P3D V2 as it stands

[KingGhidorah 209]

First of all you can't compare what it takes to get FSX up and running to P3D v2 even at this stage where it could use a patch for the minor issues reported, that's my main point here. Most of the issues people are reporting concern trying to run the sim with settings higher than they should, hack installing FSX add-ons, or needing to upgrade their hardware. Outside of that the issues reported aren't show stoppers from using the sim. With FSX if you don't find the right tweak it's a show stopper. Most after a few initial rounds are finding they like P3D v2. J van E, Arwen, and others have attested that they can install, configure the menu options to suit their machines and go. No one is saying they have to go into config files in the way one had to do with FSX. If you can find those write-ups let me know. Here's two examples on my end:

 

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Well, again friendly, but the only way I can describe my feelings on the matter is to use a battlefield analogy:  You've rushed to the front of the ranks, thrust your sword in the air, with your hat stuck on the tip, and are shouting "We got em on the run, men!  Chaaaarge!"

 

I'm perched a little further back than that trying to see what's going on through the smoke with my binoculars.  I am not convinced that your brigade has carried the day just yet, and in fact I'm seeing a lot of wounded straggling back, holding their guts in.  Don't get me wrong.  I am rooting for you and others to have success with P3D, as long as you keep it real.  I'm not sure that you can definitively declare on behalf of everybody that it will be all smooth sailing or that the problems that people are experiencing in the point zero release are going to be viewed as but minor hindrances or easy and acceptable workarounds to everybody, nor take into account what addons people may or may not be happy living without, in the short term.  It seems there is still a lot up in the air, no pun intended.

[DylanM 1,069]

Dillon, lets keep this friendly of course, but almost nothing of what I'm reading indicates that P3D is just an install and go affair, at least not at this point, or for everybody.  Is this truly where P3D stands? I don't have it myself yet, but I guess you're fully up and running with it now, with your new hardware and stuff, right, so you can attest that it is completely tweak/workaround/trouble free in it's vanilla form?

 

Try it for yourself and form your own opinion (rather that what you read on wordpress). LM has a no-questions-asked refund policy so there's nothing to lose. 

[mganz121 159]

 

 

Dillon, lets keep this friendly of course, but almost nothing of what I'm reading indicates that P3D is just an install and go affair.............,

 

Just like FSX surely?

[Noel 4,501]

 

 

I am not convinced that your brigade has carried the day just yet, and in fact I'm seeing a lot of wounded straggling back, holding their guts in. 

 

I'm beginning to think this way as well now, and I have the hardware.  What I've found is in some really busy areas performance is unpredictably worse than flying in lesser areas would have caused me to think.  I just did 3 flights all w/ the same basic settings for scenery and other graphic parameters EXCEPT for the new DX11-related ones in V2 for one flight.   Near KSEA in the RA Duke heading into a sunrise here's what I saw:

 

FSX, bloom disabled:  42FPS on the runway, then 50 or so heading SE towards Seattle downtown about 4 miles out.  I use very high end AA settings so image sharpness and freedom from jaggies is perfect.  And the sim runs very smoothly.

 

V2 w/ HDR/Tessellation/shadows on, verified V2 'in focus', GPU use 88%:  FPS 27 on the rwy, and 26 on a similar path towards downtown.

 

V2 without these DX-11 related effects, I'm seeing 37 on the rwy, and 35 towards downtown.

 

While these are hardly very controlled tests, it points to some real issues I think.  As I say the part of the mystery for me is that I do get quite good performance in other areas and the effects are very nice.  For example in the the LA area in the A36 w/ road traffic at 100% late dusk and full sliders right for scenery I was seeing over 30 frames and very smooth.   But this may not bode well for really intense aircraft like PMDG stuff AT heavy to process terminals, which is where those tend to be flow in and out of.   This does make me want to retrieve the hefty pro license cost and maybe tune in later, OR just keep it and enjoy it for what it is, which is great for lighter aircraft though the Duke isn't ultra light by any stretch, and very much unknown for the heavier birds in complex terminals.  Be curious if others find this the case at KSEA area w/ FTXG installed for both sims.

[RWFeldman 159]

Not ready for prime time.

[KingGhidorah 209]

Try it for yourself and form your own opinion (rather that what you read on wordpress). LM has a no-questions-asked refund policy so there's nothing to lose. 

 

It's actually not practical for me to do such a thing, and I've never been much of a fan of the buy now decide later anyway.  The testimonials I've been reading have been exclusively on Avsim.   In my case I'm already GPU bound with FSX, but I'm not going to buy a new 780 or Titan for installation in my current FSX, and a much older machine (990x).  So in my case, it is a matter of rebuilding a much newer machine (that I already own, but is not configured for flight simming) into a P3Dv2 platform, and it will involve transfering flight simulation hardware from the old to the new.  Once that happens, it can only be the end of FSX for me, unless I feel like spending a week or more reinstalling dozens of beloved addons, keeping track of the myriad configuration changes, and the hell of re-creating and tuning a fully stocked FSX all over again for a new system.  If I did the switchover now I would be holding P3D, no planes that I want to fly, and tapping my fingers on the desktop impatiently waiting for 2.1 for errors to be fixed, native addons to arrive on the scene, and whatever other unknown frustrations I might run into, peculiar to my individual setup.  Bottom line is, p3D better be damned good, better than a precisely tuned FSX+all addons combined, to make me do that transition.  I'm going to switch, but it might be a month, a year, who knows.  I hope it's soon.

 

btw, DylanM, the only reason I handed you a dislike for your comment, was because you handed me one.  I didn't particularly dislike your comment until I saw that it came along with a red smacker. :mellow:

[tttocs 301]

Most of the issues people are reporting concern trying to run the sim with settings higher than they should, hack installing FSX add-ons, or needing to upgrade their hardware. Outside of that the issues reported aren't show stoppers from using the sim. With FSX if you don't find the right tweak it's a show stopper.

 

I'm one of those still evaluating/waiting, in part due to the potential add-on compatibility issues you mention.  I'm really not any more interested in plain P3D v2 than I would be in plain FSX or plain XP10.  Some add-ons are critical for my use, and some of those that I view as critical are certainly not yet ready for P3D prime time or simply flat out don't work.

 

But frankly, the situation with FSX is, for me, exactly what you describe for P3D v2 if you take away add-ons.  FSX ran fine for me straight out of the box with in-sim setting adjustments.  The "tweaks", which in my system amount to I think 4 settings in fsx.cfg, only became desirable (I can't even say needed) after I started piling on the add-ons.  And, BTW, I haven't touched the config file in probably over a year and a half now, so it's not like the constant tweak-fest some describe in my case.

 

Were I starting fresh today as the OP is, I'm not sure what I'd do.  I don't think there's much question that the future will be P3D and XP, which really hasn't been mentioned but should be as one of the potential alternatives, but I'm not convinced that the future is now.  I certainly don't think the situation is a drop-dead no-brainer.

 

Scott

[WebMaximus 372]

I've been evaluating P3Dv2 the last week after using FSX for years. Regardless of all nice new features in P3Dv2 I decided to go back to FSX for now and main reason is I want a stable fight simulation environment where I can spend my time flying rather than trying to make things work.

 

Despite this I don't regret I purchased P3Dv2 and I do think that's where the future will be for most of us but IMO the product need to work better before I do the final switch.

 

So...to the original poster I say it all depends on your needs and what you're looking for now and in the future. If you want a stable simulator where things actually work as long as you have a well installed and configured FSX and with tons of addons I would go with FSX for now and then get P3Dv2 when they've addressed the current issues and bugs and the addon developers have catched up offering true P3Dv2 addons. I think you'll be able to enjoy FSX for at least 6 months or even a year until P3Dv2 will be there.

 

Or if you want the latest right away with some really great features not found in FSX but don't mind having to cope with some issues for some time until they are addressed and the fact that not all addons will run that good and some of them not at all then you should go with P3Dv2.

 

As for "tweaks" in FSX and that you need those is not true. After I reinstalled FSX after a hardware upgrade I'm not using one single tweak and FSX runs smooth as butter and looks beautiful! Search for my name (Richard Åsberg) on YouTube and you'll find lots of flights I recorded where you can see for yourself what my FSX looks like and how it performs with many advanced addons installed.

[zmak 331]

You have a huge choice to make right now. Once you start to heavily invest in add ons the choice will become difficult

 

FSX world changed for me after OC'ing my card to 4.6

If you dont mind overclocking then you should not have the typical CTD's reported with low to medium systems eg, crash on clicking menu bar and others

 

good luck with whatever you choose and dont write off the 64bit Xplane either

[Slayer 190]

P3DV2 offers a money back guarantee...so why not. You could also buy both. What's another $30 if you are running on a $500+ prosim setup? Either way you can't go wrong. FSX takes lots of tuning to get right...

[Noel 4,501]

And despite what I just wrote, there are visual differences that just plain are not possible in FSX, and performance ultimately is good on high end hardware.   I just did another fly out of KSEA 16R and while smoothness was as good and frame rate better w/ bloom off in FSX, I did the same flight in V2 and the visual differences are compelling, and some of it's a little hard to put your finger on.  Looks definitely more realistic, less 'flat' and dullish, and this is the reality as well, performance was certainly fine, even w/ frame rate of 37 or so flying south west whereas at 50 w/ FSX.   Perhaps the shader apps might get closer to this, or maybe DX10 FSX w/ appropriate tweaks.  I would say in a double-blinded test flight w/ V2 v FSX in this test flight just described known for being heavy to process, I can say w/o equivocation most/all would absolutely choose V2.  Of course, when you turn Light Bloom on in FSX, those frames will drop from 50 to around 28 to 30, and while it looks better to me it's over the top in some ways albeit pleasant to look at--in the end again V2 would be what you would want to play in.

[geolpilot 88]

 

 

is to use a battlefield analogy: You've rushed to the front of the ranks, thrust your sword in the air, with your hat stuck on the tip, and are shouting "We got em on the run, men! Chaaaarge!"

 

This analogy can also be turned around. Some would rush to the frontlines with little or no experience (brave or foolhardy), ill-equipped for battle (wrong armour), and no support. Off course they will get bloodied.

 

With the right Hardware (armour), some knowledge and experience on setting up your machine, drivers etc and Prepar3D properly, and with the vast support on this and the Prepar3Ds forums, you will be OK. The generals in charge of strategy now are dedicated to taking this "battle" forward, not like the last commanders who left us alone, bruised and battered on the field, for 7 years!

 

I am still in the front ranks, and really winning the battle. In fact enjoying the fights (flights) rather than sitting on the side / back lines waiting to see which way the tide turns!

 

Advance, forward!

 

Rob

[blueshark747 1,843]

This analogy can also be turned around. Some would rush to the frontlines with little or no experience (brave or foolhardy), ill-equipped for battle (wrong armour), and no support. Off course they will get bloodied.

 

With the right Hardware (armour), some knowledge and experience on setting up your machine, drivers etc and Prepar3D properly, and with the vast support on this and the Prepar3Ds forums, you will be OK. The generals in charge of strategy now are dedicated to taking this "battle" forward, not like the last commanders who left us alone, bruised and battered on the field, for 7 years!

 

I am still in the front ranks, and really winning the battle. In fact enjoying the fights (flights) rather than sitting on the side / back lines waiting to see which way the tide turns!

 

Advance, forward!

 

Rob

Spoken like an intelligent logical simmer;)

[JimmiG 244]

I was planning to make the switch the day P3D 2.0 came out, but the lack of OrbX regions and some other major addons still having problems, has kept me on the fence (no, I don't want to fudge around with .cfg and .xml files to make things sort-of-kind-of work).

 

The problem with staying with P3D 1.4 or FSX now is that it feels even more ancient and primitive than before. It's almost like software rendering when compared with the fancy volumetric fog and amazing shadows that people keep showing off in the screen shots forum.

 

My solution for now is to play around with X-Plane 10 until P3D 2.1 comes out. It's truly annoying in some aspects, but at least it feels like it was made in this decade.

[FlyBaby 659]

I am holding back my purchase of P3D for the first patch. Everyone has their own tolerance level for software issues and mine is fairly low when it comes to major bugs out of the box. Some of these issues should have definitely been caught during the beta session or maybe the beta participation should have been lager.

 

If $80 was too much to pay for an X-plane beta that took me a year to run on my high end system, then surely $199 is way too much to pay for buggy software. However, I believe that things will improved in another month or so with P3D.

 

With that said; I am definitely looking forward to LM’s patch, I will then get P3D and forget all about FSX. LM is committed to improving their product, they have a very professional and supportive attitude towards their customers on their forum, and they try to keep folks informed about their progress with fixing things. I think LM will turn this rough start into a very good future for P3D.