P3DV2.3 self shadowing

[Paul K]

I've just gone through all the palaver of uninstalling v2.2 and starting afresh with a complete new install of 2.3. Just like real aircraft, where for every hour of flight there are 10 hours of maintenance, so for flight simming, where you spend more time faffing about than actually using it - which makes it even more accurate, I suppose. I wonder if thats the intention ?

Anyway, I'm very pleased with v2.3, particularly cloud shadows which no longer slow things to a crawl, and the much better high dynamic range lighting ( way too dark in v2.2 ). This picture shows the default Bonanza and the default flight. Gorgeous eh ?




Note the position of the sun, relative to the aircraft. As I flew along, I could see two faint pale shapes ahead of me ( arrowed in the picture below ) and couldn't work out what was causing them. Its actually the self shadowing at work - the sun's light is coming through the cabin windows behind me and casting shadows on the prop disc in front. Brilliant !




One final one...




I'm still tweaking settings and stuff, but with this latest version of P3Dv2, my FSX installation discs are finally consigned to a box up in the loft. If only Orbx would hurry up with the triple installers on their existing airports...

[Nick M]

I'm rather tempted to have another go with P3D now that version 2.3 is out. I tried v2.2, but only for one month with the 'developer licence'. Performance on my PC was pretty horrible so when the month finished - so did my P3Ding. Shots like these threaten to draw me back in. However, I do find the jagged edges that sometimes appear in VC shadows (e.g .to the left of your second photo) are a bit of an immersion-killer.

Cheers,
Nick