Going back to P3D.Need some information please

[A3 610]

Hello,

After a long time, i wanted to go back to P3D. I am tired of the other more recent simulators (due to constant updating and other issues). I really need a sim of install,setup,forget and just fly forever.

 

My questions are the following:

1)Which version of P3D do you reccomend nowdays? (i am interested in specific add ons,which i will list below.So the version that you reccomend must be compatible)

2)I exclusively fly the Airbus family (so was thinking of Aerosoft/FSLabs?)

3)I am assuming for weather engine is always Active Sky?

4)For Weather textures REX?

5)Landclass etc Orbx? (I only fly Europe so i am guessing OrbxGlobal,OrbxVectors,OrbxEU Landclass?)

6)FSUIPC i guess

7)I only fly offline, so i need an AI traffic software? AIG? FS Global Traffic? OR others? 

8)Any good ATC programs?

9)Are there any tweaks needed to the .CFG as the old days? Like HIGHMEMFIX etc? 

 

Regarding my Hardware:

1)CPU i5-9600K

2)RTX 2070

3)16GB of RAM

4)Corsair H100i liquid cooler

I play on 1080p/60Hz

 

Thanks in advance

cheers

 

EDIT: Grammar

 

 

 

Edited February 17 by A3 610

[JRMurray]

Hi, A3 610,

I'm still using P3D and enjoying it. My answers to your questions are below.

1. P3D: v5.4
2. FSLabs - I also have the Aerosoft buses but haven't had them installed for a long, long time 
3. Active Sky for P3D v4/5 for sure
4. I use ENVTEX
5. Orbx for sure
6. FSUIPC - paid version
7. AIG - a little time-consuming to set up, but it's free and works very well
8. Radar Contact - it's free and works pretty well. FSHud is good, too, but of course it's not free
9. I don't use any tweaks to the cfg file at all

I also suggest that you buy ChasePlane to set up cockpit and external views.

Your hardware looks okay, although the processor might be considered to be a weakness these days. You'll have to dial back some of the settings, but you should still be able to have a good-looking and stable experience.

Good luck!

[Patco Lch]

I'm presently getting ready to system restore to factory state my Alienware R6 in anticipation of my new PC due to arrive tomorrow via FEDEX.  P3DV5.4 for me for the Enhanced Atmospherics and performance improvement as well as backward compatibility. I plan on keeping my new install lean this time rather then spend weeks pulling my hair, (all five of them) out trying to get all the years of addons to install and play right. I'm going to try and resist the temptation to shoe horn sceneries that don't have installers for P3DV5 or need ini excludes to try and get them to work and loading my sim to the gun wales carrying a bunch of stuff haling back to FSX days I rarely use. This means I will be using default airports once in a while. 

I'll install all my compatible ORBX sceneries as well as utilities like Active Sky, Chase Plane and FUSIPC.

My aircraft are all PMDG birds, Ifly and FSLabs A320. Several A2A just for lite fun.

As far as other aircraft and sceneries I have them installed on an external SSD to reinstall as I get a yen to use them.

On my long walks I think sometimes if a lot of this stuff that your system has to carry along really adds to realism or in some cases just gives your sim more of a cartoonish look like push back Avatars or cartoon people walking circles in front of your plane talking on a cell phone. Same for some other expensive stuff. Immersion maybe, (eye of the beholder). As far as AI aircraft, I don't use them since none seem to behave like real air traffic and addon ATC is a little too canned to be realistic. 

Just speaking for myself I guess I'm just an aircraft man, As far as VFR visual enjoyment there's all my ORBX layers or photo sceneries installed on my external SSD to keep me happy. 

Sorry if I'm not helpful to the OP other then to say you don't need a gob of pay ware stuff to enjoy P3D or any flight sim for that matter. We humans can be commercially gullible creatures but at times less can actually be better. 

 

This is the last post I'll make on my Alienware R6. I'm now going to erase the rest of my files and restore her to her factory state. Good night old girl and thanks for the hours you served me. 

[CO2Neutral]

4 hours ago, A3 610 said:

1)Which version of P3D do you reccomend nowdays? (i am interested in specific add ons,which i will list below.So the version that you reccomend must be compatible

1. P3D V5.4
2. FSLabs (A3xx)
3. HiFi Active Sky
4. Weather textures ... depends, if you go 3D volumetric clouds that stick with what HiFi and/or go with ENVTEX (can really make lighting look excellent)
5. Orbx (try True Earth also)
6. FSUIPC paid version
7. AIG (make sure to use liveries that implement PBR)
8. ATC ... hmmm, default
9. ChasePlane (a must)
10. GSX (a must)

Tweaks, make sure you get all the Affinity settings correct to match your CPU (this will cure 99% of stutters).

• TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10 (get 1024 res terrain tiles which is higher resolution than what MSFS provides).
• HIGH_RESOLUTION_TERRAIN_TEXTURES=1 (required for above to work).
• MAX_TEXTURE_REQUEST_DISTANCE = 320000 (upto 1000000 ... a must to stop the black squares where textures load in/out).
• For Camera.cfg files set outside views NearClipOverride=4.0 (upto 5.0) to remove texture flickering (z-fighting) on distant objects.

As far as airports, select those that implement PBR ... I think there is a list somewhere.

Edited February 17 by CO2Neutral

[JRMurray]

5 hours ago, JRMurray said:

I use ENVTEX

Actually, I also use Active Sky Cloud Art

[Luis Hernandez]

My replies:

1. V5.4, definitely. V4.5 may be another option, but it's just a 64-bit FSX. I uninstalled the latter.
2. If you have the money ($360 for all the versions), definitely go for the FSL buses. If you only want to fly from A to B and don't mind to lose a bit of realism, the Aerosoft buses are a good option, for just $80. For the A330, Aerosoft is the only decent plane available. Forget about the A340 or the A330-200.
3. Yep.
4. I use REX, but because I purchased it during my FSX days. With v5, it's not that worthwhile, since REX is not prepared for v5 Enhanced Atmospherics.
5. I use the whole Orbx Global range (Global+Vector+LC+Buildings+TerraFlora). I think Orbx can sell these as a combo.
6. Yeap, paid version.
7. You'd like to have some AI Traffic. For that, AIG is the best one available.
8. There are two good abandonware ones: Radar Contact (which some people use) and PF3 (which I used until a year ago). Both are available for free. If you feel like paying, there's also FSHud, which I currently use.
9. The only ones I applied were for changing the info I want to see when I press Shift+Z, and for setting correct affinity mask for my CPU.

There's something else you may want to use: Lossless Scaling. $7 at Steam, but it does wonders for P3D.

Edited February 18 by Luis Hernandez

[d.tsakiris]

1) V5.4 for compatibility

2) FSL

3) Yes

4) Or HiFiSim ASCA, or Envtext, or ..., or ...

5) Orbx

6) Yes

7) AIG

8 ) I use PF3 with MCE, but I am looking at FSHud for the future

9) I use only one, I think. It has to do with reducing texture reloading when panning the view. I will have to look it up

Edited February 18 by d.tsakiris

[A3 610]

Excellent answers, thanks a lot! One more question, does the TCA throttle quadrant works with the Aerosoft airbuses in P3D v5.4?

 

cheers

[Ray Proudfoot]

I concur with the above recommendations but recommend Radar Contact v4. Still very good and you get support here at AvSim.

[Daube]

9 hours ago, CO2Neutral said:

TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10 (get 1024 res terrain tiles which is higher resolution than what MSFS provides).

Really ? What is the resolution of the terrain tile textures in MSFS exactly ?

[Ray Proudfoot]

Let’s not get into a sim comparison debate. The OP has already said he wants to return to P3D. I doubt texture sizes are going to sway him.

[Daube]

14 hours ago, A3 610 said:

1)Which version of P3D do you reccomend nowdays? (i am interested in specific add ons,which i will list below.So the version that you reccomend must be compatible)

P3D v5. I would avoid P3Dv6 because of the un-guaranteed compatibility of many addons.

14 hours ago, A3 610 said:

2)I exclusively fly the Airbus family (so was thinking of Aerosoft/FSLabs?)

Depends on the realism level you're looking for. My brother was already quite happy with the realism and immersion provided by the Aerosoft Airbuses, despite their limitations. The FSLabs Airbus is the king, though.

14 hours ago, A3 610 said:

3)I am assuming for weather engine is always Active Sky?

Yes it is.

14 hours ago, A3 610 said:

4)For Weather textures REX?

I went for REX but that was in P3Dv4. I'm not sure what to recommend for P3Dv5, sorry 😕

14 hours ago, A3 610 said:

5)Landclass etc Orbx? (I only fly Europe so i am guessing OrbxGlobal,OrbxVectors,OrbxEU Landclass?)

OrbX all the way, but only for the landclass and airport stuff. The TrueEarth products are fantastic but they might be a bit overkill if you fly only liners.

14 hours ago, A3 610 said:

6)FSUIPC i guess

You guessed right 🙂

14 hours ago, A3 610 said:

7)I only fly offline, so i need an AI traffic software? AIG? FS Global Traffic? OR others? 

I know that AIG is highly praised but I'm quite a lazy person so I went for a payware product which was cheap in sales and easier to install 😛

14 hours ago, A3 610 said:

8)Any good ATC programs?

Radar Contact is the most recommended program. I have tried to use it a few times but I was not ready. I  recognize it's a very impressive piece of software, anyways.

[sloppysmusic]

59 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Let’s not get into a sim comparison debate.

There's a big handful of threads in the other forums that could do with that warning!! 

Example title off the top of my head "the xxxx in 2024 is the best/not the best of any sim ever etc" 

😉

To the OP after 6 month's flying in (censored) I splashed out 500 bucks for p3dv5 pro and pmdg/a2a planes I already owned in other sims and do not regret it. My hairbrush thanked me too. 

My addons active sky chase plane (the censored view system in any censored). 

PMDG /a2a /real air planes. 

All the orbx scenery except vector.

I use fsuipc in all sims 

Fshud for atc (I purchased it for msfs actually but it works in p3d too). 

No traffic program yet but I'll follow rays advice and use radar contact before long. 

Disclaimer : I also use fsx and msfs as well as p3d depending on which aircraft I want to fly and in which conditions. 

I've tried lossless scaling but too many side effects for me to continue. I get 60 fps or close most of time anyway. 

i14900 /rtx 4090/96gb 6400. Xmp profile with HT off. 

Edited February 18 by sloppysmusic
Tippo

[QuaxTheSnoopie]

What's sufficient for me and ended decades of fiddling/tuning - just let me fly:

1. P3D 4.5 HF3 (on 7800X3D + 4070 SUPER + G-Sync compatible 1440p monitor = after decades of optimization now stable 30 fps without stutter out of the box)

2. Although I've licensed Aerosoft Airbus, I use only GA (A2A, Realair, Flysimware).

3. Active Sky (historical weather, I select the days in timeanddate.com and wunderground.com , the second accepts ICAO)

4. REX Texture Direct + Soft Clouds

5. Most of ORBX, especially ORBX Germany North+South and ORBX LOWI (special eastern approach RW08)
   Other addon airports/airfields "as needed".

6. FSUIPC licensed to create LUA scripts for non-standard aircraft controls (HOTAS, throttle quadrants, switch panel)
    I want to control as most as possible aircraft instruments by real switches and sliders and minimize mouse/keyboard action.

7. I don't need additional AI besides the P3D internal and some ORBX AI traffic freeware.

8. Pilot2ATC because of voice recognition and "virtual copilot", talking to ground/ATC/center instead of clicking buttons or pressing keys.

9. NVIDIA Inspector setting SGSSAA for sharp instruments and no shimmering livery parts (only P3D <= V4)

That may not fit for others but it's allright for me.

 

Edited February 18 by QuaxTheSnoopie

[Blasb]

My take:

1. P3Dv5

2. the FSLabs airbuses are awesome so go with them. (I have a hard time flying the aerosoft ones now...😃)

3. Yes active sky is very good and I use it myself.

4. If you go for 2D clouds then I would recommend REX.

5. for Landclass I suggest Orbx. But to be honest: learn instead how to do your own orthos. I now avoid flying in landclass only areas as it just looks too animated.

6. Yes get the paid version.

7. AIG is the best and the cheapest.

8. P2atc is my  recomendation

9. Not really but I suggest you find out as you go.