Prepar3D Tips, Tricks and How To's

Please do not ask questions in this forum. Only answers should be posted here! If you have a question to ask about any "Tip or Trick" posted, use the PM system (Private Message). That is what it is for. Alternatively, ask your question in the appropriate forum, with a link back to the original "Tip or Trick."Please note that any originating post that asks a question will probably be deleted. If I'm in a good mood I may move the question to the appropriate forum, but......don't count on that. B) If you wish to ask a question about darned near anything FS related, simply click over to the Main P3D Forum and have at it. I am also quite sure that virtually no one will b…

1.) Multi monitor mode will allow lossless to retain focus and keep generating frames for you even when you are using windows on another monitor. 2.) Lossless obviously works better with a higher base frame rate, however, you could probably get away with 30, 40 would be preferred. Make sure you CAP your frame rate to 30/40 or whatever minimum you can achieve, you want frame pacing to be really good so that lossless can do its magic. Uneven frame pacing causes more artifacts. For best overall experience, locking the game frame rate is recommended. This helps to avoid 100% GPU load (reducing its impact on latency) and ensures smoother frame pacing. 3.) Input lag?…

Hi Ray You had requested me to re-post this topic for use in the "Tips, Tricks and How To's" section of the forum. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ The following is a summary of a post I recently made regarding the new Affinity Mask (AM) options within the P3Dv5.3 configuration file as an attempt to explain what the AM is doing. The P3D configuration file is located: Users > xxx > AppData > Roaming > Lockheed Martin > Prepar3D v5 > Prepar3D.cfg If you are not familiar with making edits to this file with something like Notepad++ I suggest you proceed with c…

Here are the Registry keys required when installing software in P3D v5 originally designed for v4. Regedit. Locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Lockheed Martin With Lockheed Martin selected right-click and create a new key and name it Prepar3D v4 With that entry highlighted, over on the right window right-click and select New - String Value. Name it Licence. In the Value data field enter Academic. Create a second String Value. Name it SetupPath. In the Value data field enter the path to your v5 root folder. Now head over to:- HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lockheed Martin With Lockheed Martin highlighted create a new key and name it Prepar3D …

Please read carefully! Due some testing I´ve did, I´ve found some strange differences between the new volumetricclouds.cfg file, LM delivered with P3D V5.2, and my prior files which I´ve got during BETA testing and even had before with 5.1. 12th Jun 2021 12:00 AM (German time): As I see this, at the moment and without having a feedback from LM yet, there are some missing lines in the config. At least this COULD be the PARTLY the cause some of you are having strange looking clouds! I´ve informed LM about this and will provide you feedback as soon as I know if my assumptions are correct or not. 12th Jun 2021 01:47 PM (German time): LM ha…

Introduction A Step by Step Guide to update Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D v4 using the Update Component Installers This is the Same process as the previous version "v3" with the exception of Requiring to activate Prepar3D v3 again after a Client update. ------------ When minor updates are released for Prepar3D v4, there are two options available to update Prepar3D v4. The recommended method is simply updating using the Client installer. This is the quickest and least error prone. When you uninstall the Client, you will be prompted about whether or not you wish to deactivate Prepar3D. You can choose “No” if you are simply updating the same …

Updated link - read before uninstalling Prepar3D http://www.prepar3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6322&t=113913..

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If you are experiencing problems either....... Purchasing, Downloading, Installing or Activating Prepar3D please go through the steps below to help resolve this INDEX 1) Unable to Purchase Prepar3D, "This Site can't be reached" 2) Downloading Problems, Confirming the MD5 Checksum. Click here 3) Installing Problems, Prepar3D will not Install ! Click here 4) Problems Activating Prepar3D. Click here

A Step by Step Guide to Uninstall Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D v4 By following this process you will Deactivate and Uninstall Prepar3D v4 from your Computer Please Note Follow this link for a Tutorial to Uninstall/Deactivate Prepar3D v3 ----------------------------------------- INDEX 1) Uninstalling Prepar3D v4 2) Deleting the 6 Prepar3D v4 folders ----- * Additional information Returning Prepar3D v4 to a Default state Updated August 2018 I have now Included a Video Tutorial to Uninstall and Deactivate Prepar3D v4 at the link below How to Uninstall and Deactivate…

A Step by Step Guide to Download and Install Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D ---------- These directions are intended for use when downloading and installing the Prepar3D v4 application on Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 operating systems. Prepar3D v4 is not compatible with Windows XP and is not recommended on Windows Vista. A video card with full DirectX 11 support is required. If you encounter problems, the recommended method of support is posting on the Prepar3D forums Please see here for Prepar3D system requirements http://www.prepar3d.com/system-requirements/ There is 5 Guidelines to follow for a Success…

Introduction A quick walk around the new User Interface and Install structure of Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D v4 Please see here for more Details http://www.prepar3d.com/news/2017/05/114192/ Prepar3D v4 New Features 64-bit Application Unicode Compatible New User Interface Design Compiler and SDK updated to Visual Studio 2015 Regions of updated Airport & Terrain Data New 3D Rain/Snow system Scripting capabilities (Scenery/Model/Material) Dynamic lighting support Added PDK functions to draw primitive objects Updated Documentation with new SDK and samples Support for …

Good morning, Has anyone tried (and hopefully succeeded) to use FSHud and UTL2 (the P3d5 version)? I gave it a try but no joy. It seems to me that it shoudl be possible fromwhat I understand of the FSHud documentation. Any help appreciated. Jean-Pierre Gagné

Hi guys When I made my first steps in SimDirector in 2018, I would have liked to have a tutorial like this. Reason Spoiler I worked everything out myself and often got stuck on one problem for days. I don't speak English, which doesn't make things any easier. The Prepar3D and SimDirector help page is only available in English. Sure, you can read everything in detail in the help page, but where do you start? There is help for every topic.... That's why I started by opening existing missions and analyzing them to find out: - How did the creator monitor landing gear / flaps position, or altitude? -…

Every addon I have placed in my v6 using the official original installer/Orbx Central/PMDG OPS Global Centre work and can be updated/managed in the future and does work. The only difference is the brightness of the textures which can be managed by the tone mapping v6 provides at default. It doesnt look good for Orbx updating their products as when they were asked outright over on their forums, will Orbx Central be updated for v6? Orbx replied with "We cant answer that question". Aerosoft Airbus planes sadly have stopped working in V5 now when they used to work, let alone in v6 and QW787 is the ONLY plane for v5 that has issues in v6 where the display…

I modded the shaders in P3Dv5.3 HF2 to lower the haze density/Rayleigh scattering, as it's far too dense. This is only for folks running with EA off--it won't have any effect if you are using EA. First make a backup copy of, and then open this file with a text editor: <your root P3Dv5 folder>\ShadersHLSL\FuncLibrary.fxh In the vicinity of line 504, find and replace this text: #if !defined(SHD_ENHANCED_ATMOSPHERICS_BLEND) && !defined(SHD_TO_FAR_CLIP) && !defined(SHD_SKY_STARS) const float distanceFogTrans = min(transmittance, CalculateExponentialFogBlend(distanceSq, cb_View.mFogDensity)); fogInscatter += cb_View.mFogColor.rgb *…

FS9 model files can ruin your day, causing crashes of the sim, when loaded as a model to fly or worse, as AI traffic, just without warning somewhere when a traffic file is loading this file. Install filesearch named "Everything" on your system. Let it build its database of your files. Usually, you just can type in your search term with asteriks and the result will quickly been showed. This search goes into the file, therefore we need some more technique FS9 .mdl files look like this: FSX .mdl files like this The difference is MDL8MDLH vs MDLXMDLH There are more types, but you only need to recognize MDL8MDLH To search this, open…

Ive created a new global atmospherics pack to compliment my three other packs available for free to increase the visual detail and quality. 01. The Global Terrain Pack 2. Oceanic Pack 3. SkyPack The packs work alongside Orbx Global products although designed to be a replacement and to naturally work with the PBR/shaders of v5.3. This is for the EA ON and Volumetric Clouds skies and is not compatible with the legacy textures skies. Its designed to replicate the MFS look of the skies/lighting, which affects everything, even the height of the waves has been increased. The Envshade/EnvshadePlus program is required for the shaders, everyt…

Nice tree removal near runways, it still works in P3D (all versions so far). Much better and realistic than having them right up the threshold. Thanks to Jim Keir for his outstanding job! You can find them in the library under AGExcl_3x or AGExcl_5x. Without tree removal With tree removal

Hello everyone! Taxi2Gate MMMX is a scenery originally released for FSX but with these few tricks you will be able to use this scenery in P3Dv4/v5. Installation: Run the exe and locate your simulator folder. Install the scenery anywhere within your Prepar3D/Prepar3D v5 folder (make sure to remember where you installed it!) Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X and copy both the Effects and Texture folder Go to your Prepar3Dv4/Prepar3Dv5 root folder (e.g. C:\Program Files\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4) Paste the two folders (Effects and Texture) into the root Prepar3D directory - you should not be asked to …

IF YOU EVER GET THIS ERROR ON STARTING P3D4 THE SOLUTION MAYBE THAT YOUR IP ADDRESS HAS CHANGED! Can't Init SimConnect - error code 0x80004005 Check your IPADDRESS Via CMD.EXE and "IPCONFIG" Check two files : Simconnect.cfg in c:\users\name\Documents Simconnect.xml in c:\Users\name\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4 -Spent a day trying to find out what was wrong. My internet provider change my IP Address. -Rich

I've never seen a comprehensive thread on solving this issue, so I will have a go at compiling one here. The problem: in an aircraft (mostly PMDG, it would seem), the split second your main wheels touch the ground, there is a microstutter between 1/4 and 1 second long. Then, you hear the aircraft touchdown, and everything is normal afterwards. The potential solutions to try: 1. For PMDG airplanes, go to PMDG Setup -> Options -> Sounds, and set "preload sounds" to "ALL." "Selective" may also help with touchdown lag, but this hasn't been tested by anyone specifically. 2. Make sure your audio device is processed through a sound card (onboard or add-…

There is a good guide to installing v5.1 hf1 posted on Orbx Prepar3D forums It is by Nick Cooper -Orbx Administrator Posted May 1st 2020 Obviously Orbx oriented but a good general guide nonetheless I miss Poppets posts and this might be a Tip to add to list that is in current time Sorry at not being abler to post link-could someone do it? xxd09 PS of course I have used it and it worked for me

A lot of you who use P3Dv4 with Active Sky have probably experienced the problem that when flying during sunset/sunrise with a thick overcast cloud layer, your frame rate tanks to unacceptable levels. More than four years ago, I made a video, in which I showed how to improve the performance in P3Dv3 during such conditions. In the following new video, I will revisit this problem, but this time I am using P3Dv4. You will learn how to improve the cloud performance under critical cloud conditions in a very quick, flexible and convenient way. Highly recommended!

From Jeffrey Stahl, the creator of SODE, in https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/588259-ucrtbasedll-ctd-with-p3dv51-sode-171-and-aigaim/page/3/: V5.1 added a new feature called "Adaptive Simulation Group“, mainly intended to reduce visual jittering when flying in close formation with other traffic (multiplayer or AI). Due to the way SODE works internally (it basically injects AI objects...), Prepar3D picked them up into that new simulation group and when SODE tried to remove the injected object, the sim crashed. This is going to be fixed within Prepar3D. Until then, there is a workaround (hoping you don‘t do much close formation flying), courtesy of P3…