DirectX 12

It should be noted that if they implement Sampler Feedback, which is part of DirectX 12 Ultimate, then VRAM usage could actually go down.

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Thatā€™s one of the troubles when you port a game without developing it since the beginning thinking in DX12. Anyway, you can offer to run it in both modes. I donā€™t understand why people is afraid of improving to a more modern api. Would you like to run p3d in dx8 nowadays?

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I was one of those eagerly waiting for Prepar3d to switch to DX12. However, given the result, I may have been wrong in this hope. Like FolkishZeus315 states, the relatively minor visual and fps improvements are far outbalanced by the massive stability and memory management issues, at least on my system.

I am afraid MSFS going into the same direction.

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When it comes, I suspect you experience will greatly depend on how ā€œgoodā€ your graphics card is. It may come down to the amount of VRAM you have, and just as weā€™ve seen so far, there will be those users who find that DX12 is the best thing since sliced bread, and there will be those who think it is the worst thing to happen to MSFS.

Donā€™t get your hopes up on the performance increase guys and girls. :wink:

Itā€™s more about features, than performance increases. As Sebastian says, its not ā€œjustā€ for performance, although no doubt there will be benefits for some users systems.

And this is why MSFS move to DX12 is a little scary. Look at the number of P3D users running into issues. Also, as of now, I run MSFS on a 6GB video card, on 1080p on absolutely maxed out settings. If I put P3D in maxed settings, it will crash almost immediately. Keep in mind, they DID adjust settings in this move to DX12 - what is now ā€œNormalā€ or ā€œMediumā€ was absolutely highest in V4. But the sim doesnā€™t look nearly as good as MSFS out of the box. I spent about $500 in Orbx to get it to look as good (which didnā€™t really affect performance)ā€¦ I now run P3D on 2048 textures (which is High setting) - 4K textures kill performance down to 15 FPS. If I am flying KingAir 350 (study level), I have to bump textures down to 1024 for the game to NOT crash with that DXGI Hang issue. (I also had to use Legacy Render panels).

P3D V5 is a LOT less stable than MSFS. MSFS absolutely kills it in performance right now. And I am afraid once it moves to DX12, there is a chance it will head in that same direction. At this point people generally donā€™t recommend anything less than 11GB video cards for P3D.

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Hopefully not, since MSFS moving to DX12 as one of the part required for Xbox port. Consoles have tighter performance requirements than PC. So they have to optimize their DX12 implementations to be able to run on a console. Of course it is also done to bring DX12 Ultimate features on board (Ray Tracing, Variable Rate Shading, etc).

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P3d is based on an engine 15 years old. Thatā€™s why itā€™s unstable, not due to DX12 alone.

Not to mention the developers of DX have a hand in the creation of this sim.

A plethora of modern AAA games use DX12 without issue.

I donā€™t think we have anything to be losing sleep over :sweat_smile:

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Trueā€¦ But even though I havenā€™t flown P3D before this latest version 5.1, my impression is that 4.5 was VERY stable - itā€™s why there are a lot of P3D users who are STILL on 4.5 and havenā€™t purchased 5. So, I think there is something to be said for DX12 IMPLEMENTATION. It may not be DX12 on its own, perhaps it was because they rushed v5 before MSFS came out - I know they are actively working on getting it more stable. And honestly, once you add the add-ons it looks close to MSFS in terms of quality, and even better in certain areas (like night lighting). You can say that MSFS is based PARTLY on old code too - ATC is practically identical between P3D and MSFS, and I THINK FSX (I havenā€™t ever flown FSX, so I canā€™t be sure)ā€¦

I am just glad both platforms are under active development.

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With only a single platform, you have nothing to compare it to, which can lead to stagnation.

In what way? I am flying P3D AND MSFS ALL the time! I also own X-Plane, but the lack of in-sim flight planner rubs me the wrong way there. I havenā€™t flown much of it at all.

Then you agree with me. For example, if MSFS had not appeared, do you think this would have kickstarted talk of an XP12? Of course not, we would be waiting for 11.6 to be developed.

You state it yourself that you fly multiple sims. The two camps benefit from each others development in form of healthy competition. Developers can eye each others products, and see where their fall short in some aspect, and make changes based on their users feedbackā€¦or not in some cases. :stuck_out_tongue:

Not true. Releasing new versions has always been how Austin and LR make their money - They release a new ā€˜gameā€™ every 2-3 years with some whiz-bang new features, and use the sale proceeds to fund development of free updates. XP10ā€™s lifecycle ended with 10.51 and XP11 will do the same as well.

Game development isnā€™t free, sooner or later XP12 will come along because LR needs to make money. What MSFS did was to give LR a major target to aim for with XP12.

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Itā€™s perhaps a shame that Vulkan, due to the XBox, was never on the cards. Yet another thing PC users are stuck with. But you never know, weā€™ll have to wait and see how well it is implemented.

What I find kind of strange is that even Sonyā€™s PC release (Death Stranding and Horizon: Zero Dawn) opt for DX12 instead of Vulkan. This is really strange considering Playstation have their own proprietary API. In theory porting to Vulkan have the same effort than porting to DX12. Unless, PS API is closer to DX12 than Vulkan which in this case helps with porting.

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Yes, DirectX 12 support in v.5 has made a massive improvement in the performance of P3D.

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Bad implementation, bad coding is what pdv5 has. Donā€™t blame dx12

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Yes, this I can confirm.
I have used every iteration of P3d from v2.x right through to the introduction of DX12 for v5.x.
For me, v5.x delivered better graphics AND better framerates. The difference was clear.

I just hope that MS/Asobo can achieve what Lockheed Martin has.

So I had a thought today as I was flying around KLAS. My 1080ti VRAM usage is 10.5GB out of a total 11GB available. When running DX12, wont this be an issue if Iā€™m already using that much VRAM with DX11? The sim is running smooth and looks great as it is right now for me, I hope I wonā€™t have to dial back settings when DX12 comes outā€¦

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