Both based on the same engine. Or you think all the code in P3D is new?

 

As for PMDG, what P3D allows that FSX-SE does not other than smoother camera view from the tail or gear?

 

LM has full rights to do with the code what they want (Dovetail can't), so probably many of the fragments have been recoded or written from the scratch.

 

Among many other features, in P3D you have virtual cockpit/cloud/terrain shadows, bathymetry, volumetric fog, improved HDR lightning, fix for autogen pop-up, better memory management - It takes more advantages over newer GPUs.

 

In version 3 everything is smoother, faster and better looking. I know that it may sound like a cheap marketing, but they made many small changes in every part of it and you can instantly feel it.

LM has full rights to do with the code what they want (Dovetail can't), so probably many of the fragments have been recoded or written from the scratch.

 

Among many other features, in P3D you have virtual cockpit/cloud/terrain shadows, bathymetry, volumetric fog, improved HDR lightning, fix for autogen pop-up, better memory management - It takes more advantages over newer GPUs.

 

In version 3 everything is smoother, faster and better looking. I know that it may sound like a cheap marketing, but they made many small changes in every part of it and you can instantly feel it.

 

I specifically asked what P3D allows for PMDG, since jimmy64 was talking right about them as an additional reason of buying P3D.

 

LM is not developing their own engine, so any change they make will still be based on what Microsoft set out, full rights or not.

Quote from PMDG

 

"We are starting to see more and more functionality added to Prepar3D V3 that separates the platform from the capabilities we have traditionally had available to us and we are starting to take advantage of these changes."

 

This quote sufficiently supports my opinion. You can choose to ignore progress and talk about things like "engines" which don't exist in any programming language that I know, or you can accept facts.

Quote from PMD

 

This quote sufficiently supports my opinion. You can choose to ignore progress and talk about things like "engines" which don't exist in any programming language that I know, or you can accept facts.

 or you can accept the marketing bs.

Thousands of man hours making real changes to the code that was once ESP= marketing bs...that's brilliant.

 

For the OP...SE will be around for a minute, but it is not a new platform per se. Most of your add-ons will continue to work. At the end of the day, however, you have to accept that sooner or later the only way forward is with Dovetails new sim, X-Plane or P3D. FSX is dead, period.

For me its simple. FSX SE has been tweaked by Dovetail. For starters they have radically improved the VAS handling which means I can take the PMDG 777 from big hub to big hub without an issue even in DX9 which before was an OOM given with FSX boxed even with lower settings. They have improved the reduction of frames when having the cursor on screen. Coupled with the changes to the installer using a newer compiler it has helped the FPS overall.

 

I am very interested in P3D v3 but I am still worried that FPS would be lower than we get with FSX SE especially using a complex plane. I am waiting to see what Dovetail do next year with their own Flight Sim before I change.

 

I would say though with the changes I have experienced with FSX SE I am glad I changed over from the boxed edition.

 

 

Hamish

p3d runs very well on $ 6000 machines, ive seen some youtube movies attest to that, so go for it

 

kidding aside, maybe consider xplane also. if you are a boeing 73 guy, the ixeg team confirmed the release of a pmdg level (if not better) 737 classic (yes, full fmc) this year.

As someone who has touted the wonders of P3D at the very first and has hung in their to V2.5, I find myslef now using FSX-SE more and more.  I just don't have it in me to purchase $199 flight platform that will cause me to reinstall everything again.  Plus there is the issue of 3rd party catching up.  I will say FSX-SE is not graphically as detailed as P3D 2.5, but the I have FSX-SE tweaked and running so there is no stutters, everything looks marvelous, and all my FSX planes run like a champ.  I purchased CoolSky Super 8- Pro and could not be happier and that is a very complex plane if you want it to be.

 

If and when I purchase P3D 3.0 it will be when I see in this forum pretty no major issues popping up.  Also, I as others are impressed with FSX-SE as when they do upgrade, you don't have to do anything.

 

Another thing that keeps me from buying P3D 3.0, is where is 64bit?  So I buy p3d and a year later have to buy p3d 4.0?  I agree with other when we talk about P3D 3.0, it is basically 2.5 with a lot of correction that should have been applied to 2.5!

Considering how small the flight sim market is there is a huge amount of hate on this forum. If you think that PMDG's comments about P3D are just marketing BS then that's up to you. All I can tell you is they make some of the best aircraft simulation products on the market so I'm willing to take RR at his word. If you think Dovetail have done a wonder job with FSX:SE and can't wait for their 'new' sim then that is up to you. Some of us like P3D and the advancements it's made over the base ESP code that FSX was based on, yes it's not cheap at all but I think it's worth it, others disagree but so be it. I don't have much hope for Xplane myself as their developers charge massive amounts for products that aren't as good as their FSX/P3D based counterparts. And for those of you saying about the whole 64 bit argument, if you do some research you will understand that 64 bit isn't the be all and end all. Good VAS management is a lot more important.

@Dave.  A man with his head screwed on 

 

Very good post Dave,

Just a concern, that I have mentioned before, that Dovetail IS a games marketing company that uses steam, the largest gaming distributor, to distribute their games. Their 'new' sim.. some say that will be based on Flight!, to whom will it be targeted? Their captive gamers, & I say that in the nicest of ways, or us more established simmers/gamers. The bottom line, to them, is where the money is.

 

So, what we have is FSX:SE ... modded from FSX

P3DV3 .. originally modded from ESP (based on FSX), but vastly different now from FSX & FSX:SE, as seen by the various versions & mods.

 

No-one has their 'own' sim engine, LM  CAN make changes that DTG cannot to the basic original sim engine from MS.

 

So, as usual, we play the debating/waiting game.. :Whistle: :p0503:

If the base of Dovetail's new sim is Flight, then they do have a serious simulator to work with. If they are smart they will work just as hard for pilot's who wish to supplement their flying time and serious simulation customers as they do gamers. I will definitely keep an eye on progress while enjoying P3D. I do have a genuine fear that one day LM will get tired of a portion of their user base who I can only describe as brats, and market purely to commercial users.

I'm sure LM do not even notice us brats in the greater scheme of things. I'm sure that a company as large as theirs do not even read the 'entertainment' forums as such, & are more interested in their commercial clients.

 

I remember when Flight was released & how the community called it arcade like. It will be interesting as to how it will eventually be marketed & the costs thereof. I remember when Flight was given away for free, & even that did not excite the community, Probably because of the limited scenery area & aircraft.

I currently have all three installed, and trying out some experiments. I'm simply a flight sim lover, and will use whichever sim allows me to fly how I want to.  As things stand right now, P3Dv3 is the only one of the three that doesn't 'break' in some way when using high end aircraft and detailed airports.  Not only doesn't it break, but although frames are sometimes very low - even down to single figures, it STILL keeps running relatively smoothly. THAT is very important for me.

 

I'm NOT saying P3Dv3 is 'better', as I have no idea if it is or not. I'm simply saying it works better on my PC.

 

Like many, I was VERY concerned about having to repurchase my addons. I have several thousand GBP£ tied up in FSX. I've been surprised though, by the number of addons that will work, including many straight out of the box. Even most that don't, only need a little 'fiddling' to get working.

 

Whether PD3 is 'the future' of flight simming or not, I neither know nor care. For now, it works when the others fail!

I have all three namely Xplane, FSX:SE, and P3D. Xplane is great for helicopter and GA aircraft but is incredibly lacking in what I would class as proper airliners. I don't wish to get into that debate, but as far as I am concerned apart from a handful of exceptions most airliners currently available for Xplane are way overpriced for the level of fidelity they offer. FSX:SE is well FSX. Dovetail haven't tweaked it as much as people claim, they have applied the tweaks that everyone already knew about from the years of community based fixes. The reason that it performs reasonably well compared to P3D is that P3D has far far more eye candy than FSX:SE has. Most if not all FSX:SE users have the DX10 fixer installed which helps the most. I don't buy all this 'Dovetail have implemented the VAS memory usage fixes ages ago that LM have only just done with P3D V3'. From what I have read it involves some serious work on the code to implement and Dovetail do not own the code to do that kind of work to it. That is why I do not buy that story. But again guys this is my opinion. If you have FSX:SE and you got if you £4 in one of the Steam sales (like I did) then you have a copy FSX that is easy to reinstall and you don't have to tweak it yourself, which is great! You will have a copy of FSX for the foreseeable future and don't need to worry about activation servers being switched off  :smile:, there is no reason not to be happy about it.

 

BUT all these people that are constantly moaning about LM pricing policy or their update policy or berating people who choose to purchase P3D just makes me sick and tired. No one is forcing you to buy P3D V3. No one is forcing you to buy PMDG's or A2A's P3D versions of their aircraft. Constantly moaning about it or slagging off LM or PMDG isn't going to get them to change their policies, mainly because the commercial market is their main customer base.

 

Anyway moving on...............