New Features and Functionalities with V2

[Lionheart]

Hey all,


This is a thread concerning all the new features of V2.


[SCENERY PRELOAD MEMORY FLASH DELAY DURING BOOTUP]

Here is one concerning performance and how V2 runs scenery. When you first start up the sim, you will have slow frame rates. This will last between 5 and 15 seconds, depending how fast your motherboard and HD and GC run. What is happening is your scenery is flashing to the graphics card VRam. It takes a short while until its done, then your frame rates should pop (not jump but pop instantly) up to 30 to 36 FPS, (depending also on your FPS limit setting, all your V2 system settings, etc, etc). So be warned, your first moment in V2 will be slow. Allow it to load everything into your system.

Booting up will be much faster. With SSD's, its lightning fast. I count exactly 10 seconds for zero to 'idling on the runway'. That's one-thousand-and-one, one-thousand-and-two, etc. But VRam/Scenery will be loading 'after' you show up on the runway.


[OPTIONAL: BOOTUP MENU SCREEN OR FLIGHT READY MODE]

V2 now has a Bootup screen called Scenario Setup. It is also optional, as many also liked booting directly into a flight, so you can go to the setup screen, click the 'start up in scenario setup' ticker and when you boot up next time, you are in the menu screen. Its just as easy to access this from the main flight mode menu as well. The new Menu screen will have all your basic setup selections such as airport, aircraft, etc.


[FOG]

You can now setup fog in your weather custom settings. It has to be seen to believed. It is first rate.....

 

[Lionheart]

Lighting adjustments

[LIGHTING CONTROL PANEL AND SETTINGS]

This is a screenshot of the V2-B4 (last Beta) 'Lighting Controls' panel in the main Settings center in V2. This will probably be changed slightly on Monday on the production version of V2.

This shows you can turn on HDR setting with a tick, and the new Shading slider. Shading is a very huge endeavor with V2. The system is heavy duty and can work on everything or you can adjust it to only work on a few things to speed up frame rates. It can be tricky for the sim engine to manage the shading types (ground shading, autogen shading, interior shading) as well as receiving and casting shadows. So many aspects to it, so you can 'fine tune' shading now with the slider for shadow quality level (super nice to notchy), and you can select what gets the shadows.

The cockpit is where its best used, so you want that to have it especially. Aircraft outside shadow is also needed, but up to you on quality.

I found on my rig that HDR almost seemed to run faster then regular. I don't know why or how they pulled that off, so I left HDR on. HDR is like a realism that makes bright things (in the sun) brighter, and shadow area's darker. If you do not know, this is how the human eye sees things in real sunlight conditions. Shadows can be very dark, while lit up area's are bright, so HDR mimmicks this and does a very nice job of it.

AA will also run smoother. Again, I don't know how they pulled this off either, but AA can now run fairly good and doesn't take a huge hit like FSX and V1 did. (For me, anyways... ).

 

[UnknownGuest12]

Thanks...this is really enlightining...

Going to check next monday...

 

[VCN-1]

Some additional information from LM

Scroll down.

http://www.prepar3d.com/product-overview/

VCN-1

 

[wallydog]

[LIGHTING CONTROL PANEL AND SETTINGS]

This is a screenshot of the V2-B4 (last Beta) 'Lighting Controls' panel in the main Settings center in V2. This will probably be changed slightly on Monday on the production version of V2.

This shows you can turn on HDR setting with a tick, and the new Shading slider. Shading is a very huge endeavor with V2. The system is heavy duty and can work on everything or you can adjust it to only work on a few things to speed up frame rates. It can be tricky for the sim engine to manage the shading types (ground shading, autogen shading, interior shading) as well as receiving and casting shadows. So many aspects to it, so you can 'fine tune' shading now with the slider for shadow quality level (super nice to notchy), and you can select what gets the shadows.

The cockpit is where its best used, so you want that to have it especially. Aircraft outside shadow is also needed, but up to you on quality.

I found on my rig that HDR almost seemed to run faster then regular. I don't know why or how they pulled that off, so I left HDR on. HDR is like a realism that makes bright things (in the sun) brighter, and shadow area's darker. If you do not know, this is how the human eye sees things in real sunlight conditions. Shadows can be very dark, while lit up area's are bright, so HDR mimmicks this and does a very nice job of it.

AA will also run smoother. Again, I don't know how they pulled this off either, but AA can now run fairly good and doesn't take a huge hit like FSX and V1 did. (For me, anyways... ).

I was wondering if all cockpits are capable of shadowing or do they need to be enabled by the developers similar to DX10 mode in FSX.

 

[OleBoy]

An early xmas gift. I'll have to find a 10mb connection I can borrow.

 

[Lionheart]

I was wondering if all cockpits are capable of shadowing or do they need to be enabled by the developers similar to DX10 mode in FSX.

Hey Wallydog,

You turn on the shadows in the 'Lighting' panel as discussed in the top of this page. I believe its already on when you first boot up the sim, and you can then adjust all the shadows (turn on/turn off what ever you want shaded, etc), and go from there. You can also adjust the slider for improved shading appearance. (Basic is sort of notchy looking, while a high quality shadow is very smooth, but will take a bit from memory resources or CPU resources).


Bill

 

[PhillRoath]

Hey Wallydog,

You turn on the shadows in the 'Lighting' panel as discussed in the top of this page. I believe its already on when you first boot up the sim, and you can then adjust all the shadows (turn on/turn off what ever you want shaded, etc), and go from there. You can also adjust the slider for improved shading appearance. (Basic is sort of notchy looking, while a high quality shadow is very smooth, but will take a bit from memory resources or CPU resources).


Bill

Bill, I think he was asking if VC shadows work for existing models, or will older ones need to be re-compiled?

Phill

 

[wallydog]

Bill, I think he was asking if VC shadows work for existing models, or will older ones need to be re-compiled?

Phill

Yes.I was wondering if older aircraft models for FSX when ported over will be able to take advantage of cockpit shadows.

 

[Lionheart]

Oops, yes they do work. Mine worked fine in the sim, full shadows. You do not need to have closed ended objects (fully enclosed) or anything like that, it just auto-shades fully onto the model.

FS9 models are a different story, but FSX and P3D V1 models are fine for interior shading, etc.

Its incredible how much more realistic the interior is with HDR and shadows and casting shadows. Here is a pic of the Avelina, which is in FSX SDK format in V2. Note the blooming from sunlight on the chrome trim.

If you note, on the alum. struts of the steering wheel, the shadows on it? Note the notches in the shadows? You can fine tune that with the Shadow quality slider in Settings, but it will bring down your frame rates. Getting shadows that are 'really' nice is still heavy on most all computers or gaming engines.


Bill