I had a quick take off yesterday with the PMDG 777 and PMDG 737. It felt fluid. I don't have any of my ORBX and Rex Texture stuff install so it's difficult to judge at this point.

From a personal economics perspective, none of us will disagree with this.

 

However, I do wonder whether the intention of LM's pricing structure is partly to maintain some kind of exclusivity in the public using their branded product. As a defense contractor, selling the product at $50 a pop opens the floodgates to a sea of 'kids'. This economic exclusion (charging for every new release @ $199) would more than likely exclude the 'riffraff' from purchasing and presumably maintain, as far as possible, some kind of legitimate user base without explicitly excluding anyone.

... except that the academic license is aimed squarely at the sea of 'kids'.  Based on some of the commentary I've been reading, I don't think they've been able to exclude the 'riffraff' either  :smile: .

Im sipping coffee looking at all this entertainment.

Speaking about prices I do personally feel it's a bit so-so asking people who already bought the product to pay the full price once again. It's not like they released a brand new software/simulator but what they released is an improved version of the same software where they fixed a number of bugs and added some new features.

 

I don't have any problem at all being asked for more money when they invested lots of time and effort into making the software better and I'm very grateful we have a company that is actively improving what we all like so much...the chance to simulate flight. I do however think there should be some kind of upgrade path where people who already bought the product for full price could get a new version at a reduced price. That's the most common approach in most other cases when it comes to software so I'm not sure how the P3D software is different.

 

There is a way you can get all the new versions without having to put out for the full price. It's called a subscription and it's $10 a month.

 

It's nice to have options and I have nothing but respect for a company that offers you a 60 day refund policy. 

Day two, unfortunately not a lot of time to fly but after half an hour of flying around big cities and Norway the sim does seem to be a bit smoother than v2 and even with lower fps it doesn't get as sluggish as it did when looking around. This is still with default scenery, of course, which may make a difference. (BTW I also think I didn't like the looks of v3 because default scenery really sucks when you are used to FTX regions...) The sim seems more direct and responsive. Also TrackIR seems more direct and responsive. Again, all with default stuff...

 

I also noticed one thing that made me happy (yes, honest, I'm not lying): the reflections (I just LOVE reflections and have them all turned on) seem to be fixed when it comes to their position: in v2 reflection always were disjointed from the coast (hope I am using the right words) until you got real close, which was a small immersion killer for me. Now the reflections look great. In the distance I can see some odd things happenening but it's too far away and things pop into place long before I get there. Not perfect but something I was hoping for to be fixed and this seems to be the case. Nothing beats flying low over the water and seeing a city being reflected.

 

Another very minor thing that's been fixed, and which somehow, although totally not important, annoyed me everytime in v2, is that the Scenario screen now shows which graphic settings preset is active. In v2 this ALWAYS showed Custom and so to be sure I always had to select the right profile. Now it simply shows the profile I used the last time I ran v3 and well... that made me smile LOL

 

All in all I am a bit more positive then yesterday. I've accepted that some nice things are still ahead and not already implemented: v3 has a future while v2 is (quite suddenly btw) very dead right now. Thinking of what is to or might come I think I will keep v3 anyway. Unlike what some were thinking yesterday I really want this sim to succeed.

 

Join me again tomorrow in the next episode of the Jeroen Fickle Show in which I will declare v3 sucks big time. Just kidding.

Hey, default scenery is not that bad... You will get used to it

Not long home,  will install shortly.

 

Good stuff Jeroen with all the information 

Hey, default scenery is not that bad... You will get used to it

I was thinking the same thing. Not in such big rush to install FTX global. And is it just me or does autogen look a lot more polished?

And is it just me or does autogen look a lot more polished?

 

It's just you.  :wink:

Ha well, yes. You do have to use caution with placebo. That's sometimes the strongest medicine