Is it not time to move towards a new sim that can accommodate these excellent add ons and allow us to use them to their maximum potential? FSX is fundamentally flawed and must be a nightmare to work with. 4GB of VAS? 32 bits? Limited core functionality? This is 2014, FSX is holding us back! Is it not time to move to a solid platform that allows continuous growth/progression without the need to tweak, fiddle and compromise?

We have the hardware for it, we have the add ons for it we just don't have the platform.

X-plane is 64 bit and takes advantage of todays hardware, not to mention it being a far more realistic flight model. As soon as PMDG jump ship to X-plane there will be a surge as the benefits are massive! Not to mention huge progression within simming in general.

So, why continue to develop for something as restrictive and archaic as FSX?

The answer is simple. There's more demand in FSX right now. More demand = more money. That being said, there is still a demand among those that fly in Prepar3d and X-Plane so that's why PMDG will be producing products for those platforms too.

There is more demand because it is the only thing really available. Playstation didn't sit back once they'd created the ps1 and say there isn't any point in developing another console as there wan't sufficient demand for the an upgrade. We are basically building and building upon a frankly dilapidated and defunct foundation, currently, that is only bottlenecking our potential. Why develop pioneering add ons when you have to work around the platform? It's frankly stupid. 

 

 

Is it not time to move towards a new sim that can accommodate these excellent add ons and allow us to use them to their maximum potential?

 

But we have X-Plane 64 bit and P3Dv2? Opportunities are there for those that want to take advantage of it, surely? I'm really not quite sure what you are getting at.

 

Oh, just noticed this is the PMDG forum. They have stated that they will look at P3Dv2 and X-Plane. So again, not quite sure what the point of your post is?

 

Dave B

Not quite sure what the purpose of your response was?

No, I suspect you wouldn't.

I'm thoroughly enjoying X-Plane 10 at the moment. I've had it for over a year now and mostly still stuck with FSX throughout that  time but lately a lot of inroads have been made in relation to add-ons so now I've been gravitating more towards it and spending much less time with FSX.

 

There's a particular complex B757 add-on that's really been taking up my time lately, and yes, enough for me to take time off from PMDG 777 and NGX. The platform isn't perfect but somehow the shortcomings we all know about which used to bother me and most other people don't really seem to matter so much now as the technological benefits simply outweigh them.

 

I still like to fly PMDG jets, but now I just feel ever time I load up FSX and use it for a bit it just feels really tired and dated in a lot of ways. A year ago I would have still had a different opinion, so yes, absolutely agree that with tech advances it really is time to move on.

The answer to the original question is pretty simple.  By a wide margin, FSX is the preferred platform of simmers, at least here on AVSIM, which I think, in terms of sample size, is a fair approximation of the flight sim community overall.  Further, the suggestion that if developers like PMDG were to stop developing for FSX, everyone would suddenly dump FSX in favor of the newer platforms, is a rather naive idea that has been pretty thoroughly debunked.  If it were in fact true, no one would be using FS2002, FS2004, MS Flight, or even XP9 for that matter, all of which have a higher percentage of users than either P3D or XPX at the moment.  Maybe, someday, your wish will come true, but were it me, I wouldn't hold my breath.

And just a reminder guys (and gals :smile:), we're here in the PMDG forum so you need to sign your real name at the end of your posts, per forum rules.

 

Cheers,

Jeff

My son's about to go to the store.  Should I have him pick up a bag of Purina Troll Chow while he's there?

 

Hook

My son's about to go to the store.  Should I have him pick up a bag of Purina Troll Chow while he's there?

 

Hook

Before anyone else had posted a response to the OP, my thought was, "Oh, this should be fun!!  Where's the popcorn?"  :Big Grin:

 

Cheers,

Jeff

P3Dv2 is a 32 bit program too. It's basically FSX with some fixes and stuff done to it.

 

64 bit is a better answer in this day and age of 4GHZ+ processors and 2GB+ video cards.

 

Alas I have some $1500 or even more tied up in FSX addons, and more spending to come (PMDG 777-300ER, FSlabs A320, Majestic Software Q400 pro, FlyTampa YSSY, Orbx NZAA to name but a few).

 

Xplane is 64 bit, but is hardly teeming with addons such as "Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro and all the land inbetween in high detail photoreal with handplaced 3d objects and autogen scenery, fly the whole flight and literally see every street, house and tree the real places have" and PMDG 737NGX detail of systems in a 737NGX.

 

It might happen one day, but that day is several years off still.

Surely there will come a point whereby FSX cannot handle a complete flight without an OOM crash, it's not far off that now. 

Forgive me if someone answered this question before But, lets say we got all the Fsx developers who created Fsx, can they fix the problem with the Memory issue? or do

they have to start from the beginning again? I always wanted an answer to this.

Forgive me if someone answered this question before But, lets say we got all the Fsx developers who created Fsx, can they fix the problem with the Memory issue? or do

they have to start from the beginning again? I always wanted an answer to this.

 

Yes, with the FSX source code you could modify and compile it as a 64-bit process, which would solve the OOM issue. Any addon that uses actual code (ie not just textures or models like scenery) would also need to be modified to work with it however.

Could they redevelop it to take advantage of todays hardware? Including dynamic lighting, 3D clouds, hi res textures, 64 bit?