Good grief guys!  Spend 10 bucks and try it for a month.  If it works then spend the money, if not then you are only out 10 bucks!  Me personally, I could care less about the shadows, they will be shut off! I want low visibilty and fog that doesn't pop in and out!!! I want clouds that act like clouds when you fly through them. Don't care about the scenery either.  Just give me accurate weather and it's affects on my plane.   To each their own right!?   I have to agree with an earlier post on the PC requirements. I have I5-2500K oc to 4.6G  660ti veideo and 8G of ram.  I can run FSX on mulltiple monitors flying NDX with undocked displays at a smooth 25-30fps.

 

 

mouse cursor drops FPS!
 
edit - now it stopped when i locked frames to 30 fps

 

This behavior is similar in FSX.  W/O a limiter one can appreciate the full hit mouse pointer visible does to the sim, whereas locked the impact is not as apparent.  In the T7 in FSX I may see fps of 50 then all the way down to 32 w/ pointer visible.   If your lock is set under 32 you won't see the effect as pronounced since pointer visible drops from 50 to 32 in this example.  I put a detailed comment on the P3D Feature Request forum to hopefully nudge them to tackle the issue once and for all because that kind of penalty, typically only manifested w/ complex add-on aircraft and roughly in direct proportion to the number of clickspots in the VC, is huge.  I can see up to 50% frame hit, when frames unlimited, in PMDG planes.

But, according to most, this is suppose to be the almighty replacement for FSX. No tweaking, excellent performance, No OOM's etc. Quite frankly, for me at this point, FSX is far more solid and reliable. But I'm not a perty person either. Im not giving up , just not impressed. IMO its 1.4 or FSX with a few graphics bells and whistles.

I think it is or at least on its way to replacing FSX. No tweaking? no but much less because the tweaks will adapted and baked into patches. No OOMs? no not as long as its 32 bit, but they should be severely reduced IF things are managed properly by the user- meaning dont go beyond the means of crazy settings. The pics ive seen have been outstanding autogen, and a smooother experience but there is no doubt you still need the hardware to run satisfactorily. That will never ever change for such a demanding application. The underlying code fixes, provide much stronger foundation, and with 3PDs working closely with LM, things will work itself way quicker than FSX ever did. 

The Saitek panels DO work in P3D v2.0

 

You probably dont have an exe.xml file in your C:\Users\your name\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2 folder.

 

If this is the case, simply create one in notepad and copy your Saitek entires to it from the one you have in FSX.

 

My Example below: Just change the path to where your SaiPanels.exe is located. If your unsure of how, then: Copy to notepad and save it as exe.xml then move it to your C:\Users\your name\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2 folder

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>
<SimBase.Document version="1,0"
Type="Launch">
  <Descr>Launch</Descr><Filename>exe.xml</Filename><Disabled>False</Disabled><Launch.ManualLoad>False</Launch.ManualLoad>.manualload><Launch.Addon>
    <Name>
      Saitek Panel(s) Plugin for FSX
    </Name>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Path>
      C:\Program Files (x86)\Saitek\Pro Flight Panels\SaiPanels.exe
    </Path>
    <CommandLine>-run</CommandLine>
  </Launch.Addon>.addon>
</SimBase.Document>

Edited November 25, 201312 yr by n4gix
Edited to format the .xml code properly!

I have been flying for a few hours, and here are my first impressions, fwtw.

 

System: i7 2660 overclocked to 4.5, 2X 570 GTX in SLI (not used yet, I know), 5780x1080 on three screens, 8GB memory. 

 

First, the frame rate limiter is very important in this sim. It never was for me in FSX. If I set the limiter to unlimited the view is very choppy with numerous stutters. Set at 30 it gets about 26fps with autogen set to dense across the board. Ground shadows being set high lowers that to around 18fps.

 

The clouds and sky effects are nice, the water is a little strange for my tastes.

 

Megascenery works fine, but oddly it doesn't run at any faster fps then default, even with all autogen turned off. I will have to figure that out!

 

The Ceranado planes are nice, some of the defaults are not so nice.

 

Saitek flight yoke, throttle and pedals work fine. Panels so far do not. I'm sure there is a work around either out there or coming soon.

 

If this were released as MSFS 11, I think we would be disappointed. Out of the box the product preforms very much like FSX. The interface is not a step forward, but that is just my opinion. The frame rates seem lower to me, when trying to compare apples to apples. But we are buying this for the future. Hopefully third party developers will bring the sim up to its potential.

The Saitek panels DO work in P3D v2.0

Hey, thanks that worked! Only thing that doesn't work are my 3 Saitek Pro Flight Instrument Panels. 

Any idea? 

 

 

Hey, thanks that worked! Only thing that doesn't work are my 3 Saitek Pro Flight Instrument Panels. 

Any idea? 

 Glad it worked

 

Check your exe.xml in FSX perhaps theirs another entry you need. I dont have the instrument panels so unsure.

Hey, thanks that worked! Only thing that doesn't work are my 3 Saitek Pro Flight Instrument Panels. 

Any idea?

 

You may need to use your FSX dll.XML file the same way you used the exe file in app data folder. Edit it just like the exe.

 

Be advised I'm not at my rig at the mo, so I'm unsure if Saitek have entries in the dll XML file, but I figure its something to look at.

You may need to use your FSX dll.XML file the same way you used the exe file in app data folder. Edit it just like the exe.

 

Be advised I'm not at my rig at the mo, so I'm unsure if Saitek have entries in the dll XML file, but I figure its something to look at.

I added the lines i didn't have there from my fsx exe.xml. Now everything works, didn't need to use the FSX dll file. Thanks for the help

So far, I have mixed feelings about p3d v2. The visuals have been much improved, but performance is not that great. It does not feel very stable with sudden, unexplainable FPS drops and a number of CTDs. Playing with all settings has not yet improved performance yet. This is with the default airplanes in p3d, so I am a bit afraid what the NGX will perform like once released next year.

Maybe it's time for an upgrade of my video card (currently on a GTX580), but not sure yet whether I should go for a 780ti or Titan.. Will be following performance reviews of other users very closely

But, according to most, this is suppose to be the almighty replacement for FSX. No tweaking, excellent performance, No OOM's etc. Quite frankly, for me at this point, FSX is far more solid and reliable. But I'm not a perty person either. Im not giving up , just not impressed. IMO its 1.4 or FSX with a few graphics bells and whistles.

 

Well, the hype about v2 was almost totally based on wishful thinking by some members of the FS community! LM always stated that the main improvements are to the engine, and expansion of the SDK.

 

And on that they have delivered!

 

Frankly I think this is absurd: Talking yourself into a frenzy and then being disappointed because the self-generated hype does not match the release.

 

Complaining about it is entirely inappropiate IMO - I believe that we should be GRATEFUL every which way you turn it for LM taking up the baton after MS dropped it completely!

 

Sascha

I have been flying for a few hours, and here are my first impressions, fwtw.

"Then...and after reading your report (much appreciated!), and those of others on this thread from 'wow' to 'bummer...', I think that you are right, this is a purchase to be made at a much later date...when there is saturation and involvement from 3rd Party offerings/tweaks.  I was hoping for more of an FSX---------->evolution, than what is honestly being reported here.  I now truly believe that perhaps Xplane 10 and later editions is going to be the way to move forward for hardware and software (as they already have a working and stable 64 bit version). I'm going to wait another year or two, and see where LM is going to take this. For now..I honestly have to say that I see (videos)/Read (posts) P3D as a very minor update to FSX that I have stable right now.  I have FSX running under DX9 like a champ and OOM free.  I guess that I am in a way, already there....(smile).  Ok...back to FSX, XPX, FS9, and no complaints over any of them.  I appreciated all the contributors of this thread to date. You are helping the rest of us that have not downloaded yet to decide upon personal action or inaction...in a huge way. Thank you!

 

Ses

Absolutely agree ... no popping of objects, no "growing population" of objects ... if I tried to run FSX with the settings I'm using in P3D V2, I'd be at 1/3 the frame rate for about 15 seconds before I got an OOM.

 

I enjoy XP10 64bit also, but it's simply not as complete as P3D V2.

 

Look at this for memory usage in P3D V2 (given my settings all maxed out) 2.4 GB: 

 

P3DMemory.jpg

 

Thanks for the video, very nice, looks really good, still see some popping but not disturbing at all.

Still i would like to see what it would do (video) with some scenery-updates like ORBX`s stuff.

 

 

1 Thing about your Process-Explorer screenshot.

 

"Are you kidding me",  106  processes running ???

 

I have only 31 processes running after boot (on Windows 7), 106 looks like buying an F1 car (your specs are really high) and then strapping a garbage truck behind it.

 

(in other words i think you should be able to find even more smoothness in there.)

Im amazed at the amount of very quick judgments. Its not even been 24 hours, and some have flown for what seems like 30 minutes, and have an issue or two, and its classified as a dissappointment?  I dont recall FSX running stellar out of the box. 

LM is more than willing to listen to customers feedback and implement changes as needed. That will not happen with FSX ever again. 

I have not got it just yet cause of cost, but its a certain buy. Its moving in the right direction with foundational improvements from what I can see and read and will only get better and better. 

 

Lots of mixed feedback anyhow.

 

FSX actually didn't run out the box and nothing on the market at the time would make it run on the level we see with P3D today or FS9 in it's generation. It looked worse that FS9 initially for those that got it to run. P3D is doing far better than that. Once add-ons start coming out specifically designed for it people will really see the advantage. If one bought a new mid-range computer today with the latest high end video card they wouldn't see any issues.

Their is a guy over at ORBX who has been having lots of performance problems...been posting for hours and just did the old delete the .cfg and let it rebuild with a restart. Claims it got his FPS out of the potty. May be worth a try for some. I have not even downloaded yet this morning just a heads up. May help and may not but easy to try.