Rogen

On 4/12/2024 at 2:38 AM, gallen144 said:

Has anyone figured out how to make the cockpit lights work in the Milviz T-38A Adv under V6?

The lights are working in V4, but I never got it to work in V5 either. I installed Reallight when prompted, but the interior lights are still not working. The external lights and cockpit lights do work. 

Forum and Internet searches have not been helpful. Any ideas?

How has the Milviz T-38A Adv been installed under V6?

Does this thread offer any insight ?

Cheers

Hi @Clutch Cargo,

Dark cockpits are the standard with v5+ due to lighting changes.

Perhaps take at look at this thread

There are changes for the volumetric clouds & alternate shader files with the HDR shader built based on v6.

Cheers

Also 5.4 introduces a bug in reading C:Vars where an index is applied.

Suffice to say to say the bug barfs some aircraft in various ways, mostly those that use the xml tools package.

The same bug was also introduced with P3D v6, although in that instance LM did release a fix in their fourth patch.

https://prepar3d.com/announcement/2023/09/131908/

• Fixed issue where C:Vars would not parse correctly in some cases if an index was present.

Since the bug affects aircraft I reguarly fly I've not gone past v5.3 (actually 4.5 is my main sim and I have v5.3 setup for testing).

Cheers

A key question to ask "is there statutory approval and availablity for licensing as a commercial use training simulator".

And now the post inital release batch of v6 fixes are out they are no doubt working on whatever it is they do according to their own priorities.

Although personally and coming from an enterprise level software developement house, that is - software not generally publicly available (typically due to the 10s of thousands of $$ it cost), we would showcase coming plans and improvements at trade shows and in trade outlets, via demonstrations and trade forums, in other words advertise, demonstrate and talk up the software to those who were likely purchasers.

Where as LM are just the opposite - they rarely say a thing, plus their commerce website and forum are lacking in keeping up with the times, i.e. the forum is consistantly getting hacked by spammers, and both forum and commerce sites have ancient authentication requirements (likley why they get hacked), where I'd have thought being a big part of the military machine they would have greater emphasis on security and keeping their public facing outlet software up to date, e.g. posting in their forum for anything other than plain text requires hand placing tags throughout the post, sure it was top of the line 15~20 years ago but that's an eon in software time.

I assume since they flog P3D to the military, they include long contracts for support and development (probably many millions of $$) and the path of slow and steady is what they will take.

I also guess when MSFS is sold to the millitary and commercal use companies for statutory approved simulation it'll no longer be refered to as a game...

Cheers

Hi @Hollister56,

You are aware this is a P3D post in the P3D forum for P3D users ?

Cheers

4.5 still my go to here.

I have been playing with 5.3 in relation to this thread where we've been modifying shaders and cloud configs.

Coding and testing shader changes has gotten me further into v5.3 than I ever have previously and I've found it's just a dogs breakfast with so many things needing adjusting to function. I can see what LM were trying to do but really even FlightSim World had better implementations.

• It's far too hazy all the time compared to RL.
• It's too dark (too much exposure / contrast).
• The AA 's messed up.
• Pre-existing Effects are messed up.
• Airport issues, like I landed at one yesterday and disappeared under the ground, this was one of those landing strips only.
• Airport building issues.
• There's no shoreline waves and Orbx's really good looking ones are hit with effects problems.
• The truesky cloulds are not the best, even with Alexandre's mods
• The thread order for affinity is somewhat critical and can cause instablity issues, plus P3D will occasionaly automatically set an affinity mask itself that causes the appearance of a hang (it's just running too slow due to the barfed affinity mask).
• The Milviz radars don't work.
• The Orbx Vector implementation is still needed, but that too needs the use of a members resolution to function properly.
• The default wave textures are huge and look quite poor from height.

There is a PRO, the half vsync option of NCP does function for 5.3 (doesn't in 4.5), meaning it's super easy to get that smooth 30 hz vsync on a 60 hz monitor with 5.3. Give it a go, set a 60 Hz screen mode, turn off vsync in sim and set half vsync in NCP - I've found it works pretty good.

And a PRO is anything that has actually been properly designed and compiled for 5.3 is typically pretty good (not everything though) and the dynamic lighting is certainly improved.

Yeah 5.3 does have somewhat better 3D rendering perfomance, as in it can handle a bit more before it chokes, but is still nothing to write home about.

Also unfortunately 5.4 has it's own introduced issues that LM are clearly not ever going to resolve, leaving v6 which comes with it's own trade marked issues, at least v4.5 can be used which has PBR, dynamic lighting and where pretty much everything just works.

Anyway, for 5.3 I've managed to get exposure / contrast improved with out too many killer side fx and I think I'm done with trying to improve 5.3 further.

Cheers

On 4/1/2024 at 10:08 PM, NATORDEN said:

I saw that post on the forums, was gonna post there initially, but i failed the security question answering "FSX". But that issue is completely different from mine. I seem to have an issue with flickering textures. as well as dissapearing textures. Ill send you a pm with some images, if too many images here may be an issue, but ill also add a short video showcasing the issue (hopefully its not an issue).

Additionally, i did find the Dunedin post as well but i could not really relate with the issue as NZCH is the only product i have alongside with ORBX NZNI & SI NZQN, as well as FLightbeam NZAA, NZWN.

So you do not have any flickering at all? 

My install is from TOGA projects website, "InstallRNZ_NZCVH110AirportOnly" if that helps provide more context

 

Hi @NATORDEN,

The Dunedin package also installs a secondary airport to the North of Dunedin, and it was there I found the 2 airports to be intrinsically linked and managed to resolve my texture flickering issues via trial and error (I'm also not overly familiar with what it takes to put together an airport for P3D).

I do have NZCH 110 installed in P3D v4 where I don't appear to have those flickering items as you've shown, that said I do notice flickering of the runway as I fly down it.

I'll install the airport into v5 on the weekend and see what turns up.

Cheers

2 hours ago, rowcoach said:

Thank you for putting this together, @Rogen.

It looks like I'm finding this a little late. I hope it is still available. I've just sent you a PM.

Cheers,

colin

No probs and message sent.

I primarily put the package together in v4.5 as that's my main sim, that said I've been flying it a bit in 5.3 while working through some shader mods for this thread

and have noticed a couple of funky things with some of the effects, plus I'm missing the weather radar too.

So my next update will be to have a look at the effects and see what I can do, as well as add Rolan's Radar v5 as embeded for Active Sky integration.

Cheers

2 hours ago, Olsby1 said:

I bought the Carenado C208

Which Carenado C208 was it ? (steam or glass gauge).

If it was the Steam there are a number of improvements available, like PBR model, immersive cockpit sounds and improved flight model.

Cheers

11 hours ago, level7 said:

I had a ton of fun with FSX PNW back in the day. Are the "classic" Orbx regions still worth it for P3D V5 given the upgraded "vector" data? I already have the FTX Global and OpenLC.

I bought TrueEarth California but the scorched earth textures and very large file sizes make it a no go for me.

I fly both GA and airliners in P3D mainly in the California regions.

Regarding the Vector data product of Orbx.

It is available for p3D v5 because LM's is a fairly half a job harry type of implementation, as in yeah it's better than their previous rleases, but not complete and really Orbx vector is still an improvement.

That said the Orbx P3D v5 implementation was also a bit of a half a job harry type of implemetation, where they updated and combined the excludes down to just 10 files.

The result is much slower loading times (due to the bigger files) and resultant stutters.

Luckely one of AVSIM's members has reworked the files so that the 9 are now 866 individual files for fast loading and file size stutterless performance, I think you'll find them quite the improvement performance wise.

Of course the Orbx vector product is a layer providing extra resolution and visibiltiy improvements, it does also have to be loaded into the sim and does add to overall performance costs, personally though I've never found it to be excessive on my hardware.

Cheers

9 hours ago, NATORDEN said:

For those that use NZCH in P3Dv5, do you have some texture flickering issues? 
Ive attached some pictures. 
Additionally, is ORBX NZ South required for this scenery?

Hey @NATORDEN,

Just be aware you've posted 1 too many allowed pics and the soup guys might take offence.

And now with that out of the way, I do have the airport installed in v4.5 but not installed in v5.

I do have the following link in my store of issues.

https://nzff.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=31257&sid=1c2bfa8834d66b3f22500367c32ebbea

And I also have Dunedin which did have texture flickering issues where I resolved according to the below link, it might provide some insite perhaps.

Cheers

12 hours ago, dave2013 said:

Frankly, I wouldn't allow any embedded screenshots in the forum, unless one or two are necessary to point out a problem or clarify a question or answer.  They eat up hard disk space unnecessarily.

I actually host all my pics on Steam.

And I also have my browsers set to clear their cache on close.

No website disk space usage problems at all.

My suggestion was for a separate P3D only media forum that can be easily browsed and linked.

Cheers

On 3/30/2024 at 9:12 AM, Ray Proudfoot said:

There is a subforum for letters to AvSim if you want to formalise the request.

https://www.avsim.com/forums/forum/118-letters-to-the-editorial-staff-of-avsim/

 

I don't see an official reponse past the reply of "Possibly some of your suggestion may be discussed at future Board Meetings."

But given that was over a year ago I assume the modest proposal was not progressed any further than the response in the thread ?

I guess placing my faith in corporate boards is not yet validated.

Cheers

On 3/26/2024 at 4:21 AM, charliearon said:

And please limit the screenshots to no more than 2 to show progress on your improvements or problems.  A lot of members
use a phone to scroll through the forums and it takes a long time for those shots to appear.

If this is not adhered to, your posts will be removed!

How about a separate P3D screenshot/video forum i.e. a media forum under the P3D Forums heading  (and same for XPlane and other sims under their own headings) ?

That way posting pics and vids don't have to go in what is essentually the MSFS screenshot forum...

Times change, personally I'm about to update my phone and internet to 5G, better than the internet options otherwise available and cheaper too.

And yes I've seen many posts disappear, some times right in front of my eyes including what seem to be innocuous postings, but hey when you have absolute power...

Anyway these are my thoughts as a member.

34 minutes ago, Dave_YVR said:

 While I have used DDU when changing between AMD and Nvidia graphics cards, I have never seen a need to use it for driver updates or even swapping between Nvidia cards.

I've used it from time to time when I wanted to totally clear out driver files.

Typically when troubleshooting and chasing resolutions to issues it is good to have a known and clean start base which DDU achieves.

Cheers

On 3/25/2024 at 11:23 PM, Alexandre Blumberg said:

@Rogen, great effort too,

My goal is make the simulator a little better and involve the community in this effort. Sorry about the errors, actually I didn't check that in my system (content error is off), but if you can share the corrections that you made and make it better, all is good and thank you for that. I looking forward to view your corrections.

Regarding the clouds, I noticed that you need to restart the simulator a couple of times, to get the shaders correctly compiled in shader cache, after that the clouds get more volume and became nice and natural. Your P3D 4.3 is very good too.

Nice Regards

Hi @Alexandre Blumberg,

Yeah sure I'll send you the changes I've made, just PM me your email address and I'll zip and send.

List of changes in the spoiler below.

I also made a few changes outside of those files, being in Cloud.fx and PrecipParticle.fx.

And in HDR.hlsl I implemented the uncharted2 tonemap, which was a little tricky due to the following code.

#if(QUAD_RENDER_SHADER_FLAGS & SHD_FLAGS_MISC_2)
#define SHD_CUSTOM_TONEMAP
#endif

From my testing I don't see how "#define SHD_CUSTOM_TONEMAP" is conditionally set.

Also in my testing I couldn't see #define SHD_CUSTOM_TONEMAP ever being enabled, so as a workaround I just defined it directly at the level of the uncharted2 tonemap where a manual comment/uncomment will enable either ACES or UNCHARTED2, noting uncharted2 makes a big overall difference. If you have any ideas yourself ?

HDR.hlsl with ACES enabled

HDR.hlsl with UNCHARTED2 enabled

Cheers

On 3/23/2024 at 8:50 AM, Alexandre Blumberg said:

The link of tweak is at video description. https://youtu.be/GruEU4sRrFE?si=sU4bhP1OX6jaL3zZ

Hey nice effort.

I plugged the files into P3D 5.3 (5.3 because 5.4 has introduced some breaking bugs LM are clearly not intending to resolve).

Where in the first couple of minutes the content error log filled up with approx. 7700 lines of shader errors relating to the changed shader files, I also had the wierdest looking clouds... ☹️

The above said, I spent this morning going through the errors and testing changes until I had successfully compiling and functional shaders.

A couple of relatively minor changes really, more info to follow tomorrow (I've other things scheduled for the rest of today).

A few pics in P3D 5.3 (post fixes).

These two show the dynamics of shading the clouds based on light direction.

Here is a nicely defined cloud shadow.

Sunset definitions.

And finally a pic of my P3D 4.5 custom dynamic lighting cloud shader as a comparision to the P3D 5.3 pic above.

Cheers

On 2/20/2024 at 2:29 PM, ValinHawK said:

Thanks @Rogen!  Impressive diagnosis and fix of the disappearing pilots in the C-140.  My terms with FSW could be better but given their high standards, I can live with them.  Can you recommend anyone with the expertise to put a nice-looking woman in the right seat of the RAS Legacy?  My long-term goals are to master these skills myself but I have a lot of higher priority things on my list right now... 

Hey @ValinHawK,

Came across a Lorby utility today that might help with what you're after.

https://www.lorby-si.com/downloads.html

FREE: "PayloadManagerX" (Prepar3D V4.2f/V5.x)
With this tool you can

• Add 3D persons to your aircraft (10 models included with 100 textures to choose from)

Cheers

3 minutes ago, Dave_YVR said:

ORBX has always recommended that their FTX Airports and regions be placed way down below ANY of your non ORBX

By placing the Orbx Airports and Regions at the top of the "Default" P3D entries and selecting to insert Orbx Global open LC below Orbx Airports and Regions everything should be fine, being as non-Orbx can then be placed above Orbx.

I actually use specifly located empty marker folders to help keep everything in their appropriate place.

In anycase Orbx can place things a little strangly which is why I prefer to manage via the Lorby Addon Organiser.

However if all you've got is Orbx then the Orbx placement manger is fine and it's also good as a tool to place the default orbx order in bulk, otherwise Lorby is a far better option once an understanding has been gained on how order affects items.

Cheers

Yes please do confirm the Orbx insertion points where any Orbx Global OpenLC should be below Orbx Airports and Regions, and I put Orbx Airports and Regions at the top of the P3D default entries.

Plus I use the Lorby Addon Organiser to manage my addon positioning of sceneries etc.

Also if you have Little Nav Map you can click on the airport in question and select the Infomation/Overview Tab where you can check/confirm what data sources are being used.

This is what I see for the main building @ EGNT (it's one of Orbx's defaults with a few extras).

Also came across this interesting image on the way to the AP, is it a maze ?

On 3/15/2024 at 7:38 PM, FSXCYYZEGLL said:

What do you mean by the VC registributable version itself?

The CTD in the iFLY is interesting. And is very likely related, cause I noticed it only started after I updated the data for the FMS manager.

I mean was the latest Visual Studio 2015 redistibutable installed ?

The link is MS's main landing point to downloading the most current VS redistributables.

The iFly issue related to a count of lines where Navigraph supplied a file with less lines prior to ifly releasing an update, potentially you could trial something similar to narrow down the issue.

I don't have either navigraph or the 787, so please take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

Cheers

How about the VC registributable version itself ?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170

I was also reading about a CTD in the iFly 737 relating to a Navigraph update, it was last year though, something to think about perhaps ?

https://ifly.flight1.net/forums/navigraph-airac-2310-crash-to-desktop_topic21174&FID=13&PR=3.html

Cheers

2 hours ago, okupton said:

Hi Everyone,

I am having a rough time on my system with p3d V5.4 all of a sudden. I have a i7 9700K, RTX3060, and 16GB RAM.  I know, not the strongest system and it is probably time for an upgrade, but I haven't had these issues until now really with 5.4.

CPU is running at 100% while airborne all the time.  CPU temps get into the 80s but GPU is not running 100% and temps seem normal.  When calling the GSX menu or trying to switch windows to something like Active Sky or really anything while p3d is running, my PC freezes for up to a minute.  My guess is it is the CPU trying to catch up and put cycles towards whatever I am trying to do outside of P3d.  This is happening with the fslabs a320, pmdg 737/777/747 and ifly 737 max.

Since I have a 9700K, I haven't messed with the Affinity Mask since there is no hyperthreading on this particular CPU, so I am just sticking with the stock Job Scheduler that is in my .cfg file.

Any thoughts on what I can do here?  The sim runs smoothly for the most part and looks great, except when I have to access anything that runs outside of the sim (like GSX), and then the computer goes haywire.  Early phases of flight don't have issues, it's only when I've been running the sim for a while and and getting ready for the approach or after landing. 

I have sliders toned back a bit (mid range) on pretty much everything, so I don't think it is something within p3d that is causing the issue, but maybe something outside the sim (BIOS setting, drivers?) that I need to be looking at.

Thanks 

The term "all of a sudden", usually implies an unexpected change resulting in (some problem).

First thing I would check for is dust clogging and CPU fan function, in fact I just cleaned 3 machines in the last 2 weeks for dust related problems.

Compressed air will do the job, you can get it in a can or via a compressor, take the machine outside though and mask up as there can be a lot of fine dust blown out. Perhaps also reseating the CPU with new paste too.

Otherwise, are you limiting the fps ?

I ask because the higher the fps, the more resources will be used,P3d functions best when fps are set to unlimited, however the fps must then be limited externally either via vsyncing or via something like riva tuner or NCP vsync or max frame rate settings (30 is a good fps to set assuming you would normally get 30 fps).

Additionally perhaps some software is chewing cpu cycles, a process of elimination might be the best approach here, e.g. disable AS & GSX and other apps one by one until you hit the app chewing the CPU cycles, then reenable the other apps one by one to confirm the problem app.

Hope the above helps.

Cheers

10 hours ago, misgav said:

Hi

I have had FSX SE installed on my high end pc for many years. It's getting buggy to the point where it's not enjoyable anymore. CTDs, stuttering, endless loading times. I've tried reinstalling, deleting big scenerry addons to free up space on my C drive, etc. I fly with a VA, but because of CTDs, cannot log my hours. So I'm thinking of P3D as an alternative. Thing is, there are so many versions, 3,4,5,6 that I'm not sure which one would work with my important addons, which are listed below, without which simming wouldn't be immersive and realistic.

Aerosoft Mega airports

ActiveSky2016

Majestic Flight Q400

ProATCX

UK2000 scenery

Switzerland X scenery

ORBX replacement ground textures

Flight1 Pilatus PC-12

So I'd appreciate your opinions.

Ethan Ornstein

Hi Ethan,

Yes I too made the move from FSX-SE to P3D some years ago, initially to P3D v3 (for testing and comparision) being 32 bit like FSX.

Then to P3D v4 64 bit once I'd gained an understanding of P3D.

I personally have P3D v4.5 and P3D v5.3 currently installed, however I use v4.5 as my daily drive and v5.3 for testing for pros and cons between the 2 versions, haven't bothered with v6 as it's quite different and has very limited 3rd party support atm.

Most scenery shouldn't be an issue, other than maybe changing some windows registry path pointers so the scenery installers can find the chosen version of P3D, or you could manually install the scenery, Orbx will be fine up to P3D v5, for v6 you'd need to perform some path trickery as the Orbx Central app doesn't yet support P3D v6.

Any aircraft or addon that's of the 32bit variety would need an update to a 64 bit supporting version, this would include the Majestic Q400, also I don't see any P3D options for the Flight1 Pilatus PC-12 assuming it's this one ?

If it's the Carenado PC-12 you can move forward to 64 bit P3D v4 & v5, plus there is a nice improvement package discussed here.

Active Sky has a version supporting both P3D v4 and v5, with a separate version for P3D v6, you'll also need to create an Active Sky Account for ActiveSky to connect to their serves for weather.

You can see what I'm using on my v4.5 install here

Performance with P3D v4.5, is good as long as your hardware it up to it (see my sig), I vsync @ 30Hz for a very smooth 30 fps covering  almost all situations, note my monitors are 30 Hz capable being something most quality UHD TV's should support.

I certainly am enjoying my flying in P3D v4.5, plus there are a lot of freebees for this version as well.

Cheers

A couple of my tuned v4.5 pics.

Combo Gibson/Orbx Aust2 over NSW Autralia

Custom cloud shader in action.

Carenado Phenom 100, currently a wip for bug fixing.

20 hours ago, colins2 said:

I've spent too much time searching around but can't find the answer.

Simple question: Do the Reality XP products work on Linux? I do have a XP-12 installation on Windows but the performance is nowhere near as good as on Linux. I don't want to buy this product if it only works on Windows.

The gauges require the Garmin Trainer packages which are Windows only.

From the URL of https://reality-xp.com

"Requires the free Garmin GTN Trainer (v6.62.4, v6.21). Instructions and download link provided during installation.
Garmin GTN Trainer requires Windows 7 minimum (v6.21 Vista minimum)".

I guess you're just plumb out of luck...

Cheers