I agree with the the above.. starting with FS X..

 

By the time you replace FSX scenery textures with Orbx Global and various Landclass regions, add a few well crafted airplanes, like the a2a Comanche, add your favorite cockpit avionics, like the Flight1 GTN series, you are well on your way to FS XI 

 

:smile:

Yes, FSX & FSX:SE are still being very much supported. It must still be remembered that development on both those sims have been frozen.

 

P3D must be considered as a new and separate sim,dynamically & constantly being updated, about 10 times over the FSX's, and NOT an upgrade of FSX & FSX:SE. It must be regarded as a new and separate sim, and you should have no ironclad expectations that your add-ons, if written for the FSX's will work,even though it is also built on a FSX framework. So, a new sim, be it P3D, X-Plane or even the future(?) Dovetail sim, will have its own costs as far as addons go.

Yes, FSX & FSX:SE are still being very much supported. It must still be remembered that development on both those sims have been frozen.

 

P3D must be considered as a new and separate sim,dynamically & constantly being updated, about 10 times over the FSX's, and NOT an upgrade of FSX & FSX:SE. It must be regarded as a new and separate sim, and you should have no ironclad expectations that your add-ons, if written for the FSX's will work,even though it is also built on a FSX framework. So, a new sim, be it P3D, X-Plane or even the future(?) Dovetail sim, will have its own costs as far as addons go.

 

I agree. My point was that if you've invested heavily in FSX and you've got it working well, you'd want something really amazing to tempt you to start again from scratch. I just don't see anything that good at the moment. Some may be 64bit or have slightly better graphics or have a more realistic flight model (XP - though, having tried it I'm not convinced), but it would need something that was better, overall, than my current FSX setup to lure me away.

 

FSX out-of-the-box may be nothing special (but not bad), however, it's when you add things like Orbx, ASN, REX4, A2A and RealAir, to name just a few, that it becomes impressive. I don't want something that has the potential to be really good when I already have something that I think is now.

 

 

FSX out-of-the-box may be nothing special (but not bad), however, it's when you add things like Orbx, ASN, REX4, A2A and RealAir, to name just a few, that it becomes impressive. I don't want something that has the potential to be really good when I already have something that I think is now.

 

I agree. A clean install of FSX-SE made it possible to really enjoy PMDG again. I don't disagree with folks who like Prepare3D, it's their money and their judgment of it.

However, when the dust settles with regard to 64 bits, which I think will be a turning point in the sim world and I'm still hear I will then make a decision.  At some point Prepare 3D will be 64 bit and maybe it will not require constant update/new updates to be purchased every time the clock ticks mid nite, just don't know? Lets be honest, Prepare 3D is expensive for some folks. We like to think that flight sim community should be at least affordable to the masses. Eisenhower warned of the military/industrial complex! All businesses are in it for profit but military associated firms are really good at extracting other entities funds. Remember that hammer! 

I don't know about Prepare 3 D's code base etc., I do know when any flight sim is based on a multi threading game engine AND 64 bits, it will be a winner. Mobo's today are capable of having 64 or more GB's of memory on board. Lockeed Martin isn't lying when the say they are commercial!

MS IMHO gave our community a kick in the teeth to get a few extra dollars from LM. Many corporations could care less about their user base!

Best

BaldyB

Right now I have more than one foot in the XP11 camp despite spending a small fortune on FSX-SE.  Having paid for the full unlock of the beta I am absolutely blown away by the out of the box experience.  The performance is also way better, 20FPS in XP11 seems like 40FPS in FSX.  It just seems (to me at least) butter smooth.  After doing a lot of research the only thing I would really miss if I make the switch is the PMDG/A2A/Majestic type aircraft.  That's not to say it will never happen.  Just hop over to the XP11 boards and look how many P3D and FSX users are making the switch.  Once the platform becomes more established you may well see some of the more well known payware developers move across.  PMDG have already released the DC 3 so who is to say they aren't working on other stuff.

 

 

The problem with P3D, as I see it, is that each new full version (ignoring incremental updates) requires you to buy the sim again (and it's not cheap)! Each incremental update seems to bring with it a number of incompatibility issues and many (most?) add-ons and aircraft need to be repurchased specifically for P3D - OK if you're starting out with P3D but not so good if you're moving from FSX.

 

In my experience, moving across Prepar3D versions has been very comparable to the situation MSFS found itself in back during its active development, and moving from FSX to P3D is similar as well. It's been so long, I don't think everyone remembers how similar it actually is.

 

Stepping up from one version of MSFS to the next required a repurchase of the simulator and it was a roll of the dice as to whether or not your favorite addon would be out-of-the-box compatible. In the case of an addon needing an update, some vendors opted to do it for free, others with some sort of low-cost "bridge" update, and still others may have re-released their addons as entirely separate versions. The same scenario plays out with P3D (and X-Plane) to this day.

 

There's really not a lot different today than the old days, except perhaps the price point of Prepar3D itself. FSX sat stagnant for so long, I think many may have forgotten this was the norm!

 

 

 

My point was that if you've invested heavily in FSX and you've got it working well, you'd want something really amazing to tempt you to start again from scratch. I just don't see anything that good at the moment.

 

I agree with this entirely, and this is where Prepar3D has an advantage.  It's not a 100% start from scratch scenario for the FSX user. There are a healthy number of addons that either work out-of-the-box or have free updates/installers available for Prepar3D, making the transition far less painful than it could be - depending on their 3rd party investments, of course.

 

For me, I invested in Prepar3D some time ago and when I try to jump back to FSX:SE in order to use one or two incompatible aircraft, I find myself very quickly deleting the FSX:SE install and moving back to P3D because for me, the improved visuals are just that much better, smoother, and robust.

 

To your point, I am impressed with the capabilities of X-Plane 11's rendering engine, but I'm still not on board with the content it has to render yet. I've had a historically hard time agreeing with X-Plane's definition of "plausible" when it comes to their scenery content in the areas I fly. The lack of a suitable 3rd party package to improve it doesn't help either. Combined with some other personal preferences, I haven't been able to get interested in X-Plane for anything more than a "simulator snack" - starting it up and flying around the pattern once or twice to see what the latest update may have changed.

 

All that being said, personal preferences and addon inertia are two very powerful forces of momentum in the flight simulator world.

 

 

I agree with this entirely, and this is where Prepar3D has an advantage. It's not a 100% start from scratch scenario for the FSX user. There are a healthy number of addons that either work out-of-the-box or have free updates/installers available for Prepar3D, making the transition far less painful than it could be - depending on their 3rd party investments, of course.

 

I've looked at P3D and, to me, whilst the vanilla version looks a little better, I don't think that it's noticeably better than FSX with add-ons. I run FSX:SE in DX10, it's smooth for me, I've yet to have an OOM and the recent cloud shadows add-on blurs the lines with P3D even more so I can't see what I'd gain from buying it. As I said in an earlier post, it would need something to come along which was significantly better in almost every way to tempt me to change and I just don't see that with P3D at present.

I also have a fully loaded FSX and I've tried several version of P3D and concluded that it was not worth the financial investment. I did not like the visuals or the performance. At one time there were also some add-ons that were not compatible so I decided to try XP 10 with payware and freeware add-ons,

 

I predict that XP 11 will be a huge hit with our sim community. xEnviro is a good example of XP 11's add-on potential. IMO it's the sim to watch.

I'm going to put My plug in for P3d v 1.4 ! After getting it Tuned and Tweaked and Set Up, Running on a 64bit OS, I find it is all I wanted in FSX ! I tried P3D 2.5 and It Worked Good, but the Difference was Not worth the change over  ! I also Run FSX SE, It Runs Good, But I Don't want to invest a lot in Add on's, then change to One of the New 64 bit Sims . Plus I can See Where P3D is Heading, with the Super Detail and Sky Rocketing Prices, Not to Mention the Hardware upgrades Required to Run it ! My Tastes and Desires are Simple, and My Hardware is on the Low end, of the High end, with No Major Upgrades on the Horizon ! P3d v1.4 is Fully Compatible ( 98 % ) with  FSX and there is a Massive Amount of Totally Acceptable Freeware Available ! My Intention is to Wait for the New 64bit Sims to come out, or Xplane 11, and Try one. My Advice to Anyone just starting out, Go on Ebay and get a copy of FSX ( Deluxe or Gold ), or Get FSX SE on sale ( Sales Coming Soon ), Start Flying and find out what You Enjoy, and when the New 64bit Sims Come out, You will be able to  choose Wisely, with out having a Major investment in Software and Hardware . Hey, the whole Idea is to Have FUN, and NOT Break the bank !! - Johnman 

Hey, I've been away from flight sims for a while, can you guys share what has been going on?

Is there any new platform? Does people still use FSX? Did P3D succeed in rewriting FSX core improving its performance/stability?

Thanks in advance for the updates!

FSX & FSX-SE are dead technology. If you are returning you might as well start new not old! P3D and XP11 are the future.

Dead technology can be a good thing... no hotfixes to install  :wink:

Saw this video and all I thought about was the amount that I have invested in FSX:

 

 

New simmers will not have to spend as much as I did to have a great sim.