My first day with P3D

[Paul K]

Installed it yesterday, and collected my prescription for valium in readiness to start migrating all my scenery over from FSX. My biggest concern was FTX Australia, FTX Pacific North West and FTX Pacific Fjords, as these are the most complex scenery add-ons I have.

I need not have worried. Using Orbx's free migration tool, the whole process took but a few minutes. And so, in one fell swoop, P3D has become my sim of choice. And the frame rates! Okay, I have a fairly beefy system, and not all the sliders are to the right ( they are set in accordance with Orbx' P3D instructions in fact ) but there wasn't a stutter...not even a tiny one. FSX could not do what P3D is doing here.

A few screenies from Down Under, flying the default Maule:




Downtown Melbourne off to the far right;-






The teeming suburbs. You can smell the barbie smoke even up here;-






Heading towards the mountains;-






Closer still;-






Into the red heart of Oz, and Orbx's YBAS Alice Springs add on, which gives you the airport and the town;-






All of this and smooth as silk too. There are a lot of add-ons still to go, and they will have to be done by hand ( groan ), but P3D has proven already that the effort will be worthwhile. It still has those bloody awful blue tin-foil water textures but no doubt they can be replaced. Well done to Orbx for the fantastic migration tool, and roll on their FTX England.

[TSR2]

It is rather good isn't it Paul. Well done!

The word on the street is that version 1.4 is just arround the corner, so there may be a few improvements in that, but in the meantime, get yourself REX Essentials and your tin foil water will go away

[Paul K]

It is rather good isn't it Paul. Well done!

The word on the street is that version 1.4 is just around the corner, so there may be a few improvements in that, but in the meantime, get yourself REX Essentials and your tin foil water will go away

Ben, it is more than rather good; I can't believe how slick it is. Even P3D's 20 fps seems smoother than FSX's 20fps...if that makes sense. There are no microstutters. I have REX Essentials, and that is the next add-on to transfer across. And thanks for the 1.4 heads up. I wonder what that will bring.

[TSR2]

I dont believe 1.4 will be massively different, but there is talk about improvements to the UI etc. You wont be disapointed with REX

[speedbird591]

And so, in one fell swoop, P3D has become my sim of choice.

And so, in two fell swoops, P3D has become MY sim of choice

Wow! Stunning, Paul

Thanks for being the guinea pig. I'd just like to say that I totally supported you and had no doubt that your plan would work So that's it, then. No more FS decisions for me for a while. I'm going exclusively P3D, REX and FTX

First thing is to go and click that BUY button for the new laptop

Thank you Paul and Ben.

Ian

[TSR2]

Paul,

Question with regards FTX. Is it as though someone has taken a photograph of an area and then used that to recreate the area without using the photograph? Almost as though they've hand drawn it to marry up with what the aerial image would be like? It does look stunning, but I don't understand what it is

[Paul K]

Ian, P3D certainly looks good for your new laptop...in any case, it will run better than FSX. And as you said in your PM, this sort of scenery does favour lower level flying compared to tubeliners. e.g GA, warbirds such as the A2A Fortress, helicopters etc. Of course, when you are at high altitude, it still looks great !

Ben,
I know Orbx does use aerial photos because I remember John Venema saying that he had secured the rights for such data in preparation for FTX England. As fas as I can tell, they lay the photo on the mesh, then landclass it with their own custom-made textures to match the photo underneath as near as possible. Then they whip the photo away like a table cloth, leaving all the texture tiles where they are, so to speak. Their own regularly-updated library of autogen objects makes up the 3D details. I might be using all the wrong terminology here, but I think thats the gist of it.

Tongass Fjords is next on the 'scenery transfer to do' list. I bet Holger's got all the instructions needed at his website.

[TSR2]

That makes sense to me paul, thanks I might give it a go sometime when I have some spare pennies, its just very distant from europe at the moment. Fingers cross UK wont be too far away

[speedbird591]

Try one or both of their free demo areas, Ben. That's what sold me!

http://fullterrain.com/

And in other news ... I did it. I've ordered the laptop

Ian

[Paul K]

Yes, the Tasmania free demo is good because you never fly out of FTX scenery into default scenery, unless you cross the Bass Strait. The same is true for Australia as a whole if you buy that - again, its surrounded by water and so you never see a join with default scenery.

Australia is very good because at low level you have good GA visuals, but its such a huge place that you can do some of the more long distance high altitude stuff too, e.g. Brisbane to Perth, or Darwin down to Hobart. Not only that but OzX , the forerunner of ( and not to be confused with ) Orbx, has a mass of small airfields and dirt strips that blend in perfectly with FTX Australia. So,its got everything - you can tour in Dave G's Auster, or you can do a run across the continent in, say, Dave M's Comet or VC-10. Its all just great stuff.