P3Dv4 PTAtoV4 Port Angeles 4K

[John Venema]

I'm very happy someone reverse engineered PTA2 for P3Dv4 and it works very well using my presets.

 

Here's a shot over Port Angeles, all sliders maxxed, TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10 and with Ant's Tecnam (free demo).

 

 

Click image for full 4K size

 

Link to PTAforV4 - https://www.reddit.com/r/flightsim/comments/6f3mum/ptaimporter_for_prepar3d_v4/

 

Also note that in VR mode HDR and PTA works fine and all cockpit button and controls are clickable. Happy days!

[Mark Abdey]

Hi John... I used it my last shots post, and it seems to work quite well. In fact your looks better than mine in terms of overall balance; more natural.

 

I see someone has bought the source code to PTA and will be releasing it as Payware (cheap they say) for P3Dv4 very soon, with added features... but for now this will do nicely.

[Bermuda425]

Stunning POV shot!

[Iain Emms]

Cracking shot JV.

cheers

Iain

[FireRx]

H

Hey if you guys have a weather engine install and have over 20knt winds, fly low over a large body of water.  The view is impressive.   Water gets all choppy 

[FILOU]

1 hour ago, John Venema said:

I'm very happy someone reverse engineered PTA2 for P3Dv4 and it works very well using my presets.

 

Here's a shot over Port Angeles, all sliders maxxed, TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10 and with Ant's Tecnam (free demo).

 

 

Click image for full 4K size

 

Link to PTAforV4 - https://www.reddit.com/r/flightsim/comments/6f3mum/ptaimporter_for_prepar3d_v4/

 

Also note that in VR mode HDR and PTA works fine and all cockpit button and controls are clickable. Happy days!

Very nice shot John!

Can you please explain to me about:

TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10

[Jack Sawyer]

That's great Mr. JV, I know someone who will be happy!  I'm curious about what FILOU asked too.  And you shot looks terrific!

[Mark Abdey]

54 minutes ago, FILOU said:

Can you please explain to me about:

 

It's a cfg addition you can add to extend the range of higher resolution terrain tiles loaded by the sim... basically extending the LOD.  You can add the line to the [Terrain] section of your cfg... the default is 8 I believe and I have read 10 effectively gives you four times greater LOD, at the expense of VRAM and load times.  One for fairly high end PC's maybe.

[FILOU]

3 minutes ago, Mark Abdey said:

 

It's a cfg addition you can add to extend the range of higher resolution terrain tiles loaded by the sim... basically extending the LOD.  You can add the line to the [Terrain] section of your cfg... the default is 8 I believe and I have read 10 effectively gives you four times greater LOD, at the expense of VRAM and load times.  One for fairly high end PC's maybe.

I understand thanks a lot for the information Mark!.I'm going to try...

[Jack Sawyer]

8 minutes ago, Mark Abdey said:

 

It's a cfg addition you can add to extend the range of higher resolution terrain tiles loaded by the sim... basically extending the LOD.  You can add the line to the [Terrain] section of your cfg... the default is 8 I believe and I have read 10 effectively gives you four times greater LOD, at the expense of VRAM and load times.  One for fairly high end PC's maybe.

Thanks Mark, all I can say is holy cow, I need new hardware!  I hope Mr. JV posts some more shots.

[FILOU]

25 minutes ago, Jack Sawyer said:

Thanks Mark, all I can say is holy cow, I need new hardware!  I hope Mr. JV posts some more shots.

Yes Jack! I would especially like to see a comparison

[Jiri Kocman]

For me value of 10 introduce some extra stuttering, so i just go to 9, maybe placebo but what is blurries?

[John Venema]

In your p3d cfg file add TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP= just below the [TERRAIN] section.

 

[TERRAIN]

TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8 (256 - default)

TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=9 (512)  (I think this value is now ignored, only 8 and 10 seem to work)

TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10 (1024)

 

Here are comparison shots I made during the beta over PNW using LC textures. You can notice the crisper motorways, mountain definitions in the distance etc. If you flick between these two screenshots, pay attention to the details of the ground textures and how much smoother and crisper the motorways look with EXP=10. Also notice how much further away the textures remain clearly visible.

- Clearer roadways

- Clearer treed areas

- Clearer urban areas

- Much better appearance inside VR headsets

 

TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8

 

 

TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10

 

Downsides?

 

1. Much longer loading times

2. Some performance loss

3. Uses lots of VRAM (I have a 12GB TitanX, so it's not an issue)

 

 

And some more shots around Port Angles I took just now, just take a look at the clarity of everything and the lovely atmospheric haze:

 

 

 

 

 

[Jack Sawyer]

I'm almost speechless.  I flicked back and forth between them a dozen times John and am amazed.  Nice horsepower you got going!  And the second to last one is amazing, it's crystal clear.

[John Venema]

Another one, love the texture details.

 

 

[FSRobert]

I have been flying with it set to 10 and its amazing indeed. For me it take longer to load up the sim, anybody else notice this?

 

At this point I am wondering what the new PTA will do to make it look better,I mean my sim is screaming with the best graphics I ´ve on my PC in my FSLife. I did download the new PTA program but holding off using it...just do not want to hurt what I have.

 

Guess now I need to take a few hour flight and see how my VAS is handling it. 

 

 

[Mark Abdey]

36 minutes ago, John Venema said:

Another one, love the texture details.

 

Bloody amazing cap John 

 

[FILOU]

Thank a lot John!Lovely details definitely!

[FILOU]

2 hours ago, John Venema said:

In your p3d cfg file add TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP= just below the [TERRAIN] section.

 

[TERRAIN]

TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8 (256 - default)

TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=9 (512)  (I think this value is now ignored, only 8 and 10 seem to work)

TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10 (1024)

 

Here are comparison shots I made during the beta over PNW using LC textures. You can notice the crisper motorways, mountain definitions in the distance etc. If you flick between these two screenshots, pay attention to the details of the ground textures and how much smoother and crisper the motorways look with EXP=10. Also notice how much further away the textures remain clearly visible.

- Clearer roadways

- Clearer treed areas

- Clearer urban areas

- Much better appearance inside VR headsets

 

TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=8

 

 

TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10

 

Downsides?

 

1. Much longer loading times

2. Some performance loss

3. Uses lots of VRAM (I have a 12GB TitanX, so it's not an issue)

 

 

And some more shots around Port Angles I took just now, just take a look at the clarity of everything and the lovely atmospheric haze:

 

 

 

 

 

The first shot is amazing!!!

[pmb]

While I will stay on a monitor + hardware panel combo for now, I have to agree: Prepar3d4, notably with the setting above, is totally blowing me away. Here is a shot from Auckland / NZNI

 

 

I simply can't believe this is the scenery I have been using for years now, it certainly got an upgrade in value by 50 % using Prepar3d4. And I am just rediscovering areas over areas.

 

Well done, ORBX, with the continuous support for Prepar3d.

 

Kind regards, Michael

 

 

[Jack Sawyer]

4 hours ago, John Venema said:

Another one, love the texture details.

This mind blowing Mr. JV!  

[Mike707]

12 hours ago, John Venema said:

Another one, love the texture details.

 

 

Great pics John. Question for you. Is there a possibility that Orbx will create general ground textures at 50cm/pixel? Not just for specialty areas such as airports or photoreal? I could see that something like that might be stunning with the new headroom that 64-bit allows.  

[Mark Abdey]

I tried the extended terrain setting on my PC and for me it's not really possible due to memory limitations... I did take a couple of shots with a high zoom level that really shows how much sharpens the mid to distant terrain textures. I look forward to using it sometime in the future.

 

Default EXP=8

EXP=10

[Pete H]

Jesus, is that a sim or a real photo?!

[John Venema]

4 hours ago, Mike707 said:

Great pics John. Question for you. Is there a possibility that Orbx will create general ground textures at 50cm/pixel? Not just for specialty areas such as airports or photoreal? I could see that something like that might be stunning with the new headroom that 64-bit allows.  

 

I don't see the advantage of going 50cm because it will chew through VRAM like a monster, increase loading times and generally tax any system for perhaps not a lot of gain. Yes, you will get better clarity in the textures but that is what EXP=10 is giving you now, four times the clarity that we were previously used to for the last decade.

 

Now that we have 64-bit and all its headroom, the LAST thing you want scenery and airport developers to do is to get lazy and start gobbling up all your VRAM and bring us back into the dark ages again.

 

I'd much rather use the extra memory for innovation with autogen, building and tree density and the ability to run external DLL systems to make the sim a richer experience.

 

If I begin to see new airports bragging about  8K textures I will just laugh and assume the developers have a small, er... appendage?

[bvdboomen]

13 minutes ago, John Venema said:

Now that we have 64-bit and all its headroom, the LAST thing you want scenery and airport developers to do is to get lazy and start gobbling up all your VRAM and bring us back into the dark ages again.

Amen to that!

[tangjuice81]

4 hours ago, Mark Abdey said:

I tried the extended terrain setting on my PC and for me it's not really possible due to memory limitations... I did take a couple of shots with a high zoom level that really shows how much sharpens the mid to distant terrain textures. I look forward to using it sometime in the future.

 

Default EXP=8

EXP=10

A very notable difference. Awesome! Thanks JV!

[fly37]

Thanks ... lot appreciate!

[Mike707]

3 hours ago, John Venema said:

 

I don't see the advantage of going 50cm because it will chew through VRAM like a monster, increase loading times and generally tax any system for perhaps not a lot of gain. Yes, you will get better clarity in the textures but that is what EXP=10 is giving you now, four times the clarity that we were previously used to for the last decade.

 

Now that we have 64-bit and all its headroom, the LAST thing you want scenery and airport developers to do is to get lazy and start gobbling up all your VRAM and bring us back into the dark ages again.

 

I'd much rather use the extra memory for innovation with autogen, building and tree density and the ability to run external DLL systems to make the sim a richer experience.

 

If I begin to see new airports bragging about  8K textures I will just laugh and assume the developers have a small, er... appendage?

Thanks for the explanation that EXP10 gives us that clarity and in essence provides 50cm/pixel visuals. I tried it on my system, but it was not up to the task and black-screened on me, so I need to upgrade a bit. Out of curiosity, if one had the desire to set their computer on fire, could an EXP value of 11 or 12 be used? Just considering the future with that one.

 

By the way, I very much like what you say about utilizing the extra memory headroom for autogen innovation. Could that possibly mean a greater variety of autogen building/house shapes (more than simple cubes), as well as more variety of textures placed on them. In line with that could we see much more variety in trees within a scene as to reduce the uniformity of vegetation? Or could we possibly see roads and overpasses that look more true to life?

[John Venema]

2 hours ago, Mike707 said:

By the way, I very much like what you say about utilizing the extra memory headroom for autogen innovation. Could that possibly mean a greater variety of autogen building/house shapes (more than simple cubes), as well as more variety of textures placed on them. In line with that could we see much more variety in trees within a scene as to reduce the uniformity of vegetation? Or could we possibly see roads and overpasses that look more true to life?

 

All of the above.

[adambar]

That is a beauty John!

[Mike707]

On 6/5/2017 at 2:33 PM, John Venema said:

 

All of the above.

Great to hear that! I am sure you and your team have lots of ideas in mind and I am looking forward to seeing how those ideas will advance the state of the art with flight simulation. 

[walterg74]

On ‎6‎/‎4‎/‎2017 at 8:39 AM, John Venema said:

I'm very happy someone reverse engineered PTA2 for P3Dv4 and it works very well using my presets.

 

Here's a shot over Port Angeles, all sliders maxxed, TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=10 and with Ant's Tecnam (free demo).

 

 

Click image for full 4K size

 

Link to PTAforV4 - https://www.reddit.com/r/flightsim/comments/6f3mum/ptaimporter_for_prepar3d_v4/

 

Also note that in VR mode HDR and PTA works fine and all cockpit button and controls are clickable. Happy days!

 

Hi John, is this the "normal" Ant Tecnam that very inexpensive? Is it nice?  Has it been updated to v4 or did you have to install it manually..? 

 

Thanks.

 

[aero-3fsx]

I have the Ants Ultralight and contacted the developer who said all their planes were compatible as is except for some animations that simple won't work in v4

I installed with standard installer and it worked wonderfully

Apparently the same goes for all their aircraft

[Airlifter]

The link to download the file seems to be dead (Dropbox reporting file not found).

Anyone able to pm me the file John uses?

Thanks in advance.

[Neptune6]

Hi guys ! after experiencing J.V.

 

my PTA

my first setting PTA for P3DV4 with ORBX installed the clouds are default ,   REX4 texture in futur .

I'm at Mount Olympus USA, i test some MTO   ORBX thème weather

 

Patrick

[Bassman]

Really interested in FirefX screenie. Water effects has IMHO been the long forgotten poor cousin in scenery development. Will 64bit programming facilitate more realistic water conditions under varying weather?

[Taph]

Great shos from all, and the information on what is achievable

[Neptune6]

Hi as JV i take my preset PTA from P3Dv3 . to PTAv4

 

for me "TEXTURES_Size =10 " kill my FPS and i can't use this tweak , i try 9 but no difference as 8 .

i untick this tweak in my .cfg v4

 

My spec:

Asus Crosshair V Formula Z - CPU AMD FX 9590 4.7 / 5,17ghz, non OC - ventirad NHD14  Noctua - Gygabite GTX980 G1 TI - PSU Corsair ATX1200 - 8giga MEM2400Mhz - 6 SSD 850 pro, + DD externe 2 tera - 3 screen 24"... -  P3Dv3 & v4 - Antec NineHundred II .

 

[Mike707]

On ‎6‎/‎4‎/‎2017 at 6:39 AM, John Venema said:

I'm very happy someone reverse engineered PTA2 for P3Dv4 and it works very well using my presets.

 

I just got PTA for v4 from simtweaks.com and was hoping you could share your presets. Please.