fsx-ms Why FSX/P3D over FS9?

[magnetite 38]

Simming to me is more about flying the airplane than pretty graphics. It would be nice to have shadows everywhere, but it's not really necessary when it comes to flying the aircraft.

 

I have most of the eye candy settings turned off in FSX. With the exception of anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering.

[W2DR 1,860]

HI Folks,

 

I'm in the midst of a jump right now from FS9 to P3D (skipping FSX entirely) - - - the motivation for me is the much higher availability of detailed Payware quality GA airports... In FS9 - these were pretty neglected... Some of the best that I ever found in FS9 were the two Flight Zone releases (PVD and PDX) which included some smaller airports... I even purchased the whole GeoRender series but most of these are truly unusable with the installation of accurate mesh... So I'm really hoping for a better GA experience... We'll see - FS9 is still staying on my machine as well for the foreseeable future...

 

Regards,

Scott

 

There is no way I can describe how incredible the GA experience is with P3Dv3, ORBX Global textures, ORBX airports (details indeed...), and something like the A2A C182. Grab some of the ORBX stuff before the sale expires at the end on this month. You'll never look back.

Doug

[Bjoern 1,156]

Forgot to mention that the SDK for FSX is much better than the one for FS9.

[mmann 72]

Not only the SDK but other development software as well.  SBuilderX is much better than SBuilder for FS9. Airport Design Editor has many more functions enabled with FSX compared to FS9.

[cobalt 798]

  I was once a devoted user of FS9. When FSX came out (I think in 2006) I purchased it and did a side-by-side comparison of the two sims. FSX simply blew me away with its superiority in every respect, especially in the realism of the scenery --- and that was 9 years ago when my computer could barely handle it! Today I have a mid-level computer (3.4 GHz) that runs FSX like a charm with nearly all sliders maxed out. It is hard to understand how anyone today could do a similar side-by-side comparison of FS9 and FSX and actually favor FS9 -- to me it is like favoring a Model T over a modern BMW. But, to each his or her own, I guess.

[Peter C 0]

Very interesting conversations regarding FS9 and FSX,maybe somebody can help me please.i have benn a simmer since 1998 with FS98,then eventually installing FS9,quite the best up to that date,but four weeks ago I installed FSX SE,and Windows 10 at the same time,after a shaky start FSX was  working fine,but my FS9 would not work so I uninstalled and re installed four times,but it still won't work.Imust admit I am missing my old faithful,can anybody please help.

[CFIJose 5,485]

With all the new add-ons for fs9 including world textures, my fs9 looks far superior to the 'cartoon' and 'arcade' look to my FSX.

 

The water in FSX is horrifically terrible. Looks about as realistic as a kids drawing.

We (FSX & P3D) users are a bunch of blind suckers. :wink:

[cobalt 798]

   The "cartoon-like arcade" FSX you describe is totally unlike the FSX I know (are you sure you are not thinking of FS98?). I wonder what settings were used in yours. (For example, a variety of water settings are available, some them extremely lifelike).  The only explanation I can come up with is that your experience with FSX is/was based on an incorrect setup, or an inadequate computer, or both. I realize that FS9 is, for some people, preferable (perhaps just because they are comfortable with it), but there is NO WAY that 11- year old program even approaches a properly configured FSX running on a decent machine.

[mmann 72]

Type in "fs9 fsx water" in your search engine and see all the posts from FS9 users wondering if they can get FSX water effects and/or textures into their sim. The other problem with FS9 water (besides the unrealistic textures and awful effects) is that FS9 water has the consistency of molasses which absolutely kills the sims float plane water handling abilities.

[scottb613 1,188]

Is the water physics any better in P3D ??? I recall trying float planes in FSX and didn't think it had improved any... It was years ago though...

 

I have 19 minutes left on my first ever download of P3D (hardcore FS9 user)...

 

Regards,
Scott

[brent.houston 4]

Is the water physics any better in P3D ??? I recall trying float planes in FSX and didn't think it had improved any... It was years ago though...

 

 

Not really... The seaplane and helicopter stuff haven't really improved. Better than nothing, but they need an overhaul along with the base FSX/P3D flight modeling and aircraft ground handling. P3D is exactly FSX ( from an experience standpoint ), with better lighting and shadows.... and much worse menus.  P3Dv3 seems more stable and feels smoother than previous P3Ds and FSX/FSX-SE. 

 

The HDR lighting, cockpit shadowing and cloud shadows are not to be underestimated. You'll notice that pretty much every 3rd party developer takes screens and video out of P3D now.

 

It's still CPU limited, like FSX and you can only throw so much video card and RAM at the problem. 

 

Probably the main argument to switch over, is 3rd party content - FSX/P3D is still over 80% of the flight sim market and that's where the money/quality addons are. Most FSX addons work fine with P3D, although you might have to tweak the install process for older content.

[Skywatcher 133]

Interesting replies. FSX is better graphically by a little. I certainly don't consider it a great deal as some are suggesting here. To really improve graphics from a FS9, FSX or P3D we need hardware that simply is not available. I believe with all 3 sims we are still in what I would call the same 'graphical generation' where the differences are not extreme in any of the 3 sims. 

To make the most of the graphics argument between FS9 and FSX you really need to be fully maxing FSX out. I don't think many people here are or can leave it maxed running something like the iFly 747 into a complex airport. Hardware and performance is a constant issue. 
I could almost max FSX out completely after the upgrade but cloud draw distance needed to be turned down. Now, it wouldn't matter for me what is below my aircraft graphically if clouds are not drawn into the distance. It just doesn't look like a realistic world. Things like the FSX animated traffic etc looks silly imo. Animations tend to work best in flight sims and look realistic when you are on the ground at an airport. FS9 offers this just like FSX.

Aircraft came up a few times with suggestions some aircraft available for FSX are not available for FS9. It's also vice versa. As for future development of aircraft and scenery, there is already more aircraft available than I would ever go through in my lifetime for FS9.

Regarding water, I don't think any sim makes it look good. I just leave it turned down to a dull blue, I find it the closest to realism.

From the replies it looks like each to their own and that's fair enough. I haven't been persuaded away from FS9 whatsoever for the reasons I outlined in my initial post. I have all the aircraft and scenery I would ever require, I can use any of it and run a completely silky smooth sim fully maxed. Quality aircraft eg iFly look brilliant in FS9. The sim gives me zero stutters, is completely reliable, makes for nothing more than enjoyable, fun and completely problem free simming.

I think this will be my second and last post in this forum. At the end of the day we simply use what fits our needs and requirements best. It's FS9 for me.

Oh, the one clear advantage I see over FS9, the forum gets much more of a workout here!   

Cheers gents
 

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

I flew FS9 for many years and loved it.

 

The Flight1 Meridian is still one of my all time favorite planes.

 

But now,  FSX with Orbx scenery regions and RealAir/Carenado/a2a airplanes,

and Flight1 GTN avionics...  there is no going back!  :smile:

[mmann 72]

FSX is better graphically by a little.

That would be somewhat accurate if all FSX/P3D owners used stock textures (which are still twice the resolution of FS9). I would guess that a great many of us aren't; so we see the difference an Orbx Region makes and FS9 (or stock FSX/P3D for matter) isn't even close.

 

Orbx CEO John Venema quickly realized the potential of FSX vs FS9 and went with FSX; he quit FS9 development after Vista Australis (VOZ).

[Manny 1,293]

You are actually right about what you are doing. 

 

Imagine flying the PMDG 747 in FS9... There is nothing better than that today ...P3dV3 or not.

 

I was going to say the water in FS9 sucks...but it sucks in P3Dv3 too ..its no better than fs9.

 

The only thing that is seriously better in P3D is volumetric fog. And the water is awesome in FSX.

 

The rest are all debatable....

 

One thing I forogt.

 

If you are into Photoscenery (Megascenery) you have to get out of FS9. 

 

I had to constantly fight the texture load (fuzzy landscape) constantly in FS9.  In P3D flying over Photo sceneries is a joy.