Prepar3d Progress

[G.K.]

OK, I purchased P3D yesterday.

Current progress:
It told me the download would take about 4 hrs. No problem.
1 minute before the download finished I got the message "Your download was interrupted" I closed this window and it gave me the option of continuing the download which I accepted. The download then finished.
I extracted the files and tried installing onto my second hard drive.
Half way through the installation I got the message "Prepar3d has stopped working"
I cancelled this window and the install window told me the installation had finished.
I rebooted and the P3D short cut is on my desktop.
I click the shortcut and again I get the message "Prepar3d has stopped working"

I have searched the P3D forums and can't find anyone else having this particular problem.

I am now thinking the interrupted download has caused some problems so I'm going to download again and give it a second try

Edit: On second thoughts I'm going to download the individual files separately.

[OldAirmail]

Try reading this Prepar3d link.

Although it may not sound like your problem, there's a good chance that it's related.

Their solution - download to a different location worked for me on my second download.


Because of the horrendous troubles I had with the first V2.x I thought that I had a bad download. So I deleted EVERYTHING and downloaded again. AND AGAIN.

It turned out that it wasn't the download. It was Prepar3d V2.x itself.



I played around A LOT with the settings and so must have downloaded/installed the original V2 five or more times without any problems insofar as downloading.


I don't recall if you have a choice of multiple download sites. If you do, cancel the download & switch to another site. If not, cancel the download and wait a minute to try again.

Most of my downloads were done in less than 1.5 hours, but I seem to recall that one attempt said that it'd take 11 to 12hours



NOTE
There was one "problem" that I had was during many of the installs. Every so often I would have a pop-up saying that there was a problem installing a file. I think that it was caused by my computer.

Anyway, after waiting 3 to 5 seconds, I would click on the Retry button and it continued to load the "problem" file. When it would pop-up again, just waited a few seconds and clicked Retry. It was never the same file.

Once Prepar3d was installed everything worked as it was supposed to. That's why I say that it must have been caused by my computer.

[G.K.]

Thanks OldAirmail,

Since my last post I have checked the checksum of my download and it's all correct, no corruption.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling but the same problem persists ....."Prepar3d has stopped working" when I click on the short cut. I have gone to the P3d folder, all seems correct there (but no way of knowing for sure what a P3d folder should contain) If I click on the app directly still no joy "Prep3d has stopped working".

I'll also use the P3D forums and ask around......I'll let you know how I get on.

[G.K.]

Solved it

Installed the .NET framework 4.5.1 from MS

This takes me onto the activation window.

[logjam]

See, told ya.

[Fozzer]

See, told ya.

Its what 'appens when you live in Sussex, Log.... ... ...!

Paul.... ....!

[G.K.]

LoL....


To be fair to P3D I'll explain what went wrong

There are 2 installation methods available. There's "Setup.exe"and there's "Prepar3D.msi" which is suggested for "expert" installers..........he he.

Being a short sighted carrot crunching yokel from Sussex I chose the wrong method.......I was also a bit tired at the time, I had exhausted myself pulling a cork from a bottle of wine.

I'm now going to uninstall and do it properly

[G.K.]

OK..


.....done it properly and it works "straight from the box" .....at least, so far. I've only had a 10 minute flight so far.

The default flight puts you into the F22, this takes me right down memory lane back to Total Air War days. I had some fun with that sim back in the day.

default target frame rate is 20 fps which looks very smooth indeed, I was very impressed. I had no idea that such a low frame rate could look so good. I have turned it up to 25 now, looking good. The lighting is much more subtle, looking slightly darker but IMO much more realistic. It adds depth. No popping autogen . The menu text looks a bit ropey though, maybe it's something Iv've got set wrong.

I tinkered with the settings and moved to Switzerland. I set up some visibility layers and added scattered clouds. The volumetric fog is great, a massive improvement on FSX. .......The whole environment looks much much better.

I haven't tinkered with the setting enough to find out what and how it effects the performance. I haven't touched the config yet either. I would guess that once I have balanced the processor/GPU loads it will only improve things further.


Overall Very Pleased so far. I'm thinking Flight simming is on the rungs of a new ladder.

[OldAirmail]

Congratulations!

Now if you think that Prepar3d V2.199 is good, just wait!

Prepar3d V2.2xxx is coming out real soon. Possibly as soon as next week!

So, for now, enjoy. But be prepared to download it all again (hopefully on Monday).



I'm using FSX less and less nowadays. This next version sounds like it'll be enough to tip me over.

Most aircraft and scenery work in P3d. ALL of my MUST HAVE software works - Accu-Feel, FTX Global/Vector, OpusFSX.

It's possible that I'll remove FSX after the next release.



Prepar3d V2.2x BETA

[logjam]

now, just in case, meaning it has to be perfect. Just in case I decide to go P3D again, which install method do you suggest again?

[OldAirmail]

Use Setup.exe not Prepar3D.msi.

You might want to look at this PDF - Prepar3D v2 Download and Installation Directions.

All in all, it's not that hard to do. There ARE a few things that you need to know first.

But once you've installed P3d some things, like installing scenery, are FAR simpler.

[G.K.]

Waiting for the patch.....

meanwhile I've been tinkering with it a bit more.

Still no major problems encountered apart from occasional floating autogen houses, this could be because of "out of memory" problems that the new patch may address. I've since tweaked the config (a LM suggested adjustment) with AffinityMask=14, it has improved my framerates slightly. Very smooth as well.

Looking at the resource manager and Nvidia Inspector The processor (i5) is jogging along at between 25 - 38% sometimes bumping up to 55. The GPU is working hard at 90 - 99%. This in a low scenery area........My Graphics card Is a 640 GT 2 gig, I suppose this is a low end card these days.

[G.K.]

Still making variable progress:

On the plus side I've just downloaded the latest beta drivers from Nvidia 337.50.........It's made a significant difference on FPS. I can now push the sliders up a bit more. Shadows are still a big hit but that's reasonable, they always will be. All three autogen sliders are now maxed out.......Edit. Oh, and I've added some traffic now that Frames have improved.


On the down side. Some of my old add-ons don't work.

Tongass Fjords installs ok but looks appalling, land in the wrong place and many of the scenery objects not visible.
Ultimate Traffic II I haven't tried yet.
Loaded most of the FSX default aircraft, simple drag and drop.
Airports that I've made using ADE for FSX don't appear correctly in P3D, I'm sure this can be overcome though.
GEX and UTX won't install as the installer always looks for FSX.......I understand that I can "make a registry Key"????? that will sort it out but I haven't a clue how to do this. Any help on this would be appreciated.

[OldAirmail]

This is a long winded explanation of the MigrationTool from Flightsim Estonia.

In real practice it's quick and simple.

The Migration Tool from FlightSim Estonia

It's well worth the money.



There is some Orbx scenery that isn't (wasn't???) compatible with Prepar3d V2.199x.

For a work-around see - What I learned in class today.

[G.K.]

Thanks kind sir, that looks just the job.


I did a long flight yesterday from Sion to Lydd down in Kent. I used the FSX Cessna, just enough fuel. Very pleased with the performance . But flying over Paris I noticed all of the bridges were black!!! That jet black you get when textures are missing.

I'm happy to believe it's something I've done, maybe something I installed or tried to install......My best guess would be that Ultimate terrain Europe partly installed and is inserting it's bridges but the textures are missing. I've bitten the bullet and have downloaded the full 2.2...........reinstall.