5 replies to this topic

[Home Fries]

Those of you who use Prepar3D (the Lockheed Martin follow-on to FSX), or those of you who follow "current events" in FS world, know that there's a pissing contest between Lockheed Martin and NaturalPoint as to whom should use who's SDK for TrackIR compatibility.  The only solution until recently was to purchase a third party FSX add-on that would provide TIR compatibility to P3D.

The other day, I came across a post at AvSim that describes how you can hack the P3D language.dll to make the TrackIR think that you're running FSX (which is compatible).  I tried it and it works well.

Here's what you do:

• Back up language.dll in your P3D main folder.
  
• Download and install Resource Hacker.
  
• Open languagfe.dll in Resource Hacker.
  
• In String Table 1 line 2, replace "Lockheed Martin® Prepar3D®" with "Microsoft Flight Simulator X".
  
• In String Table 1 line 3, replace "Lockheed Martin® Prepar3D®" with "Microsoft Flight Simulator".
  
• Compile and save.

Enjoy P3D as it should be enjoyed!

[RadPig94]

what make P3D different from FSX in the first place?

[Home Fries]

When Microsoft shut down the Aces team, LM brought them onboard and used the FSX code as the baseline for P3D.  Since then they have made a number of improvements that improve resource usage, resulting in better frame rates with things like light bloom as well as with additional objects onscreen.  I haven't dug into the specific improvements (I've been too head-down in my SF2 mods), but suffice to say that all major FSX modders are now supporting P3D.

[Home Fries]

This workaround still works, but may be obsolete with the latest TrackIR Beta drivers.

[Fittop]

By buying the Academic version for ~$50. I could use it as I do FSX?  Or would I have to go to the $200 version to do that?
Then importing aircraft from other games?

[Home Fries]

I use the Academic version as a supped up version of FSX.  I have imported scenery and aircraft, and even the registered version of FSUIPC works with P3D, so the dependent addons generally work as well.  I've had no problems with Radar Contact 4.3 with P3D.

Not all aircraft are compatible, though generally aircraft compatible with FSX SP2 are good to go with P3D.  The exceptions are usually the aircraft with specialized DLL modules (e.g. MilViz F-15E), but that is to be expected.