Visual effects are not showing up in FSX/P3D

If Immersion Pack effects are not showing in FSX or P3D, work through these checks in order. If none of them fix it, open a ticket.

Check the manual for required conditions

Each effect only shows under specific conditions. The User Manual for your product describes the required conditions, optimal settings, and limitations for each effect.

Test wing condensation with the right weather

The default FSX/P3D Weather menu is tricky. The “Gray and Rainy” preset works best for testing Wing Condensation and other precipitation-related effects. You can also use Active Sky Next to enter custom weather METARs, making sure the dew point matches the ambient temperature. If you want to use the default Weather menu, use multiple temperature layers — they need to interpolate for the temperature to work.

Check that default effects work

If default effects (such as contrails or wheel spray) do not work with our products uninstalled, contact Lockheed Martin or Microsoft about the issue. A simulator reinstall might also bring back the effects.

Update your graphics card drivers

Some graphics card drivers can affect how effects display. Update to the latest version.

Update your simulator

Some older simulator versions have issues with visual effects and can glitch them. Updating to the latest version might resolve the issue.

Reinstall the effects package

Your Immersion Package install might be corrupt. Reinstall the product in Orbx Central to make sure everything is installed properly.

Check for panel.cfg conflicts

Our Immersion Packages add multiple gauges to the aircraft’s virtual cockpit through the panel.cfg file. If another add-on also modifies this file, there might be conflicts. Open a ticket if you cannot resolve the conflict.

Turn off migration tools

A migration tool can prevent the effects from installing properly. Turn off any migration tool before installing our products.

Install the latest FSUIPC

777 Immersion, A320 Family Immersion, 737 Immersion, and 787 Immersion require the latest version of FSUIPC to work properly. Get it from fsuipc.com/. The paid version is not required.

Set “Special effects detail” to Medium

On some systems, effects do not show when this setting is at the highest level. Set it to Medium and check whether the effects work again.

Delete the shader cache files

Effect files can get corrupt. Deleting the cache files might fix the issue. The cache files are in the folder for your simulator:

• FSX: %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\FSX\
• FSX:SE: %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\FSX-SE\
• P3Dv2: %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\
• P3Dv3: %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\
• P3Dv4: %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\
• P3Dv5: %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\

Run the simulator with a clean config file

Config changes might have broken your effects. Run FSX/P3D with a clean configuration file by renaming the fsx.cfg or prepar3d.cfg file in the directory for your simulator:

• FSX: %appdata%\Microsoft\FSX\
• FSX:SE: %appdata%\Microsoft\FSX-SE\
• P3Dv2: %appdata%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\
• P3Dv3: %appdata%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\
• P3Dv4: %appdata%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\
• P3Dv5: %appdata%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\

Check the effects.cfg entries

P3D v2 introduced dynamic directories, and one of its configuration files might be corrupt. The configuration file for the effects is here:

• P3Dv2: %programdata%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\effects.cfg
• P3Dv3: %programdata%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v3\effects.cfg
• P3Dv4: %programdata%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v4\effects.cfg
• P3Dv5: %programdata%\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v5\effects.cfg

Make sure entries exist and that the default entry pointing to “PATH=Effects” is present and active.