Prepar3D v4 is the latest of the LockheedMartin Enterprise Simulation Platform (ESP) simulators. Having first beenreleased in April 2011, there have been four generations of this platform,each improving on the version before, with v4 adding numerous newfeatures. We finally have a full 64-bit platform to work with along withother tweaks to the CPU and GPU usage - something we will definitely becovering in this article.

Which Licence?

There are five separate packages available for P3D, with each onecatering for a differing consumer market.

The first is the professional license, used by flight schools and majorcorporations that work in the aerospace industry. This is the mostexpensive version costing $199. Then there is the Academic License, used bystudents and pilots in training, and this costs $59.95. Finally, there arethree different developer licenses each with their own tiers and benefits,ranging from $9.95 per month to $2,300 in total.

As I will be working towards my NPPL this year, I decided to go for theAcademic License as this suited my needs best.

64 Bit?

The biggest stand-out upgrade on the P3D platform is the fact that itnow runs as 64-bit.

Unlike 32-bit programs, which on modern hardware can be quite limitingdue to the fact that a program can only use up to 4 GB of ram, P3D v4 cannow access the entirety of your computer memory. It can also access muchmore of your graphics card, providing less strain on the CPU, andminimising the chances of a crash to desktop. While not perfect due to theage of some of the code, I personally have seen the improvement this bringsto the simulator.

GPU Or CPU?

As well as providing 64-bit support, Lockheed Martin has been able tounlock additional GPU features, along with multi core implementation. FSXused to suffer from the fact that it could only access a single core onyour system, essentially making 7 of an 8-core PC redundant. By sharing theload of the simulator across all of your system cores, the simulator can beprocessed at a much faster rate.

As mentioned above, Prepar3D unlocks additional features of yourGPU. This means the platform can now render graphics directly off yourgraphics card, rather than on the CPU like before. This allows for muchhigher quality models and details. When combined with the 64-bit upgrade,the simulator now runs far smoother than its ageing predecessor, and has alot more room to spare.

Included Vehicles

Prepar3D v4 comes with 24 aircraft, helicopters and submersibles (yesyou read that right!) as standard, each with different variants andliveries. These are all very well-made with highly detailed modelling andplenty of functionality throughout. While FSX suffered from a set of rather'basic' aircraft, Lockheed Martin went to town and has produced a number ofgood quality aircraft to experience right out of the box.

A number of these aircraft also come from highly regarded third-partydevelopers. Teams from Just Flight,Lionheart CreationsandMilvizgave some of their older, yet still high-quality add-ons to LockheedMartin, ensuring that you enjoy the full experience of the ESP platformfrom the get-go.

You do however lose out on default commercial jetliners. FSX came with aBoeing 737 and 747, a CRJ-700 and an Airbus A321, all of which did not makeit across to the Lockheed Martin platform. While they do have the rights tothem through the ESP source, they have not been included due to the factthat they (Lockheed Martin) are in direct competition with the American andEuropean aerospace giants. While this may disappoint some, there are manyadd-ons both free and payware that you can use for commercial flying.

The default aircraft list is as follows (third-party aircraft are inbold):

• Alabeo Extra 300s
• Beech Baron 58
• Beech King Air 350
• IRIS Simulations F-22 Raptor
• IndiaFoxtrotEcho F-35A Lightning II
• Fury 1500
• Just Flight C69 "Constellation"
• Just Flight Electra Model 10
• Just Flight L049A "Constellation"
• C-130
• Orion Maule M7
• Milviz P-38 Lightning
• Lionheart Creations Mooney Acclaim
• Mooney Bravo
• Piper J3 Cub
• Robinson R22 Beta II
• Sikorsky MH-53 "Blackhawk"
• Virtavia Sikorsky MH-60 "Blackhawk"
• Virtavia Sikorsky UH-60 "Blackhawk"
• Virtavia Sikorsky CH-46 "Sea Knight"
• General Dynamics Ohio Class Submarine
• Neptune SRM

Each of these aircraft can also be used as AI that populate the virtualskies, including some extra unbranded aircraft in the place of commercialliners. These include the 'Passenger Jetliner' A321, the 'PassengerTurboprop' Q400 and the 'Regional Jet' CRJ700. These use the same fictionalairlines from FSX, meaning the likes of World Travel and Orbit Airlinescontinue to fly to this day.

Air Traffic Control is also the same as default FSX. While not capableof SIDS and STARS, it does an all right job at guiding your flight andvectoring you into an approach. It's acceptable, but could definitely beimproved upon.

When on the ground, you also get the chance to walk around your aircraftthrough an 'avatar' mode. This spawns a model character of your choosing,and allows you to look around both your aircraft (useful for pre-flightchecks) and airport environment, and is a mode in Prepar3D that I feel isvery underrated.

Flight Dynamics And Systems

Aircraft dynamics in P3D are defined through a number of data referencetables. This is where the aircraft capabilities and limitations are definedin what is essentially a large fancy spreadsheet. While they may not soundlike a great way of doing things, it can be very effective if doneright.

It's true that FSX used the same method, but this was based on theflight model of a Cessna 172. The consequence of this was that unless youwere flying a 172 or something very similar, your aircraft wouldn't feelquite as realistic as it should be.

Lockheed Martin, in this case, worked on improving this by allowing morevariables to be adjusted in the flight model. While not perfect, it doesmean that aircraft now fly much better than what was possible prior to theenhancements.

Prepar3D however has always been much stronger in systemsimulation. Many of the high-end add-ons, as well as a number of thedefault aircraft, come with fully functional cockpits, where all gauges,switches and functions, work as they should in the real world. This hasalways been a defining factor of the ESP Platform and is something P3D v4keeps strong to this day!

Graphics And Virtual Environment

Unfortunately this is where P3D starts to fall short somewhat, as the landclass, textures, roads and even airports, remain unchanged from FSX, which is a shame considering the other improvements.

Prepar3D uses the same default database that was common on FSX, FS2004and even FS2002. This means that airports are very outdated and don't looktoo appealing to fly from. Textures are also the same as before, with theground environment matching exactly that of the older simulator. It doesunfortunately all look rather dated, and as a result, you're going to wantto find an add-on that can change that to something much more modern.

Airports are also very dated. While a small selection of major hubs havebeen worked on to modernise them, the majority of medium, small andregional airports have been left behind and are in dire need ofre-working. The biggest upset for me has to be London Heathrow, whichdoesn't even have Terminal 5 and still features the long-closed crosswindrunway! This is a shame, especially as airports are one of the main factorsthat come into play on a flight simulator.

One thing FSX did suffer from was autogen popping, but this is somethingthat has now been address in P3D. Before, buildings on the ground would popinto view and disappear instantly, leading to the 'popping' effect thatoccurred over large chunks. Now buildings slowly fade into view and thenfade out, allowing for the system to render distant buildings withoutkilling the immersion of the simulator. While only a small change, it doeshelp with the environment life below, especially in densely populatedareas.

The only major graphical change I have found, is with the simulatorlighting - it is not as bright as before. However, in my opinion this is agood thing. Both FSX and previous versions of P3D were always saturated andlight, which may look good for a game, but as a simulator attempting torecreate real-life, it just didn't look right. By toning this down, theteam at Lockheed Martin have managed to balance worldwide lighting, as wellas color correcting the skies, and generally making the simulator muchmore visually appealing.

If you do however want to increase the color in the simulator, thenthis can easily be achieved, as Prepar3D introduced High Dynamic Range(HDR) lighting as an option. This allows you to customise everything fromthe sky's brightness, right down to the darkness of the shadows. This isreally useful in ensuring that your lighting matches that of your chosenenvironment, as well as allowing you to customise the skies to suit yourown needs.

The world environment in Prepar3D is in much need of some additionallove, but unless you are lucky enough to own something like Orbx GlobalBase orREX Texture Direct 4,you are, for now, stuck with something that really has been time-locked.

Weather

Prepar3D comes with 17 pre-set weather themes. These include all theoriginals from FSX, along with seven presets by Orbx.

The Orbx themes are well-made and provide an extra challenge, while atthe same time ensuring the weather stays realistic in terms of visibilityand cloud layers. If you enjoy flying in stormy situations or wantrealistic static weather, then these additional themes definitely trumpthose of the default presets!

There is also a full weather customisation tool, allowing you to createyour own worldwide weather within P3D. This includes customisingvisibility, cloud layers, cloud types, temperature, wind direction, windspeed, precipitation and air pressure, to name a few. This is a reallycomprehensive tool and can be used to create just about any weather patternyou can think of, from clear sunny skies to that of the apocalypse!

There is however no 'Real-World Weather' option. While FSX had theability to source this from real-world METAR information, this feature wasdropped by Lockheed Martin, presumably to save licensing costs of thesource data, especially while there are better payware options available.

Freeware And Payware

There are thousands of add-ons available for Prepar3D v4, but initiallywhen the platform was released, there was definitely a gap in compatibleaircraft and scenery!

As Prepar3D v4 compiles scenery in 64-bit and uses Microsoft DirectX 11,a number of popular add-ons had compatibility issues (gauges werenon-functioning and some exterior models were invisible). This meantdevelopers had to re-compile these through the new Prepar3D v4 SDK,ensuring that everything in the simulator back-end would be functional.

Most if not all major FSX developers now work on Prepar3D, includingPMDG, Orbx, Aerosoft, Milviz, Just Flight, REX and Flight1 amongstothers. This had lead to some incredibly highly detailed aircraft withfunctionality not too dissimilar to real-world training tools - somethingthat Lockheed Martin pride themselves on.

What about the freeware scene? Unfortunately, it's not so big. WhileX-Plane 11 has a plethora of quality freeware add-ons to choose from,Prepar3D lacks in this area. Personally I feel this is mainly down to thefact that as a platform, Prepar3D is only built to have high-end aircraftwith full systems cockpit simulation, something that the majority of FSXfreeware lacked, and therefore does not fit their ethos.

There is almost an imbalance to this, as while P3D has plenty of verygood payware add-ons, it lacks in the freeware department, whereas X-Planeexcels in the freeware category, but falls behind slightly with thebetter-known payware developers (up until very recently at least).

What Have We Lost?

Looking back at FSX, there are only two things that I can see that hasgone astray.

The first, as previously mentioned, is real-world weather. You can nolonger tell the simulator to pull data from METAR stations to populate theworld with updating realistic weather. While not a major loss as there areadd-ons that can do this (and let's be honest, FSX didn't do thisparticularly well anyway), it still would have been nice to see Prepar3Dwith a feature that did this or similar, especially as Lockheed Martinpackages P3D as a training tool.

The other I have noticed is multiplayer. FSX had a massive multiplayerscene built-in through the former Game Spy network and later via Steam,with people connecting to servers and flying together in both serious andlight-hearted scenarios. This however, is understandable as to why itdidn't make it to P3D, mainly as Lockheed Martin do not have the provisionsto run multiplayer servers, and those who are looking for a serious setuphave options like VATSIM, IVAO and PilotEdge already available to them.

Besides these two, a lot has been added to P3D in which to ensure itbecomes the next-generation ESP simulation.

Opinion And Closing Remarks

Prepar3D v4 for me is the next step in flight simulation on the ESPsource code. As more and more developers drop support for 32-bit simulators(PMDG being the latest big name), people who are familiar with the FSX andearlier P3D versions can easily move across to this simulator and feel athome. For users of the platform, there is a degree of comfort in knowingthat their 'same old' simulator still sees regular updates nearly 15 yearson.

I personally used FSX as my main platform up until very recently, andmoving onto P3D was as simple as can be. The relocation of the add-onsfolder made for some searching, but underneath everything else was thesame, and the majority of my add-ons were compatible, while those thatweren't, required only a small 'upgrade fee' from developers to gaincompatibility.

While visually P3D may not look too dissimilar to FSX with a fancy newmenu, the ESP platform have always relied on add-ons to keep themgoing. This is something that hasn't changed, but by making the simulator64-bit, it gives us a lot more room to play with!

Over the last five years, two simulators have really come out ontop. While older platforms like FSX and FS2004 start to fall behind andothers like Flight Sim World and Aerofly have attempted to make their wayinto the market, Prepar3D and X-Plane 11 have dominated. Seeing that a lotof people would have been familiar with the former Microsoft platform, itwould make sense for many to move to this simulator.

If you're looking for a flight simulator that keeps close to theoriginal platform that defined this genre, then Prepar3D v4 is the way togo.

The Technical Bit

Minimum Requirements

• Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 (64-bit) +
• CPU: 2.0 GHz
• RAM: 2 GB
• GPU: 1 GB with full DirectX 11 support
• HDD space: 30 GB, with at least 10GB on C:\
• (3 GB for the SDK)
• Solid State Drive (SSD) is strongly recommended
• DirectX 11
• 1024x768 minimum screen resolution for primary display

Review PC Specs

• Windows 10 Professional
• 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 6700K Processor
• 16 GB RAM
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 745

Michael Hayward

Prepar3D Web Site