Review: Prepar3D V5
By MrYorkiesWorld
Introduction
Hello there everyone, my name is MrYorkiesWorld and it's been a while since I last posted any content in terms of videos, reviews or anything like that either on my own YouTube channel or on FlightSim.Com. I decided to make a comeback and do a little review of Lockheed Martin's new P3D V5 (with Hotfix 1).
I first heard about P3D V5 coming out towards the end of April 2020 - until then I'd essentially been absent for quite a few months sorting out a few things in my own life. Family and loved ones had to take priority, as did my job working for the NHS in such uncertain times with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Nevertheless, I decided to give P3D V5 a review, and I'm extremely grateful to my friend Dom Smith from FlightSim.Com for contributing towards the cost of P3D V5 - I'm extremely grateful for his support on making my return to YouTube and to my reviews here on the site.
As with all my reviews, I like to keep things short, to the point and easy to understand - I don't believe in going too far in depth - it's always fun to find certain things out for yourself as well, just like I have with this new version of the simulator.
Installation
Initially, the interface for P3D V5 is very similar to that of previous versions, albeit with a new logo and splash screen which, in my opinion is a huge improvement on the old, tired-looking visuals of previous P3D versions such as P3D V4.
Within 24 hours of me initially installing P3D V5, Hotfix 1 came out, and so I had to download everything again and update it manually which was a bit of a pain, however I can certainly say it was all worth it to be able to check out this new version of P3D which, in my opinion is very exciting to review indeed.
The installation was self-explanatory - it was quick and easy on my particular system, and I didn't really notice, apart from the visuals, much difference in the process at all compared to previous experience. The time taken was around the same, and the whole process of choosing which directory to install to was pretty much the same as well.
Interface
Seeing as this is a new version of P3D, I expected to see a new and improved user interface within the simulator, and I haven't been disappointed. The color scheme, I have to say suits the simulator a lot better and helps to make it look a lot simpler. The start-up window itself looks to be a little smaller than before, and it might be confusing at first if you're used to previous versions of P3D, however you should quickly get used to the new layout, and it only took me a few minutes to feel right at home again.
One of the things that interested me is that the "Weather" section in the options menu now sits inside of the "World" section, which I found a little confusing at first, but later realised it made sense for everything related to the world, atmosphere and weather to come under the same umbrella.
The settings screens also seem to have a few new features such as the option to enable Variable Refresh Rate, Dynamic Texture Streaming and Enhanced Atmospherics (Beta). I did eventually decide to enable the Enhanced Atmospherics (Beta), and was quite impressed how different it made the clouds look in the sim. It takes away the ability to manually customize some of the cloud options, but it seems to work really well and add more detail and realism to the simulator.
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