Rogen

I've found the best options are to monitor your CPU and GPU use and adjust settings so as to not overload either. There are a few things that will specifically overload the GPU. Vegetation shadows Volumetric Fog Other things just add to the load and start cutting a few fps the more load. Seeing cloud distance to max will cause loss of a few frames, only when there is complete cloud cover though. Autogen scenery distance will increase load, I generally use medium/high. And custom buildings can greatly kill a frame rate, unfortunatly the 3D custom building rendering in v4.5 (and earlier) is not the best and there will be times where there is a need to lower the value as a trade off. Note I'm not talking about autogen, I actually have that maxed in my v4.5 and further increase it via custom tuning of the prepar3d.cfg file, there are so many tuning options in the P3D config file, mine is highly customised and I have several addtional configs to use depending on the flying situation. It atually amazes me when people give the advice to just delete and run with a stock cfg file, which is literally like taking a Porche and detuning it back the the level of a Vdub Beatle. There is so much that can be set in the config files, I set the road traffic to a lower speed (so it doesn't run like the keystone cops), made the sun and moon a more agreable size, improved the VC shadows, improved the accuracy of vegetation placement, tons of stuff, all for tuning the perfomance and look feel. One thing I found that provides for the best performance tuning options is to run the sim @ 30 fps and I don't mean by using the in sim frame limiters. Locking @ 30 fps outside the sim via vsync @ a 30 Hz screen mode, or via RivaTuner, or via the NVidia driver options, means less load and being able to ramp up to higher settings without sacrificing smoothness. Otherwise you should be able to do pretty much what you want. My sig has some v4.5 vids some of whihc show the settings in use if you want to have a looksee. Cheers Pick with max autogen inc. additional settings in cfg file.

I've had the Duke piston for some time but am only now getting into it (so many great planes to fly). And the Duke is certainly one of them. But this is one thing you don't want to see out the window, especially if you're a passenger. Taken it out for an extended spin. All good so far. Engine then gets a little rough and looking out the window ! Danger Will Robinson ! Danger ! Arrgh, at this point I decided to save the flight and come back to it in the morning. The things you can do in a sim 🙂 Cheers

Plus international transfer fees and typically it would be the combo of the 750/650 for those different sized spaces in the different VCs. e.g. I have the F1 complete edition which is both. Cheers PS - although I've had the RealAir Duke for quite some time, I've only just started flying it and it truely is one of a kind. PPS - I just had to add some pics of it...

Yeah, but sooner or later the end of a piece of software comes about. I've personally worked with companies on Enterprise software sold for $100,000 a pop where eventually the software came to an end. Not much you can do about it, other than bite the bullet, and you definently cannot take your $$ with you 😉 Alhough spending on the signifcant other half is an option 😀 I'll be in the same boat, however for the time being I'm sticking with P3D, I'm enjoying flying too many geat planes (like the Real Air / Vertx / A2A and various mid level jets) to give it up for the sake of shinyness. If only our Aussie $$ was worth a bit more. Cheers

Probably because earlier today it wasn't. But now it is... 😎 Cheers

Hey this has been a great !!! popcorn thread, time to chuck some more on and butter up !! Truely the mud slinging and the back and forth are amazing and at times even funny 😀 Tell me... Does MSFS really have this type of flight model ??? Cheers

Yeah the Saab 340s are way better than their previous cigar tube Farchild Metroliner, pretty nosy though. On a trip back from Norminton the plane I was meant to catch was out of action and instead we were piled onto a chartered mining flight chock full of FIFO workers some of whom I'd swear don't shower at all until they get back home. Cheers R

I disagree with said statement. P3D is primarily LM's training toolset hence the no entertainment clause, and it is very advanced from where they initially took over ESP. That they loosely allow it sold to anyone for a really inexpensive cost is kudos for us. Dovetail's goal was the entertainment market and they did advance their Flight Sim World quite a lot, but in the end they could not meet the financial costs and were forced to give it up. Remember it was 64bit, supported PBR and ambient occlusion, had True Sky, included A2As Accu-Feel and Orbx Global Base, and had a great mission creation system, plus a whole lot more. Both LM and DT are not the megalith Microsoft is and I suspect Microsoft must have burned a huge amount of cash for MSFS to get where it is now (an incomplete sim), what with some 6 years of development with hundreds of developers according to various news sources. Way more $$ resources than LM and DT could possibly have thrown towards their dev crews. So DT ended failing because they were too small to afford such expenditure and LM view P3D as a training tool sold to complement actual aircraft sales and training where P3D is built into professional systems like the pic below, an entirely different market to that of the entertainment market and probably worth millions in just a single sale. I think we're actually in exciting times what with three sims in actual development, instead of an FSX frozen in time and a slowly developing XPlane. Cheers R

Just installed another Covid special over the weekend and having a great time flying. This is the Carenado Saab 340 commuter turboprop in a Rex livery, a plane and company I've flown on and with many a times to regional areas of Australia. And during those times, I've watched a pilot doing his walk around reject a tire, then get a mechanic to jackup the plane and replace said tire, then give all the watching passengers the thumbs up with a big smile. Had a really rough landing approch in a storm where pasengers were screaming, I'll readily admit it was scary at the time. And once coming into land at a regional in heavy fog I saw the tree tops right there at the wing level, then in an instant heard the engines power up, we entered a steep climb and the gear came up, pilot then spoke on the intercom and explained they were doing a go around for another attempt which they nailed just fine. I've found the Carenado Saab 340 an enjoyable plane to fly and easy to get started in. It also installs as a normal and lite version, though I'm not sure what the lite version entails . It has a pretty good model including a cabin where the cockpit door can be opened and you can see through both ways. Also includes support for the F1/RPX GTN which I've installed (a little exe does the install). Here we are on flights from Narrabri YNBR to Inverell YIVL Cockpit and cabin. And on the ground @ Inverell Cheers

I recently trialled the latest ENVshade with P3D v4.5 HF3 and saw no issues with it re: night lighting. However I after trialing I opted instead for Tomatoshade (without the advanced reflection options) as TomatoShade has some quite advanced shader features that work very well. ENVshade provides for limited and simple slider based config options, where as TomatoShade has many highlevel config and tuning options including the use of calculated values. Also if you're worried about recovering back to prior any shader changes, just copy the "~\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\ShadersHLSL" folder before applying any shaders, as that folder contains the root shaders P3D builds its shader cache with. That way you've a backup of the original shaders and you've only got to copy them back and cleanout the shader cache in "~\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\Shaders" to be back to default. And here's a thread that might be of interest. Lastly I found Orbx night lighting to be just fine when TomotaShade is in use (as it was when ENVshade was trialled). Cheers R Orbx Night lighting with TomatoShade.

You could "invest" a lot or nothing. The thread below is a list I put together recently for P3D v4.5, which would for the most part also apply to P3D v5. Cheers R

Discussions about the why's of LM's licensing is best not a subject to approach. With that out of the way, the choice is ultimately up to yourself, noting there are limitations between the various options LM provide. For example, the Academic option carries a watermark in the top right hand corner and will have less features than the next option up (the Pro version). Best to pop on over to the LM website, review the feature lists for each option to help in your decision. The above said I've been learning via Academic for P3D versions from 3~5 with no issue, although I did read of an addin (a Russian MIG I think) that required the Pro version, mostly due to an error on the part of the developer assuming all P3D versions would include the same features. Cheers R

The load progress bar getting to ~90% and then CTDing sounds to myself to be more of a file issue, as in a corruption or incompatible file like an Ai or scenery model, being as the ~90% range is about when AI traffic is being loaded. The first thing I do when troubleshooting such types of issues are non destructive types of tests. For Example. Delete the Shader and scenery index files as these are automatically recreated on the fly. These are located in the following paths. Shaders: ~\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3/4/5\Shaders Index Files: ~\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3/4/5\SceneryIndexes_x64 If not resolved then move onto renaming config files e.g. prepar3d.cfg file to enable a new one to be regenerated. I recommend renaming because they do hold the current config settings and there maybe a need to reference the values. Then processes of elimination such as setting traffic values to zero to help narrow down the problem. There may also be a need to disable addins etc. Cheers R

Yes it is, however I use a little program named "Display Changer" to automatically start a program at the required display resolution and refresh rate. And when the program is closed the display automatically reverts back to the prior resolution and refresh rate. e.g. for P3D I run a DSR screen mode at 30Hz and when I close P3D the screen mode auto reverts back to 1080 @ 60 Hz The process is completely transparent, just start P3D and it all happens automatically. I also have a few desktop icons preset with different screen modes and refresh rates to change things on the fly so to speak. Cheers R

That would likely be because the "C:\Program Files" and "C:\Program Files (x86)" paths are privileged in Windows and require Admin rights for just about everything other than "Read". There would be a need to elevate the editing tool to "RunAs" admin, or login to Windows as an admin. Could also be Anti-Malware holding a lock on the file, or P3D itself if it is running in the background. The best option to avoid these sort of issues is to not install P3D to the "C:\Program Files" path. Cheers R