Thanks go out to our development team who has been working tirelessly for months now to address issues, reconfigure designs, and keep up with the frequent and considerable changes to each new P3D build. Thanks also to all our BETA participants who have worked hard to test and provide great feedback to help us get things to where they are today!
With P3D 5.1 HF1 now released and stable, in RC3 we have been able to finalize certain aspects and we are very much looking forward to releasing ASP3D after an exceptionally long and challenging development and testing cycle.
This new build most importantly brings several changes and fixes to address issues in EA depiction refreshing, timing, and accuracy. Several core problems in previous builds were creating potentially inaccurate clouds, confusing cloud conditions reports, clear skies, and a myriad of other issues. All of this should now be resolved with RC3. We have also further adjusted synthesis, interpolation, and EA volumetric cloud parameters based on RC2 OPEN BETA feedback in order to provide the best results possible.
EA mode users should get a much more accurate experience across the board now, regardless of the distance of flight and with or without flight plan use, although a flight plan is very much recommended and needed for improved accuracy and intended theme reload timing.
Brand new to RC3: EA Smooth Theme Reloads! This brings cloud scene smoothing, greatly improving the existing P3D 5.1 EA cloud transitions. Reload smoothing periods now occur over about 2-3 minutes instead of 10 seconds, and conditions reports will now always sync properly and display both the “from” and “to” transition conditions. Note that due to EA depiction timing considerations, the initial cloud scene and any ASP3D-initiated “refresh” will also need to smooth in over 2-3 minutes. Therefore, when you start your session, please wait a couple minutes before comparing the conditions you see on screen.
You can download and install the latest RC3 update from our downloads page. Report any issues ASAP in the ASP3D OPEN BETA Forum.
Thanks everyone! We look forward to releasing ASP3D very soon.
Changelog:
RC #3 – November 24, 2020
– Added new EA smooth theme reloads to smooth out transitions as much as possible while maintaining expected performance – Clouds transitions will now occur over approximately 2-3 minutes instead of 10 seconds – Some larger transitions steps in some cases are normal and expected but everything should be significantly smoother than before
– Added enhanced depiction and theme reload timing logic for better EA mode conditions representations at all time (requires flight plan to be loaded for best results)
– Fixed issue where clouds may not depict properly if “Disable EA volumetric cloud control” was checked
– Fixed potential EA interpolation problems resulting in improper or unexpected clear cloud depictions for a variety of reasons
– Changed conditions reported in EA mode with more intuitive “transitioning from” and “transitioning to” METAR text
– Adjusted volumetric cloud configuration for additional edge smoothing with clouds (to reduce lower res/pixelated look as much as possible while still reducing gridding effect)
NOTE: Your volumetricclouds.cfg file in your C:\users\username\appdata\roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5 folder should be manually deleted and P3D restarted so it can be recreated with proper 5.1 HF1 parameters format – If you fail to do this, completely clear skies issue may be experienced – This is a P3D 5.1 HF1 revision/upgrade issue not related to ASP3D.