sleep states on the CPU so not all cores are running "full blast" under load.  Lastly, the video card is an nVidia 3090, which never saw a GPU load above 40% (primarily because I am not using volumetric clouds nor god rays).  Lastly, my sliders are mostly, but *not* entirely maxed out.  LOD was only set at High, but I am using Enhanced Atmospherics (with volumetric clouds disabled in favor of HiFi's ASCA add-on to ASP3D), and scenery complexity is set to Extremely Dense (not that this matters much with photoreal scenery) other than OrbX's TrueEarth products, which are mostly optimized for decent performance on high-end rigs like mine.

Now, according to HWinFO64, the only CPU core running "full blast" (on the ground or at cruise) is Core 0, on which P3D configured to run the MainThread.  This is also by far the hottest core reaching a max temperature of 80 degrees C, but averaging around 70 degrees C.  According to Windows Task Manager, Cores 2 and 4 (in the HT configuration) did not operate at 100%, but all the others (including the E-Cores) mostly maxed out as they processed the MSE photoreal scenery during cruise.  According to HWinFO64, however, none of the cores (other than Core 0) reached an "Effective Clock" (which takes into account sleep states) over 4.0 GHz (no where near the 4.8 GHz "all core" o/c) and temps were typically about 10 to 15 degrees C (or more) cooler than Core 0.  (Again, sleep states are at work here.)

Anyway, the end result:  my flight west out of KABQ (TropicalSim's version) with MSE's 4X New Mexico and Arizona (stored on a 4TB Samsung SATA SSD) was very smooth (averaging about 30 fps) at 4K at 30,000 ft in a PMDG 737 NGXu aircraft.  Arriving in the Phoenix area for a landing at KPHX (FlightBeam's version) resulted in significant micro stutters as the scenery loaded from SSD disk, and then settled down at about 15 fps on approach.

Perhaps lowering the slider settings, relegating the add-ons and system utilities to the E-Cores with Process Lasso (or at least off Core 0), may result in better performance.  However, Windows 10 is fairly good at delegating threads to various cores on its own.  Windows 11 is *supposed* to be better, particularly when configured for the "High Performance" power profile -- I'll report back if I jump to Windows 11 <gulp> -- but I think P3D's default Job Scheduler settings may be all that's necessary to obtain optimal performance (frame rate) on Windows 10.  Not sure whether Process Lasso's "Performance Mode" (which does away with the CPU's sleep states) would make a difference.  Maybe, maybe not.  I'll report back if I give it a try -- this post mainly concerns default P3D/Win10 behavior.

I would like to see those micro stutters cleared up at dense airport environments (like around Bravo's with numerous satellite airports in the area) such as Phoenix.  Further, I'd like to see P3D take advantage of all the VRAM available to it (my 3090 has 24GB!) by pre-loading scenery in the direction of travel.  (Maybe look at the loaded flight plan a la ASP3D's weather accuracy?)  I never saw VAS go above 4.5 GB during my flight.  As I recall, back in the 32-bit days P3D was coded to conserve VAS by aggressively dumping scenery out of VRAM memory.  With video cards loaded with VRAM, why bother?  Oh, and I rarely see my 3090's PCIe 4.0 bus load maxed out.  Why not look ahead and cache scenery in RAM (I've got 64GB) and then transfer it into VRAM as needed -- I dunno, maybe LM is already doing this, but perhaps not aggressively enough?  (Nobody likes micro stutters.  Ha!)

 

[bbain1187 118]

5 hours ago, Peter Webber said:

My CPU is a 7700K. I find P3D stutters with hyperthreading enabled..I disable it when using P3D and enable it for MSFS.

I've also got a 4-core CPU (6700k). Since v5 I set HT on with an affinity mask of 245 which keeps P3D off the second threads of the first two physical processors but allows hyperthreading on the last two. I have found this to be the best balance between preventing stutters and allowing for ground texture loading to keep up. After initial testing on 5.3 I still find this to be the best practice (setting both AM To 245 in config).

Edited December 4, 2021 by bbain1187

[IanHarrison 522]

9 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Can you provide a screenshot of Task Manager Performance tab.

Sorry Ray. I think it was a transient thing. Now showing all cores working.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

1 minute ago, IanHarrison said:

Sorry Ray. I think it was a transient thing. Now showing all cores working.

👍

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

Can anyone confirm if the number of parking positions has increased with 5.3 please.

LPPR had around 10 in 5.2HF1. Is that still the case?

[wyman_hd 232]

5 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Is that still the case?

Yes, LPPR still only has 10 gates to choose from by default.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

31 minutes ago, arwasairl said:

Yes, LPPR still only has 10 gates to choose from by default.

Thanks. How disappointing they can add so many new things but not correct the lack of parking positions.

[kevinfirth 1,394]

1 hour ago, bbain1187 said:

I've also got a 4-core CPU (6700k). Since v5 I set HT on with an affinity mask of 245 which keeps P3D off the second threads of the first two physical processors but allows hyperthreading on the last two. I have found this to be the best balance between preventing stutters and allowing for ground texture loading to keep up. After initial testing on 5.3 I still find this to be the best practice (setting both AM To 245 in config).

I think you've probably found the optimal approach for your hardware there yes.

[kevinfirth 1,394]

18 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Thanks. How disappointing they can add so many new things but not correct the lack of parking positions.

Ray, I'm curious, but do you actually fly to default airports? I'm afraid I can't, my autistic tendencies refuse to allow me to fly to anything but payware/good freeware, and in so doing the lack of parking spots at default scenery is quite irrelevant to me :)

 

[Afterburner 374]

On 12/3/2021 at 2:35 PM, killthespam said:

Are you implying that there are no crystal clear days without a cloud in the sky and unlimited visibility?

Are you sure?

There are certainly "crystal clear days" without a cloud, but no absolutely unlimited visibility (in that an object infinite miles away is seen with the same clarity as a nearby object). This would be possible if the planet earth had no atmosphere at all.

The following picture was posted by Rob Ainscough in another thread. You have a high visibility, yet you see some natural haze. I find the rendering distance of objects very impressive!

Edited December 4, 2021 by Afterburner

[threexgreen 3,139]

20 hours ago, IAhawkeyeDDS said:

Uninstalled old version Scenery, Content, Client and installed v5.3.  Splash screen loads --> I click 'OK' to load flight then i get CTD with no message....  this screen loads....

[...]

then CTD without any message at all..... any ideas what my issue is?

From which version did you upgrade? Do you have LVFR's KFLL installed? The older version included a dll for the sloped runways that wasn't compatible with v5 and would cause that exact same issue. If you have this scenery, make sure to remove or update it.