Anyone come back to FSX after trying P3D?

[Glynn 405]

Greg, how do you deal with the lack of good AA, what GFX card are you using ?

Things like fences at my airports are flickering like crazy but in FSX/DX10 they are fine.

Would a GTX970 help here or will I need a 980Ti

[untoweechja 35]

After several years of getting by with sub-par hardware, I've got a shiny new 6700K with a GTX 980 GPU.  My original plan was to hobble along on FSX-SE until my wallet recovered from the hardware outlay and then make the jump to P3D.

 

I have to say I am pleasantly surprised with FSX-SE and Steve's DX10 Fixer.  Unprecedented smoothness, no stutters, frames never drop below 30 in my favorite aircraft (Q400 and Turbo Duke) and for the first time ever I can fly my PMDG fleet without the experience turning into a slide show.  Plus, all of this with absolutely no tweaking. 

 

In short, I'm unexpectedly in a really happy place right now with FSX-SE.

 

I think I'll put my next big chunk of money into a 4K monitor instead and hold off on P3D.  I can use the monitor for work and my other computer hobbies so it's better spent there than on another flight sim.

[greggerm 312]

 

 

Greg, how do you deal with the lack of good AA, what GFX card are you using ? Things like fences at my airports are flickering like crazy but in FSX/DX10 they are fine. Would a GTX970 help here or will I need a 980Ti

 

I am running a 970, and as is widely reported going with 4xSGSSAA looks great on a sunny day but kills performance in the clouds. I am currently running with max AA in the sim configuration (8x), and I do get shimmer, but I deal with it.

 

Prepar3D v3.2 is better with AA, but still not perfect.  It's a tradeoff for me - I will endure the anti-aliasing weaknesses simply because the overall environment I am flying through is that much more rich and enveloping to me.

 

-Greg

[Pe11e 812]

What do you guys mumbling about? How on earth you found that you must spent a 1000-1500$ for GPU and CPU for P3D? I have i3770k (old CPU) overclocked to 4.5ghz, and already mediocre GTX 960 with 2gb vram, not overclocked. P3D v3 is working LIKE A CHARM on my machine, smooth, locked on 60fps when flying A2A C172, and on 30 when flying NGX. Cloud shadows on, water reflections on, autogen on very dense, mytraffic populating the skies. Never had any issues with performance, just with stutters that came with ASN, and solved that with AM=116 and placing ASN only to Core 0 via task manager.

[FlyingBeach 6]

I get the impression that rocket ship hardware is needed to get reasonable performance, perhaps not much different to FSX?

 

Still not liking what I'm reading on the P3D forum.

[ryanbatc 13,038]

The only reason I keep FSX is for beta testing

 

I'd never use it mainly for one reason

 

VAS management. FSX is OOM central - LM did some nice optimizing in P3D v3

[hovercrafter 10]

I use a second touchscreen monitor for the GPS, using FSX preview DX10 this screen goes blank and FSX locks up with a cursor endlessly spinning. Does Steve's Fixer stop this? Is there a way round the problem? Reading this thread it seems a lot of you use DX10 so are we comparing an enhanced FSX against a standard P3D?

 

It was that P3D had the hope of DX10 performance with multiple screens that caused my purchase of V1 in the first place (not sure if Steves Fixer was around then).

 

Just curious,

 

Gordon

[nthabti79 17]

I get the impression that rocket ship hardware is needed to get reasonable performance, perhaps not much different to FSX?

 

Still not liking what I'm reading on the P3D forum.

 

Keep in mind that people tend to voice their problems more than when everything works well. The same applies to the FSX forum...

Definitely not everybody using P3D has rocket ship hardware.

[Novation 534]

I have the better solution and run both, as I know many others do as well. I did try uninstalling FSX for a time, but missed it so put it back on. I still like aspects of FSX over P3D such as dawn and dusk lighting, particularly with low level clouds, which P3D lights in a very odd (glowy) way when the sun is very low, or just below the horizon. FSX has a more subtle realism at the beginning and end of the day. I much prefer FSX's water in DX9, particularly with REX and FSWC. I can get beautiful AA in FSX without a huge loss of performance, whereas p3d remains shimmery.

 

But P3D comes into its own during the day, with it myriad of shadowing options, making day time flights come to life and the scenery pop, whereas FSX looks flat and lifeless in comparison when the sun is high. Plus there's the volumetric fog and pop free autogen to consider.

 

So for me I'll use P3D for most flying, but FSX for those lovely dawn dusk flights, or island hops for the nice water effects.

[bobcat999 8,509]

I am using FSX:SE 90% of the time, and P3D occasionally to play with it and tweak it.  

It is a bit of a white elephant for $200 now looking back and I didn't really need it, but I think I was sucked in by peoples over-enthusiasm for it, which I just cannot see.  

For me, a fully tweaked and loaded FSX is barely any different, at least in what counts for me.  Also, although I finally have FSX running completely stutter free, for the life of me, I cannot get P3D steady, and I am no novice!

 

I can only think people who have had real problems with FSX switch to P3D, as it is better 'out of the box', but if you can invest time in FSX to get things right and buy a few add-ons like ASN and REX etc., it is top notch.

 

At the end of the day it is all subjective anyway, simply down to personal preference.  

 

There are some people that swear by X-Plane.  I try every new release hoping it will obtain that X factor (if you excuse the pun), but it never seems to make it.  I detest the look and feel of it actually.  

The only other FS I have time for currently is DCS - good work in progress for sure, and I will be more interested in Dovetails FS2016 than the next iteration of P3D in all likelihood.

[Gregg_Seipp 571]

 

 

I have just purchased and installed P3D. I have kept my FSX-SE install because I am not about to purchase my PMDG planes again.

 

I'm in the process of uninstalling FSX, finally.  I am going to miss the PMDG airplanes but...$$.  I'm still using 2.4 since I'm just getting back after many months of taking some time off.  I do like the shadows and colors of P3D better and I do like the fact that it's supported.  Honestly, I haven't yet seen much other than that (not that it's unimportant).  In 3.x the improvements in VAS would be huge for me...probably the biggest news.  I'm just groaning inside about doing another installation.

[nthabti79 17]

Gregg, if you courageous enough to do the installation, you will be very pleased with 3.2 compared to 2.4...

[Gregg_Seipp 571]

 

 

Gregg, if you courageous enough to do the installation, you will be very pleased with 3.2 compared to 2.4..

 

What's better other than the VAS (from a simmer's perspective).  I know the fix list is long, but what do you experience?

[nthabti79 17]

What's better other than the VAS (from a simmer's perspective).  I know the fix list is long, but what do you experience?

I am very pleased with 3.2, but was also very pleased with 3.1 already. VAS management is muuuuch improved compared to 2.4 or 2.5. I have not had to worry about it again, even when flying with heavy iron between major airports and with pretty high settings where I would always have the fear of an OOM in the back of my mind when flying with 2.5, I remember. It is also more fluid now, which really helps with immersing you when you don't have to think about performance or crashes when flying.

 

But not all my settings are the highest and they don't have to. E.g. I run my P3D with water settings on low and I think it still looks stunning.

 

Hope this helps.

[neucoas 82]

I am using FSX-SE since day one... Never had to touch the fsx.cfg, I only added the AF=14. Not really interested in P3D, i'm waiting for the new DGT FS.