Godzone Scenery in P3DV5

[Dash8captain]

Hi Rob I know you have just had a family greivance recetly and Im really sorry to hear mate

However just wondering what your take on the new v5 from P3D is? will you be updating your secenry?

[toprob]

Cheers, cap...

I'll certainly look at this, barring real issues I don't see why the current products can't be updated. If they continue with the monthly subscription then things will be easy, as it isn't an expensive long term investment. I do already pay two monthly subscriptions though, as I use v3 for a lot of scenery placement etc, and 'fly' in v4.

However down the track I'm not too sure that I'll be supporting Prepar3d, v5 looks ok, but I do think it's too little, too late. I love what I've seen so far of Microsoft FS, and at the moment it makes sense that I consider going back to the old days -- one sim for all:) That's just my personal opinion at the moment, given that I have always loved and promoted photoscenery, which now forms the base of MFS. Yes, I'm 97.5% sure that there will be a place for scenery addons such as airports and POIs, so I'd be happy to forego further photoscenery development and just work on these.

[Dash8captain]

Cheers, cap...

I'll certainly look at this, barring real issues I don't see why the current products can't be updated. If they continue with the monthly subscription then things will be easy, as it isn't an expensive long term investment. I do already pay two monthly subscriptions though, as I use v3 for a lot of scenery placement etc, and 'fly' in v4.

However down the track I'm not too sure that I'll be supporting Prepar3d, v5 looks ok, but I do think it's too little, too late. I love what I've seen so far of Microsoft FS, and at the moment it makes sense that I consider going back to the old days -- one sim for all:) That's just my personal opinion at the moment, given that I have always loved and promoted photoscenery, which now forms the base of MFS. Yes, I'm 97.5% sure that there will be a place for scenery addons such as airports and POIs, so I'd be happy to forego further photoscenery development and just work on these.

Thanks Rob fully understand where your coming from here only reason Im heading to v5 is cos im building a new pc and obviously want something between now and until MFS comes out and obviously MFS wont have every aircraft/ airport in the detail I want

[toprob]

Hmm, I might leave it till next week, as their site is a little busy...

[Scupper]

I’m using P3D5 and loving it. I haven’t uninstalled V4.5 because no complex planes are available in V5 yet, but I haven’t been inclined to go back to V4 at all. I’m putzing around in my Piper Arrow admiring the gorgeous scenery and all my addon airports.

I have a pretty fast system and find frame rates in V5 much higher than V4. I can even fly over London (Orbx TrueEarth GB South) with all the sliders up high and it’s silky smooth (it was a slide-show in V4) and stunningly realistic with their new beta atmospheric effects. Multi-core usage seems very good to me but it all has to do with the new DX12 as well (somehow…). P3D say they are committed to developing the platform indefinitely into the future and I think there will be plenty of people who are happier with that model than paying a subscription every month for MS2020, particularly when they’ve invested heavily in it over the years (as I have). That’s especially true if they can sort out proper 3D clouds. When effects like REX Environment Force, Active Sky, AI-AIG (traffic) and TomatoShade are available in V5, which should be soon, I think it will be pretty hard to beat, at least initially while developers play catch-up with MS.

Most airport developers are producing updated versions pretty quickly so I really hope Godzone will follow. Flightbeam and FlyTampa have finished, UK2000 are releasing them daily, although they seem to have run into a problem with transparent glass. Some V5 trees at airports look a bit weird but a hotfix is due this week that hopefully will address that (and the small bug that causes planes to drop out of the sky ).

[toprob]

Cheers, Scupper, good to hear how it is working out for you. I did in fact buy v5, but my system isn't really coping well. I will certainly offer a new installer for v5, but at the moment there are still a few issues to overcome. For example, my flattens no longer seem to align with the underlying aerial image, this is not normally an issue except at NZCH, which uses some custom flattens for underground facilities etc. It would be a shame to have to redo these, so I too am hoping for a fix at some point...

As a developer, I do use the developer's subscription for Prepar3d, so this brings it up to 3 versions at the moment. It would be good to cut this down at some point, but there are good reasons for using v3 and v4, and at the moment v5 is needed for evaluation plus the work to make my scenery compatible. I may not actually fly in v5 until I get a new PC, hopefully within the next 12 months.

Speaking of subscriptions, I'm surprised at your mention of the MS subscription -- my understanding is that there is no subscription required for the new sim. I have mentioned in other threads that I'm a big supporter of the new MS sim, and from the recent system requirements announcement it does look like it will be a better choice for people like me, with less powerful systems!

[Scupper]

I could be wrong about the subscription,- that's just the impression I have from what I've read. My understanding is that you download the whole thing as you play it somehow, and you don't really own it in the traditional sense. We'll just have to wait a bit longer and see...

[toprob]

My understanding is that you download the whole thing as you play it somehow, and you don't really own it in the traditional sense.

Ah, ok. I do think that it is closer to a traditional game, in that you can buy it, install it and use it forever, but the scenery is streamed for best results. You can use it without streaming any data, but you won't get photoscenery, just the equivalent of today's landclass texture system.
I think that the confusion over subscriptions arose because MFS will also be part of Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, which is a monthly subscription service which includes access to a number of games, including MFS, but Microsoft have stated that you can purchase the game on its own, without subscription, if you like. It may turn out that this business model needs to be tweaked, as it seems an expensive job to stream scenery for everyone, for a one-off price. We'll certainly see once the sim is released.

[Dash8captain]

Hi Rob just wondering if you have any ideas when your sceneries might be available for p3dv5?

[toprob]

As always, if I give a goal date I invariably go over, so I'll restate the old 'Godzone' rule -- every time someone asks for a finish date, I extend it by a month:) Starting now....
There are still some issues which are annoying me, first are the custom trees which have worked well in v4, but don't display well in v5. Once I get that sorted, I'll have a better idea.

[Aharon]

I'll restate the old 'Godzone' rule -- every time someone asks for a finish date, I extend it by a month:) Starting now....

Good thing I keep my mouth shut

Regards,

Aharon

[Dash8captain]

As always, if I give a goal date I invariably go over, so I'll restate the old 'Godzone' rule -- every time someone asks for a finish date, I extend it by a month:) Starting now....
There are still some issues which are annoying me, first are the custom trees which have worked well in v4, but don't display well in v5. Once I get that sorted, I'll have a better idea.

Apologies Rob to be honest I either forgot or didn't know that rule

[toprob]

Well, it's more of a long-standing attempt at humour than a long-standing rule...
Normally someone pipes up "Is it ready, yet!? How about now!!?? Or now!???"
...and I just relax with an extra three months to come up with a release:)

[Dash8captain]

Well, it's more of a long-standing attempt at humour than a long-standing rule...
Normally someone pipes up "Is it ready, yet!? How about now!!?? Or now!???"
...and I just relax with an extra three months to come up with a release:)

Understood ill leave you to it

[toprob]

Today I've installed the v5 'HF', and I was hoping for a slight improvement in the tree alphas, but no such luck. So I'm going through all the material properties looking for the culprit, so far I've rules out a lot of things... The problem isn't really with any particular trees, it's just how they interact with trees in the background, and the sky beyond. Basically, they all get a 'fringe' when there's any other alpha-type textures behind them, even clouds. This has always been an issue, but never as pronounced as with v5.
If I don't stumble on the answer (my usual method of problem solving) I might have to ask for help on FSDeveloper!

[NZ255]

That seems to be prominent in all the videos I've seen.

I'm making an educated guess here but I think it's a 'feature'. Maybe they don't anti-alias the clouds/sky/environment because it's a waste of performance. This was something the sim community was asking for prior to this. They theorised overcast clouds gave such bad performance because all clouds were getting full AA applied to them.

So I don't think it's you, Rob.

[Scupper]

It's a 'known issue' as far as OrbX are concerned. Their Ed Correia addressed it in mid April along with some others relating to P3D5:

"Below are some of the issues that we have noticed whilst in the beta process of P3Dv5. Some of these issues appear globally and are not related to any particular product:

Pixelated edges around trees and buildings, against clouds or background terrain, when Enhanced Atmospherics is active (note that LM note this feature as "Beta" and therefore still being improved upon)
Hardened platforms on custom bridges don't seem to work meaning road traffic drops to the ground/water level instead. Extrusion bridge platforms work OK.
The default road vector system is missing many tunnels and thus, outside of our regions, one will see roads crossing mountains.
The visual effects system has been changed and thus some dynamic effects (smoke, spray, lighting, etc.) may be oversized or display odd colors or have transparency issues.
[REGIONS + SOME AIRPORTS] 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.
Airports that have had their ICAOs changed in the v5 database will need to be adjusted by us accordingly (in the Regions, in the Global Pack, as well as stand-alone airports), otherwise there will be two airports displayed in the same locations. There's no official change list from LM so it'll take us a bit to find and fix them all.
Not a bug but rather a design choice: LM no longer includes artificial smoothed areas in their terrain mesh files around airport flattens. This was done to allow for the implementation of sloped runways (though there are only a few in the default v5). However, this also means that many default airports (outside our Regions) will now have noticeable edges around their perimeters, similar to the effect when installing third-party terrain mesh files. Within our FTX Regions, our enhanced airports will continue to be properly blended."

[toprob]

Thanks for that, Scupper. I'm beginning to think that there isn't a lot I can do about the trees, hopefully LM will tweak this at some stage. However this is very pronounced at Taieri, with the willows on the riverbank and the eucalyptus behind them -- the combination of these two tree types and sky is really bad.

Yesterday I uninstalled Orbx NZSI from Prepar3d v5, just to further test compatibility -- a lot of issues have shown up, mainly to do with default object placement. I can fix that, though.

I'm getting to like v5, after some tweaking. I think they are finally getting there, more realistic clouds/weather depiction really helps with immersion.

[Scupper]

Hotfix 2 is due out this week so hopefully that will allow developers to go ahead with a bit more confidence. FlightsimLabs (A320), Majestic (Q400) and REX (SkyForce) seem to be holding back until it's out.

I'm looking forward to being able to fly around NZ again but wouldn't dream of asking when Godzone scenery will be compatible, which would be rude . I think when Flightbeam release NZAA there'll be a new ripple of interest in NZ for simmers.

[deeknow]

Yeah I'm also hoping REX release an update, have SkyForce running in v3 but am switching most of my simming to v5 in my new rig and no weather system I can see other than the Beta release of ActiveSky, don't really wanna pay for/run two separate weather systems.

(PS - I'm also not asking about Godzone for the record )