First Screenshots from Prepar3D V2

[Graham Eccleston]

Over the coming days you will no doubt see lots of comments and screenshots of the new flight simming platform from Lockheed Martin but I have to say, the one thing that has enthused me most is the way the shadows are now shown. The dynamic shadow system really does bring the visuals to life and take the view from a two dimensional image to a life like scene.

 

Here are a few screenshots showing what I mean. These were taken at our Cessnock, Aeropelican and Bathurst airports and show how the change in shadows adds to the mood of the scene. These shadows also fall on all relevant items and objects, including people, not just the ground.

 

Morning:

 

Aeropelican Morning:

 

Aeropelican Midday:

 

Aeropelican Afternoon:

 

Bathurst Morning:

 

Bathurst Midday:

 

Bathurst Afternoon:

 

Cessnock Morning:

 

Cessnock Midday:

 

Cessnock Afternoon:

 

Also note how people now not only receive shadows but cast their own.

 

 

 

 

You Guys are going to love this new sim. RIP FSX.

 

[briansommers]

I see you have a smokin computer too..I have a 3770k o/c 4.8 8GB DDR3 and GTX660 3GB

 

I hope I'll be able to run it ok

[Capnsully]

hahaha, even the people cast shadows!! Amazing. Tell me, does the terrain cast shadows on itself? Eg a larger hill shadow a lower hill?

 

Thanks for posting

[Sinamuab]

Will those airport sceneries which have burnt in shadows be redone without?

It would look really odd otherwise.

[Yardreamer]

Will those airport sceneries which have burnt in shadows be redone without?

It would look really odd otherwise.

Agreed there is a ton modified scenery in place now although this looks incredible.  It will require a total  rebuild of renovated scenery before the entire sim world will be as gorgeous as these screen shots. I see this defiantly next gen and will be on my next build.

 

Dreamer

 

PS... I notice these Sreen Shots are  basically bare bones other thank the FTX airport now. Would be nice to see full blown with environmental mods and full out weather and a performance benchmark   

[JimmiG]

Incredible! I have about a million questions I want to ask about every aspect of the new sim. Too bad there are still NDA's for a few more weeks.

 

I guess this means the end of "painted on" shadows in scenery and airport products. Finally, about 10 years after all other games stopped doing that. Such amazing progress for this hobby.

[FILOU]

Very good !!!

On video is ready on YouTube :

Prepar3D v2 beta-volumetric fog

[RTK1972]

good morning,

 

that is really going to be the release of the year )

 

Just one question:

 

will we see rain splashing on the cockpit windows like in real life ?

 

Thank you, Carsten

[JohnR]

Outstanding, what a life changer !

[MrMaestro]

 

Over the coming days you will no doubt see lots of comments and screenshots of the new flight simming platform from Lockheed Martin but I have to say, the one thing that has enthused me most is the way the shadows are now shown. The dynamic shadow system really does bring the visuals to life and take the view from a two dimensional image to a life like scene.

 

 

Thanks for the pics, Graham.

 

Can you tell me if autogen is lit properly in P3D V2? Specifically, as it currently stands, autogen that should be in shadow (eg. it's in the shadow of a mountain) is lit up regardless and it looks out of place. Does terrain properly shade autogen objects now?

[Argharg]

nice, a little question, is SLI supported? Etienne

[FriLa]

After all of the great improvements a small disillusion:

Each half of every 2-dimensional tree casts shadow on the other half of the tree. How can this be avoided (only with trees)?

Fritz

[Nyxx]

FPS hit with shadows on?

Looks fantastic.

[jaseman007]

Looks great. I notice the RIP FSX reference.

Will ORBX still be providing software for fsx?

Will P3D continue to be watermarked and free of usage restrictions?

[Mallard]

I think the "RIP FSX" comment is a bit rich... But I would very much be interested in an answer to Sinamuab's question.

 

Cheers

 

Mallard

[sightseer]

... Just one question:

 

will we see rain splashing on the cockpit windows like in real life ?

 

Thank you, Carsten

+1. I would really like to see VC Rain as a standard. That and the 'clouds whipping by' effect that you get when passing through cloud layers.

and also - great pics Graham. The Bathurst shots really show the shadows. I'd love to see some city shots (tall buildings).

One thing I am hoping for very much is the depth created by distance shadowing and haze. Everything close to you is bright and clear and saturated and the distance gets covered with bluish purple haziness. That's what I see anyway. How are water colors when looking straight down in the daytime? Are they dark and saturated or are they bright and washed out like they are in 1.4 (which is unrealistic to me)

[cassis87]

"RIP FSX".....umhh.. As long as PMDG does not support P3D, i don't see myself getting rid of my 737and 777....

[Alex Goff]

Will ORBX still be providing software for fsx?

 

Yes, installers will be the triple setup we are currently using so you can choose between FSX/P3D 1.4/P3D V2

[Graham Eccleston]

Apologies for the 'tongue in cheek' reference to 'RIP FSX'. That was purely a personal comment and I did not realise it would offend some. Of course Orbx will continue to support FSX as many will stay with that platform for some years to come.

 

The short answer on shadows is they are cast from everything and on to everthing in P3D V2, so yes, small buildings, tall buildings, mountains etc. There are 13 check boxes for shadows being cast and received plus a slider for shadow quality so there are plenty of options for the user to play with.

 

Of course burnt in shadows will need to be removed from existing scenery and the thought of the many, many man hours required to do that has our developers quite anxious.

 

There have been a few questions regarding performance and whether this graphics card or that system will be ok. The simple answer is P3D V2 is much better in all respects to FSX and P3D V1.4 and you will see this improvement regardless of your hardware. As with everything, your individual settings and base computer platform and setup will dictate how it works for you. I can say though that NVidia Inspector seems to be no longer required as everything works fine directly from the sim settings.   

[cabnz]

Wow - I'm really looking forward to this

[jordancollins]

Apologies for the 'tongue in cheek' reference to 'RIP FSX'. That was purely a personal comment and I did not realise it would offend some. Of course Orbx will continue to support FSX as many will stay with that platform for some years to come.

 

The short answer on shadows is they are cast from everything and on to everthing in P3D V2, so yes, small buildings, tall buildings, mountains etc. There are 13 check boxes for shadows being cast and received plus a slider for shadow quality so there are plenty of options for the user to play with.

 

Of course burnt in shadows will need to be removed from existing scenery and the thought of the many, many man hours required to do that has our developers quite anxious.

 

There have been a few questions regarding performance and whether this graphics card or that system will be ok. The simple answer is P3D V2 is much better in all respects to FSX and P3D V1.4 and you will see this improvement regardless of your hardware. As with everything, your individual settings and base computer platform and setup will dictate how it works for you. I can say though that NVidia Inspector seems to be no longer required as everything works fine directly from the sim settings.   

 

 

Good! I don't care much for eye-candy, I'm a tubeliner simmer and I only care that my performance is good with Global and UTX.

[wolfko]

Post Removed by the auther, because my point was clarified by Graham's last post.

 

and another edit: I assume "Cloude Shadows" is not amongst the 13 check options?

 

Cheers, Wolfgang

 

PS: And, of course, thanks a lot for posting these screenies Graham!  

[Mallard]

Thanks a lot for the information on the looming reworking of the airports. That really sounds like an almost daunting task... I only hope that won't take away too many resources for forthcoming developments

 

Cheers

 

Mallarr

[Ken Hall]

Will those airport sceneries which have burnt in shadows be redone without?

It would look really odd otherwise.

I guess that will be left up to each individual developer, however there is a control panel within the sim so it would be possible to turn of whatever shadows you want very easily , i guess we never saw this shadow thing comming and the guys were trying to create as lifelike a scene as possible.

considering it could take some effort on some airports to convert it is unlikely that it will be done by the release date of end of this month.

So you can still fly with autogen trees and buildings casting shadows and turn off the simobjects shadows for the affected strips. Ive flown to a few strips and it hasnt really bothered me i just had a few more shadows than normal but the option is there

cheers

[Ken Hall]

+1. I would really like to see VC Rain as a standard. That and the 'clouds whipping by' effect that you get when passing through cloud layers.

and also - great pics Graham. The Bathurst shots really show the shadows. I'd love to see some city shots (tall buildings).

One thing I am hoping for very much is the depth created by distance shadowing and haze. Everything close to you is bright and clear and saturated and the distance gets covered with bluish purple haziness. That's what I see anyway. How are water colors when looking straight down in the daytime? Are they dark and saturated or are they bright and washed out like they are in 1.4 (which is unrealistic to me)

I can vouch for the haze and the tall building shadows, I posted a few more shots that show  a bit more, no raindrop effect though, I believe that would have to be done by the aircraft developer as it would involve animations and textures for there cockpit textures

[macca22au]

To Cassis and others I fly the 737NGX in v1.4 no problems.  However I would point out the iFly 737NGX is pretty darn good as well, so the world is not limited to one publisher.  Certainly not in my case.  I don't have enough hours to enjoy the several hangar's full of aircraft that I have.

 

It is sad to miss out on the T777, but I get good consolation from the Blackbox Sim A330, which has a lot of updates in the pipeline.  (Their A318-320 mixes and matches well with Aerosoft Airbus X.)

[NoLonger]

Of course burnt in shadows will need to be removed from existing scenery and the thought of the many, many man hours required to do that has our developers quite anxious.

 

Ah, I was already wondering about this. Is this something that's really going to happen?

[sightseer]

I can live with shadows burnt into the textures. The amount of work it would take to remove all the shadows from all the textures is a scary thought. I'd rather have new things to look at than older things being perfected.(to a point) -- the new night lighting is much appreciated.