Requested Features and Enhancements Implemented in Prepar3D 2.1
After receiving great feedback from our user community, we have implemented new application enhancements and made a large numbers fixes to improve the stability and usability of Prepar3D v2.
Rendering, Performance, Backwards Compatibility, Weather and Clouds
Rendering Features Added
- DirectX® 10 fallback hardware support for displaylink and other monitors
- Dynamic shadows now can be enabled to render when you do not have tessellation (GPU Terrain) enabled
- Further optimizations and enhancements to prevent microstutters that were reported
- Further optimizations to the autogen and terrain paging system
Rendering/Performance Issues Resolved
- Lessened the specular shine on terrain to help alleviate anti-aliasing on runways, roads and terrain
- Fixed an issue where the HDR lighting feature could get into bad rendered states with extreme darkness
- Lightened star and other reflections at night
- Fixed an issue where Effect EffectParams didn't turn off lights or effects
- Fixed an issue where airport light beacons cast shadows
- Fixed an issue where cloud and fog visibility was rendered at about half of what was set
- Fixed an issue where terrain lighting and shadows could be in wrong direction
- Fixed an issue where windsocks did not visibly change at all, always pointed North
- Fixed a rendering issue where a white square was visible around the moon
- Fixed an issue where boat wakes were not being rendered on certain AMD graphics cards
- Fixed an issue where clouds could be seen through the horizon through thick fog
- Fixed an issue where a black screen could occur with HDR Lighting feature enabled
- Fixed an issue where a black screen could occur going in and out of fullscreen
- Fixed a rendering issue where progressive taxi arrows were not rendering
- Fixed a rendering issue where emissive objects were fogging inappropriately leaving artifacts on the sun and moon
- Fixed an issue where the new dynamic shadows did not respect tiled textures
- Fixed a large performance loss when main Prepar3D window did not have primary focus
- Fixed a large performance loss when moving panel(s) to a second monitor
- Resolved a few memory fragmentation issues
Additional Backwards Compatibility Features Implemented
- Resolved a rendering issue where white boxes could be seen around Orbx FTX Global lights during the daytime
- Resolved an issue where the Orbx FTX Global lights were not rendering along roads
- Resolved an issue where Orbx FTX Global lights cast shadows
- Resolved several legacy night apron/taxiway/runway approach lighting issues
- Resolved an issue where custom photosceneries weren't blending well with shorelines
- Resolved an issue where light cone effects were rotating incorrectly about the z-axis
- Resolved an issue where shadows and batches were rendering off on zero altitude batches
Weather and Cloud Issues Resolved
- Fixed an issue where weather and cloud coverage issues with 7/8 in the UI not applying
- Fixed an issue where cumulus type clouds received NO cloud bottoms from the cumulus01 bitmap
- Fixed an issue where stratus and other clouds render at incorrect heights than what was set via the UI or SimConnect
- Fixed an issue where only one texture from each cloud group was being used
- Fixed an issue where during any WeatherSetObservation from SimConnect there was a "zero" altitude wind layer inserted at 75°C
- Fixed an issue where in the basic weather UI, setting wind speed to none did not clear wind speed
- Fixed an issue where rain and snow effects did not render across entire widescreen or multiple views
- Fixed an issue where rain and snow effects did not render when moving locations within the same airport
- Fixed an issue where temperature changes worked differently when set the same from SimConnect vs the in-simulation UI for non-GLOB observations
Controls
Additional Default Controller Profiles Added:
- Saitek X52
- Saitek X52 Pro
- Saitek Rudder Pedals
- Saitek Cessna Rudder Pedals
- Saitek Combat Rudder Pedals
- Saitek Pro Flight TPM System
- Saitek Pro Flight Cessna Yoke
- Saitek Pro Flight Cessna Trim Wheel
- Saitek Pro Flight Yoke
- ThrustMaster T.160000M
- ThrustMaster T.Flight Stick X
- ThrustMaster T.Flight Hotas X
- ThrustMaster Joystick - HOTAS Warthog
- ThrustMaster Throttle - HOTAS Warthog
- Redbird JAY Rudder Pedals
- Wireless Controller (Playstation 4 Controller)
Controls Issues Resolved
- Fixed an issue where joysticks could disconnect mid-flight on Windows 8
- Fixed an issue where flights started with full throttle regardless of the vehicle's throttle position
- Fixed an issue where SimDirector control settings were not importing/exporting from the user interface
- Fixed an issue where joysticks remapped for iSimObjects but the keyboard did not
- Fixed an issue where imported control setting profiles got merged with existing settings instead of overwriting them
SimConnect and Software Development Kit (SDK)
Added Features
- Added additional getters for new methods to the camera system
Bugs Resolved
- Fixed an issue that prevented the included ExternalSim sample from working
- Fixed an issue where the included Cabdir tool in the SDK was not working
Documentation Updates
- The PDK Rendering documentation was overhauled and several examples were added
- The SimDirector documentation was overhauled and several examples were added
- Fixed an issue where ISimObjectAttachments.h was left out of the SDK
- Made several clarifications to the weather documentation that was causing confusion
- The Weapons documentation was clarified and updated and the weapons and targetting gauge was included as an SDK sample
SimConnect Issues Resolved
- Fixed an issue where SimConnect value "ELECTRICAL MASTER BATTERY" cannot be written
- Fixed an issue where SimConnect FlightLoad was not working with .fxml files
Professional Plus Bugs Resolved and Documentation Added
- Resolved a crash when setting Health Points with an Int datatype
- Fixed an issue where SimConnect exceptions where thrown when removing an AI Weapon entity
- Fixed several rendering issues where attached weapons could render behind aircraft
- The weapons documentation was clarified and updated
- Include weapons and target gauge as an SDK sample
Updates to Included Air Vehicles
IRIS F-22
- Internal stores added to the visual model. (AIM-9X, AIM-120C, GBU-31 and GBU-39)
- Left and Right AIM-9 bays coded to be independent of each other. Now work on Exit 3 and 4
- Right Afterburner flame effect now independent of the left afterburner
- Elevator effectiveness reduced for more stable pitch authority
- Roll effectiveness reduced for more stable roll authority
- Increased airspeed overstress value to more realistic values
- Various internal code changes made to on-board systems
- Updated various audio elements
Dino Cattaneo F-35A
- More responsive auto-pilot
- New effects
- New, more-detailed pilot
- New textures
- Addition of a 2-D panel
Additional Features, Crashes and Issues Resolved
Installer Optimizations
- Resolved an issue where the installer would report that it could not write value to complete to key
Added Features
- Reverse order of sorting on favorite and date/time on load flight screen
- Scenario startup screen enhancements
Resolved Crashes Within Prepar3D
- Resolved the reported 'Pure Virtual Function Call' crash with AI traffic enabled
- Fixed several issues where the scenery library could be causing crashes
- Fixed several instances where the flight planner was causing hard crashes
- Fixed a crash caused by sending incorrect object names through SimConnect
- Fixed a crash caused by running Prepar3D.exe with the -cfgdir command line option
- Fixed a crash where add-on aircraft with incorrect LUA code could cause a crash in select vehicle screen
- Fixed a crash where virtual cockpit mip/mapping could cause crashes with vehicles that cannot re-initialize their gauges
Miscellaneous Issues Resolved
- Fixed an issue where instruments could disappear when using multiple monitors
- Resolved an issue where boat pitch could be rendered incorrectly
- Resolved an issue where planes could bounce on runways
- Resolved a memory leak with aircraft sounds not being freed if no sound devices are present
- Resolved an issue where the Scenery Library allowed for duplicate folder entries
- Resolved an issue where the Scenery Library had un-removable required=false scenery.cfg entries
- Resolved UI rendering spacing and visibility issues in the fuel and payload UI screen
- Resolved UI rendering spacing and visibility issues in the Facility UI screen
- Resolved an issue where some graphic settings were not getting written out to profiles
- Resolved an issue where sound settings and deviced selected did not save out to profiles
- Resolved an issue where users could not hear DME (morse) ident sounds
- Resolved and issue where weapon cameras would not go to static when the weapon detonates on impact
- Resolved several texture.cfg spacing issues in included aircraft
- Resolved an issue where clickspots in Virtual Cockpits weren't working
- Resolved an issue where under bathymetry dynamic water a user could switch from sub to aircraft and could end up in an infinite crash loop
- Fixed a growing memory leak entering and exiting UI screens