Just noticed that Lockheed Martin’s Prepar3D (P3D) V5.4 was released yesterday. From its website, the update has over a hundred of fixes and improvements.
https://www.prepar3d.com/news/announcements/2023/05/121206/
But more interestingly, there are rumours (even limited) saying that P3DV6 will be coming soon. I am really scratching my head. Continue reading
Just noticed that Lockheed Martin had released P3D v5.2 a few days ago. Descriptions sound good with more than 100 new features and fixes and improvements. https://www.prepar3d.com/news/announcements/2021/06/120786/
Hope this update solves the many issues reported before.
Lockheed Martin has finally released P3D v5.1. Seems like not too many people are aware of it (based on the number of respondents in its support forum) while most people are keeping their eyes on MSFS — me the same.
Anyway, hope this update solves or at least improves the many issues reported after its launch. There are still many features MSFS can’t or doesn’t do properly today.
The Shaders Cleaner for P3D has been updated to version 5a, which now includes the cleaning of the Effects folder as well. It is available for download from the Freeware Section 
in my Store; and it continues to be downward-compatible with P3D version 3 and 4.
NOTE that after the shaders are cleaned, it may take a little longer for P3D to reload the flight session the next time. The screen may even black out for some seconds. No worry, everything will come back to normal after the shader cache is built again.
Just found out Lockheed Martin has released a hotfix addressing P3Dv5’s high priority issues two days ago. Nearly missed it while I’ve been working on the Honeycomb Alpha yoke story.
Hope the most critical issues are fixed. Will report back once downloaded and installed.
Edit 1: Run the Hotfix version briefly and confirm that the landscape issues in KHQM and LSGS earlier reported have been fixed.
Edit 2: Run the Hotfix version for nearly two hours with active ATC. No crash seen so far. Seems the fix does the job.
After running P3Dv5 for two days, my initial impression stated at Post 564 continue to be valid. Also true is my earlier comment saying that “there’s really no need to rush for it.”
If I remember correctly, every time when P3D had a major update (1.xx, 2.xx, 3.xx, 4.xx), the very first version always full of issues. This latest version 5.0 is of no exception.
Followings are a couple of photos comparing the Sion Airport (LSGS) and Bowermen Airport (KHQM) between version 4.5 and 5.0.
Shaders Cleaner for P3Dv5 is now ready for download from the Freeware Section in my Store. It is downward compatible to version 3, which I don’t think anyone still running it, however.
NOTE that after the shaders are cleaned, it may take a bit longer for P3D to reload the flight session the next time. The screen may even black out for some seconds. No worry, everything will come back to normal after the shader cache is built again.
Since Aerosoft hasn’t updated the driver utility for its HoneyComb Alpha Yoke for P3Dv5 yet (by the time of this post), here’s how to assign the device’s Bridge Module manually for the simulator.
Open the add-on.cfg in “C:\ProgramData\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5” folder, which is where the scenery.cfg is located.
Then add the following to the file:
[Package.0]
PATH=X:\Aerosoft\Honeycomb
TITLE=Alpha Flight Control Bridge Module
ACTIVE=true
REQUIRED=false
I tend to put this script to the beginning of the file above all other sceneries. Continue reading
While waiting to purchase the FSUIPC6 as mentioned in last post, I popped up an idea: “Why not test the existing FSUIPC5 with the new P3D first?”
So I copied the DLL.XML from the configuration directory of P3Dv4 to the directory of P3Dv5.
Bingo!
They work together nicely. I don’t even need to modify the file at all. Just copy and paste the DLL.XML from the v4 directory to the new v5 directory and then all is set.
The two folders involved are as follows: Continue reading
FS Times 