Unless MS decides FS 11 is worth developing, Xplane is the future.

 

P3D is snake oil. As soon as they have enough beta testing from people willing to pay them $10 a month to help out, they'll close off the access and launch their professional product at a professional price. They said at the outset it was not an entertainment product and I'm sure they meant it.

 

That being said, we still don't know what the contract between MS and LM contains. There may be wording that reserves a limited version of the final P3D product to be marketed and supported by Microsoft as FS 11.

 

That would be the best of all.

Prepar3D at its current price is their "professional" product.

 

Among all the negativity and pessimism, you are missing who ŁM are targeting with this.

 

They want this affordable so thousands of schools schools/universities can buy hundreds of licenses each. So every FBO can grab a copy to train with. So anyone who needs to to train for their check ride can use it. So a US military deep in budget cuts can buy hundreds of thousands of licenses to use on every base in the world to train, Etc.

 

There's much more money for them by creating an affordable wide use platform that corners the entire market for flight, land, and sea learning/training vs selling a few hundred $5,000 professional licenses around the world.

 

The market for this kind of wide appeal can potentially number into the millions when talking worldwide. At $200 a pop, that's a lot of scratch even for LM.

 

And this assumes they never garner the rights to sell it for anything other then professional use.

 

 

I've been running DX10 Preview mode for a while (with Steve's/other's various fixes) and although it does give a little more memory headroom before hitting OOM, it's still pretty easy to hit OOM. 

 

Rob, can you summarize the value of DX10 Preview?  I have only tried running it once and when the AA or AA+AF or AF setting didn't function I stopped trying.   Is this piece solved the the various fixes, and if so, how does it improve on non DX10 mode?

 

 

Bottom line; I can never use Prepar3D. My only hope is that X-Plane eventually developes into an worthy alternative to FSX.

 

Why can't you ever use P3D?

 

 

I'll keep my support going with my $10/mo contribution, I highly encourage anyone that is serious about their flight simulation to do the same.  There were some encouraging comments from LM that a native 64bit product is something they "plan" to work on after this release.

 

What is a $10/month contribution for?

 

Net sales for Lockheed Martin for 2012 were $47.2 billion compared to $46.5 billion in 2011.  Net earnings from continuing operations in 2012 were $2.75 billion, or $8.36 per diluted share, compared to $2.67 billion, or $7.85 per diluted share, during 2011.  Cash from operations for 2012 was $1.6 billion after pension contributions of $3.6 billion, which included $2.5 billion of discretionary contributions in the fourth quarter, compared to cash from operations for 2011 of $4.3 billion after pension contributions of $2.3 billion in 2011, which included $1.0 billion of discretionary contributions in the fourth quarter.

 

 

Why can't you ever use P3D?

 

Because there are 3 groups of people that should be using P3D and maybe he is not part of one of those groups.

 

 

What is a $10/month contribution for?

 

Actually $9.95 (I rounded) for developer subscription.

 

You'll need to use NVidia Inspector but I'm not sure what you mean AA+AF is solved?  I run 2560 x 1600 so I don't have a big need to go beyond 4XAA.  I've read many threads that suggest one can't go beyond 4XAA ... but here is a screen shot from running DX10 on my PC: http://www.robainscough.com/images/6375d8a9cb86345b73b0523316cceaa1.jpg  and http://www.robainscough.com/images/249645c5bdf2c7f6f1bbcae12b2a9a19.jpg  (and these screen shots were done before the Asiana accident).

 

As for other issues with DX10, you'll need Steve's work: http://stevesfsxanalysis.wordpress.com/category/dx10/

 

DX10 looks better and gives you a little more headroom before hitting OOM.

 

On a side note: I've started testing Affinity settings as they seem to have an impact of memory usage and "the blurries" (textures not loading correctly).  I need to do some more testing, but I'm seeing a 33% increase in frame rates with certain CPU combinations but at the cost of lower textures (which sorta makes sense, but why?) in "some" (not all) photo sceneries.  It's a pain to test given the possible combinations of CPU (6 core) with and without HT.  If P3D can remove this headache of a process that I have to go thru in FSX, that's more than worth my $9.95/mo contribution

FSX is STILL a piece of software that we have to tiptoe around for fear of it having a fatal error etc. How many times do you still get that dread when it pauses and you forgot to save the flight?

Microsoft, shame on you for leaving us with a so nearly excellent programme but one that if we are honest and regardless of how much we enjoy it is still only 90% baked. 

Lucky for MS that we are so keen to make it work because if they had sold this product to a hardened business world they would have been finished a long time ago.

There was talk of Aerosoft having a go at a new sim :unsure:

 

 

You'll need to use NVidia Inspector but I'm not sure what you mean AA+AF is solved?

 

I've only tried using DX10 mode a few times and every time I launch FSX it appears my AA/AF settings are no more.  I do use Inspector.  Just jagged everything.   I'll play w/ it some more.

 

 

I've code an application just to manage the complexity of getting FSX to run and I find myself spending more time coding my FSX manager application than actual flying.

 

Rob, dunno how advanced your coding skills are or available time, but I tell you there is room for this idea that I know was attempted once but it still seems like a fabulous idea to me:  we need a app that will adjust settings in FSX in realtime, on-the-fly pardon the pun, letting the user decide how to prioritize adjustments in its configuration setup.  This way for example, one could say 'reduce autogen by 1 notch when frame rate drops to less than 24 for > 5 seconds', letting the user enter the variables.  I clamored for a dev to do this just for FSX bloom which is gorgeous and is fine in the right circumstances so would fabulous to have that turn on automatically for example when 'FL is > 10K and FPS is >=30 or something along those lines.  This is a utility, if done well, EVERYONE would want to use.   I guess one key challenge would be getting FSX to respond to these if they are variables only editable when the sim is not in fly mode.  Killer idea, but maybe not very possible dunno...

 

 

FSX is STILL a piece of software that we have to tiptoe around for fear of it having a fatal error etc. How many times do you still get that dread when it pauses and you forgot to save the flight?

 

Boy I'll tell ya--not no more!  W/ this rig I just assembled I have yet to have any issues whatsoever and I've taken some long flights.

To get AA in DX10 you have to set the internal AA on and then set SGSS to 4x or higher in Nvidia inspector.

Regular AA settings in Nvidia inspector do not work.

With SGSS 4x or 8x along with the internal AA you can get close to what DX9 with 8xSQ + 2x SGSS gives. The problem is once you do that the performance is no better then DX9 and in my case was a touch worse (at least in heavy scenery areas).

 

 

Rob, dunno how advanced your coding skills are or available time, but I tell you there is room for this idea that I know was attempted once but it still seems like a fabulous idea to me:

 

Some elements could be real-time others will be part of flight planning.  I wish I had the time to develop this more (something that could be used by others) but it's not at that stage yet.  My other job (the one that pays the bills) keeps me coding long thru the night ... I work for a small company so I have many "hats" to fill, including IT, DBA, Lead developer, PM, and just about anything computer technology related.  Finding time (or I should say making time) to even fly can be difficult for me.

 

I was hoping my regular developer subscription to P3D would get me new builds on the road to V2.0, but that apparently is not the case (unless I'm missing something) ... there must be some other "IN" that gets that privilege.  But, if P3D V2.0 really does come out this year, and it doesn't have the current issues that FSX does, then developing my FSX manager app would be wasted time, so it's unlikely I'll proceed with it (make it a releasable product) until I see P3D v2.0.

 

Rob

To get AA in DX10 you have to set the internal AA on and then set SGSS to 4x or higher in Nvidia inspector.

Regular AA settings in Nvidia inspector do not work.

 

With SGSS 4x or 8x along with the internal AA you can get close to what DX9 with 8xSQ + 2x SGSS gives. The problem is once you do that the performance is no better then DX9 and in my case was a touch worse (at least in heavy scenery areas).

Thanks for that ;o)

I clamored for a dev to do this just for FSX bloom which is gorgeous and is fine in the right circumstances so would fabulous to have that turn on automatically for example when 'FL is > 10K and FPS is >=30 or something along those lines. This is a utility, if done well, EVERYONE would want to use.

Easily, create a script in LUA that sends a key press to enable/disable bloom at whatever altitude is required

 

There was talk of Aerosoft having a go at a new sim :unsure:

The clue is in the statement 'having a go' as in 'we had a go so move along now, nothing to see' etc

Bottom line; I can never use Prepar3D.

 

Of course you can.

 

LM doesn't say that middle-aged men residing in the USA or EU are prohibited from buying and using P3D, so learning how to manage  a Spitfire's engine or how to hack a route into a FMS or how to survive a thunderstorm in a sailplane makes you basically a student, just like making a bloody AFX file for an airport of your choice qualifies you as a developer. Pulling off a whole transatlantic flight over and over agian to perfect your fuel burn management techniques puts you in line for the professional license.

 

The only difference is the payment method (developer vs rest) and the amount of content you'll get (student vs pro).

 

"No entertainment" simply means that you won't see P3D at Walmart, that you won't see ads on TV, that you won't have an idiot-proof piece of software or that you'll get extensive support from them.

 

 

Just freakin' buy it. LM certainly won't turn down your money and I have not heard of any P3D users being sued for being Average Joes with an unhealthy addiciton to virtual flying.

And this is where every PD3 thread leads to, if it is goes on long enough.  Someone suggests that the EULA means nothing, isn't enforceable, and no lawsuits will be filed. Not only that, but then people are ENCOURAGED to break the EULA with a "what the heck" attitude.

 

But then some of us are on the other side where we understand the EULA and what it means and are not going to feed into the frenzy.

 

BTW, that is not what "No entertainment" means.

 

No, just don't "freakin buy it".

Actually, fairly well said Jim! A moral conundrum for the so inclined.

Just buy it if its something you want to use. End of.

See, another one with an "I don't care" attitude.

 

If the sign says "No Swimming Allowed" there must be a reason for the sign. And if something were to happen they would be the first to file a suit.

 

If the EULA says "No Entertainment Use" there must be a reason for the limitation.