Prepar3D v4.3

[paiken]

Not moving from 4.2 just yet, I'll give LM some time to fix the niggles.
And I'm going to check out the ORBX forums to see what their situation on 4.3 is.

ORBX has updated FTX Central for v3 compatibility. Active Sky has a v3 beta available on their website. I'm currently in the process of adding in ORBX Global.
LM is aware of the texture issues on the C130 and have stated in the forums that it will be repaired in the next update.

 

[RobM]

https://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=120861

LM's instructions for client, content, and/or scenery updates. Page down for the content upgrade install.

When I asked in the Orbx forums for the 4.2 update about installing the 4.2 scenery component, it was recommended
not to, as this might overwrite a number of Orbx entries, in particular FTX Global.

Hope that helps.

- RobM

 

[DennyA]

Here's what I did and things are looking solid with no issues from 4.2 despite having Ultimate Traffic Live, OrbX, and ActiveSky installed:

1) Uninstall Prepar3D 4.2 client. Install 4.3 Client
2) Uninstall Prepar3D 4.2 Content. Install 4.3 Content.
3) Uninstall Prepar3D 4.2 Scenery. Install 4.3 Scenery
4) Update ActiveSky to the new beta.
5) Update FTX Central 3 and reinstall FTX Global (because I was getting some texture issues due to the scenery reinstall)

You could probably ignore the scenery update if you don't fly in any of these areas and don't care about the tree updates:

Prepar3D Scenery Fixes and Improvements
Fixed scenery errors causing trenches to appear along Cyprus.
Fixed elevation and exclusion issues at YBUD.
Fixed elevation issues in Guam.
Added American Elm and Acacia mild winter SpeedTree variations

 

[Stinger]

Never a good idea to jump right in and install these updates until all the addons have been updated too. It’s usually weeks before the vrs super bug and tacpac are compatible. Let alone active sky and orbx.
What’s the rush? I’ll bet anything LM will tweet it some more. Those of you that can’t wait are the 1st to complain it doesn’t work right.

 

[Crusader]

Not for certain of course, but this may sound the death knell for Instant Scenery 3 and P3D_V4 and beyond. After waiting over a year now for V4.2 compatibility. . .now V4.3 is released. . .

Really going to miss IS3 for sure . Used it quite often to spruce up several airports . I still have FSX Steam but rarely use it . Seriously thinging of doing a complete clean install of P3D v4.3. and then selectively add AC and scenery here and there . Biggest time consumer ORBX on a clean install .

Rich

 

[falcon409]

Really going to miss IS3 for sure . Used it quite often to spruce up several airports . I still have FSX Steam but rarely use it . Seriously thinging of doing a complete clean install of P3D v4.3. and then selectively add AC and scenery here and there . Biggest time consumer ORBX on a clean install .

Rich

I've kept FSX/Acell for just this reason. I do all my scenery work in FSX, then add it to the V4.2 Scenery Library in the Sim and off we go. At some point LM will do something in it's updates that will no longer allow any backward compatibility with anything other than P3D related work. At that point, if I'm still around that will be the end of scenery design for me.

 

[jmig]

I managed to summon the courage to upgrade from v4.0 to 4.1 last year, but have refrained from moving to 4.2 for fear - again - of messing something up, based on confusing discussions about having to save or risk losing parts of your P3D install. Last time I think I just reinstalled the "client" and one "content" download. I have "outsourced" parts of my install (e.g. Simobjects, Addon scenery) to a different drive than the one which my core P3D resides.

Question: to upgrade to 4.3 (with the C-130) without having to save anything or do any more risky extra re-install dance - which of the 13 different components do I need to just download, uninstall and then reinstall? Like before, I don't think I need any of the scenery files (that correct more obscure scenery bugs).

I reckon I need the first four listed and the last setup exe. I don't see anything saying "Objects" as mentioned by DennyA above.

Expat, if all you want is the C-130, "may" be able to only install the content.msi. That is where the C-130 will reside. I don't know if PD3 4.2 will work with a 4.3 file, however. If it crashes, you will just have to reinstall the 4.2 version, or go with 4.3. I have not installed 4.3 yet.

 

[expat]

Expat, if all you want is the C-130, "may" be able to only install the content.msi. That is where the C-130 will reside. I don't know if PD3 4.2 will work with a 4.3 file, however. If it crashes, you will just have to reinstall the 4.2 version, or go with 4.3. I have not installed 4.3 yet.

Thanks. I have everything downloaded. However I will follow others' suggestion to wait a while to see if there are any wrinkles to be ironed out by others first!

 

[Navy Chief]

Simdirector is capable, I believe, of doing everything that Instant Scenery does, and more. But you almost need a IT degree to understand how to use it. NC

 

[RobM]

Expat, if all you want is the C-130, "may" be able to only install the content.msi. That is where the C-130 will reside. I don't know if PD3 4.2 will work with a 4.3 file, however. If it crashes, you will just have to reinstall the 4.2 version, or go with 4.3. I have not installed 4.3 yet.

I installed the new content but kept the 4.2 client (I have too many planes that I like that require Tacpack to work properly). I
haven't noticed any issues.

However, the C130 is showing it's age. Besides the problem of decals appearing on the wing tanks, the vc itself has fairly fuzzy
textures when I zoom in close (like the printing on the dials), and only a portion of the switches and levers work. But I was able
to port over the Canadian AF texture from FSX, and it installed well enough, both as H and J versions (the Canadian air force
now has C130J's). The decal problem was still there on the tanks, but at least the decals were on the tank sides facing the plane,
and so not quite so obvious.

- RobM

 

[Victory103]

Still waiting on other programs to update first, but I am assuming the CS C-130 is just the models and not the loadout manager like the FSX release? It included payload, VC glass, and engine gauge options (plus the flag out of the escape hatch).

 

[RobM]

Still waiting on other programs to update first, but I am assuming the CS C-130 is just the models and not the loadout manager like the FSX release? It included payload, VC glass, and engine gauge options (plus the flag out of the escape hatch).

The animation manager is still there, and most of the animations from FSX still seem to work. I couldn't remember how to get the
flag to show. But I could raise or lower the ramp, and the supplied Humvee would roll on or off. The exits, pilots' windows, parachute
jump doors, radome, and maintenance access panels would open and close. Sometimes though, it would take a couple of mouse
clicks to get things to work.

There are two instrument panels, one with analog steam gauges and the other with eicas partial glass panel. There's also two engine options,
the H and J variants. And there's a USAF external model with the canons and machine guns sticking out the port side.

However, there's not a lot of supplied paints: two USAF's, USCG, and Japanese AF. Since the Canadian AF paint ported over so well from FSX
into both engine and instrument panel variants, I'm beginning to wonder what other paints and maybe even external models could be
ported over. But I think I would have to use one of the supplied models for the vc.

- RobM

PS: but there's still that odd problem of the tail decals and tail art mapping upside down onto the external tanks. LM said they post
a fix in the next update, but I wonder if the problem could be fixed before then.

 

[DaveWG]

If you've got the original CS C130 you could copy the corresponding model to replace the bugged LM version, or just merge the whole lot with the new panels.

 

[Navy Chief]

Dave, could you be a little more detailed about how you "merged" folders from the original CS model to the 4.3 model. Which folders, etc...? Thanks, NC

If you've got the original CS C130 you could copy the corresponding model to replace the bugged LM version, or just merge the whole lot with the new panels.

 

[DaveWG]

It's pretty simple really.
All you need to do is remove the old CS C130 gauges from the panel folders, and replace the panel.cfg in the panel and panel.g folders with the ones from the LM panel and panel.eicas folders respectively.
I haven't fully checked the systems or every variant, so there may be some glitches, but the initial tests seemed ok.

 

[Manschy]

Okay, panel.eicas means the contents of the CS panel.g contents?

 

[Manschy]

Okay, my first steps yesterday were to simply add the texture folders of the CS into the LM C-130 ones. I also added the aircraft.cfg lines as needed. There were no issues and all went fine.

Doing your steps, I am missing some interiour textures and my sounds are gone. May you give us some little more explanations how this works with you? Thank you

 

[spatialpro]

P3D is now entering the Combat sim world in a totally new way. Natively.

SDK now includes:

"Added damage state variable to ModuleSim. Variable can be set via scenario, PDK, or SimVar and will be serialized in multiplayer. Developers can use this variable to control model appearances."

Indeed, but will this only function in the Pro version?!

 

[DaveWG]

Okay, my first steps yesterday were to simply add the texture folders of the CS into the LM C-130 ones. I also added the aircraft.cfg lines as needed. There were no issues and all went fine.

Doing your steps, I am missing some interiour textures and my sounds are gone. May you give us some little more explanations how this works with you? Thank you

I think the problem may be that a lot of the CS model and texture cfgs reference other folders so if the structure isn't the same you'll end up with things missing. I long ago consolidated a lot of the files so each of the CS models was a complete self contained set.

 

[Manschy]

Thank you, Dave. Okay, so I will better do a step by step adding with seperate texture folders and brave editing of my aircraft.cfg's. Most will work, when I change the model variants carefully