It's getting so confusing

[zl2bmh 0]

Hello All.

As the years roll over and Flight Sim expanding I am finding it harder to come to terms with what is what, and the difference between them.

I was hoping that someone could tell me what the difference is  between  FSX SE, P3D V4, VR AND ASF2.  Can you use VR with the others, is there specific scenery for each one or can I use Orbx (my scenery of choice, and I only have that installed) with any two, same applies with planes.

What appears to be the direction everyone is going, where will we be, say 12 months for now.  I do have AFS2 and really enjoy LOWI but there has been no other scenery released for that particular Sim.

Being a well advanced pensioner and like others around my age we have to be carefull which way we go too.  Is VR for FSX SE only scenery? What about P3D v4 what is so good about that?

Can someone please join this jigsaw together and make sense of it, so I know what way I should channel my money, and concentrate on just one instead of being a jack of all trades and a master of none.

Thank you all, I look forward to any replies.

Jim zl2bmh.

 

 

 

 

[MarkW 1,491]

I am making an assumption here that VR is referring to a virtual reality headset....if so lets set that aside for now.

FSX-SE is the 32bit (so Out of Memory an issue) version of FSX sold on Steam.  Some improvements have been made and you can install any scenery that is specific to FSX or FSX-SE.

P3D v4 is the 64 bit version of flight simulator based on Microsofts ESP platform.  It is vastly improved and different to FSX, FSX-SE and you should only install scenery and aircraft that are made specifically for this platform.  Yes some FSX scenery and aircraft will work but it could mess up your sim.  You should read the post by PMDG on this topic.  Search for "how to mess up a perfectly good P3D v4 install".

ASF2 - I know very little about this sim, I know it is a separate 64 bit platform and some FSX stuff can be ported over but you will need to check out what can and cannot in their specific forum.

As for ORBX, you can install all of your ORBX stuff in FSX-SE, most (except airports for now) in P3D v4 using the ORBX Central 3 program.  Orbx in ASF2 is a different animal and sold on a different license.

And finally for VR.....yes it works on all of them but to different degrees of success.  There is a post in the forums that one user made on this in P3D v4 (search for "everything you want to know about Virtual Reality and P3D v4).

 

Hope this helps,

 

 

[ieydis 51]

Of course there is also X-Plane and FSW but that's a whole other can of "goodies".

Ilya

[zl2bmh 0]

Mark.

Thank you very much indeed for an excellent explanation on these Sims.  Yes, ieydis I had actually forgotten about these two, however I do know that they are also top rated,

Once again gentleman, thanks so much.

Jim zl2bmh.

 

[Wobbie 938]

Do not forget Flightgear. It is free, & actually quite outstanding.

[zl2bmh 0]

Quite frankly Wobbie I've never heard of it, which just shows my ignorance.  Thank you for passing that HU onto me

I'll look that up now.

Regards, zl2bmh

[Wobbie 938]

Flightgear has a great selection of planes, & an amazing Space Shuttle as well. Their scenery, you download whatever 'grid' you want, is very good! 

[Guest]

In case you are really interested in VR: at this moment Aerofly FS 2 is king in that regard since it has been offering native VR support right from the start and because, at this moment in time, performance of Aerofly is superior to any other civil flightsim. Main problem, as you noted already, is that there are just a few (scenery) addons (DLC) for it... I do think the future of Aerofly is looking good, specially with the upcoming Dash 400 and the upcoming updated autopilot system for all default airplanes, but progress is going rather slowly.

If you want 'everything' RIGHT NOW you would be better of with P3D v4 imho because that is the most complete sim at this moment, mainly because of all the addons you can get for it (though quite a few need updates at this moment). But for VR nothing comes close to Aerofly FS 2.

I would forget about FSX SE as it is 32 bit and that's a thing of the past. 

On 19-7-2017 at 0:44 PM, MarkW said:

and some FSX stuff can be ported over but you will need to check out what can and cannot in their specific forum.

Afaik this isn't so. Only developers can port some stuff from FSX/P3D to AFS2 (like Orbx did) but that does take quite some work. I do know Lionheart (a developer of planes for FSX/P3D) has been working on porting some of their FSX planes to AFS2 but that work has been put on hold because of various problems. (In that regard the future of Aerofly is looking a bit grim... Besides Orbx no one else has released addons for AFS2...)

[MarkW 1,491]

1 hour ago, J van E said:

 

Afaik this isn't so. Only developers can port some stuff from FSX/P3D to AFS2 (like Orbx did) but that does take quite some work. I do know Lionheart (a developer of planes for FSX/P3D) has been working on porting some of their FSX planes to AFS2 but that work has been put on hold because of various problems. (In that regard the future of Aerofly is looking a bit grim... Besides Orbx no one else has released addons for AFS2...)

Thanks for the clarification.