Prepar3D v5 Update
Yesterday I discussed the latest version of Prepar3D. Within about 15 minutes of publishing that article, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on P3Dv5 along with FSUIPC 6. If you’re not familiar with FSUIPC (and many flight simmers are not), well FSUIPC is a little utility which allows many add-ons to connect to P3D and also allows for better external flight control support in the sim. Most users can get by with the freeware version of FSUIPC. However, if you are like me and want to customize your 3rd party add-on hardware (throttles, joysticks, yokes etc.) then you need FSUIPC. But I digress…
It Is EVERYTHING and a box of chocolates
Of course, at this very instance the only thing installed into my new P3Dv5 setup is of course P3Dv5, FSUIPC and ActiveSky. As a matter of fact, ActiveSky is the main reason I went ahead and pulled the trigger on P3Dv5 now. Currently, ActiveSky for Prepar3D v5 is available as a beta at zero upgrade cost. The new version of ActiveSky is called ActiveSky P3D and if you owned the previous version for P3Dv4 (ASP4) then for the next 2-3 weeks you can upgrade to ActiveSky P3D at no cost. ActiveSky P3D will work for both P3Dv4 and P3Dv5. Once installed, it will prompt you to choose which simulator you want to use. Pretty slick.
But back to my statement, “It Is EVERYTHING and a box of chocolates”, the new Prepar3D v5 is truly amazing. While even in its vanilla state, I can see the benefits of the upgrade and I’m very pleased to have made the purchase.
One Step at a time
As I’ve mentioned before in other blog postings. If you truly want the best out of your sim experience, only install 3rd party add-ons which have been ported over by the developers. Don’t try to hack something into P3Dv5 which hasn’t been updated as you’ll likely only cause yourself issues and a lot of headaches.
All major developers are working as quickly as they can to get their add-ons available for P3Dv5. Spend some time just enjoying the vanilla sim and as add-ons are made available, install them. Until that time…continue flying in P3Dv4. This is my plan.
If I were to guess (and a lot of this is based on my move from P3Dv3 to v4) it could be several more weeks before we have everything available from the devs. Just be patient.
If you yourself are currently making the move to P3Dv5 or planning to, FSElite has a really good P3Dv5 Compatibility Database. They are documenting everything from add-on aircraft, airports, scenery and utilities.
More to Come
I’ll provide updates as more add-ons have been made available to P3Dv5. I’ll also share my settings as well. Currently, I have my P3Dv5 settings adjusted to mirror what I have set in P3Dv4. I figure this was a good starting point. I’ll tweak to get the very best performance and will share them.
Of course, at this very moment my FPS is phenomenal. But this is expected in a vanilla sim. As more add-ons are installed including scenery, airports and aircraft…the FPS will drop. As I’ve always said….don’t drive yourself crazy chasing 60FPS. I’ll be happy if DX12 and the enhancements made to v5 will give me a solid, smooth experience. This is what I have with v4 and it’s all I need in v5. Once I have made my tweaks, I’ll not pay much attention to FPS.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog postings.
Until next time….
Happy Flying!
Jerry
