P3D v4 or v5. Which version will be best for 64-bit Concorde?

[Ray Proudfoot 536]

FS Labs,

You've announced Concorde will be developed for both P3D v4 and v5. When you're in a position to could you advise which version will be best in terms of frames per second and overall fluidity? I have no plans to move from v4.5 unless there are significant benefits in moving to v5. I imagine I'm not alone given the maturity of v4.

Thanks.

[Andrew Wilson 7384]

Hi Ray,

Well - there are a few reasons to choose P3D v5 over P3D v4: their implementation of PBR is heavily optimised and improved. It truly looks better in V5. Dynamic lights are also optimised in v5 - so you'll see a performance gain there. 

The pitfalls are, that on lesser GPU cards - DX12 is referencing your GPU memory. If your card has less than 11Gb of onboard memory, you're likely going to need to consider your settings a little more. Not an issue - plenty of people are doing this. 

That said, I see you're on a 1080Ti - same as I am - so personally, I would go to V5. Obviously the new version is being developed on P3D v5 at this time, so it will take advantage of the available technologies the most recent version of P3D offers - and some of these, inevitably, might not be supported when flying with P3D v4. 

[Ray Proudfoot 536]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for that info. The issue of Dynamic Lighting has been a bugbear for me (and many others I guess) with v4. It will be nice to have a solution to that. I have seen the many posts on AvSim about DX12 eating large chunks of VRAM but subsequent updates seem to have improved things.

I've been holding off v5 because I would have to buy the PMDG737 a second time and up to now had no compelling reason to do so. Sorry for mentioning that here. 

But v5 will be around for quite a while and finally I'll be able to fly Concorde in my monitor's native resolution because as you must know running at 1920*1080 is grim on a 4K display.

[Fraser Gale 295]

I have to mention that v5 has it's issues for some of us though, and I hope LM are trying to make it work better "out of the box" than it currently does for some users.  It seems to be pot luck as to whether settings and setups that have worked fine for all previous versions, work for you or not.  Even with plenty VRAM, GPU, CPU in hand the fps cycling up to over 100 then down to less than 10 with no addons installed can't be normal!

I'm currently still fiddling with the basics just to make it useable.....

In fact that is this evening's job!

 

[Ray Proudfoot 536]

@Fraser Gale, one thing that has made performance much better for me is changing my monitor refresh rate to 30Hz. With VSync enabled in P3D (and fps set to unlimited) that places far less demands on the GPU and 30fps is fine for me.

There is some mouse lag but that’s a minor inconvenience compared to the smoothness 30Hz brings. Try it if your monitor can handle it.

[Fraser Gale 295]

15 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@Fraser Gale, one thing that has made performance much better for me is changing my monitor refresh rate to 30Hz. With VSync enabled in P3D (and fps set to unlimited) that places far less demands on the GPU and 30fps is fine for me.

There is some mouse lag but that’s a minor inconvenience compared to the smoothness 30Hz brings. Try it if your monitor can handle it.

Thanks for the tip Ray, but as I said in my post, all previous versions worked just fine the way things are.  I've always run at 30Hz anyway and I'm not over-taxing the GPU because it's running at 8% load! CPU only around 30%.  

When you go to v5 you might be lucky, but then again...

[Ray Proudfoot 536]

Fraser, if you're referring to Airbus performance in v5 that's not something I can comment on really. The GPU load in v3 is probably around what you say but because Riva Tuner SS doesn't work with Concorde loaded I can't check.

Glad to see you're another advocate of 30Hz.

[Fraser Gale 295]

19 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Fraser, if you're referring to Airbus performance in v5 that's not something I can comment on really. The GPU load in v3 is probably around what you say but because Riva Tuner SS doesn't work with Concorde loaded I can't check.

Glad to see you're another advocate of 30Hz.

Ray, I'm talking about a clean install with NO ADDONS...!  

I haven't yet got it stable enough to load in the Airbus, or anything else for that matter.  I have a couple more settings to try but the scrolling fps problem is something I've never seen before with any aircraft in any previous sim version, which is why I'm just saying to be aware when/if you purchase. 

In fact if you do plan on "upgrading" - cough, cough - I would suggest doing it soon so that you have time to tweak it before a certain bird tries to fly faster than the sun inside it!!!

[Ray Proudfoot 536]

Fraser, Does your clean install include Hotfix 1? I've asked about v5 on AvSim and nothing untoward was flagged.

Yes, the timing of when to purchase is on my mind. Other than being released this year I haven't a clue how close to finishing the work FSL are. I'm not asking because I know the answer.

[Fraser Gale 295]

Yes, I'm on v5.1 

I have found a couple of other people report the same issue on other forums but nobody seems to get to the bottom of it.  I didn't get the time to play with it tonight like I thought I would, so it will have to wait another day. 

No harm in buying the sim now surely?  Unless you have a shortage of memory you can keep the other versions running like I have.  

She'll be worth the wait, that's all you're gonna get...

[Ray Proudfoot 536]

I would imagine LM will resolve it at some point. I’m giving it serious consideration but transitioning scenery from v4 to v5 is time consuming.

My VRAM usage in v4 rarely goes above 5Gb so there’s enough spare for v5. And there’s enough space on my SSD. Chewing it over.