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Prepar3D V4.4 with PBR Engine Released

Best viewed in motion. Here's a brief 360 pan of the PBR skin for the K. I'm working on a longer "inflight" video today. I'll post that up as soon as it's finished.

I haven't converted the entire model...yet. So far the skins and canopy are PBR, the other bits will take a little longer. The potential, even at this stage is awesome. If and when we go to full PBR it's going to be spectacular. IMO

Video Link:
[video]https://www.brighteon.com/5982963103001[/video]


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As promised, I put together a twenty minute "beauty" video of the B-26K re-skinned in PBR.

The process of converting this aircraft made it clear to me that we are entering in to an entirely new level of flight simulation. The process is logical, but will likely be a bit of a new approach to developing aircraft and scenery art. Once understood, the process is much cleaner and requires less or zero faking the sim to achieve results.

This video is an attempt to show the PBR materials in a variety of lighting and weather conditions. I've used a variety of techniques, exploring different levels of aluminum finish and wear. The results of this first attempt were encouraging, as I used my original texture sheets for the art, metalness, gloss and normal mapping. Of course, much of the "cargo" attached to previous methods were dropped, allowing the PBR engine to do the heavy lifting.

At this stage of development the basic airframe skins and canopy materials are fully PBR. The rest of the model translated quite well, but will be updated to full PBR as well.

Enjoy the video and please feel free to add your comments, suggestions or questions. I'm happy to share the results of my testing with any and all interested.

And...Merry Christmas to all. :very_drunk:

Video Link
[video]https://www.brighteon.com/5983175262001[/video]


B-36K Counter Invader in Prepar3Dv4.4
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n4gix said:
Very nicely done Gordon! Merry Christmas and best wishes for a New Year! :listening_headphone
Click to expand...


Thank you Bill, and a Merry Christmas to you and your family.

I suppose I will be needing to make more videos as well. I have a long list of music suitable for such endeavors.
 
Amazing work! Guess I need to pull my TBD Devastator out and getting those glorious pre-war liveries done.
 
Ok, now that Gordon helped me through my technical issues, I'm finally cooking with gas. Thanks a bunch Gordon!

Here's my first REAL foray with a test article. The XF-92A by Milton and Team. I've converted the Tail, Fuselage and wings to PBR to test the waters in P3D. It's different from DCS, but very similar. So far good results. One thing I've found is that The sky really needs a good dark blue for contrast. I'm using REX sky texture "high flyer" for best results.

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I used DXT5, created with the NVIDIA plugin in Photoshop. I use that tool for the albedo and normal files.
 
Ha! Thanks Gordon. Jen is right this is a dawning of a new era. Glad to be a very small part of it. Looking forward to all your works my friend.
 
000rick000 said:
Ha! Thanks Gordon. Jen is right this is a dawning of a new era. Glad to be a very small part of it. Looking forward to all your works my friend.
Click to expand...

All of a sudden I'm hearing Karen Carpenter singing..."We've only just begun". That's just wrong!!!:dizzy:
 
gman5250 said:
All of a sudden I'm hearing Karen Carpenter singing..."We've only just begun". That's just wrong!!!:dizzy:
Click to expand...

The Carpenters notwithstanding, all the above video's and shots prove that P3D is the platform of the future!!

I wonder what v5 will bring! ;)

Priller
 
This PBR progress is making me want to paint again. But I have a question, I know a need a paintkit for an aircraft with active PBR materials (maybe?), but when I eventually come across, then will I need a “PBR program” or is this manageable through Photoshop?
 
Can all be done in PS. Nothing "special" is required for PBR. It's just a recipe for the gfx engine to render. My tests were done completely in PS. Do other apps exist to make work flow easier? Yes! But not required.
 
Making some progress in the lighting that I'm looking for. Need to put some good back into the paint....

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wow, looks fantastic. how does it look on the ground at dusk? the maddog80's bare metal pbr glows yellow on the shady side at dusk lighting condition, wondering if this can be overcome.
 
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