PMDG going P3D.

[Murmur 3,977]

First 2 pinned topics:

 

http://forum.avsim.net/forum/351-pmdg-general-forum/

 

Since PMDG and basically any other FSX developer embraced P3D, it's going to be the de-facto successor of FSX.

 

PMDG says will continue its development of their first X-Plane product to evaluate its market demand and then decide if keeping on developing for X-Plane.

 

 

Well, some personal thoughts... I think Laminar Research failed to capitalize a great part of the opportunity they had. Seven years passed in which the development of FSX/P3D has been effectively freezed. With regard to features and visuals, P3D 1.0-1.4 had not introduced significant novelties beyond FSX.

 

Ok, there have been important improvements in X-Plane in these last 6 years (from 9.00 to 10.25). And I reckon that a very important, positive aspect is that Laminar Research has done a lot of "behind the scenes" work to make X-Plane future proof and to make life easier to 3rd party developers.

 

What I think they missed, is striving to match at least FSX in most of those basic features that X-Plane 10.25 still lacks compared to default FSX and that would have attracted the great mass of flight simmers (probably you all know what features I'm referring to, since this subject is often discussed here). After all, 7 years are a lot of time in the software timescale.

 

Lately, even here, X-Plane 3rd party developers hinted that X-Plane absolutely needs a larger user base, otherwise the quality add-ons that we currently see are barely feasible from a commercial point of view. Now that P3Dv2 could become the newly "nearly-monopolist" (as FSX was), could it cause a shrink of the X-Plane userbase?

 

[snowingairlines 20]

Seems like Boeing is going to let PMDG sell non entertainment products. Thank you Boeing! FSX is finally starting to be retired. Just like an airliner when it leaves service.

[Geofa 108]

I felt that way about xplane10 until this week when two ground breaking add ins came out for it.

 

The tubeliner folk will definately head the P3D way-that is unless there is stuff over here that is so ground breaking one will have to have a look, a try, and possibly  convert.

 

The last two years of xplane I really thought there was little that would drag one away from fs-though I begrudingly tried. It has been frustrating to look at a basically catch up sim.

 

Today  after putting skymaxx and alpilotx's mesh to its paces there would be little to drag me back to anything else. This is new and cutting age stuff-and it is new and cutting age stuff that will create such a wow factor that people will be sucked in. I have been sucked in big time by these add ins-hopefully more will come. Add on developers are the key.

 

Wow factor is simply very hard to ignore-by anyone or any camp-and that is a good thing. 

 

In my case, after 30+ years of flight simming I really started losing interest 3 years ago. Fsx felt dated, flight did not meet my expectations, and xplane 10 though had potential seemed only to have potential.

 

This all changed this week for me in a sudden fashion. I realized today  I did not lose interest in flight simming-there just has been nothing in the last 3 years that caused me to get that wow factor and become excited.

 

All changed now-time to keep the momentum going here...

 

Wow factor is terribly important-one can ignore other deficiencies if there is just a little magic....

 

I have had the best flight sim experience in years today-that counts for a lot!

[HiFlyer 9,410]

I always wondered if LR had the resources to capitalize on the opportunity they had. Answer seems to be no. But the third parties might be able to save things.

[Murmur 3,977]

That's nice Geofa! :biggrin:

 

I have to say I tried just one HD mesh v2 (of my home town) and the results are really incredible. Not only the improvements over default scenery (or even over current SimHeaven sceneries) are huge, but it's close to a point in which it makes photoscenery nearly useless, at least in my case (very well covered by OSM). I doubt there's an addon for FSX reaching this level. Night lighting is still lacking though (dark buildings, etc.).

 

Also, looks like v10.30 will bring significant improvements (maybe even the GPS? :smile: ).

 

That being said, there are still basic things lacking that should have been there two years ago, so that now much more people would have adopted X-Plane.

[BleedAir 28]

why is this thread in the Xplane forum :blink:

[Geofa 108]

Well I'll keep fighting for what is lacking (gps is best news for me-I hope you are right)-but not only the mesh which does bring a high point to geography detail, but new clouds that have God rays and actually move-this is cutting edge stuff. I could start xplane, sit on the runway and just watch the clouds-it is that amazing!

I'll also complain about osm/landclass which is still very poor in my part of the world and I sure hope a fix can be made for that. :(

 

The basics always need work -but again-a few jaw dropping wow factors that no one else has done or come close to I think bring the excitement factor in which brings converts. No sim is ever complete-but getting excited is the big thing.

 

I'll bet p3d doesn't have God rays,  and clouds that move or look as good as skymaxx, and from their pr. the mesh hasn't been improved and won't have the detail we have now thanks to alpilotx.

 

A superior stock gps, ai traffic that blows the stock fs system away would be other wows.

The wows don't have to all come from stock xplane-and add on people can fill it in-but the more wows-the more conversions-really that simple.

 

After all is p3d is just fsx with minor improvements-people like me will get bored and be looking for something that is cutting edge or just adds a little excitement.

why is this thread in the Xplane forum :blink:

Probably because xplane is greatly effected by this?!

 

<edit> Just looked at some prelim p3d shots-the autogen frankly looks lame and dated. Once someone accused xplane's autogen as looking like a kid had scattered his toy box-I can only think the same looking at this. As a contrast in the screenshot forum I posted some shots of xplane today-again quality, wow factor, and getting the info out should do its job eventually.

[Murmur 3,977]

why is this thread in the Xplane forum :blink:

 

Because PMDG is probably the biggest and most famous FSX developer, and in the past they had decided to "switch" from FSX/P3D to X-Plane. Now they said that they will develop (apparently mainly) for P3D, so I think this could have implications for X-Plane and could be of interest to X-Plane users.

[Geofa 108]

Well I think this answers it..

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/427009-multi-platform-pricing-policy-expectations-fsxp3dxplane/

[Murmur 3,977]

Well I think this answers it..

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/427009-multi-platform-pricing-policy-expectations-fsxp3dxplane/

 

Very interesting! So X-Plane and P3D could be in competition as professional training solutions.

[LAdamson 240]

Because PMDG is probably the biggest and most famous FSX developer, and in the past they had decided to "switch" from FSX/P3D to X-Plane. Now they said that they will develop (apparently mainly) for P3D, so I think this could have implications for X-Plane and could be of interest to X-Plane users.

Expand to X-Plane. Never have heard of switching to X-Plane. Looks as if they still plan to do so.

[Murmur 3,977]

You're right. Indeed they're planning to develop new products for FSX as well, along with P3D and X-Plane.

[Bob Scott 7,774]

The significance of PMDG+P3D for the XP community, I think, is that XP had a fleeting opportunity to establish itself as the logical heir apparent for the day when FSX started to hit the wall of obsolescence, and to capitalize on a migration from MSFS variants that has now been shifted right on the timeline by years, and may well not happen at all.

 

I am also in the school of thought voiced up-thread that some big opportunities have been lost over the four years after ACES disbanded where FSX had no future and there was no clear path forward.  There was a void, ripe to be exploited, but now it has largely been filled again.  PMDG's announcement of a move in that direction today is telling.

 

@Geofa--you're comparing XP with a bunch of recent add-ons to stock P3D on release day...really?  I think waiting 3-6 months for the FSX -> P3D add-on migration to really kick in--and then comparing--will be a more honest comparison.

 

Regards

[Tabs 2,790]

We are not "going P3D" - Robert was very clear that we are developing for FSX and XPlane10 as consumer sims. P3D is not a consumer sim and the products we release for it will reflect that.

[Geofa 108]

Say what-I haven't compared anything to p3d. I did say the autogen from the screen shots looks like a toybox -I stand by that-the autogen is exactly the same as when I beta tested 6 years ago-except perhaps more.

Are we that defensive? I really have no loyalty to any sim except the best at the moment. I have made no direct compare to xplane-where did this come from except a position of defensiveness?