Making the move...Maybe?

[Amnmaddox 2]

Hey all,

I just wanted some input. I see alot of folks moving to P3D so i have to ask...is it worth it. I have a relatively good system and want to migrate to P3D if its worth it. My only hang up is I have been flying with FS9 forever and I have tons of payware and freeware addons. Can I use these in P3D? Is it stable? ie. can i fly without crashes? Is it visually comparable to FSX? Just want some thoughts and opinions...

Thanks in Advance!!

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

1. You need to look in this subforum and read over the add-on compatibility thread. There is a good chance if your add-on works in FSX, it may also work in P3d, especially if it is payware and has been kept up to date by the author.

2. P3d is more dependent on a  powerful video card than FSX or FS9 and yours is a bit on the low end to run it, except at lower settings.You could buy one month's worth of developer license and test P3d out. Many people use this option as the P3d "demo".

3. If you upgraded your video card, P3d would be visually superior to FS9, FSX and even with FSX in DX10 mode.

4. P3d is more stable than FSX, but one thing that you have to get used to is that the image quality settings are not equivalent between the two sims, even if the slider values look the same. 

 

As to crashes, I have found that as long as one doesn't push the image quality and other settings beyond what your hardware can handle, P3d is pretty docile.  But move one slider like Autogen too far and P3d will be unforgiving. A new version (2.2) is in beta and will supposedly be released this week. Version 2.2  is  described as being far more resistant to crashes, but that remains to be seen. I would wait until version 2.2 is released and then do a clean installation.

[autogyro 18]

Judging by the good response from the v2.2 testers, I would recommend waiting until that's released and most of us give it a go. If it indeed yields the improvements touted, it could well be taking a big step forward in drawing the FSX faithful.

 

Stuff like a 17 times improvement in autogen tree vas usage is great news.

[MikeT707 1,181]

I would say it is definitely worth it, as long as you upgrade your video card to something that can handle the resource load that the application will dish out to the graphics processor.  I would imagine you would really like the lighting and shadows (especially the upcoming cloud shadows in v2.2), the overall smoothness, and the continued improvement to the sim that is provided by the dedicated team at LM.

[RoboRay 126]

There's no need to abuse the Developer license as a trial.  LM offers a full 60-day money-back guarantee if you decide you want to "return" the product.

[Mickeyj 35]

Hey all,

I just wanted some input. I see alot of folks moving to P3D so i have to ask...is it worth it. I have a relatively good system and want to migrate to P3D if its worth it. My only hang up is I have been flying with FS9 forever and I have tons of payware and freeware addons. Can I use these in P3D? Is it stable? ie. can i fly without crashes? Is it visually comparable to FSX? Just want some thoughts and opinions...

Thanks in Advance!!

 

Hi there,

 

to answer the question concerning FS9 add ons. They will most likely NOT work as P3D2 has problems to with the far old code.

To make it clear P3D2 is DX11 ONLY.

 

P3D2 is stable as long as you dont push it to its limits. Your CPU can run P3D2 very good but in conjunction with your video card i doubt it will run as nice as you see all the promotion pictures or videos from current P3D2.1

 

From the visual point of view it outruns FSX in any case. Just to name a few features dynamic lightning and shadows (for everything in the sim even cloud shadows will be seen in P3D2 -Ver2.2 and on-), HDR support, 3D waves, volumetric fog. Pop free autogen. Use of tesselation.

 

P3D2 brings a lot more realsim to flight simulation than any sim if ever seen. It is an incredible piece of software LM just developed.(or better modified) In terms of visual it even outruns nowadays professional full flight simulators (at least the ones i was trained in)

 

For now P3D2 is the next big simulator besides FSX or X-Plane 10. Lot of people say it will supersede FSX. 

 

Its got to be said that P3D2 has its flaws and bugs but LM is aware of them and is constantly developing the sim further to get rid of them all. The next big update should be out soon and the developers are very confident that most of the performance bugs will be history.

 

Go try P3D2 for yourself either way get a dev license for 10 bucks or an academic license for 60 US (there is a 60 days money back guarantee if you are not satified). Please dont open Pandoras box in asking about EULA and/or licensing. Just get the sim and try for yourself make up your own mind. You have nothing to loose. There are a lot of people out there with more powerful machines you have and cant get the sim running smooth but there are a lot of other people  having the smoothest ride they ever experienced in flight simulation.

 

In your case get a descent video card DX11 compatible like GTX 660ti and above or GTX760 and above otherwise you wont get the result you see in some vids or pix. As far as i recall some threads about GPUs for P3D2 most of them end up in upgrading to GTX7 series.

 

Unfortunately you got to drop FS9 add ons for P3D2 they will slow down P3D2 dramatically or will not run at all. But if you get the sim properly up and running you will never go back to FS9 or FSX (i dropped FS9 for FSX and now im just about to drop FSX for P3D2).  

[BilboBaggins 82]

I'd say "migrating" any seasoned FS installation to P3D would be a huge and possibly risky undertaking.

 

You are much better off - I plan to do this - to have P3D installed separately, preferably on a different disk, and to build up with newer releases from there.

 

There's great info here about backwards compatibility, with FSX add-ons at least, and it looks pretty good.

 

But, for example, without an explicit dual-installer, how do you know what reinstalling into P3D - even with EMT - will do to any registry or control panel install data that presumes only one copy of an installed software on the system?

 

Such cases are not legion, but given the mysteries of what registry info can do to mess things up, I'd step really carefully and systematically.

 

Plus, it goes without saying, there's plenty on offer in 2.1, something like 110 default planes (many of them different paints of a particular plane.... but still!) before you even start thinking about adding anything to it.