Is P3D dying a slow death?

[sanh 823]

I just heard the news that the upcoming P3D (every 3 month) release that's due this month will be a hotfix only. Is P3D dying a slow death? To be honest I have not really seen any real change in P3D since 2.1 came out nearly 3 years ago with volumetric fog and cloud shadows. If they were both running side by side (2.1 & 3.4) would you be able to see a real noticeable difference? This is nearly 3 years of development.   In terms of the actual simulator (not tools like the Director) its pretty much minor tinkering and changes that make little overall difference to the sim. When you look at other games and the advancement we see (even on games on a smart phone) its amazing the progress that has been made and its disappointing to see that Flight Simulation does not look that much better than it did a decade ago when FSX came out. Only the textures have really changed.

 

The progress in our niche market seems so slow. We only live for around 70 years and the last decade has been a fairly disappointing one for Flight Sim in my view.

 

Add-ons have improved the scene considering but even they are at their limits of what can be achieved with the old ESP engine. Will the upcoming REX Sky Force be able to do much with the same legacy weather system that predecessor products struggled with for the last decade (flat spinning clouds, tunnel rain effect etc.). Its pretty much new hacks or workarounds (no dis-respect to REX or other great add-on providers) to overcome an old flawed system.

 

I am 39 so time is on my side but when I am 49 I suspect the 'best simulator' will still be based on a 2006 product and will look like it does today with a few more tweaks or enhancements thrown in. I don't suffer from OOMs so a 64 bit product ain't going to make much difference to me.

 

I wonder how improved Flight Simming will be when I am 69 (30 yrs from now). I somehow doubt the advancement will be as much as it has been in the previous 30 years and that's a shame. I was just hoping to see as real as it gets in my lifetime

 

Disclaimer: these are just my views and I hope I am wrong

[AviatorMoser 353]

Things come and go. I wouldn't think so hard about it. As far I as know, Lockheed Martin is still working on updating the old ESP engine, so there are still things to look forward.

[BlairB007 13]

ya poor sole. 39. your just a kid. most of us guys started out on fs 1 doing those mail runs. And what we have today is progress compared to those days. trust me. 

[Lenny777 299]

P3D at old 32 bit is not progress. It's just the status quo with a few graphics enhancements.

[Yogipriester 11]

Yep I agree although I only started with FS2

[ESzczesniak 128]

Visually maybe not much for a while, but VAS and stability have made some strides forward I think.

[Bobsk8 12,489]

Started simming in the mid 80's. The improvements in home flight simming have been spectacular. I would never would have dreamed I would see performance and features like I see today in P3D. I know a bit about simming since I have worked in in the commercial and military flight sim environment for years prior to my retirement. It is amazing what can be done today on a home PC. 32 bit is no issue for me since I don't have any VAS problems, no crashes, and every flight is trouble free. Couldn't be happier. 

 

I guess if one was totally disappointed with today's offerings, getting a degree in computer programming and creating your own sim would be an alternative.  :wink:

[edpatino 1,959]

Everything will have a slow death if it doesn't make progress over a certain period of time. P3D has been improved quite a lot of times since its first version, and most of the issues with VAS (but not all) has been resolved after the release of the v3.0. Plans have been also set by LM on the platform to go to 64-bits in the very near future. As far as I can see, I could not say P3D is not progressing, so thinking about its slow death is something out of question for me. My suggestion: don't expend too much time on this and go... flying!!!.

Cheers, Ed

[Boomer 1,619]

IBTL.

 

P3d dying?  Nope.  Best contender hands-down for simulating a commercial airline environment for this hardcore heavy tube driver.

 

XP11 falls way short and I dont see it improving given Austin's priorities.

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

Having been in the flight sim community for over 30 years and involved with many different projects and developers, I hope you're happy that I disagree with most all your musings.  The past decade in flight sim has witnessed major changes of significant benefit to the user base, both payware and freeware.

 

 My very best wishes.

[airernie 263]

 

 

just heard the news that the upcoming P3D (every 3 month) release that's due this month will be a hotfix only. Is P3D dying a slow death?

 

I think that it's important to remember that what is wanted or expected by the home-user, is not what is wanted or expected by LM's client base, which is military/commercial.

 

While a home-user upgrades their systems 'fairly' frequently, the military is still very much behind the technology curve in many respects.  

 

The fact they are as receptive as they are to home-uses amazes me..

[Patriot3810 182]

i honestly use both x-plane 10-11 and p3d, i don't see p3d going anywhere,both companies have there own agenda'sI i honestly think dovetail will probably be the wave of the future when it gets released.i have been simming since flight sim 2004. Although i was old enough to be around when flight sim 98 was around i just didn't get really heavy into the flight sims until fsx.p3d,x-plane and even dovetail will always have flaws that people aren't happy about. thats just my take on it. 

[Bobsk8 12,489]

I think that it's important to remember that what is wanted or expected by the home-user, is not what is wanted or expected by LM's client base, which is military/commercial.

 

While a home-user upgrades their systems 'fairly' frequently, the military is still very much behind the technology curve in many respects.  

 

The fact they are as receptive as they are to home-uses amazes me..

 

The military is far from being behind the technology curve. Their  focus is just different. 

i honestly use both x-plane 10-11 and p3d, i don't see p3d going anywhere,both companies have there own agenda'sI i honestly think dovetail will probably be the wave of the future when it gets released.i have been simming since flight sim 2004. Although i was old enough to be around when flight sim 98 was around i just didn't get really heavy into the flight sims until fsx.p3d,x-plane and even dovetail will always have flaws that people aren't happy about. thats just my take on it. 

 

I think Dovetail will create a game like their Train sim, much more than what LM has with P3D. Having experience with Dovetail's Train sim, I don't think the current group of active simmers would be very happy accepting what Dovetail considers as a good product. 

[greggerm 312]

 

 

I just heard the news that the upcoming P3D (every 3 month) release that's due this month will be a hotfix only. Is P3D dying a slow death?

 

At the risk of sounding harsh and snarky...  can you point me to Lockheed Martin's statement which holds them accountable to releasing proper point releases every 3 months?

 

And from another perspective, was the X-Plane franchise dying a slow death when XP10's point release cadence started slowing down? 

 

Lockheed Martin plays their hand close to the vest. They don't show their cards until releases are imminent, especially with point releases. So while Laminar Research chose to yell from the mountaintops that XP11 was on its way, Lockheed Martin is (most likely) just toiling away on P3Dv4 in blissful peace and quiet, unhindered by announcements or press releases that they have to hold themselves up to. Contrast that with Dovetail, who have already had to reset our expectations with a production delay of their pending release.

 

Everything in due time.

[GSalden 4,650]

Sorry to say, but this is the most     topic I have read in 2016...