Tweaking and tuning: A step by step guide for P3D 3.X http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php/100638-Tw...

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Thread: Tweaking and tuning: A step by step guide for P3D 3.X

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May 27th, 2016, 10:47 #1

PLUTO16
Tweaking and tuning: A step by step guide for P3D 3.X
Members +
Hi all,
Thanks to Andrea (here known as Andrea 6811) that has
created this guide for an italian virtual flight forum,we can track
some guidelines to let your sim a bit more enjoyable.

DISCLAIMER:
Join Date: Jul 2011
Well,as normally,these are not to be intended likea bible written
Location: Italy,Grosseto
on the stone. Agree or not,try if you want,and surely i'm not
Age: 40
responsible if something goes bad on your PC.
Posts: 233
Assumed this..
Let's start!

HARDWARE:

Hardware: the proper combo is INTEL/NVIDIA. In some cases

AMD is not working properly with Affinitymask settings;

OPERATING SYSTEM:
OS: the best is windows 10. Even if Win7 is a good
compromise,it has some bottlenecks that W10 simply do not

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have. The biggest is the Aero ambient,that interfers heavily

with p3d full screen mode (I remind that full screen on p3d is
not a real full screen but it is simply a window mode stretched
to the corners)

And now,the step by step guide.

STEP 1: CAMERA DEFINITIONS

First job,change camera definitions of tower view to prevent

blurries and heavy reloads when aircraft is far from the tower:

Open cameras.cfg (is located in the same directory of p3d.cfg

(i.e.

__________\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3)

Go to camera definiotion 007 and add Cyclehidden = true

it will look like this:

[CameraDefinition.007]
Title = Nearest Tower
Guid = {60BC0819-BD04-4AF6-8954-8FC8AA3545FF}
Description = This is the description of the tower view.
Origin = Tower
SnapPbhAdjust = Swivel
SnapPbhReturn = False
PanPbhAdjust = Swivel
PanPbhReturn = False
Track = Track
ShowAxis = No
AllowZoom = Yes
InitialZoom = 8.0
SmoothZoomTime = 2.0
ShowWeather = Yes
XyzAdjust = FALSE
Transition = No
ShowLensFlare=FALSE
Category = Tower
ClipMode = Tower
NoSortTitle = True
Cyclehidden = true

STEP 2: P3D.CFG

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Now let's jump to the p3d.cfg and add or change these lines:

[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=85

[GRAPHICS]
SHADER_CACHE_VERSION=1
STALE_BUFFER_THRESHOLD=1024

[DISPLAY]
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=1024

[MAIN]
FIBER_FRAME_TIME_FRACTION=0.01

[TERRAIN]
SWAP_WAIT_TIMEOUT=30
UseGlobalTerrainView=false

[SIM]
SYSCLOCK=1
OPTIMIZE_PARTS=1

STEP 3: CLOUD.FX

We also have the right way to reduce a bit the rendering job of
the sim,during heavy clouds condition:

Go to: XX:\Program Files (x86)\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D

v3\ShadersHLSL
Open cloud.fx
Go to the line: GetScreenQuadPositions(quad, width*0.5,
height*0.5)
Change with GetScreenQuadPositions(quad, width*0.4,
height*0.4)

Save all.

STEP 4: NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL

Go to nvidia control panel:

If you have DSR option,set to ON. Select resolution of your

choice.
Scroll down and DISABLE,I repeat....DISABLE Vsync. Is very
important,disable it BOTH on the sim internal menu AND in the
nvidia control panel.

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STEP 5: NVIDIA INSPECTOR

Open Nvidia inspector,and select P3D.

Select "toggle FXAA on or off" and select ON.

STEP 6: INSIDE THE SIM

Launch the sim

Once in the sim,open OPTONS/SETTINGS:

page 1. "GRAPHICS"

FXAA: OFF
MSAA: 4 SAMPLES (or more if you can)
TEXTURE FILTERING: ANISOTROPIC 4x (minimum...or more if
you can)
TEXTURE RESOLUTION: Medium (1024 x 1024) or hier if you
can

VERY IMPORTANT:

FRAME RATE CONTROL

VSYNC: OFF
TARGET FRAME RATE: 30

HARDWARE TESSELLATION:
Choose "tessellation enabled"

Now,for the other pages,the only things very important to

consider are that:

"Dynamic reflections" are in most cases a frame hog. For

example,HDR does not affects performance,but DR,yes. So if
you pull the slider full right....you can expect a slight drop of
performance.

Another nice frame pacman is the shading for vegetations and

autogen buildings. I do not use it. From the other side,cloud
shading over the ground does not affect performance (or just a
very little bit)

About weather: do not push full right the cloud slider

distance...80 miles is enough. Set it together with a medium
coverage of clouds and the "volumetric fog" toggled on.
obviously toggle the "detailed clouds" options.

About traffic: make your choice. i personally do not use any

add-on for traffic (like real airliners,and stuff like that) simply
because in a busy airport the risk is a slideshow. But make your

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choice...

Cheers
/Alessandro.

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May 27th, 2016, 11:14 #2

Stickshaker Very informative, Alessandro, thanks! I will enjoy your Tornado

and F-84F even more!
SOH-CM-2017
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Netherlands
Age: 58
Posts: 1,086

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May 27th, 2016, 14:37 #3

jeansy interesting i find an unedited cfg for me results in better

performance, again like fsx every system produces different
Senior Member
results
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 2,342
notably the section
[JOBSCHEDULER]
AffinityMask=85

varies depending on the users CPU,

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May 28th, 2016, 03:23 #4

greenie Thank you Pluto. Appreciated

Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 286

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