Prepar3d v2.3 is AMAZing.....but the wet runways?

[CRELLIOTT0302 0]

I am a real world commercial pilot and flight instructor.  One thing I have to point out (with the hopes and intentions of a fix/removal/etc) is the extremely unrealistic wet runway refraction.  Is there a way to remove this effect/feature?  Everytime the simulator weather has BR -RA RA +RA CB +CB TS or any other type of non frozen precip occurring, the runways and taxiways lose there immersion factor.  

From a pilots perspective in a heavy rain, most of the time we dont even use windshield wipers because of the speeds we travel at.  Even still, a look out the front windscreen during a landing, like in this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDpuc6v6now, will show you what it SHOULD look like when the runway is wet.  Prepar3d makes the runways look flooded and unusable due to hydroplaning.  Anyways, is there a fix/trick/tip that I can apply to remove this feature?  

Respectfully,

Caleb Elliott

CPL (SEL, MEL, IFR)
CFI, CFI-I, MEI-I
ERJ-145 Typed.
www.Wx-pilot.com

[spirit_66 2]

Did you report this at the LM forum too? http://www.prepar3d.com/forum-5/?mingleforumaction=viewforum&f=20.0

Spirit

[Clutch Cargo 384]

At present "water" is not P3D's strongest point.  They have/are improving water in general but this may fall under the category of FX or "ground textures'.  I would do a Google search on something like FSX ground water textures, FSX water fx, things like that. May get a hit on some little applet that improves the look and can be ported over to P3D.  3rd party payware add=-ns may have something... thinking of REX4?  I have it but have not installed it yet on my P3D setup.

 

Just some ideas

[nonflyingdutchman 40]

http://www.avsim.com/pages/1110/CieloSim/wetcomp.jpg

 

for fsx but who knows...

[spirit_66 2]

http://www.avsim.com/pages/1110/CieloSim/wetcomp.jpg

 

for fsx but who knows...

It's here. http://www.cielosim.com/

Spirit

[DylanM 1,069]

Tim from REX may have info to add about what could be done in P3D...

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

To the original poster your video is real world thats great but we do not have rain modeled on the windshield so its hard to mimic real world so the over exaggerated wet runway textures may be  some compensation if you remove the wet look it would still look dry with out rain effect on windsheild I guess

[MikeT707 1,181]

It's here. http://www.cielosim.com/

Spirit

This looks pretty good.  Does anyone know if it works with P3D?

[CRELLIOTT0302 0]

Thanks for all the replies!  I do like the look of the Cielosim feature. 

I am not really worried about rain on the windshield since it really goes un-noticed during approaches.  (Tunnel vision..haha).  Most runways have a grading on them that allow the water to drain off/run off failry quickly so you will hardly ever see standing water unless you are in a flat out downpour/microburst.  That said, I am okay with the runway looking dry even when raining as that is more realistic to me rather than a "compensated" runway lake.  LOL.  

I will give the Cielosims texture a try and report back.  Thanks again, everyone!

[CRELLIOTT0302 0]

I tried the Cielosim textures....I was not impressed.  It was basically the same thing but a little more subtle.  However, this was still not a desirable outcome as it STILL looked fake.  I did happen to find the file in which it was located (runway_bump.bmp in the main p3d textures folder) but the results were...meh....hahaha.....Anyways, back to the drawing board I guess.

[SteveW 1,792]

Anisotropic filtering enhanced by NI improves the look of wet surfaces. AF smooth's the look of water and can make it look closer than it is, and wet runways can look less wet. Maybe comes down to personal preference. Overall, NI enhanced AF improves distant reflective details to the horizon.

[CRELLIOTT0302 0]

From numerous wet runway landings, the wet runways presented in FSX and/or Prepar3d are waaaaaay over the top.  In most cases, rain only darkens the runways from the asphalt/concrete getting wet.  From the pilots perspective, I have never noticed or seen the "lake effect" that P3d/FSX display and it kills the immersion factor for me.  Same thing with the precipitation.  At 140kts on approach, you don't even see the rain drops passing by nor do you see runways looking like bodies of water, either.  You do, however, notice a landing light on when you go into clouds....but never the overly reflective runway surfaces of the simulators.  Just some food for thought should anyone with more texture manipulating skillz than I have feel the need to copy some real world wet runways (runway_bump.bmp).

I also tried disabling the file by renaming it to Runway_bump.bmp.off and ended up with some weird texture rendering issues on wet runways.  Back to the drawing board....for now.

[whitav8 98]

See if you can download a copy of DXTBmp so you can see the texture of interest and then pass it off to GIMP or Photoshop to edit and then save it back. You should be able to change it enough.

[Guest]

I'm gonna guess this is in a ShadersHLSL somewhere ... but it maybe be shared with other effects.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[CRELLIOTT0302 0]

I found a solution that seems to work well enough for now.  It was from either Flight Environment Extreme or Ground Environment Extreme.  I used only the Runway_bump.bmp file out of it and it removed almost all of the unrealistic reflections.  I can tolerate this effect.  Figured I would give an update for those who might be willing to try it out.