I just have that urge to share my experience of installing and trying P3Dv3 yesterday, as someone who has only used FSX as any alternative flight sim.   I was nervous as I have a pretty modest PC;  i7 2700k 3.5Ghz, with a GTX670 2GB, 8GB DDR3, on Win 7 64 bit.

 

As soon as I ran the stock P3Dv3 I was blown away be the lighting and shadows - just stunning and great out of the box performance.  After some setting up (great thread here on AVSIM on nVidia settings for P3D) and optimizing of my settings for my own preferences, things just got better.

 

P3Dv3 is super stable - I can tell that even from how quickly and smoothly the menus are accessed and pages change.  (With FSX, an impatient double click while a menu was opening or page changing could lead to a CTD).   Everything feels smooth; not just the flight experience but the GUI and menus/pages too.

 

With FTX Pacific North West, things went up a level again - the same scenery as I had in FSX but transformed by the lighting and optimized AA/AF.   Shadows in the VC are a real highlight - just wonderful.

 

Is it just me that really loves the avatar feature?! .... I saw a few lukewarm comments about it on P3Dv3's initial release.    I absolutely love the avatar feature (once I'd figured out how to activate and control him, and that yoke axes that are assigned to flight controls can also be assigned seperately to the avatar too).  

 

This small, menial point is when I knew I was going to love the avatar feature, and P3Dv3 itself:  I spawned the avatar and walked around the airport I was at, a good 0.5km away from my aircraft; when I hit my key assignment to close the avatar and go back to the VC, it would not work. "is this a bug, it worked before?" I thought........... actually it was simply that I was too far away from my aircraft and P3Dv3 was telling me that (obvioulsy doh!) I'd need to go back over to the aircraft before I could climb back in the cockpit.    As soon as I got back to my A36, I was able to close the avatar and get into the VC.    Fantastic.

 

I've only had FSX for 4 months, and in that short time have bought around 15 addons and spent a couple of hundred on them ............. but after 2 hours with P3Dv3 I knew there was no going back for me.   I've uninstalled FSX and will be full time on P3Dv3 now.    Of course some of the FSX addons I bought can be installed (legally and practically) into P3Dv3 so not all is lost.   The biggest lump in the throat was the wonderful F1 GTN750, which was $50 for FSX and which I had to fork out another $64, for P3Dv3.   Only got 2 or so months use out of it for FSX! ........ but that's my choice of course, and I am happy to have moved over to P3Dv3 - it is the flight sim I could only have dreamed of a few years ago.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I too have really been impressed with this version. In fact my girlfriend, who does not pay attention to flight sim commented how good it looks as she saw the visuals. It is certainly an improvement and I am really looking forward to see what new features LM brings to the platform in the next few months. 

Nice post JYW, how did you get on with trackir, I may be wrong but did you mention it a recent post that you were a bit worried about it.

 

bob

JYW, you are making it hard for me to stay with from P3D v2.5 (even though you moved from FSX).

 

But hearing positive statements such as yours, it feel now like a no-brainer - THANKS! 

Trackir works great in V3. No problems. I, too, am impressed with V3 right out of the box. No OOM's or CTD's yet in situations where I'd likely have gotten them in earlier versions. Don't think I'll be using many addons to gunk things up, as vanilla V3 is the best yet of any flight simI've seen.

Yea, but you'll be like most of us simmers and muck it up with dozens of add-ons, slow FPS, OMM's, BSOD!, ha!

 

Welcome to the party.

Count me in for the Avatar fan club. Finally, you can do proper walkarounds, etc.

 

BTW, if you "detach" the avatar (i.e. get out of the plane), go somewhere like a hangar, terminal, outdoor restaurant like those at Orbx airports, etc. and save the flight, then the next time you load, you'll start in the same place in avatar mode, and the plane will also stay where you left it. Nice

 

Tym

Count me in for the Avatar fan club. Finally, you can do proper walkarounds, etc.

 

BTW, if you "detach" the avatar (i.e. get out of the plane), go somewhere like a hangar, terminal, outdoor restaurant like those at Orbx airports, etc. and save the flight, then the next time you load, you'll start in the same place in avatar mode, and the plane will also stay where you left it. Nice

 

Tym

 

Wow, I didn't know that - that's a brilliant feature, thanks for sharing.  Starting all flights in avatar mode, aay from the aircraft, and approaching it for a walkaround is a real increase in the realism factor.   (and not to mention, darn good fun!).

 

Thanks for the kind comment all.

Nice post JYW, how did you get on with trackir, I may be wrong but did you mention it a recent post that you were a bit worried about it.

 

bob

 

Hi Bob, I'm not sure that was me, but I do have TrackIR and as vp49p3 said, it works perfect out the box with P3Dv3.      I don't think I could ever fly in the VC without TrackIR now;  I found it a real game changer.

 

Count me in for the Avatar fan club. Finally, you can do proper walkarounds, etc.

 

BTW, if you "detach" the avatar (i.e. get out of the plane), go somewhere like a hangar, terminal, outdoor restaurant like those at Orbx airports, etc. and save the flight, then the next time you load, you'll start in the same place in avatar mode, and the plane will also stay where you left it. Nice

 

Tym

 

Nice find...! I haven't used avatar mode up to now (not even once to test it) but I might give it a try now. Seems fun to indeed start somewhere near my car and then having to walk to my Comanche. I will defenitely gives this a try this weekend!

 

 

Seems fun to indeed start somewhere near my car and then having to walk to my Comanche

If i only had a car let alone a Comanche!   Great tip tymk. :t4020:

All this gets me excited. I'm still flying FSX on a really old AMD 64 3.2 Dual Core machine. Believe it or not, it flies fantastic using GA or the Lotus L39. Not many addons, but I do not need many at this time.

 

Looking forward to building a new machine one day and trying v3.+

avatar ( press shift & ctrl and x )

I The biggest lump in the throat was the wonderful F1 GTN750, which was $50 for FSX and which I had to fork out another $64, for P3Dv3. Only got 2 or so months use out of it for FSX!....

I'll bet you that if you contacted Flight1 and told him your story and that you were never going back to FSX they would give you a refund!

 

That is how highly I hold Flight1 in my esteem… Give it a shot!

Tell 'em Chas sencha...wink

 

Chas

Just remember guys, it's not how good P3Dv3 is, it's how bad FSX is. Think about it.  :wink:

I'll bet you that if you contacted Flight1 and told him your story and that you were never going back to FSX they would give you a refund!

 

That is how highly I hold Flight1 in my esteem… Give it a shot!

Tell 'em Chas sencha...wink

 

Chas

 

Hey Chas, that thought did cross my mind, but at the point I bought the P3D version, it was 2 months since I'd bought the FSX version; so outside of the 30 day refund period, and I assumed it'd be a case of "business is business"    ...... It is certainly testament to just how amazing the F1 GTN750 is that I couldn't be without it (even on day 1) in P3D3, and willingly layed down the cash to buy it again.   Just transforms flying.