Will Prepar3D be supporting multiple platforms or just Windows based?

Because of our hard dependency on DirectX we will be Windows based for the foreseeable future. We're excited about the Windows platform, where it is heading, and how easy it allows for customers and trainees to get started with Prepar3D and a whole host of Windows compatible joysticks, touchscreens and other training devices.

How are you addressing concerns for future compatibility with new Windows versions?

We have a variety of hardware and software we compile and test Prepar3D on. As Windows gets updated, so do we.

Are there plans to include Real Weather in Prepar3D?

There are several great add-ons that provide our customers the option of real or live weather. We encourage our customers who have those requirements to seek out some of the great add-ons that can pull in live weather data.

Any plans to incorporate OpenGL support?

Not at this time, we are all-in on DirectX for the foreseeable future.

Are there minimum system requirements for optimal usage?

We publish and update the minimum system requirements on our web site. Now that the platform is able to use more and more of the graphics card for greater immersion and added features, the old adage of having the best CPU you can buy still holds true, but we are also able to do more and more with faster graphics cards as well.

Is there a 64 bit version of Prepar3D in the future?

It's on our roadmap definitely. However, 64-bit is a very demanding technical challenge, and not something easily obtained. We still feel there is a lot of room left in the 32-bit envelope. Our recent refactor of the autogen system was a great example of this. We were able to reduce the memory footprint of an autogen tree by 17x. As we get smarter and the DX11 engine continues to evolve we will pursue many new opportunities for memory savings and performance increases. We've already had developers reach out to us and tell us how they are now able to pack more and more autogen into their solutions and add-ons because of the recent changes.

Will 2.0 model icing?

We've added in ways for developers to define their own simulations and systems, and incorporate them into the Prepar3D world. Other companies have figured out ways to do this in previous platforms by using direct memory access, but those methods will have to be tailored every time an update occurs. That isn't a problem for other platforms that are end of life, but in a platform like Prepar3D that is constantly evolving and being updated it makes it hard for the developer to keep that add-on compatible. We've partnered with all the add-on developers that have reached out to us to provide formal interfaces and APIs to previous parts of the system they used to have to use hacks or memory access to reach. In addition to simconnect we've added a new PDK (Prepar3D Development Kit) API that brings much greater control to all aspects of the system. Small examples of this include full control over the cameras, so add-on developers can render custom camera into rear-view mirrors for example, and they can choose what not to render in those mirrors to keep the performance hit to a minimum. They can then apply a custom post process to add some glare or a fisheye effect to the mirror. Our new APIs really allow a whole new level of immersion to developers to create Prepar3D content.

Is there a difference in the damage model in 2.0?

We've added the simulation of vehicle health and damage characteristics in the Professional Plus version of Prepar3D to support our military customers. If you're not using that version, then you still have the same damage model from previous platforms.

Shadows add greatly to the realism of flying along with a performance hit. Has the implementation of DX11 affected this area?

It has, greatly. With v2.2 we recently added in the ability for clouds to cast shadows. Dynamic shadows really add to the immersion of the student and trainees, and we are very proud of our shadow system we've engineered for Prepar3D v2. We had a lot of challenges with the shadows that most developers don't face, as we have to simulate and shadow the whole world. Shadows are a perfect example of a new feature that takes advantage of modern day graphics cards. The faster your graphics card, the less fill-rate bound you will be and the more graphics card dependent features you can employ. The cloud and terrain shadow distances available in the UI might seem unattainable now, but in a year or so the graphics cards out then might be able to handle them with ease. We want the platform to continue to be able to scale as hardware improves, both CPU and graphics cards.

Have any changes been made to AI traffic in 2.0?

Not in the core platform. We have added additional AI "behaviors" to support military training in our Professional Plus version. For the general student or trainee, there are several great add-ons that can fill your Prepar3D with AI aircraft if you have those requirements. For the things that ecosystem and Prepar3D solution developers are able to develop, we want to support and enable them to make the best add-ons they can, we don't want to enter their space.

Does Prepar3D plan to support sloped runways?

We will support sloped runways, and provide the mechanism and interfaces for developers to support sloped runways in the future, yes. We're actually already excited to see some of the sloped runway add-ons the Prepar3D Development Networks companies will come up with!

How will DX11 affect mesh resolution in 2.0?

With us now being able to render the terrain on the graphics card, we can employ tessellation to refine the terrain mesh. This also allows us to do some neat things like assigning specular values to landclasses, so that snow is shinier, etc. This also allows us to put in things like the new Time Preview functionality which allow you to dynamically change the time of day.

Having the GPU handling the bulk of the graphics processing obviously frees up the CPU. How will this translate in terms of quality and performance?

There are two ways to bottleneck a 3D simulation platform like Prepar3D - overloading the CPU causes you to be CPU-bound, and overloading the graphics card causes you to be fill-rate bound, you are essentially having the graphics card draw more than it can render at any given frame. Most everyone is familiar in ways that the previous platform was CPU-bound, as it required the CPU to most of the simulation and scene processing. With our new rendering engine, we are able to move traditional CPU work over to the GPU, freeing up the CPU to do other things. Traditionally since the graphics card was not being used, users would override the anti-aliasing settings and primarily only use the graphics card for AA. With v2 we are able to tessellate the terrain and 3D 'ultra' water waves on the graphics card, instance the autogen trees and building on the graphics card, utilize the graphics card for lighting effects like HDR, or custom AA processes like FXAA, not to mention our new dynamic real-time shadow system.

Have any changes been made in multi monitor support - both full screen and windowed mode?

We continue to work to make sure that multi-monitor and multi-touchscreen simulators have the support they need to be operational. This ensures making sure we handle touch inputs the right way, as well as ensuring we save off monitor and panel positions and locations across devices.

Coming under the heading of "Tooting your own horn" - what would YOU like to say about Prepar3D 2.0?

V2 really has so much new capability in it, it's hard to just toot once. Most of our customers are familiar with the graphical or performance improvements, but there are so many things we've added for developers and options now available that aren't being utilized yet, that once they are, I'm sure folks will continue to be amazed by what is possible in this platform.

SimDirector is also a pretty amazing new feature we've added that the online community hasn't really begun to rally around, but I think would have some amazing use cases that could be leveraged. It is a modern tool that makes creating missions or learning experiences in Prepar3D much more robust and much, much easier. A lot of add-on developers ship complex manuals and procedures, but they could easily create tutorials or startup procedure tutorials in SimDirector. You could start the plane in any state, and then guide the user through smooth camera zooms and panning, as well as new on screen text and graphical callouts to go through a startup procedure. You can have it be interactive as well and grade the student on how they are doing, or also disable user input and show the student in Prepar3D how to start it up. You can also use SimDirector to take control of the flight dynamics as well and show students how to handle stalls or other complex situations.

Can you expand a little on the reduction in VAS footprint with the autogen trees?

You all should head over to the Prepar3D forums and thank Beau for that one. Beau is extremely innovative and really dug in and refactored the autogen system. This is a great example of what is now possible in the Prepar3D v2 platform and with our new DirectX 11 rendering engine. As I mentioned before, we feel there is still a lot of untapped potential to continue to improve what is possible with Prepar3D v2, and with each revision of v2 we will continue to blend in existing performance improvements and enhancements as well as new features for both end users and developers.

What type of performance hit can be expected with cloud shadows enabled?

That depends on what graphics card you're running, and what graphics card dependent features you are also running. The great news is that graphics cards are continuously being updated. We didn't limit the functionality in the platform so that a current computer could run everything at max settings. We are a platform, so we need to support a variety of uses and users. Some are flying at 30,000 feet and want great weather effects asd volumetric fog, others might be in an ATC room and only need to render the scene very close.

How do YOU rate P3D as far as keeping on track with your development plan?

I'm very proud of what we've been able to accomplish in the last five months that v2 has been out. We've essentially published three versions, v2, 2.1 and now 2.2, with patches, as well as a few hotfixes mixed in there. I'm extremely proud of my development team and what new and innovative features and solutions to existing problems they've been able to come up with. I would also like to take a moment to thank the ecosystem of developers and sites like FlightSim.Com that help and inform users about Prepar3D and also provide help and troubleshooting support for our users. You all are an invaluable resource for the Prepar3D community and we sincerely appreciate all you do.

I also wanted to take a minute and let the FlightSim.Com users know a little bit more about our development plans for 2014. We are planning a couple more updates to v2 this year. A couple of things we are currently working on is making the dynamic and ultra water perform and look better, adding formal SLI support (though through the existing implementation we've outlined on our forums some users are already seeing some very nice performance gains) as well as terrain paging performance. We are also currently looking into a variety of issues that users have been reporting, the cloud 'spinning' is a good example.

Again, thanks for taking the time Vic to let us speak to your users!

Wesley Bard
Software Manager, Prepar3D Program
Lockheed Martin Corporation
www.prepar3d.com

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