Runway friction in Prepar3D... Problem identified: Unrealistic …
Solution? FSPS's Frictionality P3D
Runway friction in FSX was always a subject of discussion in the developers and advanced users community. The problem in a few words is that FSX friction is unrealistic. In some cases aircraft would taxi on idle thrust while the real aircraft was not behaving like this (or vice-versa) at the exact same conditions. (Runway condition, thrust, weight), aircraft is accelerating faster in wet / snow covered runways and more. And not only that but – unfortunately – due to the relation of FSX/Prepar3D, the problem was carried to the Prepar3D also!
At the start many thought that the aircraft physics model was not made correctly: For example that the thrust was misconfigured or that the weight distribution played a role.
Actually all problems (most times) are due to the way Prepar3D is handling friction.
You can easily test out yourself a part of the problematic default Prepar3D settings by accelerating with a specific aircraft to a specific ground speed down the runway.
You will notice that you will need (just for example) 10 seconds to reach 50KTS GS on model “X”. By changing the weather setting to have a wet runway you will see that you will need LESS time (i.e. 9.7 seconds) to reach the same speed. Is that possible?
Thinking lightly , someone would say yes. The friction of the same surface when on dry compared to wet is higher, so the opposing force would also be higher, so the distance on the same thrust and weight – thus the time – to reach the same speed would also be higher. But is that true? No. In real life there is also the resistance from the mass of water that the wheels travel on and cut through, so a 'virtual weight' or an opposing force, is added to the formula... That – in real life – causes the aircraft to need more distance and additional time to reach the same speed when on wet!
Some people in the past tried to fixed the problem by replacing the Sim1.dll (the file that contains all friction values). Although a pioneer approach to solve the problem, the quality of the results would vary from user to user as some smaller aircraft behaved differently from bigger ones. So the 'patch' would work nice for some but not so nice for others who use different aircraft.
FSPS decided to resolve once and for ever the “Prepar3D friction” problem. By directly communicating with Prepar3D (no need for any external software like FSUIPC) we managed to manipulate the friction for each surface and condition (dry, wet, snow) you could encounter. We managed to be able to manipulate it in real-time, without need of a 'patch' or changing any Prepar3D file. We placed all our knowledge into an application 'armed' with profile saving so you would save each friction for each of your aircraft.
That way you would fix (if you like) only the Grass runway wet friction for your little Cessna that you may don't like , and leave everything else untouched OR you would change all friction values for your complicated Boeing 737 home simulator for all kind of runway types your may encounter and for each of the weather conditions...
Dear FSPS customers, we proudly present you “Frictionality P3D” . The application that will change Prepar3D's friction for ever...
Features:
Real time rolling friction manipulation for all types of Prepar3D runways for all wheel configuration aircraft.
Real time friction manipulation for sliding and braking friction.
Real time friction modifiers manipulation for Wet and Snow contaminated runways.
No additional software necessary to send friction into Prepar3D.
Profile saving capability that enables you to save different friction sets for any aircraft of your fleet.
Popular Aircraft profiles are provided build-in for ease of starting up.
Ability to load profile from another aircraft. If they are similar models there is no need to set all the way the second aircraft.
Ability to load profile from external sources. If you find a profile shared in the internet or a friend has one ready, loading it is a matter of just some clicks.
Test mode to check how the changes you are doing reflects to the aircraft's usage.
Results stored in Test mode table for reference during tests.
Auto profile loading when selecting a 'ready' & saved aircraft.
Significantly light application using latest programming technologies resulting in zero Prepar3D frames reduction.
30 pages PDF manual.
License transfer capability without need to contact Support in order to use software on as many PCs you want (only one will work at a time however).
All sales based on Euro. Other currencies shown as reference only.
£
GBP 8.23
All sales based on Euro. Other currencies shown as reference only.
¥
CNY 75.82
All sales based on Euro. Other currencies shown as reference only.
Requirements
Windows: XP SP3 / Vista / Win 7 – 32 or 64 bit /
Win 8 (but not recommended for use with Prepar3D)
2 Core Processor with 2GHz per core speed.
1GB RAM
Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D – v 1.4 or v 2.4 or v2.5.x or v3.x
Microsoft's NET Framework 3.5 SP1
Latest Version of FSUIPC 4 by Peter Dowson. (Registered or unregistered) Up and running internet connection for activation and license status checking (each time application starts).
A PDF viewer application for reading the manual.
Application must run only on Prepar3D - PC (not remotely)
Limitations:
One active license at a PC at any given time. (Checked via online activation after every installation.) Multiple installations supported using License Transfer function.