P3D v5 - DX12 + many other enhnacements...

[cagarini]

It's supposed to get released next week - April 14.

It will represent a move to DX12 graphics, new weather rendering engine ( inherited from the Dovetail Flightsim World sim ), and significant updates to World airports ( probably navaids too ) as well as terrain mesh  and a Short's Skyvan 330, one of my preferred Airfix kits some 4,5 decades ago :-) )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BolhRK0tbMc

I wonder if P3DExternalsim will go with it :-)

Anyway, I have to confess my biggest expectations for an upcoming flightsim are placed on:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/771800/Deadstick__Bush_Flight_Simulator/

https://youtu.be/L_d5E8Na9K4?t=177

[Mark]

As soon as I can see the P3D v5 SDK documentation, we'll know 

[Chris Kilroy]

Hopefully now that sloped runways are gonna be "officially" supported in P3Dv5 we'll have support for that feature with Externalsim too. Presently there are a few addon airports for P3Dv4 with sloped runways and taxiways (taxiway P between 25R and the rest of the airport at EDDF comes to mind) and Externalsim adjusts the altitude of the aircraft while going over these slopes but not the nose up/down pitch, which looks kinda weird.

[cagarini]

and Externalsim adjusts the altitude of the aircraft while going over these slopes but not the nose up/down pitch, which looks kinda weird.

That's one of the advantages of using X-Plane / XView indeed...

[JohnH]

P3D site has been down all day, just connected now, looks like P3D v5 Academic Licence is now available for $59.95 USD which is the same as P3D v4,5 not sure at this point if I want to purchase it with perhaps FS2020 looming in the near future?? However if Externalsim works with it I might take the plunge?

John

[brian747]

Well I'm not especially interested in pretty scenery, so FS2020 is only a matter of vague interest for me. But I *am* interested in detailed airports, so for me everything depends on P3Dv5's backwards compatibility to my existing airport collection, which for P3Dv4 ranges from vanilla through to the latest PBR-equipped varieties.

Hence if (and only if) backward compatibility is available with P3Dv5 where airports are concerned, then I could be tempted by the potential performance improvements of DX12.... Well, once the dust from the ensuing round of add-on updates has finally settled, that is.

So I await the reports of the P3Dv5 pioneers with interest and curiosity. (I'm also waiting to see what happens when the new Vulkan-ised X-Plane achieves a final release version, especially since X-P seems better at backwards compatibility where airports are concerned — so I'm waiting to hear about that, too). But then, with lockdowns still widely in place, so many things seem to be on hold — we're all waiting until some form of new normality starts to resume....

Happily, in the meantime, there's simming.     

Cheers,

Brian

[Martin Baker]

I'm holding off for now. Apart from the purchase of a new academic licence for v5, there is the question of add-on airports - I've bought 41 of these in the last 14 months, as it's the detailed airports that make the use of an external scenery generator most worthwhile. That adds up to a lot of money if I have to buy everything again.

I suppose this all serves as a reminder of what brilliant value PSX is!

M

[Steve Hose]

Hi guys,

I think you'll find that many payware airports built for v4 should be ok for v5. LM work really hard to maintain backwards compatibility. The major enhancements are the introduction of DX12, PBR and the new atmospheric/weather rendering fetaures while the decades-old underlying sim engine remains relatively unchanged.

No doubt many addons will require an update for v5 (ActiveSky for example) and developers will jump on the bus reasonably quickly.

One of the good things about airports is they can be installed/uninstalled with relative ease, so you can try and see how you go. You can't really break anything. If the scenery installer won't recognise v5 for some reason, then best wait for an update from the developer.

Anyway, I'm downloading v5 as we speak so will give it a go later tonight.

Will be interesting to see if ExternalSim works at all but I am sure Mark is looking at this as he has previously mentioned.

Cheers, Steve.

[brian747]

I think you'll find that many payware airports built for v4 should be ok for v5.

<sigh>  I was keeping my fingers crossed, I really was.

But then I came across Orbx's "known issues with P3Dv5" page [https://orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/190950-known-issues-with-prepar3d-v5/], which makes for interesting reading, especially the line that reads:

Because all default airports have been made new and thus buildings, structures, and objects shifted around, it's likely that any third-party add-on that doesn't include an airport-wide object exclusion will now display duplicate or overlapping objects.

<gulp> That doesn't sound exactly hopeful, to me. But hey, maybe I'm worrying unnecessarily. I'll let you guys do the pioneering stuff, and peep out from between my fingers occasionally to see how you're going on....     

Cheers,

Brian

[joergalv]

Will be interesting to see if ExternalSim works at all but I am sure Mark is looking at this as he has previously mentioned.

I can confirm that ExternalSim works right out of the box in P3D V5. 
- copied the ExternalSim AddOn folder from the V4 AddOn folder to the V5 AddOn folder
- copied Simconnect.xml from V4 to V5 (in ..Roaming..Lockheed...Prepar3d vX..)
- copied PSX_747 model from v4 Simobjects/Ariplanes to V5 Simobjects/Airiplanes.
(The updated HD-reworked 747 for P3dv4 causes v5 to crash (probably due the non-DX12 lighting effects)

Very Nice!

Joerg

[cagarini]

Joerg,

just out of curiosity,

1) do you notice any performance improvements ?

2) Can you check if there's, in the new airports, one with a slopped runway, and test how P3Dv5 + PSX goes with it? Does the ExternalSim 744 model aircraft still get elevated without any pitch change when going through the "bump" or does it adapt smoothly as with XView ?

[Martin Baker]

I can confirm that ExternalSim works right out of the box in P3D V5. 

Now that is VERY good news!!!

[Steve Hose]

I've just uploaded a test video using P3D v5 - final approach to EDDF.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm8EQ6h882Q

Sorry guys, on further inspection the video glitched out. As I don't have time right now to do a new one, a screen shot will have to suffice. Click to enlarge:



No real eye candy, just P3D v5 default scenery. Only addons are ExternalSim and Navigraph charts.

I enabled the new atmospheric model with volumetric clouds.

Frame rates are very good running both sims on one machine equipped with a 9900K and RTX2080 graphics card.

Regards, Steve.

[joergalv]

1) do you notice any performance improvements ?

The performance improvement is just incredible! I've been quite happy with the smoothness of P3Dv4 / ExternalSim already, but v5 is just another milestone. Also true for the visual quality, which is the 2nd game changer imho. (Apart from water, which looks very ugly/unrealistic from time to time)
FPS InSim set to unlimited, Vsync on, and i get butter smooth 60fps almost all the time. It sometimes drops to 30fps, but hardly noticable. (5760x1200, 980Ti w 6GB VRAM) Literally almost zero stutters or sim pause during scenery load.
( It's not apple to apple though. Missing fps killers like Heavy Weather from Active Sky. Only Orbx Global Base, OPEN_LC, LOWI ).

2) Can you check if there's, in the new airports, one with a slopped runway, and test how P3Dv5 + PSX goes with it? Does the ExternalSim 744 model aircraft still get elevated without any pitch change when going through the "bump" or does it adapt smoothly as with XView ?

sadly, it looks like LM did not implement sloped runways by default, but only made the feature available in the SDK, so that 3rd parties can utilize it when developing sceneries.

Regards,
Joerg

Random Screenshot near EDDF, cropped to fit 500kb limit, P3Dv5, ORBX_Trees HD, ORBX OpenLC_Europe, ORBX_Trees HD, with ExternelSim 60fps at that time.

[ahaka]

jcomm,

If you're going to try it, I would be curious to know if you are finally satisfied with the smoothness of everything. :-)

[cagarini]

@ahaka, et. al.

1st, thanks for your feedback on P3d v5 + PSX !  Looks cool !

nope, not going to spend in it right now.

It's always going to be problematic until I can upgrade my 2011 PC... There are no miracles...

Standalone PSX runs OK, with the necessary World Visuals limitations, but truth is, when landing, specially under tricky weather, there isn't ( for me ) still an alternative to PSX standalone.

OTOH I will save my money and sometimes frenetic / eccentric install / uninstall cycles for when MFS get's released.

[GodAtum]

Just installed it now with Orbx base, LC + England. Max graphics settings in 1080p. Get around 20 fps in London.

[JohnH]

As soon as I can see the P3D v5 SDK documentation, we'll know 

Hi Mark,

I also managed to get ExternalSim working with P3D v5. However P3D ExternalSim Router under Clients says No clients.

But running even smoother if that is possible!

Just for your info, John

[Martin Baker]

Hi Mark,

I also managed to get ExternalSim working with P3D v5. However P3D ExternalSim Router under Clients says No clients.

But running even smoother if that is possible!

Just for your info, John

So it works even though it looks like it doesn't? Hmm, this is getting more tempting...

Can you inject live weather yet?

M

[JohnH]

So it works even though it looks like it doesn't? Hmm, this is getting more tempting...

Can you inject live weather yet?

M
[/quote]

Hi Martin,

I use FSGRW and it does not work, but I saw a post on Avsim that someone was testing a beta of it with P3D v5 so a fix is in the works.

John