So, is P3D3 dead?

[bobrbend 28]

Not as long as Aersoft Airbus, LevedD 767, FS Passengers, GEX  and most of my airport sceneries are not compatible, at least according to Randazzo's advice.

Am on a trek around South America where none of my sceneries are defined as compatible:from SBGL (Rio) Tropical Sim, to SBGR (Sao Paolo) LatinVFR, to SAEZ (BA) BluePrint, to SCEL (Santiago) LatinVFR, to SKBO (Bogota) BluePrint.

I'm only using V4 on long hauls where VAS is an issue, Its my understanding that's the primary advantage over v3 anyway.

 

[ESzczesniak 128]

The big missing add-on for me at the moment is the VRS Superbug/TacPack.  There's some other stuff out there, but most of it is in V4 now for me.

25 minutes ago, bobrbend said:

...I'm only using V4 on long hauls where VAS is an issue, Its my understanding that's the primary advantage over v3 anyway.

 

Strictly speaking yes.  But because VAS isn't a concern, the sim seems to do much better with preloading stuff, so you don't get black textures on views changes, LOD and autogen to the horizon, etc, with generally speaking much smoother and better FPS/experience.  Like I said, I think that all comes down to not worrying about VAS as you mentioned, but it's effects trickle down elsewhere. 

[Afterburner 374]

To me, P3D v3 is far from dead; it has actually reached its peak, and I plan to stay with this simulator until v5 comes along. Here is a sober cost-benefit analysis of why I have decided to do so:

- All my favorite aircraft add-ons have not been released for v4 yet:  Concorde-X, Level-D 767, Majestic Dash Q400  (and no one knows when they will be released).
- A lot of aircraft and scenery add-ons available in the market are compatible with v3.

What are the advantages of v4 over v3?

- v3 has the 4GB VAS limitation, whereas v4 doesn't -> Not an issue for me, because even with ORBX Vector, OpenLC and complex aircraft, I have been well below 4GB on my flights.
- Apparently better performance. -> True, but probably not with my hardware.
- Dynamic lights  ->  Seems to drag down the FPS even with good GPUs, so my hardware won't cope with it.
- Larger autogen and LOD radius  ->  That's obviously a major advantage!

However, here are the costs I would have to spend to fully benefit from switching to v4:

- P3D v4 Professional  ->  $200
- 16 GB RAM DDR4  ->  $130
- Good Nvidia GPU  ->  at least $500

So spending a total of $800 for the upgrade is a lot of money actually. If you ask me, too much for the few benefits outlined.

[vgbaron 3,616]

And this is exactly why people are still using Fs9 and enjoying it.  Each person must decide if they'll get "the best bang for the buck".  I'm old, single and have disposable income so I have two systems, one with v3 and one with v4. Except for testing, I hardly fly v3 any more as the performance and visuals in v4 are so stunning. 

But even for me for example, I can afford the TitanX but the cost differential compared to the performance increase over my 1070's isn't worth it - to ME.

Nope, I think v3 is far from dead over all. But V4 is a growing monster.

Vic

[Mitch24 194]

No, P3D v3 is NOT dead. Some of us that aren't ancient and don't have unlimited money can't afford a new $1,000,000 system to handle P3D v4.

Still using P3D v3, works just fine for me.

[zmak 331]

Sadly the arrival of 64 bit and V4 did not unite us all in a "wow" moment we were expecting.

In fact apart from being OOM free there is little else that was optimized.

For someone who very rarely gets an OOM even with PMDG and ORBX I just shrug my shoulders and hope there will be more to 64 bit than meets the eye..eventually

 

 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

5 hours ago, Sethos1988 said:

It's relevant in the extend of still allowing access to some yet ported addons. Outside of that, it just needs to die a quick death and allow 64-bit to flourish. 

I don't understand why you want it to disappear from the market? There are lots of people who have moved from FSX and been able to use most if not all of their airports with v3.4. It's a perfectly good sim albeit a 32-bit one. Moving all those sliders to the right in v4 is going to cost a lot of money if you want decent frame rates especially in 4K.

Live and let live eh?

[anden145 2,285]

Okay - I probably (and most likely) get killed for saying this - but what the hell... You only live once... 

I think it's quite funny (and a little bit ridiculous) to see the extreme exaggeration, some people in here are coming up with, while explaining their subjective view of why they haven't got Prepar3D V4 and/or why they won't get Prepar3D V4.

I understand the positions, when people have addons which aren't working i V4 yet. The stories of not having the necessary hardware to be able to run Prepar3D V4 is simply a bending of the truth. To be frank, if you can run Prepar3D V3, you can run Prepar3D V4. Actually (for me personally) Prepar3D V4 runs much better and smoother than Prepar3D V4.

Oh well... For all those who're staying with Prepar3D V4 - all the power to you. Just don't start complaining, when new addons won't be released for older Prepar3D V3. 

Good luck to you all - and to all a good night.

[Der Fuchs 68]

Im going to continue to use v3 because some old stuff are not going to be compatible with v4 in a near futur or forever...

PMDG MD-11 & FSL Concorde for me

[Mitch24 194]

20 minutes ago, Anders Bermann said:

Okay - I probably (and most likely) get killed for saying this - but what the hell... You only live once... 

I think it's quite funny (and a little bit ridiculous) to see the extreme exaggeration, some people in here are coming up with, while explaining their subjective view of why they haven't got Prepar3D V4 and/or why they won't get Prepar3D V4.

I understand the positions, when people have addons which aren't working i V4 yet. The stories of not having the necessary hardware to be able to run Prepar3D V4 is simply a bending of the truth. To be frank, if you can run Prepar3D V3, you can run Prepar3D V4. Actually (for me personally) Prepar3D V4 runs much better and smoother than Prepar3D V4.

Oh well... For all those who're staying with Prepar3D V4 - all the power to you. Just don't start complaining, when new addons won't be released for older Prepar3D V3. 

Good luck to you all - and to all a good night.

 

Flight Simulator Privilege 

[Sethos 4,335]

26 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I don't understand why you want it to disappear from the market? There are lots of people who have moved from FSX and been able to use most if not all of their airports with v3.4. It's a perfectly good sim albeit a 32-bit one. Moving all those sliders to the right in v4 is going to cost a lot of money if you want decent frame rates especially in 4K.

Live and let live eh?

Because it's 32-bit and uses and outdated and mediocre SDK. If developers have to cater for people who stick with that platform, it means longer development cycles, possibly worse performance, lacking features (notice how automatic season changing is starting to come back. That wasn't part of the V3 SDK and required to use even older versions). So no, not live and let live. The sooner 64-bit becomes the only platform, the better off we all are. 

[MarkW 1,491]

I think people will hang on to it for an old favourite aircraft that is not converted. Right now for me that is the Q400 and Concorde.  Once those go over its adios. 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

10 minutes ago, Sethos1988 said:

Because it's 32-bit and uses and outdated and mediocre SDK. If developers have to cater for people who stick with that platform, it means longer development cycles, possibly worse performance, lacking features (notice how automatic season changing is starting to come back. That wasn't part of the V3 SDK and required to use even older versions). So no, not live and let live. The sooner 64-bit becomes the only platform, the better off we all are. 

You should have prefaced that with "in my opinion". No, haven't noticed the season change thing but it's hardly a show-stopper.

Speak for yourself regarding 64-bit. If people don't have their favourite aircraft because they can't be converted they'll stay with 32-bit and are perfectly entitled to do so whether you like it or not.

[Holdit 551]

41 minutes ago, Anders Bermann said:

Okay - I probably (and most likely) get killed for saying this - but what the hell... You only live once... 

I think it's quite funny (and a little bit ridiculous) to see the extreme exaggeration, some people in here are coming up with, while explaining their subjective view of why they haven't got Prepar3D V4 and/or why they won't get Prepar3D V4.

I understand the positions, when people have addons which aren't working i V4 yet. The stories of not having the necessary hardware to be able to run Prepar3D V4 is simply a bending of the truth. To be frank, if you can run Prepar3D V3, you can run Prepar3D V4. Actually (for me personally) Prepar3D V4 runs much better and smoother than Prepar3D V4.

Oh well... For all those who're staying with Prepar3D V4 - all the power to you. Just don't start complaining, when new addons won't be released for older Prepar3D V3. 

Good luck to you all - and to all a good night.

I think what's ridiculous, apart from yet another dimwitted thread calling for the death of older sims, is your assumption that people staying with what they have don't have perfectly valid reasons for doing so. Please outline some examples of the "extreme exaggeration" you've witnessed. All I've seen is people weighing up the pros, cons and costs and coming to a decision that P3DV4 isn't for them...and in most of those cases as far as I can see, those people are saying that P3DV4 isn't for them yet. What is so ridiculous about that?

What's the point of all the religious fervour about V4? What is the desire to get everyone on the same bandwagon and question the rationality of those who prefer to go their own way? Are you so insecure in your own decision that you feel the need to question the wisdom of those who choose a different approach? P3DV4 as far as I can see is flourishing very nicely. Why does it require every other FS/P3D version to wither and die? FSX did very nicely while many still stuck with FS9...

 

 

 

[Afterburner 374]

49 minutes ago, Anders Bermann said:

To be frank, if you can run Prepar3D V3, you can run Prepar3D V4.

I think that's only true if you have a lot of RAM and VRAM; with only 4GB RAM and 2GB VRAM, as in my case, it would slow down P3D v4 considerably (due to its 64 bit architecture, v4 consumes more RAM / VRAM at similar visual quality than v3), while this is enough for v3.