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Great! Any idea why this is an option? Are there any downsides to enabling it?

Yes, in summary, you want to set it to the lowest setting that doesn't give you excessive blurries or delayed autogen loading. The actual value will depend on your system.

Which version of P3D are you running? 2.3 had a bug where clouds could be twice the size they're supposed to be, which could cause this kind of effect when they intersect with the ground. This bug was fixed in 2.4 though.

I'm not sure if LM have done anything to AA in 2.4 per se. What they have done, is to significantly optimize shadows, which frees up more GPU power for SGSS AA. It really is a big improvement: I can now use 4xSGSS with cloud shadows in ASN overcast conditions, with most other settings maxed, and still get 30-40fps with very few stutters. Note that this is with a Titan Black at 1980x1200: if you have a weaker GPU or higher resolution you may have lower results. I don't know what half refresh vsync has to do with this, but am confident that LM would have fixed it if straightforward. Some people say it requires full screen exclusive mode, others say a Nvidia profile... Not sure myself.

They've made it very clear that they will produce P3D versions of their recent products, but they take their time to do things properly. As you suggest, it's not simply a matter of updating an installer. Why not use FSX for PMDG, but P3D for everything else?

Well, it depends on what Orbx products you use. Maybe only 50% (or less) of their airports are migrated, but all their regions and global products have already been done. They've actually converted a lot more than most other developers. I'm very happy flying Orbx in P3D.

1: a solid minor release. No big changes, but several smaller improvements, and no regressions discovered so far.

I don't think many people use pro ATC/x: I considered getting it, but the forums suggest that it has quite a few bugs, and much more seriously, a significant lack of updates/communication from the developer. It's a shame, as there are not many ATC addons out there. I think the chances of finding someone who a) uses both pro ATC/x and P3Dv2, b ) had the same issue as you, and c ) was able to fix it, are slim. But you never know.

Nice shots. Which weather addon are you using?

Out of interest, what would be the advantage of such a high LOD? With max LOD I see detail as far out as the haze, in almost all weather conditions. I'm using ASN and Orbx sceneries. Is this something that's more noticeable with photo scenery, or the unrealistic visibility of the default fair weather theme? Or just something that bothers some people but not others? Just curious, as it's a frequently mentioned topic, but not something that's ever bothered me.

I think what Beau is saying in his post is that they tried to provide some additional vsync options (perhaps half refresh rate or adaptive) in an early beta version of v2 (i.e. before the 2.0 release), but they didn't work. So yes, there are limitations in the vsync settings that an app can control through DX11, but I don't think he means there were options in an earlier publicly-released version of P3Dv2 that they then removed.

Has anyone upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8/8.1 (without installing new hardware at the same time), and run the same version of P3Dv2 on both OS versions? If so, did you notice any improvement? I've heard a bit of anecdotal evidence that P3D performs more smoothly under Windows 8. The only hard info I've seen on this is the following comment from Beau at LM about gauges, which sounds significant, but I have no idea how much it affects things in practice: http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=6777.1 I'm not really interested in other pros and cons of Windows 8 - there are plenty of other places on the net to read all about that - just its impact on P3D. I realize this might be a bit of a long shot, since most people probably upgrade their hardware at the same time as the OS, but if you have done this, I'd really appreciate your comments. Thanks, Jacob

For those that don't read all the P3D forum posts, two LM developers recently posted interesting comments explaining how two often-discussed topics, volumetric fog and core affinity, work: Firstly, a clear description from Beau of the difference between volumetric fog and the old FSX method: http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=8207 Secondly, an explanation from Zach as to why it's not a good idea to modify the affinity mask at runtime. Although this "spreads the load" across all cores, it is likely to reduce performance. There is really no problem with one core being maxed out at 100%: any real-time application needs a main coordinating thread, which will tend to be the bottleneck, so you want that to be at 100% (unless limited by GPU load or a frame limiter): http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=8225.1 Hope this is of interest, Jacob

The QualityWings BAe 146 works well in 2.3. A slightly more unusual regional airliner, with fairly in-depth systems modelling.

With any software as flexible and open-ended (in terms of addons, hardware, etc.) as P3D, some people will always run into problems with any upgrade. But remember that such people are much more likely to post topics than the majority who don't have any problems at all: most of us prefer to fly than post topics just saying how great the new sim is. With each release of P3D 2.x, I see fewer problem reports, and given that the number of P3D users is growing (obviously I don't have numbers, but I'd guess that there are several times more users now than when 2.1 was released), this means that a vastly smaller percentage of users are having problems now. Version 2.0 was full of bugs, 2.1 fixed most of them but had memory management and addon compatibility problems, 2.2 was a major step forward in terms of reliability and memory usage, and now 2.3 has improved smoothness and visuals, and fixed many more bugs. So there is a clear track record of improvement here. In my experience, the last two releases have only broken a few addons, those that use undocumented "hooks" into the P3D code, such as FSUIPC and Active Sky Next. But these are usually quickly upgraded to work with the new version, often in a matter of days. It can be worthwhile to wait a couple of weeks after each release before upgrading: if you do that, most addons should work. I haven't seen any addons advertised as P3Dv2-compatible remain broken more than a few weeks after a P3D upgrade. Addons not advertised as P3Dv2-ready are of course a different story, but even there, more of them seem to work now than with 2.0/2.1.

Is there actually a difference between setting this option and zooming out? To me, wide view aspect and zoom 0.7 looks very similar to no wide view and zoom 0.3. Anyone know of any advantages of one or the other?

Are you using v2.2 with the flight planner patch? I started getting this error after applying the patch, and remember reading that it's a bug caused by the patching process, which will be fixed in v2.3. I hope they do fix it, and we start to see some third-party developers building tutorials, missions, etc. in SimDirector: it looks like this tool has quite a lot of potential. Regards, Jacob

Orbx have indicated that there will be several free updates. Of course at some future date they may decide to develop a new product, but what's wrong with that? A company that stops making new products and only produces free updates to existing products won't stay in business for too long!

I also sometimes get an OOM error with FTX England in the London area, in more complex planes. There is something about this scenery that makes it very memory-hungry, more so than other complex urban areas like FTX PNW Seattle or FTXGlobal NYC. Reducing building autogen to dense and LOD by a couple of notches tends to prevent it (I even have a special 'Airliner at London' graphics profile for this). I've never had an OOM elsewhere in 2.2. The previous version often had them, but LM did some major tree memory optimizations in 2.3.

The T-6 military trainer is also good. A bit more challenging than most default aircraft, especially energy management on descent. Make sure you enable the two extra realism options.

Personally, I haven't found any effect of setting vsync settings in NI. I only use NI to enable 4xSSGS AA. In sim, I find the best is to have vsync+TB on, and to lock fps at 30 in situations where the GPU would be maxed out if unlimited, and use unlimited frames when cpu-bound. I still get some stutters - exactly as Rob describes in the p3d 2.3 thread - but these settings minimize them for me. But you'll get dozens of different answers to this question: there are so many different combinations of hardware, software and settings.

Not exactly a blimp, but there is a fairly decent freeware modern Zeppelin: http://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/3038/fsx-flightport-zeppelin-nt/ It works in P3Dv2, and makes a nice change from normal aircraft.

REX4 just installs texture files, so once you've installed textures into P3D, they will remain until you install new textures: there is no need to start REX4 each time you run the sim. ASN connects to P3D and injects weather, so you need to run it every time you want to use its weather.

A useful summary of the various FTX products: http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/74345-the-definitive-guide-to-ftx-products-the-go-to-source-of-ftx-information/ Another thing worth mentioning is that FTX Global Vector is continually being improved - for example, their upcoming 1.2 version will have much more detailed data for North America - and I believe they have no plans to charge for these incremental upgrades. So while it may seem a bit expensive compared to UTX, remember that it covers the whole globe and is very actively being improved. Also, Orbx have really embraced P3Dv2, perhaps more so than any other company. As well as the Global line, most of their regions and some of their airports have already been converted (at no additional charge), and they're working on the rest. So you can be sure that you will get good support on the new platform.

You buy the new version, then send an email for a rebate. Mine was processed within a few hours.