P3D Longevity

[Guest]

Even if LM decided to shelve P3D and stop selling it why on earth would anyone even consider going back to FSX. Developers would have the P3D V4 SDK and we the end users would still have our copy of P3D.

FSX was still being developed for long after it was dead and burried by MS. If P3D suffers the same fate and I really doubt it will for a very long time history will just repeat itself.

[Guest]

On 7/4/2017 at 2:04 PM, silverheels2 said:

How many such folks work on P3D. 10 heads maybe?

So you don't actually know how many LM developers and scientists are working on P3D yet you're banging the drum of fear?  I think I'll move this to Hangar Chat cause its really has got nothing to do with P3D and seems agenda based.

May I recommend you fly the platform you enjoy the most, there really is no need to bang a drum, we've all seen it before, many times.

Cheers, Rob.

[Wink207 78]

9 minutes ago, Rob Ainscough said:

So you don't actually know how many LM developers and scientists are working on P3D yet you're banging the drum of fear?  I think I'll move this to Hangar Chat cause its really has got nothing to do with P3D and seems agenda based.

May I recommend you fly the platform you enjoy the most, there really is no need to bang a drum, we've all seen it before, many times.

Cheers, Rob.

Agenda based? You gotta be kidding. :) Seems like you might want to look in the mirror :)

[Wink207 78]

59 minutes ago, Avidean said:

Even if LM decided to shelve P3D and stop selling it why on earth would anyone even consider going back to FSX. Developers would have the P3D V4 SDK and we the end users would still have our copy of P3D.

FSX was still being developed for long after it was dead and burried by MS. If P3D suffers the same fate and I really doubt it will for a very long time history will just repeat itself.

I dunno or care what people would do. I'll eventually buy a license as well. People should just understand the market dynamics.

 

 

 

 

i d

[Guest]

1 hour ago, silverheels2 said:

You gotta be kidding. :) Seems like you might want to look in the mirror :)

Not kidding, I don't look in mirrors unless I'm brushing my teeth or driving but not flying.  If I had an agenda I would have deleted this thread, issued a warning for trolling the P3D forums, but I didn't.  I let this thread take it's course in the appropriate section (Hangar Chat) so you can say your peace, spread fear and "alternative facts", and get out of this thread whatever it is you want from it or don't want from it.

1 hour ago, silverheels2 said:

I dunno or care what people would do.

Well that's a shame, I do, there is usually something to discover (be it good or bad) once one digs thru the levels of indirection.

Cheers, Rob.

[vgbaron 3,486]

Every now and then one of these threads rears it's head. Some people are oblivious to not only the real world but history. One could use the same logic to propose continued support for FS9 etc.  Ten or so years ago MS dropped FSX.  What a shame!!  All us  simmers left in the lurch. We would have nothing to sim, and all the developers will go out of business because the market is gone... Oh wait - what happened?? We simmers are still flying FSX and the developers have made a good living on FSX add ons.

My point? This is just another instance of "The Sky is falling syndrome".

As someone said earlier, if LM shut down the product tomorrow, it would be no big deal - the devs would continue to produce product and we simmers would continue to enjoy our hobby.

Vic

[Chock 17,769]

It is of course possible that LM could shut down P3D development, then again, it's possible I might be next in line for the throne of England if there is some massive fatal outbreak in the UK which fortuitously bumps me up the line of succession lol. Either way, sitting here worrying about it is not really going to achieve much.

However, on the offchance that either one, or even both, of these things should occur, I'm ready: Most importantly, I've still got my FSX Deluxe DVDs and far less critically as far as I'm concerned, I've already got a set of rules I will be imposing from my palatial residence, National Cheese on Toast Day being among the exciting things I have planned.

[HighTowers 1,434]

On 7/5/2017 at 4:54 AM, snapshot21 said:

The Scenery Devs' announcement that they are dropping FSX and focusing on P3D 64-bit provides us with some sort of reassurance for the future of P3D. Making a commitment and dropping a long time platform is not an easy decision. Im sure they are in contact with LM and have an idea regarding the future plans for the flightsim.

Not sure the point of this thread, but the above statement is on point and needs to be reiterated. There are others considering the same decision. For sure they would be in contact with LM to see what the future of prepar3d is. This is a business decision you dont make lightly without some foresight and knowledge to what is expected in the years to come. 

[mdata 46]

Quote

As someone said earlier, if LM shut down the product tomorrow, it would be no big deal - the devs would continue to produce product and we simmers would continue to enjoy our hobby.

And we would still be in a much better situation than we were with FSX at the time. P3Dv4 is much more mature than FSX ever was. And the 64bit address space gives us plenty of room to move; faster hardware will always come and LM has not yet stopped development on P3D - so why crying?

In my opinion the future of flight simulation is bright

Cheers
Frank

[Chock 17,769]

4 hours ago, HighTowers said:

Not sure the point of this thread, but the above statement is on point and needs to be reiterated. There are others considering the same decision. For sure they would be in contact with LM to see what the future of prepar3d is. This is a business decision you dont make lightly without some foresight and knowledge to what is expected in the years to come. 

Lmao. A multi-billion Dollar company such as Lockheed Martin aren't going to tell somebody who is knocking out the odd airport scenery for FSX in their bedroom part time, their business plans for years to come.

[HighTowers 1,434]

53 minutes ago, Chock said:

Lmao. A multi-billion Dollar company such as Lockheed Martin aren't going to tell somebody who is knocking out the odd airport scenery for FSX in their bedroom part time, their business plans for years to come.

Well if thats the case, then they might as well exclude all devs altogether and not work with them at all. From what I can see so far, theyve been very helpful for V4 support including all kinds of beta input and feedback for them. 

And heck if those scenery devs are making decisions to exclude established platforms altogether without some sort of knowledge from LM of what they have planned for p3d ahead, then you just called their decision stupid. You would want to know if your going to have some sort of developer support in the future, multi billion dollar company or not. 

[airservices 133]

All you knockers should take your meds and have a lie down

LM have come out with the best sim since FSX and it will continue to grow more than FSX ever did

[Chock 17,769]

1 hour ago, HighTowers said:

Well if thats the case, then they might as well exclude all devs altogether and not work with them at all. From what I can see so far, theyve been very helpful for V4 support including all kinds of beta input and feedback for them. 

And heck if those scenery devs are making decisions to exclude established platforms altogether without some sort of knowledge from LM of what they have planned for p3d ahead, then you just called their decision stupid. You would want to know if your going to have some sort of developer support in the future, multi billion dollar company or not. 

 

No, I'm not calling their decisions stupid, I'm merely pointing out that Lockheed Martin will not be consulting with every Tom Dick and Harry who ever knocked out a bit of scenery for FSX and revealing to them stuff which they don't need to. No business is going to divulge anything it does not have to; if someone makes sceneries, then they will continue to do so, they don't need to know anything other than which is the most likely horse to place a bet on. Thus a sole trading lone developer making sceneries can use a bit of intelligence based on the status quo, in order to determine the smartest direction to go, with no need for anything other than common sense being behind that choice.

It is certainly true that some very large development companies will have been/are in talks with Lockheed Martin, for example, it is obvious enough that Just Flight/Aeroplane Heaven is of that ilk, since a couple of their products are now part of the default P3D installation. Much of the reason for that is of course that those FS add-ons are, in their real-world incarnations, Lockheed aeroplanes, but it remains the case that Just Flight, being one of the larger online stores for FS add-ons as well as being a developer in its own right, is the kind of company which LM would talk to.

The notion that one man band scenery developers would automatically be privvy to the same kind of discourse is unlikely to say the least, particularly if their output is not going to end up being part of LM's default product, as was the case with JF/AH. Nevertheless, as noted, a one man band can still use a bit of common sense to determine what they should do, in that if one observes a fairly large concern such as Just Flight working in conjunction with LM, it would be a reasonably astute decision to ally oneself to that same business trajectory without any need to know much more on the matter. This is a far more likely scenario to have prompted such a decision from smaller developers and it is therefore a fairly common sense move, far from being stupid.

Having said that, where creating scenery for flight sims is concerned, if you create a 3D model, there is very little difference in the creation process as far as whether that ends up in a 32 bit or 64 bit sim, this should be obvious enough if one observes that Carenado, Virtavia and Aeroplane Heaven aeroplanes all originally developed for the 32 Bit FSX have found their way into LM's 64 Bit P3D V4. There is (or at least can be) a difference with the bit depth of the textures which are mapped onto that model, but as far as the creative process goes, it is much the same. The difficulty lies in how well any complex scenery or add-on aeroplane will impact upon performance. Consider then, that with some intelligent design thought, one could easily create a more complex model for a 64 Bit platform, then delete features from that same model and have a less complex version be suitable for a 32 Bit sim platform. A state of affairs which means that developers can relatively easily find a fallback strategy if they needed to, not that this is likely, but it does mean that in the interim, there can be more than one market available to developers who are prepared to design their stuff in a modular fashion.

What is extremely likely however, is that since DTG's Flight Sim World is another 64 Bit simulator on the way, one which is also based upon the structure of ESP, it is a bit of a no brainer for developers to go the 64 bit route, since somewhere down the road they will end up with stuff they have created which with some relatively minor tweaking, will be suitable for not one, but two simulator platforms, one of which will be able to see their stuff being sold through Steam to a widespread more 'casual' user base, the other to the more 'serious' P3D users. Two bites at the cherry so to speak. Thus we actually don't have all our eggs in one basket going forward, nor do any add-on developers, in fact it's probably never looked rosier for them, and indeed us as sim fans.

[wizzards 99]

P3d will go on as long as LM have a requirement to train people on the use of their product,s or until better/different  method of meeting the training  requirements of their customers comes along,maybe in the future you will have special training micro chip inserted in your ? and the knowledge will be instant,A more interesting Question is why a normally secretive company engaged in weapons manufacturing like LM decided to let us lot into their world?,could it be that LM are just great bunch of guys that just love us Flight simmers to bits,or did they really want thousands of unpaid Beta testers and the DEVS on Board all for free,or are we all getting messages when we Fly telling us to purchase a LM aircraft!. About 5/6 yrs back there were real battles regarding P3d on the forums many Devs/simmers treated P3d as if it had come from hell using lots of reasons to down play P3d,those were days of real sport! if P3d was going to be pulled I would have thought that was the time it would have happened,but as the simmers/Devs slowly came to realize that  P3d  was not going away and that lots of flight Simmers preferred a stable sim,I cant think why!,and started to realize what the benefits the constant updates and a disciplined structure brings to the Table,they just  joined the club,P3d in my humble opinion is not going anywhere it has just ploughed onwards and upwards,here,s to v66 may it never end,I Just hope I am around to install and fly it

 

Peter

[Wobbie 938]

It REALLY does not matter if LM stops or freezes development of P3D. 

FSX development was frozen many years ago, as was FS2004.

That certainly did not stop developers, both freeware & payware from supporting the sims. Just look at the stuff coming from Milton & team for FS2004!

Even if LM & DTG stop all development, developers will still carry on.

Remember, these guys only give us the sim engine... the developers make it happen for us!