Dude!

 

You can't hit a home run unless you step up to the plate… besides, this isn't a warrantee issue...Give Flight1 the benefit of the doubt.

 

 

...just sayin, young feller'

 

Chas

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.

Agreed. Having framerates of 60 at altitude and 30 while at the gate was only dreamed of in v2.5. Version 3 is amazing.

 

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

 

Thats brilliant,  didnt know that, will have to try

I wanna know the diet that Avatar Man is on ...... he's in great shape!

I wanna know the diet that Avatar Man is on ...... he's in great shape!

 

I wanna know the diet that Avatar Man is on ...... he's in great shape!

lol 

 

yes his clothes are quite fitting as well  :smile:

I have to agree with you all, Lockheed Martin have done such a great job with v3. I have not had a single OOM since v3 and thats with everything pretty much maxed out. Im very impressed.

Think I'm going to need an Avatar JS profile in FSUICP.

Hope the Peter is working on it.

 

gb.

lol 

 

yes his clothes are quite fitting as well  :smile:

We need a "Girl" Avatar now!! 

I wanna know the diet that Avatar Man is on ...... he's in great shape!

Welcome to the World of Prepar3D!! It is a pleasure to see a new guy excited and enjoying the hobby. Makes an old guy smile!!

Great thread.

 

This weekend I got P3D V3 setup with Orbx Australia/England and the A2A stable. Went flying in the Commanche. Framerates are good and stable and the sim looks great with REX and ASN. Order has been restored.

We need a "Girl" Avatar now!! 

 

lol

No, we need a cold shower now  :smile:  

I wanna know the diet that Avatar Man is on ...... he's in great shape!

I wanna know how the He11 you get his legs to move somewhere....I cannot for the life of me find any control in FSUIPC to do it!!...OK...I am dumb...gimme a hint...how do you make him walk?...Joystick NADA...

1. OK...I found it in P3d controls, which I never use...I am 100% FSUICP...and that is what threw me...I have NOT found a control list or Number for avatar movement in FSUIPC.

2. I have a TM Hotas Warthog, and I wonder..If anyone has used it WITHOUT the driver...because the HAT...seems bound to...something permanently...Works perfectly in DCS A1-C Warthog...NF in Fsx/P3d...or so it seems...

 

Chas

 

Chas

I wanna know how the He11 you get his legs to move somewhere....I cannot for the life of me find any control in FSUIPC to do it!!...OK...I am dumb...gimme a hint...how do you make him walk?...Joystick NADA...

1. OK...I found it in P3d controls, which I never use...I am 100% FSUICP...and that is what threw me...I have NOT found a control list or Number for avatar movement in FSUIPC.

2. I have a TM Hotas Warthog, and I wonder..If anyone has used it WITHOUT the driver...because the HAT...seems bound to...something permanently...Works perfectly in DCS A1-C Warthog...NF in Fsx/P3d...or so it seems...

 

Chas

 

Chas

 

His movements are certainly quirky Chas - yes, it's a set of assignments in the controls menu - whats confusing at first is that you can assign axes for moving the avatar that you're already using as flight controls (eg. your joystick or yoke).    But even then, I find his movements odd, especially near aircraft models, when he sometimes breaks into a 1980s Michael Jackson dance!

 

'C' key makes his lean down to the ground (as if checking under an AC) and 'F' makes him jump (no idea why he needs to jump) in case you hadn't found those yet.

My biggest hurt moving over to P3D was courtesy of PMDG, having to buy their planes again :(

I was pretty skeptical when V3 first came out, and as with all new software, was not one to jump out and purchase the first, hot off the presses, copy, until I saw what new users were experiencing. I gave it about a month, and when most of the installers were out for the products I have, I decided to give it a try, keeping my reliable and very well running V 2.5 in place. Setting V3 was not that difficult, with the exception of my CH Pedals, which it would not recognize. FSUIPC paid version saved the day on that problem, but I suspect that V3 will have to have a patch to fix that, since a new Sim program shouldn't need a paid version of anything to install a very common product like CH pedals. 

 

The VA I belong to, records all data about each one of my flights including FPS average. So it is easy for me to compare flights from V2.5 that I have already done and new flights with V3. At first the FPS were lower in V3 than I had in V2.5 which was disappointing and was making me feel good about keeping V2.5. Then someone suggested defragging the HD. Now I have my HD defrag set up to run automatically once a week, so I thought this was not necessary, but when I checked I saw it was at 2%, so I ran the defrag. The next flight , the FPS increased to where they were slightly better than V2.5, which frankly, was what I expected. LM never claimed that a benefit of V3 was more FPS, so I took with a grain of salt all these wild claims I have been reading about increases in FPS of 50% , that some people said they were experiencing. Since my FPS were acceptable and smooth with 2.5, a slight increase and smooth was fine. Since then I have done quite a few flights with V3, and the Aerosoft Airbus and everything works perfectly. No crashes, glitches or problems. Seems smooth and looks good. The only thing I am still waiting on is an installer for the MJQ400 FS2 Crew, which they are working on. If it stays this way for another week or two, I think I will put 2.5 in the recycle bin.