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MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

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TimC340
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by TimC340 »

I note that Don has discovered that AIFP is somewhat hampered by the updating of many, many airfields' positions and ID codes in P3Dv5. He's working on it, but has expressed some concern that legacy flight plans may well not work in the new sim. I'm still not really using it as my AMD setup isn't compatible, even under HF2, so I can't really comment further.
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Making MAIW work in PREPAR3DV5

Post by barticus300 »

Hi Guys sorry for the daft question but how do we install matrix if its yet possible into PREPAR3DV5 ?
I have tried adding the MAIW files manually into the scenery library to nothing also were do the MAIW aircraft go ? do I put them into simobjects ?

Any help much appreciated as Ive always used Matrix in V4 and love it

Regards Glynn :)
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Re: Making MAIW work in PREPAR3DV5

Post by Kaiii3 »

You can add the SImObjects to the default directory, but it would be bed practice. Do you know how to add addons using the XML-Method? If yes I would suggest using this way.

BTW: Many Addons developed for P3Dv4 are not fully working in v5. (Airports will not work at all, they need some changes for v5, Effects will look different)
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Re: Making MAIW work in PREPAR3DV5

Post by barticus300 »

Thanks for the reply not sure on how to use the XML method but will look into that.

Thanks again Kaiii3
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by DennyA »

Greg, any news on a beta of V2 for P3D V5?
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by Greg »

Not yet Denny, sorry. All my sim time went to testing MSFS.
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by gsnde »

And....any good?
Cheers,
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by DMdoc »

Greg wrote: 11 Aug 2020, 09:54 Not yet Denny, sorry. All my sim time went to testing MSFS.
Greg: I realize that you have only a limited amount of time to spend on MAIW, but please remember that there are some of us who have moved to P3Dv5 and would LOVE to have even a limited release of MATRIX that works with P3Dv5. How about a limited release, such as one geographic area only (I'd prefer North America...)?
Would love to provide beta testing feedback.
Thanks in advance!
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by Greg »

Actually, the programming isn't the issue. The app itself is more or less finished.

However, developers are now slowly discovering the magnitude of the airport changes LM did in v5 and all the things it broke. I thought that simply releasing a first version without any scenery would work, but it now turns out that all traffic files need to be scanned for renamed or relocated airports as well, then recompiled and tested. This is very tricky because of the strict timings with the many touch and go legs we have in our flightplans. Then there are issues with aircraft lights and effects that need to be sorted out too. I now have a backlog of things to check and fix that is as long as when we started the conversion from v3 to v4 and that took about 3 years to get to the current (still unfinished) state.

When we all thought MSFS was something in the distant future it looked like it was worth all the effort, but now after having seen MSFS in action I'm no longer sure.
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by HHAS67 »

I ported over ONLY the aircraft files & the tfc bgls to a separate ssd on my P3Dv5 pc & then copied the six MAIW region folders located in the <<Documents\Prepared3D v4 Add-ons>> folder over to <<Documents\Prepar3D v5 Add-ons>> folder on my P3Dv5 pc. Then modified the add-on.xml (only... didn't bother about the other xmls)) files in the Region folders to reflect new paths and deleted the unused Addon.Components. Here is an example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<SimBase.Document Type="AddOnXml" version="4,0" id="add-on">
<AddOn.Name>Military AI Works Region Africa</AddOn.Name>
<AddOn.Description>Military AI traffic for Africa by MAIW</AddOn.Description>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>SimObjects</Category>
<Path>D:\Military AI Works\MAIW_AFRICA\MAIW_AFRICA_AIRCRAFT</Path>
</AddOn.Component>
<AddOn.Component>
<Category>Scenery</Category>
<Path>D:\Military AI Works\MAIW_AFRICA\MAIW_AFRICA_WORLD\Scenery</Path>
<Name>MAIW Region Africa World</Name>
<Layer>8</Layer>
</AddOn.Component>
</SimBase.Document>

NB. No simobjects in path.
Separate PCs for v4.5 & v5.

Granted, flights only use existing airports but I can see many MAIW flights in v5 and AC look just as amazing.

In fact, the latest AIG_AIM wants to correct for missing airports... I have no idea how that affects MAIW tfc bgls but I just let the program do its thing & don't worry about it.

Regards to All,
W
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by bedlamsquare »

There's an easier way than that. Don't let the MATRIX installer set the installation path. Put it in a folder of its own, outside the P3D folders. It can even be on a different drive altogether. The MATRIX installer will also create the XML files mentioned by HHAS67, in the <<Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons>> folder.

All I did to get my Military AI aircraft into P3D v5 was copy the 'MAIW Region Europe' and MAIW Global Libraries' folders containing the XML files from <<Documents\Prepar3D v4 Add-ons>> and paste them into <<Documents\Prepar3D v5 Add-ons>>. Nothing else. No editing. All the entries in the XML file are already pointing at the SimObjects, BGL Files and Scenery in my 'MATRIX' folder.

When I started up P3D v5, it asked me if I wanted to add the MAIW Region Europe and MAIW Global Library Addons. I said 'yes', and minutes later I'm at RAF Cosford surrounded by Grob Tutors. And, rather oddly, two Hawks.

There is a major caveat in that the airfields may not all be in the correct places and there might be scenery issues. I've turned off the airfields in the MATRIX options menu because I'm using UK2000 VFR Airfields and OrbX TrueEarth Great Britain, which between them cover the airfields I need. At least for now there is a fairly simple workaround to get at least some military AI flying.
Last edited by bedlamsquare on 19 Aug 2020, 17:03, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by Reggie »

So, will my self-made AFCAD's from v4.5 work in v5 if I put them in an Add-On Scenery folder?
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by Greg »

No, most probably not. All airfields were redone for v5, some stock objects were removed from the game and others added. There's a thread in the ADE support forum over at fsdeveloper.com on how to transfer v4 projects to v5.
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by bedlamsquare »

<EDIT> While I was typing my reply, Greg already beat me to it!
Last edited by bedlamsquare on 19 Aug 2020, 17:01, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by Reggie »

Thanks Greg, much appreciated.
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by John Young »

I purchased P3Dv5.2 yesterday, primarily so that I can test my packages in that version, but also in the hope that the graphics would be better than in P3Dv.5 that I also have.

I'm really pleased to say that my Typhoons that I tested in P3Dv5.2 all displayed fine, including the embedded lights and afterburners. I also tested prop disks against clouds with some C-130's and they too were fine.

I'm feeling disappointed with the 5.2 graphics, but it's early days yet and there are a lot of variables that can be tweaked. The new "Live Graphics" feature is a great improvement in that the graphics settings can now be adjusted while viewing the scene in the sim. I find taming the contrast in both P3DV4.5 and 5.2 quite difficult without making the overall scene quite dull. So far P3Dv4.5 is working better for me out of the two LM sims.

Just out of interest, these are screen shots of the default London City airport taken in the 4 sims that I now have. All shots were taken at the same time of day and date and with similar weather settings, although FS9 is enhanced with REX Soft Clouds:

FS9:
Image

FSX:
Image

P3Dv4.5
Image

P3Dv5.2
Image

I'll keep playing with the new graphics, but at the moment, FSX continues to be my choice for screen shots I think.

John
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by TimC340 »

Just for interest, this is my installation of P3Dv5.2 with Orbx True Earth (and their horrible trees) and LCY, with pretty high graphics settings:

Image

And MSFS., also with Orbx LCY:

Image
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by John Young »

Are both your screen shots taken at the same time of day Tim? My four were taken with a date setting of 10:00 local on 14 July 2020.

The Orbx trees are really bright, but at least they have the red and white cabin on dry land.

John
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by TimC340 »

I didn't try and get them exactly the same time and date, but they were pretty close John (about midday on 20 June 2020). What I realised I didn't do was get the same visibility and wind conditions, which makes a significant difference to the feel of the scene. P3Dv5 was running with TrueSky, which frankly isn't very impressive with the 5700XT graphics card I'm running. If GPUs ever return to availability and somewhere nearer sensible prices I hope to upgrade it to a 6800XT later this year.

Overall, there are compromises with both sims. MSFS has instant appeal, and it takes a bit longer (and arguably more money) to get P3D looking good, but from an MAIW user point of view P3D is much more complete - and 4.5 with the same Orbx add-ons looks almost as good, and doesn't cause some of the texture oddities you see with some MAIW assets in v5.
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Re: MAIW and Prepar3DV5 ?

Post by John Young »

Thanks Tim. It's a great pity that P3D needs to be made to look good with further add-ons. It also further complicates what we are designing for into yet more variations (P3D+Orbx for example). I'm happy to have both P3D versions active for testing and I'll carry on trying to tweak the graphics settings to get the best result I can without shelling out more cash.

I rather like the night lighting and the addition of the street lights in P3Dv5.2 is a nice touch.

John
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