Prepar3D v5.3 released

[shivers9]

10 minutes ago, RXP said:

Let me try to help with this!

The RXP GTN requires an update with each P3D update ONLY for the autopilot link. All the rest is supposed to be automatically compatible with future updates (unless they radically change their implementation and SDK from one version to the other - which so far they didn't). Just in case you've missed it, we're already released our updates compatible with P3Dv5.3 (both GTN and GNS v2).

The RXP GUI Panel Assistant is only concerned with the panel.cfg file. Regardless you have or not any of the gauges referenced from the panel.cfg file, it will work because it is only analyzing and changing the panel.cfg file alone.

Thank you Sir! Love that GTN 750……Thanks for all you do.

[andy1252]

Well, I didn't expect to be posting here, but . . .

I am pretty much a solid MSFS guy these days, and haven't really used P3D since getting MSFS up and running on release, but I had (have) a huge collection of both scenery and aircraft for P3D and I do miss some of those aircraft. I had v3, v4.5 and v5.1 installations sitting on my machine at the time I went to MSFS, and I left them in place. I have occasionally gone back and fired them up to see if I felt like using them, but the MSFS visuals have pretty much killed most other sims for me now.

I put 5.2 on when it came out. Didn't do anything for me I'm afraid. Still don't like the landclass approach and still found it very jerky and jumpy and struggled to get any kind of smoothness.

Saw a post about 5.3 being out (I think initially in the MSFS forum?) and went and got my copy. Did a completely clean install - renamed my old 5.2 folder and all the various app- and program-data folders so I've still got them if I need them - and tried it out.

OK, so I still don't like the look of the landscape environment much, but I have been very impressed at the smoothness of the system. I whacked everything up to ultra/max in terms of scenery settings and was still getting between 25 and 30 fps, and 30 fps is what I aim for (and cap at) in all the sims. But it was still full of stutters and very jerky. Then I read some stuff in here and made sure my road traffic was set at zero, and I also dialled my buildings and vegetation back down one setting from max and tried again.

I now have Orbx's TrueEarth GB back in place, and if I turn my frame rate cap off I'm getting around 50-60 fps generally around southern UK, and even managing around 30 over EGLC and central London. I struggled to get much above 15 fps there back with 5.1 (or 5.0 or whatever the first v5 release was). I've now put my 30fps cap back on and the couple of flights I've done in various places have been really very smooth. So I am rather impressed.

Still don't much like the look of it (the ground below my feet, that is), but I do now feel that I can have the occasional dip back into the P3D world and re-visit some of those little airstrips I haven't been able to replace in MSFS, and more importantly I can do so with some old favourite aircraft that haven't made it across to MSFS yet.

I will need a lot of convincing to shell out 200 notes for v6 when and if it arrives, but I'll be happy to keep putting these 'point' updates on if they keep on arriving. I've got the space and the time, and they don't cost me anything, and for the first time in a long time I've actually been impressed by a new P3D release.

It still ain't going to be anything but a very occasional side-trip for me, but it is good to see it still being worked on.

Oh, and I do still occasionally use my XP setup and even my AFS2 setup. And I'm looking forward to see what XP12 brings but I guess AFS2 is probably going nowhere, unfortunately. That is actually a very fine sim in my opinion - even if I do struggle to remember how to do stuff in it as I use it even less that the others.

Happy flying, wherever and however you do it,

cheers,

Andy

[raymie]

1 hour ago, coastaldriver said:

Yes let the WIN10 uninstall app function do it all just say no to the prompt about deactivating the license.

Hi Coastaldriver.

Thanks for your reply. Just to make sure I understand you clearly, in the updating process I must uninstall all four P3D v. 5 apps-- The Academic, Client, Content & Scenery apps via the W10 uninstall app function. 

Thanks.

Raymie

 

[F737MAX]

7 minutes ago, andy1252 said:

[...] So I am rather impressed.

Still don't much like the look of it (the ground below my feet, that is), but I do now feel that I can have the occasional dip back into the P3D world and re-visit some of those little airstrips I haven't been able to replace in MSFS, and more importantly I can do so with some old favourite aircraft that haven't made it across to MSFS yet.

Welcome back, albeit very, very briefly.

Appreciate someone coming over from another forum, not ----posting on here and admitting that it's possible to like more than one sim at a time.

If you do feel like using some of the aircraft gathering dust in your P3D hangar a bit more often, then check out this thread.

You can generate your own freeware photo scenery at a LOD / Zoom Level you like, with water masks and autogen. It needs a little work to set up, time to download the tiles and lots of space on your SSDs, but (IMO) it's so much nicer than landclass.

[Ray Proudfoot]

15 minutes ago, raymie said:

Just to make sure I understand you clearly, in the updating process I must uninstall all four P3D v. 5 apps-- The Academic, Client, Content & Scenery apps via the W10 uninstall app function. 

PMFJI. No. Just uninstall the Client first but opt to retain your licence. Then uninstall the Academic entry which automatically uninstalls the Content and Scenery.

[andy1252]

2 minutes ago, F737NG said:

admitting that it's possible to like more than one sim at a time.

Yeah, I've never really understood the level of tribalism that crops up around this. Well, actually I do understand it in the psychological sense but you know what I mean. I still really rather like XP, don't use it much but in the True Earth covered regions and also some of the Forkboy generated US areas it's really fun. I have some really nice aircraft in that too, and I really enjoy the Global Traffic addon with it.

I know about the Ortho4XP mod, and I did use the XP version a lot in the past (had about 6Tb of tiles at one point) but to be honest, I was never totally happy with the results. Some of the areas were ok as long as you keep above about 5000 ft, but 500 feet is more my inclination and really, only MSFS has a chance of satisfying at that sort of altitude. P3D with 5.3 looks like it might work for me at maybe a couple of thousand feet with maybe a bit of work on the atmospherics (if I can remember how to play with all that).

Part of the joys of being retired. Got myself a half decent workshop, a more than half decent library, still got my hi-fi and vinyl collection, and a whole bunch of sims to play with, which in the case of MSFS means I have the whole world to explore in great detail at my leisure.

What more could a boy want?

[Wise87]

Can we get back on topic. Some post are not really 5.3 related but a comparison.

[Ikarus280]

I am still running 5.2 with HT enabled and no affinity mask setting. My processor is a I7-8700K.

As someone who is already getting smooth performance (except for some airports due to dynamic lighting at night) and no blurries, would it still be worth to tweak the affinity mask or turn off HT?

If anyone here also has the same processor it would be helpful if you could share your setting of the affinity mask /HT on/ off, if you got any performance improvement.

 

[raymie]

3 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

PMFJI. No. Just uninstall the Client first but opt to retain your licence. Then uninstall the Academic entry which automatically uninstalls the Content and Scenery.

Thanks for your helpful reply. This is the first time that I am updating my P3D ver. 5 installation. I originally uninstalled P3D 3.4xx nearly a year ago for P3D 5.1 Hf 1.

Raymie 

[simon747]

6 hours ago, Ikarus280 said:

I am still running 5.2 with HT enabled and no affinity mask setting. My processor is a I7-8700K.

As someone who is already getting smooth performance (except for some airports due to dynamic lighting at night) and no blurries, would it still be worth to tweak the affinity mask or turn off HT?

If anyone here also has the same processor it would be helpful if you could share your setting of the affinity mask /HT on/ off, if you got any performance improvement.

 

Same here, I have a 6 core 12 thread with no performance issues in 5.2.  If I upgrade to v5.3; do I need to add an affinity setting to improve performance more now that the sim code allows more flexibility?   

[Ray Proudfoot]

4 hours ago, raymie said:

Thanks for your helpful reply. This is the first time that I am updating my P3D ver. 5 installation. I originally uninstalled P3D 3.4xx nearly a year ago for P3D 5.1 Hf 1.

Raymie 

It’s always a nervous time doing this for the first time. Rest assured you’ll lose no scenery entries. It’s a very clever design the sim is modular. This is a major update of a point release. Usually it’s just the Client that needs updating.

[grandfred29]

2 hours ago, simon747 said:

Same here, I have a 6 core 12 thread with no performance issues in 5.2.  If I upgrade to v5.3; do I need to add an affinity setting to improve performance more now that the sim code allows more flexibility?   

P3d will  do it for you.

 

[Fiorentoni]

12 hours ago, simon747 said:

Hi Fiorentoni, is the value of 4095 for a 6 core HT on?  I find this all a little confusing.  I have a 6 core with HT enabled, bit have no idea what AM setting to use for 5.3 if I go that route; a pity it can't just do it for you.

Yes HT on. I never changed that actually, it is still default from when I bought the processor. And as I said, P3D automatically set the value of 4095 due to recognising my CPU. So it DOES set it for you.

[simon747]

30 minutes ago, grandfred29 said:

P3d will  do it for you.

 

 

1 minute ago, Fiorentoni said:

Yes HT on. I never changed that actually, it is still default from when I bought the processor. And as I said, P3D automatically set the value of 4095 due to recognising my CPU. So it DOES set it for you.

Thanks guys; so is this an improvement in 5.3 vs 5.2 in setting other tasks off the main thread as it is done automatically to improve performance?

Cheers,

Simon

[Ray Proudfoot]

An update to my v5.3 experience. This morning before doing any updates I checked my fps using the 737NGXu at  Heathrow. The fps were quite a bit lower (high 50s versus low 60s). Baffling. But I then wondered if the length of the test was a factor. The FSUIPC log shows the length of the test but unfortunately I didn't note that on the 5.2 tests yesterday.

So I started the 360 degree rotation only when the PMDG countdown counter hit zero and then terminated P3D as soon as two rotations had been completed. Did the test three times and the fps ranged from 58.3 to 59.1.

That's below yesterday's but still a 10% improvement which seems more believable.

I then enabled Hyperthreading and kept my overclocking speeds the same (5.2 on 3; 4.9 on the other 3).

No difference on the Heathrow test so I decided on a flight from Vancouver to SFO. Filthy weather departing Vancouver and fps dropped below 20 briefly.

But less than 10 miles south of the airport the computer froze with the buzzing I've had before. But this time it didn't stop and around 20 secs later a BIOS / Asus Suite message appeared saying a problem had occurred.

It must have been the HT being on with the same overclocked speeds. I disabled HT and restarted the flight. All's well so far so HT is not an option for me as it seems Asus SUITE cannot overclock on virtual cores, only actual ones.

It also confirms that on the rare occasion when I get the freezing / buzzing on my earlier flights it was probably an oveclocking issue. If it becomes more frequent I'll dial back 5.2 to 5.1 manually.