I was inspired by the pictures from Rogen and his P3D4.5 setup. I run 5.4 but I'm thinking about going back to 4.5. I have also a licence for this. Offcourse  I could install it, but that takes some time and file management. Have to make some space for it. So I first like to know what are the most important differences between 4.5 and 5.4. Offcourse EA and Volumetric clouds. I also remember  some posts saying that the FPS and smoothness in 5.4 is better. Are there other things? And is the FPS/smoothness significantly better. 

 

 

For me it is significantly smoother. apart of that mesh is improved if i am not mistaken. EA is also improved although i do not use it.

You mean 5.4 is significantly smoother? That's an important factor! If so then I stay with 5.4.

For me, P3Dv5.4 is smoother than v4. If you like to see improvements in 5.4, suggest a 5.4 announcement, such as this one. Good luck with your decision. 

Edited September 30, 20232 yr by David Vega

One advantage of 4.x is the availability of a ton of aircraft.

I keep both.  v5.x is a better performer--quite a bit smoother with high-end add-on acft around high-end airports with a lot of traffic.  There are some nice aircraft add-ons and gauges that don't work (or work well) in 5.4.  The REX-Milviz weather radar included in a number of smaller acft does not work in P3Dv5 versions beyond v5.1, for example.  V5 also has revised worldwide terrain mesh and some scenery object changes that present some problems for scenery add-ons developed for earlier versions of P3D.  The fairly large Orbx freeware airport collection is one example of scenery that makes it worth keeping v4.5 around.  And a few developers (e.g. Milviz, SimSkunkWorks, India Fox Echo etc) released their entire, mostly v4 catalogs as freeware when they shifted focus to "the sim that shall not be named."  That's a lot of really nice planes to mess around with for nothing more than the minor cost of keeping v4.5 around.

So my tubeliner flying (in high-end addons) is generally in P3Dv5, and I fly GA and military flights occasionally in v4.5 if it involves an airplane or airport that isn't cut out for v5.

3 hours ago, Rein2 said:

Of course EA and Volumetric clouds. I also remember  some posts saying that the FPS and smoothness in 5.4 is better.

I tried going back to v4 mostly because of REX textures and default airport terminal buildings (for which I haven't found yet a decent replacement in v5). However, these things you mention hold me back (FPS and EA).

I did reinstall 4.5 a couple of days ago; with all my Orbx addons and some sceneries. As soon as I took off in KMIA (Ray Smith AFCAD) in V4, I felt something was wrong. I did take off again in v5 (same plane, traffic and sceneries), I felt back at home.

17 hours ago, newtie said:

One advantage of 4.x is the availability of a ton of aircraft.

I only own one aircraft, the SWS T-37B Tweet, which was not transferable to v5. All others run fine in v4.5 and v5.4. I use a lot of FSX planes. I have actually 875 folders in Airplanes and a few in the Prepar3D v5 addons. What one wants more?

@Rein2 It is definitely smoother than 4.5. It was the reason for me to go for v5 then. It certainly depends on how much addons are installed to see the difference from 4 to 5.

Edited October 1, 20232 yr by blaunarwal

5.4 is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE sim.  It is significantly better than 4.5, and especially V6!

Stan

52 minutes ago, spilok said:

It is significantly better than 4.5, and especially V6!

Interested as to why you think this and especially why you feel so strong about it?

On 9/30/2023 at 5:51 AM, Rein2 said:

I was inspired by the pictures from Rogen and his P3D4.5 setup. I run 5.4 but I'm thinking about going back to 4.5. I have also a licence for this. Offcourse  I could install it, but that takes some time and file management. Have to make some space for it. So I first like to know what are the most important differences between 4.5 and 5.4. Offcourse EA and Volumetric clouds. I also remember  some posts saying that the FPS and smoothness in 5.4 is better. Are there other things? And is the FPS/smoothness significantly better. 

 

 

From @Rogen himself:

"Things like, airport elevation, parking and building issues, anti-aliasing issues, loss of WX weather radar, loss of some Orbx sceneries due to specific gfx rendering changes LM had made, loss of use of TomatoShade, loss of use of the custom cloud shader I have modified, TrueSky implementation less than optimal (now dropped from v6) meaning TrueSky was not a replacment for my custom cloud shader, tower issues with the objects database, aircraft issues with lighting and other aircraft related problems, a half assed vector improvement, introduced bugs still not resolved to this day, and probably a few more I've missed here.

Yes I did like the change from a direct lighting model to a linear lighting model, and the performance improvements were nice, although testing showed they were fairly minimal - like improving performance by tuning at the edges rather than at the root cause, meaning v5 can display a few extra 3D objects before P3D inevitably choked and crashed the fps.

In actuality the best performance improvement I've had has been newer hardware, faster RAM, better CPU and updated GFX card has made P3D a vastly improved sim for myself.

Cheers"

Source: Rogen's P3D v4 - Page 5 - The Prepar3d Forum - The AVSIM Community

The statement below is worth repeating as this was my actual EXPERIENCE in P3D and other flightsims as well (MSFS, DCS, FSX):

"In actuality the best performance improvement I've had has been newer hardware, faster RAM, better CPU and updated GFX card has made P3D a vastly improved sim for myself."

 

... and from @newtie referencing Venema in the same message thread as above ( Rogen's P3D v4 - Page 5 - The Prepar3d Forum - The AVSIM Community😞

"Funny you mention hardware. Years ago when Venema was running the show over at ORBX and people were complaining about the performance of his scenery he said if you want better performance, buy a faster computer. Still true today but there is a point of diminishing returns.

Anyway, about six months ago I mortgaged the house and bought a Jetline Gravity. Works perfectly right out of the crate and I haven’t touched it except to turn it on. Glad I used the qualifier ‘always’ in my first statement"

Venema was ORBX.

I love P3D v4. I am staying with it, because of TOMATO SHADE. I won't change it until Tomato Shade becomes part of the next versions. And since there is no news nowhere inside I am staying on v4. 

Edited October 1, 20232 yr by PavlinS

All true but hardware cost $$$. My favorite @Rogen quote is "after all, it's all about the fun." Right now I'm waiting for an estimate on what it's going to cost me to shingle my roof so my homeowners isn't cancelled. 😒 I guess I have to sim with what I have instead of what I would like to have but that's a first world problem and I'm thankful to have it. No complaints. 

6 hours ago, Sparkrite said:

Interested as to why you think this and especially why you feel so strong about it?

Because I feel that strongly about it!