I read on the Simaddons support site the following concerning this product, I have not bothered to check the product website, but here is what I read...Release V 1.0 November 1st $499Backwards compatible with FSX SP2 and ESP 2.0Some new capabilities in the first release for Nov 2010 include:* IEEE 1278 – Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) support.* Expanded Multi-player (Can have more than 2 users sharing a cockpit)* Expanded Hardware Controls* Upgraded Landclass* Upgraded User Interface* Added Multichannel support* Added Sensor capability* Added Global Bathymetry* Added Global Dynamic Water Surface* Enhanced SDK documentation and code samples* Added OpenGL Support* Added DirectX Guage InterfaceUpgraded Landclass10 million updated 1km tiles* 3 million tiles upgraded from urban/farms to higher density* 7 million tiles upgraded from vegetation to more accurately reflect the human footprint in the real worldUpgraded User Interface* Drag n’ Drop* Customized Data – save your favorites* Save and quickly retrieve your aircraft, your missions, your pilot records* Upgraded Learning Center – Create and edit your own articles for reference inside the simulationFeatures* Living World* Customizable, data driven graphics and models* Whole Earth WGS-84 Model* Accurate topography with Regionally and Culturally appropriate textures* Modifiable real-time weather system, continuous time of day, seasons and a variety of lighting effects* Realistic Air Traffic Control* Expandable library of vehicle modelsLiving World* Airport vehicles* Highway traffic* Boats and ships on lakes and oceans* Air traffic* Livestock* Wild animalsMore features follows in the final 2011 release, as I know...* /MT code runtime = full multithread support (so if you have a twin Xeon 8 cores board it will work)* DX10/DX11 support* CIGI* other performance updates* weaponsWhile it sounds interesting, at $500 I am not that interested, but I am not a real pilot.Eric

There is an Electra and Constellation aircraft model available on the download section on the site. It looks like the ones already available here, but since it's for the Pepared3d project (FSX compatible) maybe the Lockheed developers tweaked the FDE to be even more accurate?

Those are just models that we got permission from the developers to host on our download site because they are models of Lockheed Martin aircraft :->, no changes were made to them.Tim

Okay, it was released on November 1st. What's the verdict? Has anyone bought/tried it? The video is pretty neat and slideshow but is it better than FSX and/or enhance FSX? Best regards,Jim

Okay, it was released on November 1st. What's the verdict? Has anyone bought/tried it? The video is pretty neat and slideshow but is it better than FSX and/or enhance FSX? Best regards,Jim

Unless you are extremely competent and wish to set up a single training scenario, or are a developer for "Serious Game" content, Prepar3D probably isn't for you.OTOH, since virtually anyone can sign up to be a "developer," one may get "two licenses" for the paltry sum of only $9.95/month.EDIT: Erroneous and/or incomplete information removed.

Edited December 8, 201015 yr by n4gix

I wonder how Lockheed is going to deal with the torrent sites. it will be interesting to see their S&D tactics.btw anyone see their DL list * Aero Vodochody L-39C (DoughBree Design) (23) * Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation (116) * Lockheed L-188 Electra Cargo Version (140) * Lockheed L-188 Electra Passenger Version (264) * Lockheed L-749 Constellation (196) * Mi-24 [Tim Conrad] (20)

In many ways, from the perspective of a "simmer" Prepar3D is vastly "inferior" to FSX, given that there's no "real weather," no "AI," no "ATC," or more importantly......absolutely no GUI (Graphical User Interface) aka: menu system whatsoever. :(

I'll give you the no real weather, although that will be coming back in a future release. We have all the same AI that FSX has, we have all the same ATC that FSX has, and the only UI we don't have is the pre-game shell UI, all the in-game UI is still there (you can select an aircraft, select an airport, save a flight, load a flight, change settings, define a flight plan, etc - ESP had all this as well) - one thing P3D doesn't do that ESP did is disable the menu bar options unless you are running with the -DEV switch, we always have the menu bar options available.Tim

Thanks for the clarification, Tim. I've edited my post to reflect your information. :(

Thanks for the clarification, Tim. I've edited my post to reflect your information. :(

You can take out "No ATC" as well since Tim indicated it has the same ATC as FSX and the "pre-game shell" as you call it is coming. I think that your statement that Prepar3D is "vastly inferior" is emotive and exagerated and your advice to a potential user is very strong particularly since you haven't used the product and have made an error filled statement on what features it has and doesn't have."So apart from wine, roads, public safety and education... .what have the Romans ever done for us".

I think that your statement that Prepar3D is "vastly inferior" is emotive and exagerated and your advice to a potential user is very strong particularly since you haven't used the product and have made an error filled statement on what features it has and doesn't have.

I've corrected my post. Honestly, you seem to have overlooked the conditional phrase "...from the perspective of a "simmer"..."If this weren't a product with a hefty ab-initio price, my observations would doubtless be less apt. However, I sincerly don't want anyone to spend that much money only to be disappointed by what it's not, which is a full-fledged, drop in replacement for FSX.For the average simmer, it does not appear to offer any real advantage at all.From a developer's perspective though, it may just offer some unique opportunities for futher growth and expansion. :(

Actually it's not totally true that Prepar3D doesn't offer any advantages to a simmer, although it is in a sort of indirect way.If you read the Q&A in the current issue of PC Pilot, Lockheed Martin do say that they welcome the participation of simmers on their website and that since the SDK is only tweaked slightly and still maintains basic compatibility with FSX, with only a different compiler being required, developers who make stuff for Prepar3D could also release their product for FSX by simply sticking it through the regular compiler, so we may see some high end developers create some dual-purpose add-ons.Al

Actually it's not totally true that Prepar3D doesn't offer any advantages to a simmer, although it is in a sort of indirect way.If you read the Q&A in the current issue of PC Pilot, Lockheed Martin do say that they welcome the participation of simmers on their website and that since the SDK is only tweaked slightly and still maintains basic compatibility with FSX, with only a different compiler being required, developers who make stuff for Prepar3D could also release their product for FSX by simply sticking it through the regular compiler, so we may see some high end developers create some dual-purpose add-ons.Al

Not exactly.. same compiler but different include statements depending on which version of the .DLL you have available. Otherwise you can just as well use the BeatlesBlog.Simconnect library, which is free, and works with any version. I prefer that one myself because it's been perfected for C#/.NET and looks a lot cleaner than the hack they originally included with FSX.

think I'd wait for this http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/ before I buy a 500.oo less than version of something I already have.new video since the last time I looked.

Actually it's not totally true that Prepar3D doesn't offer any advantages to a simmer, although it is in a sort of indirect way.

The existence of Prepar3D potentially might allow some developer's work to "trickle down" to FSX simmers, but the product itself is of very little use directly by the average simmer.Look at it this way, of what conceivable use would the average man on the street have for a Formula 1 racer? :(

Oh I agree, I'm not going to pay 500 bucks for a program I've essentially already got, but I still think it's an interesting one to watch just as I prefer my old Land Rover but will cheerfully watch a formula one car whiz around a track.Al