Rogen

Yes the Twin Otter is a great plane in P3D. I had it originally in FSX-SE, but couldn't really get into it, what with FSX-SE being 32 bit it was just too limiting to enjoy the plane. But hey, P3D in 64bit makes it completely different and is great to fly. I originally had some issues with CTD due to a sound dll (ASC.DLL) but that Matthis dude pointed in the direction for the updated dll and it's been fine since. I even just recently added a new gauge and lua script to configure icing and freezing rain affecting the control surfaces and makes it quite the difference, you really want to avoid flying through such conditions now as the control surfaces will gradually freeze up and you'll loose control. Cheers

Well... just the FMS and radar atm, I've still tons of planes yet to install and it takes some time to install, get them working as Add-on.xml and fix bugs, not that the Lear had many, really all I had to do was set the sound files path for the sound gauges. Cheers

No probs, you'll find it in a spoiler in this thread, not sure which page but it's there. https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/622872-p3d-running-slow/ Cheers

REX Texture Direct wiith Soft Clouds, TomatoShade custom config and a bit of further direct shader tuning. Cheers

I've got pretty much the same as yourself. //----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Vcockpit38] Background_color = 0,0,0 size_mm=512,512 visible=0 pixel_size=512,512 texture=$MV_WXM //gauge00=MV_WX!WX, 0,0,512,361 //gauge01 = CONTROL_PANEL!clipboard RADAR W8, 90,50,330,250 // Embed the Roland Weather Radar fully into the Milviz bezel. Also note the Roland Weather Radar requires Active Sky Next (ASN). // As the Roland Weather Radar is embedded there are click spots within the display mouse scroll wheel functionality to control On/Off. Tilt, Range and Gain. // The spots are left of the centerline. gauge00 = RolASNRadar!ORadGauge, 0, 0,512,361, sweep|beam|icing|nogps|starton gauge01 = CONTROL_PANEL!clipboard RADAR, 9,81,400,300 //----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There's a click spot on the texture, which with the right ID setup in the popup config (see my popup config), will call the Milviz radar, however because the Rex WX radar is configured that's what will pop open, it's not all sugar & cream though as you cannot use the LHS buttons due to that side being the show/hide click spot of the MilViz popup radar but that don't bother me for the display I use it for. Cheers

Yeah too true, DTG were infact competing against themselves via FSX-SE which had pretty much everything to purchase where as FSW did not. I wasn't on P3D at the time, really didn't know about its existance and it was only when I found AVSIM that I became aware of it. And then its EULA was like what ?? that' so restrictive, but when I fully read the EULA it also said simulation / development is valid use and so that's what I use it for (as does practically everyone else outside of actual commercal licensing). But I did like and enjoy FSW, it didn't have the problematic OOMs or bugs of FSX-SE and it was in active development at the time, in fact it is still sitting in my Steam account (as is MSFS by the way). I was holding hopes for it and when it collasped it was so utter and completely abandoned... Cheers

Hey thanks for the boost up 🙂 I'm really just an avid flight simmer who has happened to find a nice sweet spot where everything works really nicely for what I like to do sim wise. And I do see that STOL plane, I have it for P3D but it's such an ugly little aircraft... I much prefer to fly this one in similar circumstances. Cheers

Hey, to get the ASN WX Radar to popup is a change in the panel.cfg, like the snip in the spoiler. The clouds are the result of REX Texture Direct with Soft Clouds @ highest rez and 32bit don't quire remember which clouds they are but they are one of the Rex sets taht can be chosen. Additionally there is a custom cloud shader for dynamic lighting, it's something I'm working on over an extended period with tweeking the shader settings, P3D v4.5.14 only though, and you'd need a really good GPU, something like a 3080 or higher. Cheers

Yes it was 64 bit, with PBR, many programmatic items moved from CPU to GPU, plus some great looking default rain on the cockpit windows. A2A were also a part of it with their Accu-Feel installed as default. In many ways it rasied the default bar higher than P3D ever has, unfortunately the seller shops and devs seemed to display a lot of hostility. And it didn't help there was no direct backwards FSX/P3D compatiblity, probably why the shops / devs were somewhat unhappy as it devalued their current stock and meant they would have to re-write at least some aspects of existing items for compatibilty and who wants to do that ? Well... one should always be careful of what is wished for because now they have to completely redo as new if they want to sell for MSFS, which has pretty much totally devalued their existing stock to the point where some of the devs are just giving their stock away. Dovetail always spuked the "all in for the long run mantra", but then the beans did their counting and found out they were not going to be able to meet the MS stipulated license progress payments and it all fell apart literally overnight, with the source being returned back to Microsoft, who, if you compare the timing, were already in bed with Asobo. So... lesson is to always be wary of the "bean counters" and also never trust Microsoft as it is their shareholders to whom they are indebited to and the execs will make quite amazingly stupid decisions in the name of shareholder profit or of being a "Team" player. Much like that Emperor's New Clothes train wreck of Windows 8 and the Surface tablet line (remember the dancing school girls wearing Gingham ad?) that ended up costing some $900 million to MS's bottom line resulting many MS top level execs and development managers loosing their jobs including the CEO Steve Ballmer (who was given a push out the door). Cheers

Fun to tear around an airport in 😁

Hey thanks for the heads up 🙂 Just picked it up along with the FMS module and have just installed and given it a shakedown flight with config adjustments. Why I didn't consider it b4 I don't know... but @ 50% off... why not !! And config adjustments so far have just been to add my GTN750 and Roland's Radar to the Cockpit, along with the ASN WX Radar as a popup, just click on the Roland and up pops the ASN WX. Plus no log file full of faults (like a Carenado for example). Also dropped in the Dynamic lighting package. Now on the hunt for interesting liveries. Cheers

Not that I see in my usage. When a TomatoShade config ini is applied for the first time the shader cache will be deleted and there will be a delay while P3D rebuilds the cache. It's much a the same as when the scenery index files are rebuilt. Otherwise I've not noticed any delay otherwise. Cheers

Yep DSR or Dynamic Super Resolution is what I'm using. I don't actually have GeForce Experience installed at all, DSR is enabled and configured in NCP, post enablement and configuration it is just a display mode of a size larger than the monitor's native to select. I use it as a DSR mode configured to 2560 x 1440 for the majority of flying, also have a full 4k res config, monitor native for myself is 1920x1080. A couple of pics @ 4k on 1920x1080

Tomatoshade is a shader toolset where it either applies completely or not at all, and if you want to review changes a before and after process is what to use. i.e. screen pics or vid prior and same again post install. Now that you've got the TomatoShade shaders installed and the manual edits in place you could make a copy of the ShadersHLSL named as ShadersHLSL.TomatoShade (for example). Then swap between either the backup defaults or the TomatoShade version (being sure to clear the shader cache when swapping). When I was trialing changes I would take a screen shot, apply changes, clear the shader cache, take a screen shot - compare screen shots and then adjust, rinse and repeat until it was what I was after, as you might guess it's quite time consuming tuning these sort of things. I do have the NVidia Inspector, but don't use SGSS as it is a huge GPU hog and requires a matched MSAA in P3D, I do have 2 x SS set though and 4 x SS in P3D. The DSR screen mode I use also applies an adjustable smoothing effect and ReShade has several options of alternate AA shaders, all this meaning I don't tend to see the VC shimmers. What you'll need is to develop an understanding of the relationship of the various P3D settings and where they apply e.g. is the setting mostly going to use GPU ? For example "Weather | Volumetric Fog" is GPU based, "World | Scenery Objects | Autogen and scenery draw distance" will use both CPU and GPU expotentialy as it is distance based radius starting at 6000 and going to 30000 in 6000 increments. And when a radius is doubled the area encompasing quadruples, which in turn means requiring 4 x the processing power as compared the the non-doubled radius. A GPU monitoring tool will help with gaining an understanding of the limits that apply to your particular GPU and what happens in P3D when those limits are hit. (typically the frame rate will drop below the 30 set in MCP). Cheers [SCENERY] //AUTOGEN_DRAW_DISTANCE=6000.000000 // Low //AUTOGEN_DRAW_DISTANCE=12000.000000 // Medium //AUTOGEN_DRAW_DISTANCE=18000.000000 // High //AUTOGEN_DRAW_DISTANCE=24000.000000 // Very High //AUTOGEN_DRAW_DISTANCE=30000.000000 // Extremely High

I do have Envshade, however I found it quite limiting and not up to the task of the sort of power configuration I was wanting to perform. Others may say differently, personal taste I guess, that said I was unable to achieve the sort of configuration I'm able to achieve with TomatoShade. The waves are part of the Orbx NA Pacific Northwest Ferries, this entire package is freeware but supports P3D v4 only, this was due to GFX changes in v5 that introduced issues that LM apparently never resolved. The waves themselves are a manual installation (as it you'll need to install and configure yourself). The waves can be used on P3D v5 with a little direct re-configuration of the fx files. https://orbxdirect.com/product/pnwferries Orbx have a reasonable number of freeware options available, and I do recommend grabbing them e.g. LWSK Skopje is a very nice airport which I'm amazed is a freebee. Banking camera can be placed anywhere you like, I have it in "E:\FSX Addons\Banking Camera" (the path shows how long I've been using it), you just then need to set the correct path in the exe.xml <Launch.Addon> <!-- Dynamically banks the view in line with the bank of the plane and provides for a more immersive feel. --> <Name>Banking Camera Plugin</Name> <Disabled>False</Disabled> <Path>E:\FSX Addons\Banking Camera\Banking Camera.exe</Path> </Launch.Addon> The hardcoded part is the location of the "Banking Camera.ini" which needs to be C:\Windows\Banking Camera.ini I think the first thing is to understand what PBR is, the links below cover some basics. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/remote-rendering/overview/features/pbr-materials https://www.a23d.co/blog/what-is-pbr/ So from a TomatoShade persepective the answer is Yes and No, yes a PBR workflow pipeline is generated for Enhanced Reflections, however my ini doesn't have Enhanced Reflections enabled so no. In anycase PBR has to be supported by the application (and P3D 4.5 does support PBR) and the models in P3D need to have the required PBR textures, this is why the aircraft models need to be changed for Enhanced Reflections to function. Taking the above it's not something you'll need to be concerned about in relation to your GFX card, as the card itself just has to render what is pumped to it, that being PBR based or not. Yes I totally agree... unfortunately. I do have v5 and was hoping for it to be a great update, but testing and a list of pros and cons showed for myself it was just not worth the breakages it introduced and the lacking fundimentals . I'm truely hoping v6 will be something worth updating to, either a fixed v5 or something new, given the amount of time that's passed. I'm guessing it's going to be an evolution of v5 and I base this on a recent post I saw on the P3D forum where a fellow was asking about issues with his local P3D default airport. A P3D developer replied and said he'll look at it for the next release, which itself implies the default terrain and airports will be remaining the same. I'd link to the post unfortunately it appears to have disappeared, or at least I cannot find it again. Cheers

Typically the first things I trial are to delete the shader cache contents and the scenery index files followed by a reboot of the PC. All are non destructive as the shader cache and index files are automatically rebuilt. I've never had to delete a p3d config file to resolve problems, even with a wierd issue like the two headed deer pic shown below. What I would do is a process of elimination, e.g. rename the config file, let to build a new and see is the issue is resolved, then move onto the next item or further investigate the current. PS: The Lorby Addon Organiser can backup all the config files to a zip archive, ideal for a process of elimination. Cheers

Hey @bofhlusr, happy to hear you've gotten up and running 🙂 Yes some of those P3D config settings won't exist unless you create them under the section title. Orbx's True Earth scenery series are essentially satellite Terrain with autogen and 3D object overlay, it is pretty demanding of the hardware though. I do have Orbx's Florida TE scenery and it's Ok although Orbx's landclass types do have higher resolution textures. Orbx has an Easter sale going atm, and I might jump in a grab a few items whilst they are on special. Yes documenting is a nessecary but painfully boring part of building a complex install, I keep a spreadsjheet of items I install with notes regarding the ins and outs. TomatoShade is only for P3D, given it is shader based and shaders change with each P3D release, it has to be updated to suit the particular P3D release, and P3D v4.5.13 (HF2) was as far as the program was supported to. DynamicReflectionMaker.exe will read the aircraft you've got installed, at that point you'd need to import and enable profiles for the exterior and interior of a chosen aircraft. But it's a moot point as in my TS ini I haven't enabled the extended reflections due to the bugs it has. I did trial and found more issues than what it was worth, but of course you could enable and trial yourself Cheers Here's a couple of pics showing landclass and True Earth scenery types from the Forida area.

Ok, the two questions first. 1), Don't worry about PTA, it's a completely different application that was abandoned by its developer who has since passed the mortal coil. PTA is absolutly not required. 2), Don't worry about line breaks, the spoiler contents just need to be in a text ini file as they are. And the rest. TomatoShade has two different functions. 1), Is as a general shader tweaker. This is the function the ini contents are created for. 2), Is what is known as "Reflection Maker", this is where TomatoShade replaces the P3D render pipeline with its own shaders for outputing PBR based highly reflective surfaces and is why it was used by a lot of tubeliner guys, i.e. so they could have nice shiny reflective PBR based exteriors and cockpits. However the author of TomatoShade didn't update it for P3D 4.5HF3 (HF2 is the last supported version) which tends to break the reflection marker part. Additonally Reflection maker requires editing of the target aircraft models to add PBR textures, you'll find quite a few aircraft profiles other people have made, but otherwise you'd have to do them yourself. I used to use TomatoShade with the Reflection Maker part prior to 4.5.14 (which is hotfix 3) but it generated too many shader errors in 4.5.14 to be of much use and the results were more trouble than they were worth. Version 31: * P3D 4.5 Hotfix 2 Compatibility Hence I use it as a general shader tweaker where excels perfectly. TomatoShade has some limited documentation in it's install folder, best to take a look at it. Otherwise you'll run TomatoShade, choose the menu item of File -> Open and import the configuration ini, then from the Action Menu item choose Apply. TomatoShade will apply the config ini, modify the P3D shaders accordingly and clear the shader cache. Then you make the manual changes to to 2 x shader files using notePad++ according to the post below. https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/598863-how-to-make-p3d-v45-look-better/?do=findComment&comment=4516811 At that point you should be good to start P3D, where P3D will display a black screen for a short time while it rebuilds the shader cache. And that's it - Tomatoshade with custom ini is installed... I then lay Reshade over the top so I can tweak while P3D is running, but that is a job for a different day. And additonally I tune the P3D settings based on CPU/GPU use monitoring (mainly GPU), and create several sets of preconfigs to choose from the settings dropdown for different flight requirements. There are some simple Prepar3D.cfg options that have a fairly large effect overall. [GRAPHICS] // Ensure dynamic lighting is displayed without turning on and off when changing views. Default values are 250. // The 500 values are recommended in FlightBeam's NZAA documentation. When using IniBuilds dynamic lighting profiles the value is 1000. MAX_POINT_LIGHTS=5000 MAX_SPOT_LIGHTS=5000 // MAX_TEXTURE_REQUEST_DISTANCE There's no cap on this value itself because it's intended as a limit. // If you want textures requesting aggressively, you can set it something very high like 1000000. // Units are memory allocation units (not distance). TBM 23/08/2021 may as yet be distance as the Learning Centre doesn't actually say what it is. // There are two other checks that must pass before textures are requested: // 1) Object is within the far clip distance. This varies by altitude. // 2) Object pixel size at a given distance passes min radius check. This we made configurable in 4.3 using RS_MIN_OBJECT_PIXEL_RADIUS. (default is 2.0px) MAX_TEXTURE_REQUEST_DISTANCE=320000.000000 [SCENERY] //AUTOGEN_BATCH_LOD=2 //Default is 2, setting to 1 will greatly increase the amount of autogen buildings, almost double in some instances and tends to result in too many buildings cramped together but does really fill out the world, valid values are 1 to 9 with 1 the highest. AUTOGEN_BATCH_LOD=1 [USERINTERFACE] // Set UIHardwareAcceleration from True (the default) to False to enable reshade use. UIHardwareAcceleration=False [TERRAIN] // P3D maintains a global terrain view for efficiency - if blurries start developing after a period of time or autogen stops loading trial setting to False. UseGlobalTerrainView=False // Relates to vegetation and how it is placed along side rivers and roads. The default and minimum is 16 and can be set up to 2048 in double values i.e. 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048. // The higher the number the more accurately a curved polygon will be rasterised. 16 equals placement accuracy of ~80 metres, 2048 equals placement accuracy of approx 0.5 metres. Higher values come with more performance costs. // Result will be treelines that accurately follow the curves in roads and bends in rivers as opposed to the old straight lines and angles of before. // Surprisingly setting the value to 2048 appeared to have little performance impact, although there were some occasional bandwidth type vsync dropouts and in flight pauses. // Will trial 512 as a value and use incrementing values to determine what is best for myself. IMAGE_PIXELS_FOR_AUTOGEN_POLYGONS=2048 [JOBSCHEDULER] // https://www.gfsg.co.uk/affinitymask.aspx?SubMenuItem=utilties AffinityMask=[your value here] Anyway... The result should be a quite nice looking P3D where a @ 30Hz vsync will be really smooth and capable for most flying areas. I'm actually looking forward to my next computer build so I can ramp up the settings even further. Cheers

Yep pic looks about right, as noted some experimentation might be in order, all part of the fun of tuning for best performance. TomatoShade, it's free and in the spolier below is my current configuration, save the spoiler contents to a text .ini file (NotePad++ will help here), import into TomatoShade and apply. Don't forget to make a backup copy of the ShadersHLSL folder as a first step, having a backup is the simplest way to rollback selected shaders or all shaders. Also this thread link has the manual shader edits I use and various items recommended for improving overall. I've named the preset as "TBM v1.2.3 Tomato Shade - Clouds-Lighting-AtmoFog-WaterSatuation-All_Items_Tuning_NoAdvancedRefections.ini". Cheers

Heh, because you can never have too much power 😁 The 5800x and 3080Ti have made quite the difference, but still more power is better. Like this vid. Flight sims are way, way cheaper than drag car development, even a latest and greates computer rig is a fraction of what it takes to build and maintain a car like the one in the vid and you've gotta have a hobby to keep sane. I was trialing and editing a dynamic cloud shader which used quite a lot of GPU power and 1070Ti just didn't cut it. Plus at times I was needing to drop down from 2560x1440 to 1920x1080 (both @ 30hz) as the GPU was overloading and introducing stutters. Once the 4000 series arrived the 3000 series prices dropped like a stone and so i purchased. Cheers

Hi @bofhlusr, I would first trial the NVidia CP before Riva Tuner, if you set P3D to 30 FPS max in NCP I would imagine the GSync should vsync at that rate. Textures are separate to shaders, a texure is a picture and a shader describes how bright etc. the picture should display. TomatoShade allows control over the shaders to enhance the world look of P3D and lets you set the display characteristics of sky, clouds, water, lighting, shadows, reflections, colour, bloom, etc.

Ok, a black screen means it didn't display, bad luck... I would have though it would have displayed given it's a GSync. Is GSync enabled ? Sorry I'm not familiar with GSync ops, don't have one myself. If you cannot get a 30Hz mode happening the Riva Tuner would help I'd say, like what I used in the Big Bear flight. Cheers Just a PS here, Given you've Gsync monitor, what happens if you set P3D to a max frame rate of 30 in Nivdia CP ? I would think Gsync should then sync to that frame rate for smooth performance, might have to turn off the P3D vsync or perhaps turn it on. Some experimentation might be in order.

Textures are pictures, like a wireframe 3D model of an aircraft will have textures wrapped over it to create the livery of the aircraft. The same applies to ground textures (i.e. Orbx), Tree Textures (i.e. TerraFlora2), or sky, water, runway etc. (i.e. Rex textures). Shaders are a dynamic library of files that describe how objects should render and display, they are created using a standard type of programming languge. The P3D the shaders are stored within ~\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\ShadersHLSL And when P3D runs it uses those files to create a pre-rendered shader cache located in \AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\Shaders The shader cache files are dynamically built depending on what and where you're flying and can have many thousands of files built up, I typcially delete them every now and then just to clear out the cache and let P3D build new ones. TomatoShade will change the shader files in ~\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\ShadersHLSL Thus allowing tuning of how P3D displays the world, e.g. the shadows can be set darker, and the ground brighter, stuff like that. Also P3D 4.5.14 is HF3 Cheers

Well, you've GSync monitor so that's great, it means it can sync down to low Hz rates and keep things smooth. That said you don't really want P3D to run at max fps because that will totally consume all resourses and ironically once all resources are consumed P3D goes into stutter mode. For most flying areas a 30Hz screenmode is desirable, it makes for a very smooth experience - all the videos of mine on YouTube are @ 30Hz, additionally with a 30Hz vsync P3D will consume less resources meaning it is then possible to amp up the P3D settings for a better looking sim overall. You'll need to see if you can create a 30Hz custom screen mode, my monitor has built in sync rates of 60, 59, 50, 24 and 23 Hz, where additonally I've created a custom screen modes of 1920x1080 (native), 2560x1440 and 3840x2160 @ 30Hz noting for myself noting the two larger screen modes are DSR screen modes as my monitor is only 1920x1080 native. The NVidia CP warns that custom screen mode ranges can damage or destroy a monitor which is true, however what you're aiming to do is clone the 2560x1440 (native) screenmode witha hertz rate @ 30Hz. Once setup in NVidia CP there will be an option to test prior to accepting. The test is times so will drop back to standard screen mode post test. All going you should be able to create a custom screen mode of 2560x1440 (native) @ 30Hz and then select that in P3D and be able to VSync @ 30Hz. Once you've got that happening you'll have headroom for settings management. Cheers

Yes, Tomatoshade is one, ReShade is another (not RDShade) and I use Rex Texture Direct with Soft Clouds as texture replacements and a few freebees to round out the textures. Both TomatoShade and ReShade are freebees, TomatoShade allows you to configure the P3D shaders and ReShade is a post shader injector that allows settings to be changed on the fly within P3D, you can turn effects on or off and adjust effects without needing to exit or pause the current flight. ReShade has a ton of additonal shaders although I typically just use a few to "tune" to my liking. ReShade fx tilt-shift example. Here I've added a form of Ambient Occlusion with some before and after pics, best to open the pics full screen to see the differences. https://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6325&t=145416 Cheers