Aerosoft Flight Sim User poll

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

http://forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?/topic/99711-what-simulator-will-you-be-using-end-of-this-year/#comment-705640

 

The official Aerosoft support forum had a poll regarding the use of various flight simulator programs. The results surprised me, as from my reading of posts on AVSim, I would have guessed that FSX is the preferred app. I guess that people have probably realized that P3d and to a lesser extent XP are the future.

[MikeT707 1,181]

I am noticing more traffic on this P3D forum, many people stating that they have moved over from FSX to P3D and that they are really liking P3D, and a lot less negative comments about P3D v3. In fact, most of the comments are positive and I think that is because v3 is a solid, stable, and attractive platform with a future.

 

It is good to see the user community grow. My hope is that sufficient numbers exist within the P3D user community that third party developers really start to look at creating products that take advantage of the P3D platform and not worry so much about whether or not it will work on an app that was developed from 2003 to 2006.

 

Good grief 2006 is old for anything technology related. That predates the first iPhone. When FSX released the RAZR was the most popular cell phone and all the news was buzzing about Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Lindsay Lohan acting like...

[WebMaximus 372]

I'm very happy too to see how the public opinion when it comes to P3D has changed lately. The buzzing about Paris Hilton etc indeed was a long time ago but hearing lots of addon developers being sceptic about the future of P3D and whether it would be any business in starting to develop for and supporting P3D was not. I'm very happy that has now changed!

 

I'm currently using P3Dv2.5 and I'll be replacing it with P3Dv3.1 in the next couple of weeks. Have been holding off waiting for addon installers to catch up and now with most of the addons I use fully P3Dv3 compatible and with a nice Christmas holiday around the corner with some extra spare time will be a great time doing the switch including re-installing all my addons. Normally I would find that task rather boring but this time I'm actually looking forward to a 100% fresh and clean environment based on a very well performing and stable platform.

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

The vocal minority does not represent the silent majority.

 

Anyhoo, it creates some additional forum traffic for AS, and I guess that is the purpose of it.

[pmb 5,137]

The vocal minority does not represent the silent majority.

 

Anyhoo, it creates some additional forum traffic for AS, and I guess that is the purpose of it.

I doubt this, at least not alone. As we know, Aerosoft was quite hesitent to invest into Prepar3d2 upgrades of older products. However, as stated by them now, they will give Prepar3d3 more love in view of this poll (and supposedly some similar polls), and that's what they are doing indeed, according to my impression. Certainly a move to the better, I would say.

 

Kind regards, Michael

[Flying Penguin 44]

The vocal minority does not represent the silent majority.

 

Anyhoo, it creates some additional forum traffic for AS, and I guess that is the purpose of it.

 

But what proportion of the "silent majority" are regularly purchase addons (beyond perhaps a little Steam DLC)?  Aerosoft are interested in the participating (and purchasing) community, which is only a small part of the overall number of flight sim users*.  Given the survey was a simple forum thread and no song and dance was made about it (unlike the regular AVSim surveys) and it only came to this (not exactly small) forum's attention a few months later, writing it off as a traffic magnet for their forums is a bit of a stretch...

 

If they weren't seeing sales patterns changing, I doubt they would bother asking the question.

 

*For a practical demonstration of this, take a look at the recent release of user statistics by LR, The number of flights in default aircraft, the number that start engines running and the number of flights using mouse control suggest that even in XP (which doesn't attract the "pick it up for $5 on Steam Sale" crowd), casual flights in default aircraft are the rule rather than the exception.

[Bobsk8 12,489]

The Traffic on the Facebook P3D group is extremely high and it is very active. Many reports of people switching to P3D from FSX. https://www.facebook.com/groups/p3dgroup/

[Nuno Pinto 1,394]

It's obvious that FSX is not the preferred platform anymore. It's been stalled since 2006 and people want something that sees some development and improvements.

 

X-Plane doesn't have what it takes (will it ever?), so it's only natural to see P3D on top of the list given the high compatibility with FSX addons and similar functionality.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

I think that the main factor that is limiting adoption of both XP and P3d is both apps' hardware requirements. Back six, seven  years ago, people all had reasonably capable desktop computers and the majority of them could run FSX in a reasonable fashion. Now, who buys a desktop PC, especially a high end machine designed for state of the art gaming? Tablets and smartphones are fine for surfing the internet and menial day to day tasks (like spending one's entire income on Amazon Prime and then accounting for that on Quicken). A  console like the PS4 or the XBox1 is good enough for the vast majority of gaming.

 

To me, that means that a flight simmer is going to go out and buy a desktop PC, just for the sole purpose of running P3d and XP. Not that some people won't do that. But what about the rest of the people? They will continue on with FS9 and FSX until either their PC dies or they lose interest in flight simming as a hobby. But it is clear that the "enthusiast" market" is now mostly P3d and a dash of XP.  Personally, I'm sticking with both as they each offer something a little different to the user.

[Nuno Pinto 1,394]

I see your point and i tend to agree. Most higher spec PCs are purchased by gamers, not flight simmers and both P3D and XP are in the game realm as far as performance is concerned (well, P3D is just entering the realm now).

[ryanbatc 12,770]

P3D v3 and XP10 here!

[spesimen 135]

It's obvious that FSX is not the preferred platform anymore. It's been stalled since 2006 and people want something that sees some development and improvements.

 

i'm not sure that's really true, that survey is self-selecting and so isn't particularly scientific. there are 2,124 people using FSX-SE on steam right at this very second! that is twice as many people as even responded to the survey in total. 

 

i'm very pleased that p3d is getting the traction it deserves however. it is very excellent to see that the third party support for it is growing constantly. i will most likely be making the switch eventually, but need a solid GPU upgrade (and probably CPU also) before it will be worth doing. i agree that having a sim getting real development and improvement is vital. i'm also curious to see what dovetail puts together with the flight engine.

 

cheers

-andy crosby

 

 

If they weren't seeing sales patterns changing, I doubt they would bother asking the question.

 

 

exactly this. i don't think they were trying to establish a scientific idea of what platform usage is out there right now, but rather trying to gauge how much their dedicated customers want p3d stuff, which is probably a somewhat different group than the overall flightsim scene. if anything the idea that developers are now planning their products for multiple targets is a good thing for everyone.

 

cheers

-andy crosby

[Nuno Pinto 1,394]

i'm not sure that's really true, that survey is self-selecting and so isn't particularly scientific. there are 2,124 people using FSX-SE on steam right at this very second! that is twice as many people as even responded to the survey in total. 

 

 

Yeah, but on STEAM, most of them are casual 'simmers' that PLAY on FSX just because they're curious about it and it was dead cheap at some point. Those aren't the guys that fly Aerosoft-Level aircraft, left alone PMDG or Majestic...

[WebMaximus 372]

Talking about hardcore gamers vs flight simmers my view on this is these groups are pretty much the same. At least if you look at hardcore flight simmers.

 

Looking at my own rig that is the kind of rig that would work perfectly fine with most of the latest and most demanding games. In my case I built it with flight simming in mind to get the best possible performance out of P3D just like any hardcore gamer would buy him/herself a rig that can handle the latest games.

 

So in this regard I think both these groups are very similar. Then of course you have the "mainstream" guys in both these groups that don't have the latest and fastest hardware but still play/simulate but by sacrificing some details etc to achieve acceptable performance.

 

Hmm...not even sure what I'm really trying to say here or add to the discussion :smile: but guess my main point being there's not that much that differentiate a hardcore simmer from a hardcore gamer.

[TuFun 426]

I'm one of those that hangs on to a computer until the software (fltsim) advance so much it's no longer usable. :wink:  Although, I fine the opposite with P3Dv3.  For the type of flying I do, it is very smooth with ASNext, A2A C182, and Orbx stuff!  It just works!!! Granted the AA and water needs improvements, but overall I'm impressed.  And running AMD 965 Black with ATI 5850.