I almost gave up flight simming because FSX kept on crashing in mid flight..... it was unbearable. I then went to P3D and have not had one crash since.

 

I now have a perfect setup where the flight sim is stable and I can get on with the job of learning how to fly without worrying if FSX was about to crash.

 

P3D runs better for me than FSX ever did and my hats go off to those at lockheed Martin for providing P3d for those of us who want to learn how to fly without the hassles.

Kanwar; don't be too adamant ... LM have made it clear that v2.0 will be 32bit. Frankly if you want to go 64bit then try X-Plane ... it is subject to a constant development process, has an enthusiastic publisher and a strong user's community.

 

For me, whatever has been done under the hood I have had no OOM problems with P3D and I fly it to the edge of my system's capacity.

Kanwar; don't be too adamant ... LM have made it clear that v2.0 will be 32bit. Frankly if you want to go 64bit then try X-Plane ... it is subject to a constant development process, has an enthusiastic publisher and a strong user's community.

 

For me, whatever has been done under the hood I have had no OOM problems with P3D and I fly it to the edge of my system's capacity.

 

Ian you seem to have missed the point of a forum? A forum is an arena for discussion. If people ask questions you see no point in or that "irritate" you it's probably best not to participate?

 

The fact that just about every aspect of flight Simming has been dissected, discussed and reviewed for years appears to be news to you! The fact that you are happy with P3D is of note. It is however only one opinion amongst many. One has to ask why so few people have taken up P3D?

 

When you read reviews on ANYTHING you will find there everything from the sycophantic, gushing and non critical through to the downright malicious and mischievous. Amongst that spectrum you will often find common threads, common complaints, omissions, malfunctions or reports of poor performance. To suggest that anyone here not agreeing with or questioning other simmers experience is DEMANDING anything is rather bizarre in a forum devoted to discussing aspects of our hobby. When you buy a car don't you read the road tests and reviews? There’s hardly any product marketed today that doesn’t get reviewed by someone. I often post reviews of items I purchase as I value the effort others make in doing the same.

 

Why you should take my comments on LM's marketing as a personal affront frankly escapes me and if you're speaking on behalf of anyone ("us") then I missed who that is?

 

Since reading this new thread I've discovered that there are some point by point comparisons on SimOuthose's forums. There also seems to be an update on LM's site since I last visited which seems to address some issues others have raised here.

 

I keep an open mind on P3D and look forward to further development, information and a decent review. I suspect my current thinking on awaiting feedback on Vers 2.0 is by no means unique?

 

At the moment I'm sad to say I find aspects of Deja Vu from my years train simming. When the latest train simulator was released it had much that was good and much that was poor. Those who'd bought into the new sim set about Rottweillering any discussion that raised any reasonable questions about the shortcomings. IMHO this set back development and take up of the new Sim and drove many folk who'd contributed to the forums constructively for years away. I wouldn't want to see that here. <_<

 

Geoff

Now the moralising, the lofty observations, reflections on the limits of others and by implication the unassailability of your position.

 

For me, there is no 'us' I am a retired old Australian public servant and beholden to no-one, As to the number who have taken up P3D only the LM sales figures would show that. A retailer friend says in fact the fastest takeup has been with X-Plane!

 

But two blessings remain: one that LM is a commercial simulator provider (along with lots of other military stuff), and does not have to rely on general sales to continue the upgrading of FSX, the second is that FSX is still flourishing if not improving, and developers keep on building for that platform.

 

But if you have an up to the minute computer with lots of power it will crunch through FSX efficiently.

And like you I detest a really excited user and flamers as they are called, I have left forums because of the vicious loyalty and uncouth language of these people. You and I almost certainly never entered that phase, but there is a tendency for me I know to be a grumpy old man (my age-right) and possibly you may be so..

Don't quite know how a really excited user was taken out to be replaced by 'really excited user'. Was this some judicious editing AVSIM?

 

Delete the above please, it would seem the word I used must have broken some rule. Would fanperson be acceptable?

:lol: no you're good Ian! It's a forum edit (that I've asked about before) and I suggested that "Overly Enthusiastic" or "Critically Challenged" might be reasonable substitutes.

 

GOG? Yeah nought wrong with that ....is there? ....if so live with it ....because there's a lot of us around and you'll all be one one day! :lol:

 

I suspect that the agreement between M$ and LM which enabled them to develop the FSX platform was worded in such a way as to ensure no competition with Flight or future FS involvement in Flight Sim programmes. My logic leads me to think that this is the reason for the convoluted EULA situation and that this in turn has discouraged formal comparison reviews because they may be seen as in some way to encourage disregard for the EULA??

 

Whatever, it seems strange to me who arrived after having installed FS98, thought it laughable and uninstalled it immediately only to return to FS with a copy of FS9 long after FSX was released, that I found it easy to find what the fundamental differences between FS9 and FSX are in any number of reviews. Hopefully the release of Vers 2.0 of P3D will see an end to some of the much debated issues and a decent review. FSX works for me most of the time but I'd invest in something that will improve it long term. At my age on a fixed income I read reviews before I buy and if a something is about to be upgraded or replaced I wait for the new. Don't buy that either till it gets a review or several.

 

I regret every cent I spent on a new Train Sim now and wish I'd saved it for FS add-ons. But the wisdom of hindsight ain't worth anything.

 

Geoff

A curious convergence, I had wanted to buy a Train Sim, but I waited for the reviews ... And decided to save my money.

 

I know there is a Latin tag for this conclusion, but I can't recall it.

 

 

Warmest regards,

 

Ian McPhail

A curious convergence, I had wanted to buy a Train Sim, but I waited for the reviews ... And decided to save my money.

 

I know there is a Latin tag for this conclusion, but I can't recall it.

 

 

Warmest regards,

 

Ian McPhail

 

 

umm - Ad nauseum?

 

:lol:

 

Vic

:lol: With all due respect Ian : We know all that. P3D advocates, like the advocates for anything new, keep telling us how much better it is ....err except those who don't find it so. What they don't provide is any comparative evidence of that. Many posters in this thread actually cast doubt on that?!

 

Seeing is believing. Comparative screenshots are hardly rocket science. A list of what's in the box is hardly rocket science either.

 

The issue of the relationship between, ownership of and development of the ESP between M$ and LM is also a given, although I suspect that the truth is not exactly spelt out here.

 

What is totally unclear to me, and judging by the take up many others, is the fundemental detail. The rather ludicrous (IMO) EULA situation and promise of a "significant" upgrade (?) in version 2.0, whilst giving those of us "in the dark" absolutely no idea about cost, features and an end to the rather silly idea that it's not a flight simulator but something to teach children (what?) with...... means I'll be sitting on the sideline watching and waiting for a proper review. Interviews with PR reps from LM and a series of Articles in certain FS magazines trotting out more LM blurbs with a few far from stunning screengrabs does not constitute a review OR a comparison. I

 

n the past there have been many "reasonably" objective comparative reviews of FS add-ons. Even the magazines that give everything 80% to protect their advertising revenue have produced them with tables of pros and cons, included features etc.

 

The fact that this forum has started an entire thread to try and clarify what publishers are supporting P3D and those who are not is positive proof that the issues are far from clear.

 

BTW your analogy that P3D is like FSX with vitamins is unfortunate considering the widely held opinion that taking vitamins does nothing for you! :LMAO:

 

Frankly I'd hoped someone would post a link to a decent review I'd missed? ...because it does seem odd to me that if P3D is such a significant improvement there hasn't been one?

 

Geoff

 

 

Hey Geoff,

 

While there are a few comparison videos on youtube of fsx and p3d, and forums discussing p3d with various opinions, all subjective to a users system and their experience, I for one love p3d aside from his weaknesses. Way more stable for ME than FSX ever was. Nearly all my addons work.

P3d is also actively being developed and supported unlike FSX. LM appears to be commited because their market is much broader than just a simming community of X FSX'ers.

 

So here is a suggestion. Buy P3D academic, and see for yourself. See how it works on your system, and what performance you get. Dont forget the sim launcher program as p3d doesnt have a start menu.

Here is the kicker.

 

Did you know p3d has a 60 day refund policy?

http://www.prepar3d.com/support/refundpolicy/

 

So if you dont like it then get your refund. 60 days is plenty of time to see your perspective on it. Ive never seen a refund for a downloaded software.

 

There is a ton of support and forums on p3d. Here and in the Prepar3d forums. Its ongoing. They will make this even better. Devs are coming on board supporting it. There is more positives than negatives. Just my suggestion to you.

Hi Dave,

 

Thanks for the heads up on the comparison videos on YouTube. Not sure they showed me much as there is no commentary and just a list of add-ons used. I have to say that with the limitations of SWMBO's laptop even at 720HD setting I saw differences but nothing that made P3D look much better. In fact FPS seemed steadier but always lower than FSX and scenery pop-ups were about the same. There was a rather bad cloud rendition in one Video of P3D where FSX had none but a fine and realistic haze. Trouble is we don't know why that is?

I have no doubt that P3D has potential as anything resurrected and looked at again ought to have?

 

I’m a Sim addict, hook line and sinker, but 12 years into Simming I know a major improvement when I see one and so far nobodies shown me anything that made me go “Wow”.

 

Whilst P3D’s money back offer is fair, it in itself is hardly compensation for the time it would take me to port over hundreds of pounds worth of add-ons.

 

I’m not here to trash P3D. I want to see more evidence of what it offers and so far I don’t see much. OK my loss you can rightly say? But given some of the issues raised I’m surprised that no one can actually demonstrate the plusses and minuses? As a community the Sim community of any type is hardly backward in posting screenshots and videos but even those need the discipline of an objective comparison to mean much. Nothing ever got fixed by discussing what was right with it. Only by examinig what was wrong and trying to fix it.

 

When V2.0 is released I’ll be more interested, but we don’t all have unlimited budgets or time and I spend mine on what can be shown or reviewed to be worthwhile.

 

I’ll have another look at the videos on my FS machine where I can view in top quality but the lack of frame by frame commentary doesn’t give much to focus on.

 

Your mention of the Sim Launcher programme is the sort of level of detail I (and I'm sure many others?) are after. The basics that those of you using it take for granted are all of interest to potential users and yet this detail seems rather lacking in anything I've found to read up on? Even a download of a pdf user manual would be informative ....er that is I hope it would?

 

What a review would do is summarise "where we're at" so that potential customers can decide what to do. There's hardly any reason for LM not joining in forums with input and feedback. It's not as though the competition is lining up to oust their market position is it?!

 

Anyway thanks for some useful input and feedback. I don't dismiss the forums but after 11 years simming they do have their limitations because this thread like many will fall rapidly off the radar where a review or reviews stay indexed for future reference.

 

Geoff

Geoff, I agree that there is nothing in P3D that makes me say wow! Personally it feels like a sidestep at best. To me it acts as a nifty second FSX that I have set up for a specific aircraft and scenery combo. I always missed not being able to run several FSX installs at once since adding too many addons into a single innstall will get you into trouble at aome point.

 

LM don't care about selling P3D to FSX users. We aren't the segment in the market they're after and couldn't care less. P3D is a professional tool aimed at organizations/corporations rather than individuals. Most of the "improvements" compared to FSX reflect this. But P3D isn't an update of FSX, but ESP, which I guess very few in these forums have installed on their computers. I for one have never seen the program.

I started looking at P3D a year ago when I got tired of constant crashes in FSX. I discovered upon reading their forums that people were still getting plenty of crashes, but there were hints that things were being fixed, especially memory leaks. I decided to hold off for a while and see what happened.

 

I haven't been on the P3D forums in quite a while, but I've discovered just recently in the Avsim forums that there is no startup menu; they just launch you directly into the sim. I don't remember reading this anywhere on the P3D site. This may be useful for certain training purposes where they send the startup scenario file to the users, but for generalized training it's really a pain. I know someone recently created a launcher program that would allow the user to set the parameters similar to the FSX startup menu, so that may be a help.

 

Since I first looked at P3D I've bought at least one aircraft that will not work in P3D. If I want to fly it, I have to keep FSX on my computer. I don't think I have any other add-ons that will not work with P3D, whether from code differences or licensing restrictions, but I'm not in a hurry to test this out. Just getting something installed in P3D if it doesn't have a dedicated P3D installer requires people to jump through hoops, and I think I'd rather avoid that. I don't mind paying a nominal fee for a P3D version.

 

I haven't had a crash *during a flight* in FSX since November 18. I've had a couple of crashes when exiting the program when starting from a saved flight, and one crash in another application after exiting FSX. That's 42 completed flights so far. Before that I was getting a crash about every third flight, during the flight. I've been flying in windowed mode so I could see a dialog rather than having the program just lock up. I may go back to full screen, if only for the performance increase.

 

I don't currently see anything in P3D that would make me want to switch. My system runs FSX at an acceptable level of performance. Maybe when version 2.0 is out, and everyone says it's stable, that will change. For now, I'll just keep watching the forums and reading the comments.

 

I do have one question: If you run the scenery sliders at max, do you still get texture flashing in P3D? I could eliminate it in FSX by lowering the density one notch, but I'd end up missing a lot of additional scenery that only shows up at the highest setting.

 

Hook

 

I do have one question: If you run the scenery sliders at max, do you still get texture flashing in P3D? I could eliminate it in FSX by lowering the density one notch, but I'd end up missing a lot of additional scenery that only shows up at the highest setting.

 

Hook

 

Yes, you still get texture flashing, shimmering, autogen and cloud popping in P3D... At least I do, but I don't spend hours tweaking and tuning my CFG.

I don't spend hours tweaking and tuning my CFG.

 

I used to do that. Then I followed Word Not Allowed's guide and haven't touched it since. That was the beginning of August.

 

Hook