PMDG new products and FSX

[Federico 1]

Hey all, recently I saw that you will release many updates/new products such as the 747-8 and a new NG3. My question is: are you gonna release these two products for FSX too? 

Thanks and have a great weekend!

[anden145 2,285]

I don't know if PMDG has communicated anything official regarding this. I'm fairly certain, that the 747-8 will be available for FSX, since the Base Package (-400) is. However some of the new features (EFB, Airport overlay, RainMaker) could be P3Dv4 exclusive, due to memory and technology restrictions in the legacy platforms. 

Upcoming projects, such as PMDG 737NG3 and future developments, could quite possibly be Prepar3D V4 only. But I don't think an official position has been taken yet?

Personally I wouldn't mind, if PMDG solely focused on 1 platform and 1 architechture in future developments. 

[Federico 1]

6 hours ago, Anders Bermann said:

I don't know if PMDG has communicated anything official regarding this. I'm fairly certain, that the 747-8 will be available for FSX, since the Base Package (-400) is. However some of the new features (EFB, Airport overlay, RainMaker) could be P3Dv4 exclusive, due to memory and technology restrictions in the legacy platforms. 

Upcoming projects, such as PMDG 737NG3 and future developments, could quite possibly be Prepar3D V4 only. But I don't think an official position has been taken yet?

Personally I wouldn't mind, if PMDG solely focused on 1 platform and 1 architechture in future developments. 

It would be a shame, I personally use FSX and I’m fine with it. I hope they won’t leave it as I don’t wanna (and tbh can’t afford to) spend a bunch of money to buy v4 and all the relative addons another time.

[Ephedrin 418]

To be honest, FSX users can consider themselves pretty lucky that PMDG haven‘t dropped FSX yet. It‘s a 12 years old sim platform. We are on the fourth P3D version and there are rumours about 4.2 being released shortly. It‘s been years since the developers have offered P3D licenses and everyone who has purchased FSX products since that time has been doing this knowing that FSX WILL be dropped some day. Years to save money. There are high end developers that already have announced the end of their FSX (and 32bit in general) support, both airplanes and scenery. And I personally expect PMDG to follow them shortly as the 32 bit environment really limits your possibilities and you have to develop twice for nothing. 

[G-RFRY 1,712]

One reason some developers may not have dropped FSX yet on steam version alone 86.000 users in the last two weeks, I don`t use it but I still have on my PC.     

[anden145 2,285]

52 minutes ago, Federico said:

It would be a shame, I personally use FSX and I’m fine with it. I hope they won’t leave it as I don’t wanna (and tbh can’t afford to) spend a bunch of money to buy v4 and all the relative addons another time.

I understand your position and I can sympathize. 

But this development is the direction it's going, and quite frankly, I applaude it! In my opinion, developers need to leave the old legacy platforms (FSX, Prepar3D 1-3) behind, in order to solely focus on Prepar3D V4 (and perhaps FlightSim World, if it gets going). It's the only way to push the boundaries and features. The faster FSX is put to it's grave, the better in my honest opinion. 

I can understand the increased cost in conjunction with moving to another platform, but as @Ephedrin correctly adressed - this move isn't exactly a new idea. Prepar3D has existed for years. If people want to stay with FSX, then be my guest. But in that case, please don't cry, jammer or complain, that new features or addons aren't available for your old platform. 

Since Prepar3D V4 is moving further and further away from the legacy platforms, developers need to set aside increased time to maintain multiple platforms. With increased support and development time, comes increased expenses and it's simply isn't feasible for many developers to maintain this contruct. This is not even taking into account the different limitations and technology restrictions, which developers need to address, if they want to have identical products specifications for each platform. Something which is becoming a thing of the past, as far as I can see, with the addtional features implemented in the upcoming 747-8. 

I think people who stick with FSX, needs to get used to, that future addons won't be released for their platform (and I'm talking in general terms here) or that these addons will suffer in terms of lacking feature support compared to their Prepar3D V4 counterpart. Mainly due to memory and technology restrictions in these legacy platforms...

[pracines 823]

Either way FSX users should most certainly stop buying add-ons for FSX, because the $ pain will only increase, unless the intention is to totally remain in FSX. For the life of me, I cannot understand new FS9 add-ons on the market but they are there. Occasionally I consider purchasing an add-on for FS9/FSX for kicks, but then I remember the dreaded OOM and the requirement of turning back sliders. I literally hate turning back sliders, not ever going to happen again or I will move to playing Tetris instead of flight simming! 

If one were still at FSX, one could get P3Dv4 and only get new native P3Dv4 add-ons. Nothing is stopping anybody from flying FS1- FSX and all the add-ons they have with them, but speaking from experience, it is so much better flying in P3Dv4 with assurance of a very realistic scene and no threat of OOM. Of course one has to have the PC power to truly enjoy close to max settings.

Once one has seen (plenty of vids out there), for example, a PMDG Airliner or an A2A GA, using so many realistic add-ons to enhance the realism, flying into highly detailed add-on airports, with very high settings, then one will be glad to rebuy add-ons as the price to pay for stability and a worry (OOM crash) free experience. 

FS9 should have been 64-bit, and then FSX default planes would have had FMC's and EFB's standard. Its very likely that ACES would be at the top of the "food chain". As far as I'm concerned even as P3Dv4 users, we are way behind what should have been. If it were not for the outcry of backwards compatibility, or the false sense of loss when one has many add-ons when a new version comes out, we would be at a much better place. We will eventually get there, but we are so behind schedule,  "serious weather (earthquake/tsunami/volcano/asteroid collision) delays".

Imagine if we look to the possibilities rather than the limits many settle themselves down to. Yea I know money bla bla;.... money never stopped flight simmers before. $4000 Pentium 2, then the next year, $4000 Pentium 3, then a year later...oh man...Pentium 4 is out, $5000!! ....  we worked hard so we could afford what we wanted. I have done this for decades and its great. To this day its the same, currently the only reason I don't have a brand new system is because I had a red alert in the back of my neck that would not allow me to buy. We later find out about some CPU speed problems. The next NVidia cards are on the horizon, and 5 GHz is getting to be a common speed (YES!!)....here goes another $5000 maybe $6000 this time, and I'm loving it....flight simulation would never had grown if it were not for this or a very similar scenario repeated in a million households 20-30 years ago.

[Patco Lch 1,465]

4 hours ago, Federico said:

It would be a shame, I personally use FSX and I’m fine with it. I hope they won’t leave it as I don’t wanna (and tbh can’t afford to) spend a bunch of money to buy v4 and all the relative addons another time.

Federico, 

I highly respect your position reference money because I was where you are up to a couple of weeks ago. Though honest introspection I had to admit I will likely spend money on this important part of my life, simming, as long as I am able so why not spend ahead instead of back trying to make FSX into what P3DV4 is and FSX will never be?  You don't have to trade your present sim in to buy P3DV4 so you can keep your FSX and all your add-ons running until you have P3D where you want it. You'll be delightfully surprised at how many add-ons will cross over just fine with no extra cost. 

It is a personal decision though and we all have to realize there are priorities in life that come before hobbies. 

Regards, 

Vic G.

[paulopp 56]

Why is it that everytime people advise to switch to P3D that I must immediately think of the legal difference between education and entertainment, and  suddenly begin to hear "The Great Pretender" by The Platters in my mind? ;-)

[Bob Marton 39]

In these years that I've flown FSX (since its release), I have invested $783 dollars on scenery, airports and aircraft. Not to mention about $3300 on upgraded computers to handle the improvements from previous versions to FSX.

I finally ordered a Jetline Systems PC, and will be moving to P3Dv4 in the coming weeks.

From a hobby perspective, having grown up with flight simulation since the SubLogic days (yes I bought their add on East and West Coast USA disks!), I have invested funds with each new advance. That is how it goes. FSX brought me great experiences, which I will long cherish. However, it also brought me stutters, blurries, CTD as a result of software / hardware limitations in a world of advancing software capabilities vis a vis P3D4 and other x64 compatible simulations

So at last I am making the transition.

A non flight sim friend commented to me that I was crazy to spend the small fortune I am about to spend on a "hobby that never changes". But he travels to Europe yearly, stays in the same hotel, eats at the same restaurants, and visits the same tourist attractions, at a cost of $10,000 a year. So, I believe I am in a better place, hobby and expense wise.

Yet, as I sit here, I realize that in 5 years time, my new PC will be obsolete, P3Dv29 will have been released, non of my add ons will work with it, and I will be making yet another investment.

 

[Patco Lch 1,465]

3 hours ago, paulopp said:

Why is it that everytime people advise to switch to P3D that I must immediately think of the legal difference between education and entertainment, and  suddenly begin to hear "The Great Pretender" by The Platters in my mind? ;-)

Aw man what a great song! The Platters were fantastic! I think I'll stream it while I'm preflighting my QOTSII for another great visually stunning OOM free flight in my P3DV4! Or should I say simulating per the EULA?

[Federico 1]

Well, I understand all these reasons, but I think I'll stay with FSX because in about two or three years I'm probably going to start my real flight training (and I say "probably" because I'm not rich and I have to find a way to earn/save a bit of money, at least to start). I think it's worth saving every cent for that instead of spending continuously in flight simulation softwares, unfortunately I'ts a REALLY expensive hobby...

All the best

 

[G-RFRY 1,712]

The user has the right to use whatever platform they choose, but the same applies to the developers to develop for the platforms they choose and for whatever reason.     

[paulopp 56]

21 hours ago, PATCO LCH said:

Aw man what a great song! The Platters were fantastic! I think I'll stream it while I'm preflighting my QOTSII for another great visually stunning OOM free flight in my P3DV4! Or should I say simulating per the EULA?

Glad you like it. The poor wretch who happens to be layman me is per law not entitled to P3D (and probably other FSX users,too), so I must enviously wait for your stream and walk on to FSW.

[Patco Lch 1,465]

11 minutes ago, paulopp said:

Glad you like it. The poor wretch who happens to be layman me is per law not entitled to P3D (and probably other FSX users,too), so I must enviously wait for your stream and walk on to FSW.

Hi Christen, 

The license on the professional version says "learning or simulating ". I learn a little something Everytime I sim and at the end of each session I find I am still at the same address I was when I started so I must be simulating.  All perfectly legal. At least they haven't come for me yet. If they do I'll be singing "Tears Of A Clown"😞