P3D V5.4 is available

[Afterburner 374]

16 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I've just installed v5.4. Previously I was running 5.3HF2 and stayed with that version on my new computer whilst I installed all 150+ airports and several aircraft.

I am interested why you didn't install v5.4 right away after you purchased your new PC?  Isn't it generally recommended to use the newest version, especially as it has been out long enough for all add-ons to be made compatible with it?

[Ray Proudfoot 8,977]

Just now, Afterburner said:

I am interested why you didn't install v5.4 right away after you purchased your new PC?  Isn't it generally recommended to use the newest version, especially as it has been out long enough for all add-ons to be made compatible with it?

I saw nothing in the list of fixes / improvements to excite me. Don’t fix what isn’t broken. I was happy with 5.3HF2.

It was only after reporting the flickering clouds on the Hi-Fi forum I updated as Dave advised 5.4 fixed that problem.

[jcomm 5,939]

I am in 5.4 since my return to P3D, with a side install of P3D v6.

I prefer the graphics in v6, it is also smoother, but then I didn't install there the ORBX Base, Vector and Open LC Europe products, so, I really can't tell if the smoothness has to do with that.

Another bug v6 fixed is that mentioned by Ray in another thread sometime ago - the stars during daylight/dusk/dawn being "very visible" 🙂 (is this not the case with 5.3 HF2?).  Well,  I don't have an alternative until FSLabs makes native Airbus installers for v6 😕

Edited November 9, 2023 by jcomm

[Ray Proudfoot 8,977]

6 minutes ago, jcomm said:

Another bug v6 fixed is that mentioned by Ray in another thread sometime ago - the stars during daylight/dusk/dawn being "very visible" 🙂 (is this not the case with 5.3 HF2?).

Good grief! 😲 Have they finally fixed that one? It's only taken 15 years or so. I haven't checked the situation with 5.4 as I never flew at dusk as the fps were hit quite hard.

It's quite a relief to have just the one sim to manage. I had v3.4 for years just for Concorde. That's now gone.

[Afterburner 374]

20 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Previously I was running 5.3HF2 and stayed with that version on my new computer whilst I installed all 150+ airports and several aircraft.

Wow, that's a heck lot of airports to install. I myself would probably have installed only those airports that I intend to fly to, with a gradual increase in the number of installations over time after making sure that the sim is running well.

I hope that none of your airports altered any of the default P3D files (some do), since deleting the client, content and scenery could have erased those files as well. This is not a problem with airports who use the XML method and install the files outside of the P3D folder.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,977]

@Afterburner, I didn’t want the process dragging on over many weeks. It’s easy once you get into a routine because I had to copy over the Cartayna file for the jetways. Easy but time consuming but when you’re retired time is something you have plenty of.

I’ve not come across any 3rd party airports that alter default files. Heathrow looked fine and I’m not anticipating any issues.

One major issue is lighting. It’s significantly different to 5.3HF2 and at the moment I’m struggling to get the cockpit bright enough. I have ENVSHADE and even on its lowest setting for the cockpit it’s still far too dark.

My brightness is now 1.6 and for the first time I can see the effect of Bloom. But the dark cockpits are a concern.

[Afterburner 374]

Ray, after you uninstalled v5.3 and installed v5.4, did you:

- Delete the shaders in the "C:\Users\[Your Name]\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\Shaders" folder?
- Run Envshade and install its shaders?

These steps are very important because the old shaders in v5.3 may not be compatible with v5.4 if you leave them. Also, updating P3D to a new version deletes existing shaders and installs new default shaders in the "P3Dv5\ShadersHLSL" folder. I suspect that this may be the reason why your cockpits are dark.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,977]

I didn’t delete my 5.3HF2 shaders. I thought the ENVSHADE ones would replace them.

I’ll do as you suggest tomorrow and hopefully it will fix things. Thanks.

[Afterburner 374]

ENVSHADE does not do anything with the shaders unless you open the program and command it to install its shaders.

Before you do what I suggested, I would uninstall Envshade/Envdir, delete the "Documents\Envtex" folder and then reinstall Envshade. Why?  Because when you first installed Envshade and applied the settings, Envshade made a backup of the default P3D shaders in the said folder. Now that you have updated to v5.4, if you ever need to restore the default shaders, they will be for v5.3 that are still stored in the backup folder, which are incompatible with v5.4. Clearing the said folder and reinstalling ENVSHADE will ensure that the program has backed up the original v5.4 shaders and not 5.3.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,977]

@Afterburner, problem solved but it took some lateral thinking. I did all you suggested but the problem of very dark cockpits remained. On top of that the P3D scenario screen was black rather than a dark grey on the previous version.

I thought it odd LM would change the colour scheme for a point update so I had a think. I have a BenQ monitor than has various settings for picture. For some unknown reason it had switched to a completely unsuitable mode. I may have pressed a button on the remote puck that switched it to a different mode.

Having reverted to my standard mode I can report the dark cockpit is now back to how it was originally. Thanks for your suggestions.

[jcomm 5,939]

What's that ENVSHADE / ENVTEX ? I mean, apart from what I just saw when I searched and found their Simmarket advertisements, can you tell me if they:

- can easily mix with Orbx Base products, namely Global, Europe LC and Vector?

- what about ASP3D without Cloud Art?

- Do they enhance sim performance, or can they result in additional CPU burden, and end up degrading performance and / or increasing Temps / CPU % usage?

Edited November 10, 2023 by jcomm

[Afterburner 374]

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Having reverted to my standard mode I can report the dark cockpit is now back to how it was originally. Thanks for your suggestions.

I am glad to learn that you have solved the problem (although in a way I wouldn't have expected)!

It shows that everything starts with optimal monitor settings, which is not always easy to accomplish, especially if there are countless of settings available in the menu. You realized that something was odd when you noticed that the scenario screen was black, so I am wondering if your desktop was any different from what it should be.

Though you would need to use calibration hardware to achieve best possible settings, the following websites can help you check if the black/white levels are right:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/white.php

[Ray Proudfoot 8,977]

@Afterburner, I’ve been a keen photographer most of my life so a few years back I treated myself to a Spyder Pro. It’s the last bit of software I need to install. Once the monitor is calibrated I’m sure things will be that little bit better.

I’ve seen the test images you linked to and it takes a good display to show them correctly. 👍

The desktop looked okay probably because I’ve gone for a black background.

 

[Afterburner 374]

19 hours ago, jcomm said:

What's that ENVSHADE / ENVTEX ? I mean, apart from what I just saw when I searched and found their Simmarket advertisements, can you tell me if they:

- can easily mix with Orbx Base products, namely Global, Europe LC and Vector?

- what about ASP3D without Cloud Art?

- Do they enhance sim performance, or can they result in additional CPU burden, and end up degrading performance and / or increasing Temps / CPU % usage?

Yes, ENVSHADE / ENVTEX work with ORBX base products without any problems, since they don't interfere with each other. They also work with ASP3D without Cloud Art (and even with, but then you need to decide whether you want to use clouds/skies from ASCA or Envtex).

These two tools do not affect so much the CPU load, but rather the GPU load, depending on the resolution settings of the textures. However, the impact on GPU is not that large.

[jcomm 5,939]

2 hours ago, Afterburner said:

Yes, ENVSHADE / ENVTEX work with ORBX base products without any problems, since they don't interfere with each other. They also work with ASP3D without Cloud Art (and even with, but then you need to decide whether you want to use clouds/skies from ASCA or Envtex).

These two tools do not affect so much the CPU load, but rather the GPU load, depending on the resolution settings of the textures. However, the impact on GPU is not that large.

Thank you! That is tempting!

Another 2-buy for the Christmas list 🙂