Bill,

 

You are right that we have an impact on the development of P3D. But commercial transactions are specification driven. The customer knows what they want up front and whoever can provide a product that works as requested at an agreed upon price, gets the business. The supplier, LM in this case, has a good idea what the delivery cost will be and the expected revenue. There's no hype, no sense of anticipation; at least as we know it. And it had better work. There's no debating on some forum whether the problem is your whether it's your Hyperglacial Accumulator Switch or your Varidifferential Vasnockulator. If something doesn't function correctly, it gets fixed

 

If the customer wants the scenery to look like the real world, that will be accommodated as well. I dare say, that if LM came to the conclusion that all of their commercial clients would want scenery that was true to life everywhere, then there would be no scenery addon makers for P3D. It wouldn't be necessary. Furthermore, if LM determined that high quality aircraft with high level physics would be the norm, there wouldn't be any addon aircraft makers for P3D. Of course, the software would probably be min 5 grand and you'd need a small supercomputer to run it  :(

 

OK....OK...off my soapbox. As many poster have pointed out, we are lucky to have LM. We have a simulator being developed at a high level. LM has us to help them adjust the belts and tighten the screws. 

 

Thanks for starting this post.

I'm sorta ###### LM didn't emulate the phase change beer mug holder in the F22 ... not even a dial to set it's frosty temperature, but the ultimate "no go" and why I'm going to stick with FS1 was the lack of emulating the button to change the display from C to F ... grrr ... very frustrating times we live in.

 

Anyway, back to reading my 1000 page manual on Java 12.0 ... bet you I find a spelling mistake on page 777.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

Ah...the real world rears its ugly head.

If someone happens to take the stance that since we aren't LM's target audience that we shouldn't use it...

 

Should also take the stance that FSX on Steam isn't meant for the serious simulation crowd so we shouldn't use it.

 How many licenses does FSX- ES have?..........My point is that the "target audience" for FSX ES is everybody-hardcore simmers or otherwise. Now, can you say the same thing about the "don't ask don't tell" platform? 

Yep, I can.

 

There is a Commercial Version (otherwise known as ESP in the FSX world), a Professional Version and an Academic Version.

 

The licenses are laid out plain as day at http://www.prepar3d.com so you can go look at them yourself.

LM needs to get our young folks interested in aviation, as most of you know the interest in aviation has been dropping in the US over the years. LM in addition to many other things builds planes. They are looking at this from the standpoint of trying to get our young folks interested in aviation so in 10-20 years they will have pilots to fly their planes. Also they are looking for a platform to train the current generation of pilots. LM has to plan many years into the furture to stay competitive.

 

I don't think so.  Humans on-board are being replaced by drones.  Driverless cars are being tested in the UK and USA.  Robotics are now very sophisticated.  That is the future.

 

Remember the 'brick' phone of yesteryear.  We regard that as primitive by today's standards but back then it was groundbreaking.

 

Ladies and gentlemen the future awaits ... welcome it. 

Yes, I would agree, however a company the size of LM needs to hedge its bets, it can't afford not too! Let's hope we benefit regardless :rolleyes:

 

Cheers

martin

 

 

I wonder if those folks care about transparent ATC windows or terrain shadows...

 Nonsense.  We are their toughest customers, and probably their most enthusiastic as well.   The clients of their clients are going to be people that are easily impressed with P3D.  We play hard to get, and I bet we are the most interesting to them.  We are also the gatekeepers to P3D being accepted by a wider audience.  With P3D they can capture the imaginations of many and introduce new generations - that don't know what Lockheed has done [for them] - to the world of aviation, and along the way some of the best icons in that world, Lockheed Martin's own products.  The tiny niches that P3D fills and could grow to enormity are a marketers dream.

 

"And, Sir,  if  you believe that you'll believe anything"

 Nonsense.  We are their toughest customers, and probably their most enthusiastic as well.   The clients of their clients are going to be people that are easily impressed with P3D.  We play hard to get, and I bet we are the most interesting to them.  We are also the gatekeepers to P3D being accepted by a wider audience.  (...)

 

 

You're LM's public beta testers. (Like in "pay to test".    )

When it comes to software and computers, we are all beta testers.

 

 

That's crazy, interesting stuff. We are only tiny little piece of a big jigsaw.

 

I suspect we are not even that - I think we are the person that walks past an unfinished jigsaw, notices a piece that's fallen on the floor, and kindly picks it up and gives it back to the person putting the jigsaw together. ie. we are there in the background, doing our thing quietly, without anyone paying much attention. And whilst we are not that visible, we have a small but helpful part to play. If we werent there? No worries - someone else would pick it up eventually (ie. they finish the jigsaw, notice the bit missing and pick it up themselves (Or, to bring it back to reality, they eventually spot the uiautomation.dll error themselves, and correct it).

 

Wow, what a pile of BS. I think i have a point in there somewhere though.... :rolleyes:

If you simply check the home official page of P3D, it clearly states it is a project that is also catterred for private pilots, enthusiast and anyone willing to train itself in aviation as long as students, in other words passionate people.

 

If you check most of the featured devs on their main page you have general public studios and resellers like JustFlight, A2A, Razbam, Milviz, Hi-Fi, Alabeo etc. PMDG is even the currently main featured addon. Although they're all incredible devs I don't think any of these products would be used by real pilots in their training course, of it all I think PMDG probably developps the most in-depth products yet I highly doubt any real 777, 747 or 737 licensed pilot would rely on PMDG's product to train for their license.

 

In any industry, simulators of any kind, military or civilian, in any department, engineering, transportation or systems don't care for nice graphics, shadows or optimisations, these are general public concern. And it certainly doesn't only cost $200...

 

I think we simmers, enthusiasts and wannabe or licensed pilots are very much the bulk of their customers. Their licensing policy just means that they're serious about it, that's it's not a game and shouldn't be treated as such unlike FSX SE for exemple.

@ Philip Manhart,

 

Fsx (steam/ms) for anybody with interest in aviation simming -no questions asked.

 

Don't ask,don't tell (P3D)......not. Moreover,If some of you(not saying you) feel like beta testers, it would be even harder for some of us to spend that kind of money. Im sure P3D is great and i'm not trying to change the thread's subject to fsx vs p3d.

Their licensing policy just means that they're serious about it, that's it's not a game and shouldn't be treated as such unlike FSX SE for exemple.

To be fair, P3D and FSX-SE are developed using Microsoft technology. MS do not allow LM to license P3D for the entertainment market, but Dovetail Games do have that license for FSX-SE.

@ Philip Manhart,

 

Fsx (steam/ms) for anybody with interest in aviation simming -no questions asked.

 

Don't ask,don't tell (P3D)......not. Moreover,If some of you(not saying you) feel like beta testers, it would be even harder for some of us to spend that kind of money. Im sure P3D is great and i'm not trying to change the thread's subject to fsx vs p3d.

Then please go post in the FSX Forum. You are trolling.

 

Happy Prepar3D Beta Tester and my Lawyer said it is OK to use P3D because my Business card says Professional Prepar3D Pilot.

There is a dichotomy of opinion developing here; actually it probably always existed to a degree.

 

You can be pretty certain that any prospective pilot will be looking to train on a simulator that delivers as close to reality as is currently possible. Commercial oh-so-expensive simulators currently offer the highest fidelity in flight simulation modelling in a particular aircraft and they will always have a place as a mandatory requirement towards achieving the licence which earns you the right to occupy that left seat as Pilot in Command.

 

However, something is missing and that's the accurate portrayal of the real world, as is currently possible in Prepar3D and also, to a similar or lesser extent, in FSX. Without doubt the burgeoning third party support for Prepar3D is quickly establishing this product as the de facto flight simulator of choice and it is very likely that anyone with a serious interest will quickly decide to have a licensed copy running on a personal computer whether it be a powerful Notebook or high specced hardware installation at home.

 

Lockheed Martin have got the balance right and their canny approach to development and marketing of Prepar3D is IMHO inspired and should, over time, guarantee it's ongoing success.

 

Mike

Mehh.