PTA presets with natural and balanced palettes that will work for:

• All times of the day.
• All P3D seasons*.
• All sky/cloud textures (regardless of texture-generation application).

* Using different presets to match the palettes for each P3D season would require frequent sim restarts and rebuilds of the shaders cache - especially if you jump from one hemisphere to another in the same session. Using a single year-round preset is much more practical.

These presets require HDR mode in P3D to be enabled: make sure you set the correct values for each preset. Though HDR values can be tweaked "live" in P3D (to suit user preferences or weather conditions), bear in mind that even small changes in settings can have a significant impact on the final output.

If you find you need to make more drastic (or permanent) adjustments to the preset, see Customising below.

Old presets (click for full details & screenshots):
Adam_261_03 | Adam_26_02 | Adam_26_01 | Adam_25_04 | Adam_25_03 | Adam_25_02 | Adam_25_01
Tweaking Tips | Benchmarking Scenarios

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Sky/cloud Textures

Sky textures have a HUGE impact on the overall palette in P3D (on sky, terrain and even aircraft) so, if you are using live weather + texture generation (AS or ASN etc.), you may occasionally get some unpredictable results. For this reason, I prefer a fixed day texture set for the full 10-day cycle. I use OPUS Live Weather to vary the weather system only (ie. cloud coverage, visibility etc. - no changes to textures), giving me plenty of variation without disturbing the overall colour balance.

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Preset Installation

This presumes you already have a fully working version of PTA on your system. If starting totally from scratch, please check out Matt's site (and the Avsim forums) for fresh install instructions.

1. Download the preset zip archive and extract it to somewhere convenient.
2. Copy the *.ini file into your PTA folder.
3. Start PTA: navigate to and open the new preset.
4. Click on "Apply Preset". This will apply the preset and clear your shaders cache.
5. Launch P3D - and check that your HDR settings are set to the recommended values for the new preset.

It may take a while for the textures/shaders to rebuild the first time you run P3D after a preset change - this is normal.

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LINKS
www.simtweaks.com	Matt's PTA site.
Avsim : PTA Forums	PTA & Realism Shaderpack (*general discussion*).
Avsim : PTA Presets Showcase	Discussion of the tweaks listed here plus other users' contributions.
Avsim : Testing Scenarios	Benchmarking images and posts

Benchmark Scenarios

I'm aiming to create some P3D scenarios that users will be able to use for screenshot comparisons. Each scenario archive will have:

1. The required PTA preset.
2. The saved P3D scenario (for a default P3D aircraft).
3. A sample screenshot from that scenario on my system.

Ideally, these archives should also include freeware textures (for sky, clouds and water). Finding common terrain is also a problem.

Discussion (and uploaded tests) are on Avsim: 503705-generic-pta-testing-scenario-suggestions-please

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Creating a benchmark screenshot

P3D setup:

1. In order to create a suitable screenshot for comparison, you'll need to set the P3D filetype to TIFF format (TIFF files are uncompressed and much smaller than BMP). Go to P3D Options/Settings/General/Screenshot Format : TIFF.
2. For the purposes of the test, set all P3D detail and shadow options to those as in the file Adam_P3D_settings_PTA.zip.
3. My most recent settings (for P3Dv4.1) are here: P3dv41_Settings_Adam_20_Oct_2017.zip.

Procedure:

1. Start P3D and load the scenario. It should start with both SLEW and PAUSE set.
2. If the sim has run unpaused for any reason, then pause it, go into slew mode and RESET the scenario from the top menu (Scenario/Reset).
3. Go to the front/cockpit view and hide the VC (SHFT-1).
4. Check that it's default zoom (100%) - press "Backspace".
5. Use the "V" key to save the file. Do NOT use screenshot utilities.
6. Keep the original TIFF file for reference, but create a COPY resized to 1280px 72dpi and saved as JPG at around 75/80% quality (minimum).
7. Upload the 1280px copy to your usual images hoster.
8. Post the image (along with GPU and driver details) on Avsim: 503705-generic-pta-testing-scenario-suggestions-please.

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Benchmark Scenario 01

Greens 1600.  DOWNLOAD

1. No textures sky/cloud/water textures included.
2. Uses the REX/Texture Direct sky set - Dawn: 22 Chill | Day: 14 Fair | Dusk 03 Dust.
3. Clear weather (no cloud textures needed).
4. Over land (no water textures needed).
5. Requires ORBX FTX NZNI.

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Benchmark Scenario 02

Autogen test (near Nelson, NZNS) 0700.  DOWNLOAD

1. No textures sky/cloud/water textures included.
2. Uses the REX/Texture Direct sky set - Dawn: 22 Chill | Day: 14 Fair | Dusk 03 Dust.
3. Clear weather (no cloud textures needed).
4. Over land (no water textures needed).
5. Requires ORBX FTX NZSI.

Adam_PTA_262_01 : for P3Dv4.3/PTA 2.62 CURRENT/LATEST DOWNLOAD

262_01 is a minor update of 261_03 and was tested mainly with REX Skyforce3D (more details in the readme file in the archive).

PTA aircraft lighting and/or VC tweaks can display MDL problems with a few JustFlight aircraft (and also the Aerosoft/Octopus An-2). Toggle the two aircraft/VC lighting options (all over values are OK).

P3D HDR settings:Brightness: 0.82 | Bloom: 0.00 | Saturation: 0.81

Customising presets: quick tips

All systems are different, so if you feel you need to make further adjustments, here are some places to look:

• Too blue overall? Enable the Scene tone adjustment post-processing filter then adjust the blue value - OR - lower the blue value (balanceZ) in Vibrance.
• Water too blue? Tweak the Water Saturation value (to around 0.78 or below). Turning down the blue in the Haze effect and Rayleigh filters may also help.
• Water: repeating textures? These will depend on the current water textures in use. Try experimenting with the two Waves size parameters.
• Too dark in fully overcast conditions? Temporarily raise the HDR Brightness value (in P3D) or (in PTA) slightly raise the values of Objects lighting/Ambient sunlight ratio and Terrain lighting/Ambient sunlight ratio.

Preset filenames indicate the main PTA version (XX) and preset number (YY), in the form Adam_PTA_XX_YY.zip. Don't use presets for different or non-matching *main* PTA versions, as parameters may have been added, renamed or even removed. Using presets for different PTA *sub* versions (eg. PTA 2.10, PTA 2.11) is fine.