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Thanks for the positive feedback on that. We expect the transition to V4-only Addons with FSX support being dropped to happen a lot quicker then it did with the FS2004->FSX transition where FS2004 versions remained viable for years along with a loud FS2004 userbase demanding them.

This time the transition will be "harder" and more abrupt, and in fact several high-quality developers have been communicating behind the scenes on exactly this topic, which boils down to how quickly they are willing to drop FSX support in favor of V4-only releases. Without naming anyone I can say that what came out of these talks is good news for V4 and bad news for FSX.

The quote above is from Martin at FlyTampa.

The list of previous simulator versions is long and many developers struggle to service all of the in-and-outs of each.

The list of current simulators gets ever wider - XP11, P3Dv4, etc.

We must all suffer from delays caused by developers having to re-visit older versions to ensure upgrades will work. At some point, developers will have to reduce the list of simulator versions being supported.

Should we be pushing the developers to announce limitations on the older versions being supported - for example FS9, FSX? Should users of the older simulator versions be given tougher timescales for removal of maintenance?

Support would be limited to P3D v4 only? No support for P3D v3?

Recorder P3D V4 movies do not work in P3D V3, from LM. Backwards compat has been the drag chain of most development..

Jorge

4 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

Support would be limited to P3D v4 only? No support for P3D v3?

I would imagine that would be the case. There's the potential for 4 different "MSFS-like" SDK's which would need to be built against in this new era...

FSX/FSX:SE, P3Dv3, P3Dv4, and if they ever release the kit, FSW.

Developers do need to draw a line somewhere as to what they will support going forward. Obviously we are still in the extremely early stages of P3Dv4, and its impressive that we've seen so much compatibility so soon. Unlike the P3Dv2 to v3 transition where the changes were more nuanced, I see the community mostly in agreement that v4 is a natural and welcome progression. I think it's adoption will be faster than its predecessors, and developers are wise to push in that direction. (*spoken selfishly, because I want them to push in that direction!)

 

 

Dumping support for P3D v3 at this point in time seems somewhat premature.

I would hope that developers start producing 64-bit only content that takes advantage of the new features available to developers on the v4 platform. This is the best way for flight sim to progress into modern times. If development has to reach way back to 2006 and cater to 2006, then flight sim will be stuck in 2006.

It is 2017 and it is time to move forward and let go of 2006 and 32 bit.

Agree with Chris and MikeT707. But should we urge abandoning support for pre-P3Dv3?

22 minutes ago, MikeT707 said:

I would hope that developers start producing 64-bit only content that takes advantage of the new features available to developers on the v4 platform. This is the best way for flight sim to progress into modern times. If development has to reach way back to 2006 and cater to 2006, then flight sim will be stuck in 2006.

It is 2017 and it is time to move forward and let go of 2006 and 32 bit.

Exactly this. Well said. 

There is nothing preventing users from keeping their favorite sim running. If you want to be stuck on FS9 or FSX then go for it, but all of this release for FSX first etc is just holding back everything. It takes tremendous time and resources to deal with all these platforms. If its narrowed down and focused to 1-2 platforms max, devs would be alot better off and we would see faster production of releases. Aerosoft alluded that V3 may be dropped. Sounds like it would be in a year or so. I think others echo that sentiment. They realize all the nifty things that can be done in V4 and are excited to move forward without the hard 32 bit restriction. As with nearly everything in life, eventually things get dropped to make way for better things. Examples like VHS, DVD, Blueray, streaming, CRT-HD-4k etc. 

56 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

Dumping support for P3D v3 at this point in time seems somewhat premature.

I agree, there are many people ( including me) that will be using version 3.4 for quite awhile, since my most used add ons might not ever work in 3.4 ( copters mainly). Kind of like MS dropping support for Windows 7 when 10 was released. 

Actually I don't think it is. The gap between Prepar3D V3.x and Prepar3D V4 is becoming larger and larger and it's going to take more and more resources of developers to maintain all of them. Quite frankly I would think it would refreshing to see a line drawn and just leave the older technologies behind and focus solely on the new platform ... and the sooner the better, to be so brutally honest.

Of course, this is just my opinion... 

12 minutes ago, Anders Bermann said:

Actually I don't think it is. The gap between Prepar3D V3.x and Prepar3D V4 is becoming larger and larger and it's going to take more and more resources of developers to maintain all of them.

To add to that, most developers who made P3D V3 specific scenery have already released or are actively working on V4 updates for their products for minimal or no charge. So really the upgrade to V4 is pretty much the price of your licence. For those FSX addons that just worked in P3D without being updated for it that's a different story. 

As Bob has stated, not everyone is jumping immediately on the P3D v4 64bit bandwagon. At the moment, it would be rather stupid of me to upgrade to v4, since not all of the addons that I use would work. Yes, some people don't mind losing a few addons or (God forbid) flying around over default scenery, but I do not belong to that club.

1 hour ago, Anders Bermann said:

Actually I don't think it is. The gap between Prepar3D V3.x and Prepar3D V4 is becoming larger and larger and it's going to take more and more resources of developers to maintain all of them. Quite frankly I would think it would refreshing to see a line drawn and just leave the older technologies behind and focus solely on the new platform ... and the sooner the better, to be so brutally honest.

Of course, this is just my opinion... 

This is just not your opinion.  And I think it is a good thing.

14 minutes ago, PDX Flyer said:

This is just not your opinion.  And I think it is a good thing.

What exactly do you mean by that?

6 minutes ago, Anders Bermann said:

What exactly do you mean by that?

Opps.  A Big typo on my part.  I meant to say that this is not "just" your opinion.  I agree with you 100%.  I have to be more careful and proofread my stuff before hitting the send button.