P3D First impressions ?

[shivers9 1,174]

My question. Whats in it for me? What am I gaining over FSX or FS9? Sounds like performance is no better. Someone mentioned they believe it is more well suited for flight mangement systems and FSX is better for GA flying. I have always considered that to be true for FSX vs FS9. I use FSX for low slow GA and FS9 for commercial flights. I still havn't seen anything to convince me Prepar3D is any better than FSX for $10.00/Mo.? Ive been using FSX for appr. 5 yrs. 60mo x 10.00=$600.00. I paid $28.95 for FSX Gold. Doesn't sound like a wise COST vs GAIN investment to me!

"What's in it for me?" The best answer for today or this week is probably not much! The real story here is more "What are the possibilities?" I am not sure in the long run that you cost compare example will hold up. FSX is a mass produced game and LM are seeking to build a purpose driven simulator. If they are sucessful then the cost will be worth it to many of us. Only time will answer that question.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

"What's in it for me?" The best answer for today or this week is probably not much! The real story here is more "What are the possibilities?" I am not sure in the long run that you cost compare example will hold up. FSX is a mass produced game and LM are seeking to build a purpose driven simulator. If they are sucessful then the cost will be worth it to many of us. Only time will answer that question.

Completely agree! I certainly hope that the development team can tackle some of the niggly things that FSXnever got fixed (like fading in autogen for example). I did notice that you can now set LOD to 5.5 and have it stick, even when making otherin-game changes..

[Guest christopher barbas]

Hi all Has anyone try to install the IVAP or Squawkbox software? Thanks

[Kosta 122]

SB4 is working from what I saw.

[Capt Lalle 0]

Haven't read too much about P3D but if they don't make the whole thing a 64 bit application it becomes stale because of the limited address space.NGX has demonstrated these limits and other complex addons will follow. Another no go is this crappy autogen popping which has to be eliminated. So keep more away from the childrens zoo FSX with those amazing animals to let P3D become a more seriously and better coded flightsimulation.

[n4gix 4,947]

No, it simply stops loading with an "expiration notice."

[Kosta 122]

Especially considering that when you put FSX addons in it, with some addons, it seems to actually be slower.It's clear that for a good P3D we need:1) solid background platform, with 64bit support, without bugs, DX11 and all (right now P3D has too many bugs)2) solid addon support for non-commercial use - and I don't see everyone jumping ship yet So either it's gonna take time, or it's not gonna happen. Either, LM must first make 1). Besides, I'm not ready to pay 9,99 per month for bug discovering. Beta and testing is something I should get paid for.

[David Roch 1,954]

I have read your problems with the addons Word Not Allowed. I can share your anger.Now, I would like to give another POV about P3D.I've just finished a flight with the NGX, all options full right (except bathymetry off), bloom effect on, and I did a perfect and smooth landing at KSEA.I would have never dreamt of such a result with FSX.THe big difference for me was to apply Bojote tweaks on the cfg. It does miracles with P3D.Apart from that the sim is not as bugged as you say, honestly.I didn't have a single crash or CTD or whatesoever issue with it until now, after hours and hours of use.The only problem I had was with the license and LM support did a pefect job.If/when FSUIPC and ORBX will update their products I will not launch FSX until the end of my 6 months subscribtion.Then, maybe, I'll have to take the right decision depending on P3D evolution. I feel sorry that you ahd such a bad experience.I am REALLY enjoying P3D like no other sim before.

[shivers9 1,174]

I have read your problems with the addons Word Not Allowed. I can share your anger.Now, I would like to give another POV about P3D.I've just finished a flight with the NGX, all options full right (except bathymetry off), bloom effect on, and I did a perfect and smooth landing at KSEA.I would have never dreamt of such a result with FSX.THe big difference for me was to apply Bojote tweaks on the cfg. It does miracles with P3D.Apart from that the sim is not as bugged as you say, honestly.I didn't have a single crash or CTD or whatesoever issue with it until now, after hours and hours of use.The only problem I had was with the license and LM support did a pefect job.If/when FSUIPC and ORBX will update their products I will not launch FSX until the end of my 6 months subscribtion.Then, maybe, I'll have to take the right decision depending on P3D evolution. I feel sorry that you ahd such a bad experience.I am REALLY enjoying P3D like no other sim before.

Thanks for your take on P3D. I think we have to all be careful as we share our reviews and experiences with P3D. As noted Word Not Allowed had some challenges with his experience. It will serve us well to note that he did push the envelope with add ons like the NGX and others that are not yet approved or ready for P3D or in some cases P3D is not yet ready for them! As for Word Not Allowed's remarks about being a Beta tester, I don't recall anyone ever saying that P3D is ready for prime time or ready to replace FSX. LM has simply made their platform avail. and welcome our inputs and third party developers as they continue the developement of P3D.We do all owe Word Not Allowed a big thank you for jumping out into the lead and trying so many add ons. We all learned things both good and not so good about P3D. Thanks Word Not Allowed!

[Kosta 122]

Thanks, you're welcome.I'm quite happy for you David, that it really works that well. And to confirm you, I also had better experience with some addons in P3D.The fact is that NGX works better. The problem is with the scenery addons, as they seems to slow things in P3D more down than they do in FSX.But to sum the bugs that are definitely there and confirmed:1) Hardware is being recognized after the name, rather than unique HardwareID, making it impossible to manage two same pieces of hardware in P3D - example: two Saitek Throttle Quadrants - both are named the same by system, yet both FSX and FSUIPC can differentiate themLink: http://www.prepar3d....viewtopic&t=4222) Weather settings panel is not being saved - every time I set 90nm and detailed clouds, I can apply them, but the settings are not being saved - they always fall back to 60nm and simple clouds - please check also your settings, as I believe it's like that on your system too - thus the super-performance - the only way to change it is manually per prepar3d.cfgLink: http://www.prepar3d....viewtopic&t=4443) Simconnect problem that has been recognized, the reason (so they say!) why both FSUIPC and EZCA are crashing on exit - Devs write that it's not their fault. OK, that might be true, but from where I stand, I only see a loss-loss situation.Link: http://www.prepar3d....iewtopic&t=68.1 Judging from other peoples screenshots, you have normal clouds. But still... I would urge you to check the weather settings:Go into the weather settings and set whatever you like. Apply/Accept. Go back in and check the settings.Even better, go into prepar3d.cfg and check following lines:CLOUD_COVERAGE_DENSITY=8CLOUD_DRAW_DISTANCE=6DETAILED_CLOUDS=1(these are my defaults, 90nm clouds, detailed clouse, maximum coverage) For me, they were always defaulting back to:CLOUD_COVERAGE_DENSITY=5CLOUD_DRAW_DISTANCE=3DETAILED_CLOUDS=0 These tests were done on a clean installation of P3D.

[n4gix 4,947]

So. When loading , it goes online and checks for valid subscripitoin? If not it will not load and becomes a dead horse?

No, the expiration date is written into the localized license system, hence there's no need to "go online" to validate anything.

[alainneedle1 97]

Posted first on Aerosoft forum by me http://forum.aerosof...prepar3d-topic/ Posted Yesterday , 06:54 PMIf I may, here is my take on Prepar3D, let me start by saying that I have not tried it yet but I have read all the post here and at Avsim from some of the product user, it seems to be a little more stable with better FPS and water compare to FSX depending on who you talk to, still you have some of the same problems found in FSX like popping autogen, a lot of software or hardware still don't work with it, as I can see it from my end getting on board right now is making peoples paying $10.00 a month to be beta tester and report back to LM by posting their finding so from there LM may look at it for future change in the sim, so the bottom line for me is this...if I have to pay to tweak or wait for more update I keep tweaking FSX and if Prepar3D become a sim. where I don't have to deal with the same proplems I have in FSX I'll give it a shot.... ESP (Prepar3D) was to be a commercial, enterprise solution (non-entertainment) but because of a loophole they are using it for entertainment (I have no problems with that, what ever LM want to do) but between you and me making changes in the simulator or in a file does not make everybody a developer. On the other hand, peoples are expecting addons developers to make their already paid for or future addons compatible with Prepar3D......how fair is that to the developers, (unless they are getting some $$ back from LM) ... How hard would it be for LM to put all the fixes together and relase them as a patch for FSX at a decent price....but I understand that $10.00 a month including feedback from their customers is a lot better revenue wise....I can't blame them. I think I'll wait a little more, we can be surprise with Flight.....

[Jean-Paul 167]

Judging from other peoples screenshots, you have normal clouds. But still... I would urge you to check the weather settings:Go into the weather settings and set whatever you like. Apply/Accept. Go back in and check the settings.Even better, go into prepar3d.cfg and check following lines:CLOUD_COVERAGE_DENSITY=8CLOUD_DRAW_DISTANCE=6DETAILED_CLOUDS=1(these are my defaults, 90nm clouds, detailed clouse, maximum coverage) For me, they were always defaulting back to:CLOUD_COVERAGE_DENSITY=5CLOUD_DRAW_DISTANCE=3DETAILED_CLOUDS=0 These tests were done on a clean installation of P3D.

That is strange, Word Not Allowed. Mine stick to what I set them at.

[Kosta 122]

The info about weather settings:http://www.prepar3d....viewtopic&t=444 At the end of the post: bhollisLockheed MartinPosts: 178Send MessageRe: Weather settings tab - bug? on: October 10, 2011, 08:36 Quote We found the issue with clouds and it will be fixed in the next update. It seems that the cloud settings were getting reverted when the traffic settings got saved. I had traffic turned off on my machine, which is why I wasn't able to reproduce it initially. Prepar3D Software Engineer

[colang 2]

Hi all Has anyone try to install the IVAP or Squawkbox software? Thanks

Made one short try with IVAP.Not reinstalled, only copied dll.xml from FSX profile directory (C:\users\[username]\appdata\roaming\microsoft\fsx) to Prepar3D profile directory (...idem...\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D).Edited the file to remove all conflicting addons and checked/modified the path to point in ivap installation directory.It worked and connected, but i made only a short flight in a little airport.I didn't copy the mtl libraries, need understand better what can happen changing their "number" in fsx.cfg/prepar3d.cfg.If a reinstall is needed I don't want for now) change my FSX working setup.I need to find the time (after job and family :- ) to make more tests in next days, but I'm optimistic about IVAP.