Lockheed Martin hat eine neue Version seiner Simulationsplattform Prepar3D herausgebracht.

Gegenüber dem Vorgänger gibt es einige wichtige Neuerungen. Etwa ein völlig neues Atmosphärenmodell, das ein beispielloses Maß an Realismus und Wiedergabetreue bieten soll.

Auch Beleuchtung und Schatten sollen im Prepar3D v6 realistischer sein. Besonderer Fokus wurde auf Flughäfen gelegt, die nun detailliertere Objekte, Oberflächen und Beleuchtungsmodelle enthalten. Eine Reaktion auf das Benutzerfeedback.

Optimiert wurde auch der Update-Prozess, der voraussichtlich zu erheblichen Zeit- und Bandbreiteneinsparungen führen soll.

Mit dem Prepar3D v6 wird die Academic-Lizenz durch die Personal-Lizenz ersetzt. Das bisher übliche Wasserzeichen wurde in der Personal-Lizenz entfernt. Für die Nutzung ist jetzt eine ständige Internetverbindung notwendig.

Für den Prepar3D v6 Personal bleibt der Preis mit 59,95 $ der gleiche wie für die vorherigen Prepar3D Academic-Versionen (ca. 55 Euro). Die Professional Version ist um 350 US-Dollar zu haben, die Professional Plus um 2.750 US-Dollar. Entwicklerlizenzen für Professional und Professional Plus kosten 9,99 US-Dollar bzw. 50 US-Dollar pro Monat.

Prepar3D v6 arbeitet noch nicht mit der Unreal Engine, die Lockheed Martin in Zukunft in allen seiner Simulationen einsetzen wird. Mehr unter Lockheed Martin steigt auf Unreal Engine um! Möglicherweise wird der P3D bereits in Version 7 damit laufen. Mal sehen.

Prepar3D v6.0 – General Platform Updates – Release Notes

New Features

• Updated volumetric clouds and atmospherics system improving visuals, performance, and support for multiple weather stations.
• Updated physically based and HDR lighting system supporting greater dynamic range, bounce lighting, and improved lighting visuals.
• Overhauled update process including automatic update notifications and installation as well as update patch support. Updating Prepar3D v6 will no longer require any components to be uninstalled before updating.
• New graphics features including:
  • Improved edge blending with temporal antialiasing (TAA).
  • Improved shadow detail with screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO).
  • Support for planar reflections on wet surfaces.
• Cameras now support physical properties including aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings.
• Enhanced Flight Planner screen supporting the addition of SIDS and STARS to flight plans.
• Precipitation accumulation and evaporation is now supported.
• Custom weather themes can now be saved and loaded in the Weather Settings UI.
• Improved layout of cloud settings in Weather Settings UI.
• ISimObjects now support loadout changes made in the Payload UI.
• SimDirector camera can now rotate around selected objects.
• Replaced SpeedTree with custom solution supporting wind effects.
• Improved primitive drawing object visuals including material support. Added pyramid and cone objects.
• Updated SimDirector UI theme.
• Added DebriefAction to add debrief messages to scenarios.
• Added debrief and goals display to Flight Analysis screen. Scenario debrief information can also be saved to a file.
• Added precipitation pooling and ripple effects.
• Clouds support dynamic lighting including light from lightning strikes.
• Added custom tone mapping option to fine tune light and dark areas of scene.
• Added views menu option to manually position camera. Previously referred to as Cinematographer mode.
• New and updated default content including:
  • Updated global airport data and airport backgrounds.
  • Improved land class terrain texture detail.
  • Added precipitation effects to airport surfaces, airport objects, autogen buildings, bridges, and fences.
  • Buildings now support attached rooftop objects.
  • Improved hangar texture layout.
  • Updated parking space textures.
  • Improved runway and taxiway textures and reflectance.
  • Added geometry and lights to hangar models.
  • Added hazard lights to corners of tall generic buildings.
  • Walled roofs are now generated on tall generic buildings.
  • Fixed visual issue with F-16 landing gear texture.
  • Updated various airport vehicle models and textures.
  • Updated default weather themes.
  • Added light fixture models to airport lights.
  • Added wingtip pylons to interior F-16 models.
  • Improved landing and taxi lights for C-130 and F-16 models.
  • Updated global buildings to PBR textures.
  • Updated additional vehicles to PBR textures including Mooney Bravo, Maule, Piper Cub, CRJ 700, and various AI objects.
  • Updated weapon and pylon models to PBR textures.
  • Improved global building layout and density.
  • Updated windsock models and animations.
  • Updated land class textures.
  • Updated global water data.
  • Updated global park data.
  • Updated global bridge data and bridge lighting.
  • Updated global helipad data.
  • Fixed various model issues in the Washington DC area.
  • Updated star and galaxy visuals.

Fixes and Improvements

• Improved overall rendering system performance.
• Improved terrain rendering performance.
• Improved threading performance and CPU core usage.
• Improved network traffic handling and multiplayer performance.
• Improved terrain height resolution and lighting detail.
• Improved layout and usability for multiple user interface screens.
• Legacy models now more closely match lighting of PBR models.
• Updated core and shader compilers.
• Added support for shader model 6.
• Improved post process effects including IR, sensor modes, and signal noise.
• Improved airport lighting visuals and loading performance.
• Improved auto exposure lighting values.
• Improved fog visuals and lighting.
• Fixed crash that could occur when using the map UI.
• Windshield effects are now always enabled if supported on the vehicle.
• Fixed issue where changing precipitation type or rate would not trigger windshield effects to reload.
• Improved taxiway line resolution.
• Improved handling of ambient and directional lighting on materials.
• Fixed issues with airport incorrectly loading season changes in some cases.
• Cloud density and scatter can now be set per layer.
• Fixed issue preventing surface wind blend from working after saving and loading a scenario.
• Changing location will no longer trigger terrain reloading in some cases.
• Improved building elevation handling.
• Improved airport system handling of weather changes.
• Improved performance of panel only views.
• Texture streaming setting is now always enabled by default.
• Improved texture streaming performance and memory usage.
• Fixed bug where dead-end taxiways would have incorrect corner ratios.
• Fixed issue where route calculation could occur multiple times when loading flight plans or changing destination airports.
• Fixed issue causing white borders around tail number text in some cases.
• Fixed issue that could cause startup screen to lag when changing time in some cases.
• Improved roof variation with autogen buildings.
• ActivateWaypointAction can now reference player objects.
• Engine is no longer stopped when deactivating waypoint list actions.
• Improved hazard light implementation.
• Added RECORDABLE flag to effects created from SimConnect so they’ll play in flight recordings.
• Improved message window position in VR.
• DialogActions can now have separate text displayed on screen vs. what is read to user.
• Added VR setting for auto-restore tracked origin.
• ATC panel now ignores numeric input if modifier keys are held down.
• SimDirector camera can now zoom further out.
• Improved terrain to apron transitions at sloped airports.
• Fixed visual issues that could occur when turning volumetric clouds on and off.
• SimProperty UIs now sort based on order defined in xml.
• Fixed various cases where certain buildings would be placed slightly above the ground.
• Discontinuities are now generated on manual sequence waypoints.
• Modified various panel placements in VR.
• Editable text fields in SimDirector now have borders.
• SimDirector visualization graph nodes can now be manually positioned.
• Fixed bug in SimDirector causing context menu to immediately close when right clicking logic nodes.
• Scenario changes are now preserved when restarting after crashing vehicle.
• Improved depth precision reducing z-fighting in distant objects.
• Improved bloom effect.
• Fixed bug causing track and position to not be updated in GPS gauge when initially loaded.
• Ground speed can now be viewed in info text.
• Fixed bug causing objects attached to aircraft carriers to cull too early.
• Clicking facility in map view will no longer pause simulation.
• All gated aircraft that have ground vehicles servicing them now have white safety and vehicle restriction/clearance lines.
• Fixed issue preventing material scripts from executing if scenario started paused.
• Fixed issue causing elevator directions to be reversed in TTA aircraft as well as other minor visual bugs.

Fixes and Improvements (Professional Plus Only)

• Improved DIS dead reckoning behavior.
• Fixed ground reaction and friction for countermeasure simulation.
• Updated Varjo SDK including setting to use previous version.
• Added support for up to 8 GPUs.