Prepar3D v2.5 Development Update

Requested Features and Enhancements Implemented in Prepar3D v2.5

We are currently finishing development on the first update to Prepar3D v2 for 2015, Prepar3D v2.5.  This version has several rendering and performance updates, a few general platform updates, and a pretty substantial update to SimDirector, Prepar3D’s intelligent tutor, virtual instructor, and scenario generation tool.

We wanted to thank our development community, and especially our Prepar3D.com forum moderators Rob and Saul, for your continuous feedback and effort to help make Prepar3D v2 the industry leader in flight simulation and virtual instruction.

We will be sending a beta of v2.5 to our beta team this week, and once we are satisfied with v2.5 we will then release the update.

• Fixed a crash that would occur if licensing check on startup failed
• Fixed a bug where thumbnail images for missions and aircraft were not matching up properly
• Renamed missions to reflect their content
• Restructured path configuration files

• Added post process for night vision that includes bloom
• Added a light scalar to camera so that NVG cameras can have a brighter scene
• Added a configuration option to the Prepar3D.cfg and Camera Definitions that allows cameras to share a single terrain view
• Added an option to specify whether or not a panel should write alpha when rendering into a texture
• Improved long range sensor capabilities by allowing plugins to set the scenery load origin for a camera independent of its location
• Fixed a bug that would prevent the HideAircraft flag from hiding aircraft attached effects
• Fixed a bug that would cause all extrusion effects to draw with a visible sawtooth pattern
• Fixed a bug where the exclude VC panels sensor setting was not working as intended
• Fixed issue that caused clouds to face vertically
• Fixed out of memory issues with the Load Flight Screen
• Fixed an issue that would prevent effects from visually displaying if the effect was at a low level of detail distance
• Fixed issues with shaders failing to compile if material is created without setting a specular map
• Fixed an issue that would cause some aircraft to load with the engines turned off

• Added an Undo feature in SimDirector. Undo allows a user to undo and redo most actions in their mission. A history window provides visual feedback of what actions have been done
• Added a Measure Tool to SimDirector. This allows the user to measure distances in several different unit types.
• Added a setting that allows the user choose whether or not they would like to load their mission in Prepar3D after closing SimDirector
• Added the ability to preview actions from the visualization window in Preview Mode in SimDirector
• Added an option for hiding icons and bounding boxes in SimDirector
• Added catalog preview into the catalog and created object preview
• Added ability to edit mission while in Preview Mode
• Added a setting that allows the user to filter object references by group
• Added the ability to copy values from the condition editor
• Added better error handling and error reports for mission Mission Briefing files
• Added a unit converter to several distance related properties
• Added the ability to read friendly names for third party models
• Added option to set whether SimDirector controls or Prepar3D controls have precedence when hovered over the Prepar3D window in Virtual Instructor, Flight Instructor, and Preview Mode
• Fixed a bug where saving scenario alters camera orientation
• Fixed bugs dealing with multiple item selects.
• Fixed bug that effected saving properly observation profiles
• Fixed a bug that would prevent the file name from updating and saving properly in different modes
• Fixed a bug that would prevent pop-up windows from scrolling through all the options
• Fixed a bug that would prevent the context menu in the logic editor from opening properly when using non-standard DPI settings
• Fixed a bug that would remove referencing of an ownship if the ownship aircraft was changed
• Fixed a bug that would prevent multiple external properties from updating in monitoring
• Fixed a bug that would cause issues with loading missions located in Program Files
• Fixed a bug that would prevent visual model from updating orientation changes reflected in the property grid
• Fixed a bug that would prevent catalog friendly names from loading properly
• Fixed a bug that would prevent single row text box to extend scrolling with the cursor
• Fixed a bug that would cause backstage to hang when clicking the arrow
• Fixed a bug that would prevent property observation profiles from saving
• Fixed a bug that would prevent build object list from increasing the count
• Fixed a bug that caused bulk lasso selection to not appear as one selection
• Fixed a bug that would not progress the object list count
• Fixed a bug that would prevent visibility from resetting when toggling the weather on/off
• Fixed issues with broken timer validation check
• Fixed an issue where object preview would not display mobile scenery
• Fixed an issue where mission menu windows would close prematurely
• Fixed issues with Virtual Instruction recording while in inner group visualization
• Fixed SimDirector window sizing issues
• Fixed an issue that prevented Mission Preview from re-enabling the user interface
• Fixed issues with search boxes in SimDirector. All search boxes now search for any part of search phrase
• Fixed issues with selecting actions inside of a Virtual Instructor session
• Fixed issues with observer look-at and look-at-ground functionality
• Fixed issues with monitoring in Virtual Instructor mode
• Fixed issues that would cause the Preview window to stop working
• Fixed issues that would cause a slow down when dragging objects around in SimDirector
• Fixed an issue where the Preview Window would cause crash when resetting scenarios
• Fixed issues with waypoints being placed too close to each other or other objects
• Fixed issues with mouse cursor state not changing as expected
• Fixed issues that would cause crashes if user sim was null
• Enhanced translate, rotate, and scale gizmos
• Enhanced speed of object selection from validation window
• Enhanced speed of switching between viewer sim and vehicle
• Enhanced drag and drop feature in SimDirector
• Enhanced preview subset feature in Preview Mode

• Added ability to manipulate visual effects during runtime through the PDK interface
• Added ability to retrieve attach point data via SimConnect
• Updated documentation regarding supported pylons, objects, and their interactions
• Added scenery load origin settings to camera definitions and PDK development