Is it possible to disable the rain effect in P3D?

[TrafficPilot 121]

I want to disable the rain effect in P3D as it causes microstutters whenever it appears. I wouldn't go flying in rain anyway in the real world so it doesn't bother me not having the effect in P3D.

 

Has anyone disabled their rain successfully?

 

Regards,

 

Adam

[vesalius 153]

I simply want to disable the rain from showing up because it makes me dizzy...

 

So I'm interested to see the answers...

[TrafficPilot 121]

I simply want to disable the rain from showing up because it makes me dizzy...

 

So I'm interested to see the answers...

 

+1. Makes me feel sick. 

 

From the lack of replies I guess the answer is - no. I'll try some experiments tonight once I've backed up all the files then report back!

[vgbaron 3,510]

I don't have the names handy but if you rename the rain effects file(s) it should work..

 

Vic

[Sponge 74]

PrecipitFX makes rain much more realistic

[newtie 533]

PrecipitFX makes rain much more realistic

Agreed. Snow is excellent as well.

[kama2004 74]

Yep another convert to precipitfx today. Really improve the rain and snow...

[untoweechja 35]

I did this just yesterday in FSX!  Even though you want to do it in P3D, perhaps this info will be helpful.

 

1) Make sure P3D isn't running before you do anything below.

 

2) Inside the main folder (D:\FSX in my case) go to \ShadersHLSL\FixedFunction.  Inside that folder, there's a file named "Rain.fx"  Rename this file to something like "Rain.fx.old" or move it out of this folder to somewhere safe. I recommend renaming it so if it causes trouble you can re-rename it back to its original name.

 

3) I also had a "Rain40.fx" in my \ShadersHLSL\misc folder.  I renamed it to "Rain40.fx.old".

 

4) In your [user]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\FSX folder, there's a folder named "Shaders".  (It might be named "Shaders10" or maybe even "Shaders11" in P3D--I don't have P3D yet so I don't know for sure).  Rename this folder as well.  This will force the shaders to recompile when you restart P3D.

 

5) Now start P3D.  For a quick test, use a weather theme with rain or snow. 

 

I've not noticed any ill consequences from doing this and I flew around a big chunk of the day yesterday in rainy or snowy weather.  My frame rates still drop due to the cloud cover, but the sim stays smooth.  It's certainly "eye candy" I can live without.

 

Hopefully there's enough here to go on that you can translate it into the P3D world.

[Noel 4,487]

Does the 

 

Yep another convert to precipitfx today. Really improve the rain and snow...

Pierre-I guess they didn't solve this issue?:

 

Backup this effect then delete it from the effect folder;

 

Fx_WheelWetSpray.fx 

 

There is another one in winter for snow;

 

fx_WheelSnowSpray.fx 

 

I removed both on my system as this bring fps to a one digit crawl...

[kama2004 74]

Hi Noel, I didn't put back those effects yet. I will check later...

[TrafficPilot 121]

I did this just yesterday in FSX!  Even though you want to do it in P3D, perhaps this info will be helpful.

 

1) Make sure P3D isn't running before you do anything below.

 

2) Inside the main folder (D:\FSX in my case) go to \ShadersHLSL\FixedFunction.  Inside that folder, there's a file named "Rain.fx"  Rename this file to something like "Rain.fx.old" or move it out of this folder to somewhere safe. I recommend renaming it so if it causes trouble you can re-rename it back to its original name.

 

3) I also had a "Rain40.fx" in my \ShadersHLSL\misc folder.  I renamed it to "Rain40.fx.old".

 

4) In your [user]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\FSX folder, there's a folder named "Shaders".  (It might be named "Shaders10" or maybe even "Shaders11" in P3D--I don't have P3D yet so I don't know for sure).  Rename this folder as well.  This will force the shaders to recompile when you restart P3D.

 

5) Now start P3D.  For a quick test, use a weather theme with rain or snow. 

 

I've not noticed any ill consequences from doing this and I flew around a big chunk of the day yesterday in rainy or snowy weather.  My frame rates still drop due to the cloud cover, but the sim stays smooth.  It's certainly "eye candy" I can live without.

 

Hopefully there's enough here to go on that you can translate it into the P3D world.

 

Thanks for the info. I'd renamed rain.fx in the ShadersHLSL folder and that has finally got rid of the horrible FPS stealing rain effects! Much better now cheers!

[kama2004 74]

Pierre-I guess they didn't solve this issue?:

 

Well I tried and it seem well but difficult to compare performance as I upgraded recently to a GTX980.

[davenicoll 104]

I agree...The rain in Prepar3d is truly awfull....

 

I groan if I have real world weather and start the flight to find rain...Spoils it completely...

 

Dave

[Noel 4,487]

Well I tried and it seem well but difficult to compare performance as I upgraded recently to a GTX980.

Boy I doubt it Pierre, that GTX980 would have any meaningful impact on those textures.  I was hoping PrecipitFX would have perhaps used a different format texture for these so will have to look and see for myself.  I have GTX Titan & hexacore SB-E hyper threaded but these effects totally destroy performance.

[TrafficPilot 121]

I agree...The rain in Prepar3d is truly awfull....

 

I groan if I have real world weather and start the flight to find rain...Spoils it completely...

 

Dave

 

Exactly. Hence why renaming rain.fx to rain.fxGOAWAY solves the problem for me