For people having P3D problems - few suggestions...

[Skywolf 992]

Hi,

Lately, I have been seeing tons of threads where people are having trouble with P3dv4.3.

Sadly, almost all flightsim software is designed assuming all users are engineers, b/c UI design is out of the window (except from the major players)....it is the way it is.  Keep bugging the developer to adopt better UI design.  Some developers should take classes in UI design at Udemy for $9 bucks.  Anyway back to topic.

 

1) Do not MIX FSX only addons inside P3D4.3 now. 

I know in the past almost all of us got away with P3Dv3 but now we are in 64bit environment.  And 4.3 marks a very distinctive split in different direction from FSX way of doing things.  It is a 100% different sim.  Please for the sake of your time and sanity.  Do not MIX FSX only or half baked fsx ported p3d products and outdated addons in your sim.

2) Use Windows 10 and keep it fully patched up

I use Windows 10 Pro, it is time to let go of Windows 7 (yes, it will work) but these days SSD is must have (P3d will load slow without a SSD), and Windows 7 does not do SSD trim options by default (you have to enable) it.  New software needs Windows 10.  It is way of the industry.  If the windows 10 start bar is annoying.  Get Classic shell (and in installation only use start menu), and there are other paid options too.  I love Classic Shell start menu and works 100% flawlessly for now.

3) Have a clean system without FSX. 

It is time to get rid of it from your P3Dv4 system.  I would suggest install FSX in a different windows boot drive that way if you want you can still fly your PMDG MD-11 on it.  I have 2 systems on my computer.  One for FSX and P3Dv4.3.  I will be honest, I do not ever see myself using FSX anymore.  I hate VAS issues, and we all hate VAS issues (my mind goes in full profanity mode when I see VAS issues).  Past is past.  Let it go, don't get attached to the past.  If you have one drive.  Wipe it clean, and cleanly install p3dv4.3 - and make it install outside the Program Files(x86) Directory and install your addons carefully.  Almost all addons by the big developers work flawlessly.

4) Focus on Prepar3d 4 products only

Install products where the developer is active and testing products in 64bit Sim environment.  I do not like developers abandoning projects without succession plan in place.  Again, FSX is different market and P3D is a different market.  Do not confuse the two.

5) The debugging steps mentioned in Avsim P3D Tips Section and LM's forum site are fantastic steps.

Understand these steps.  For 99% of the time, it is the addon which is causing the problems not the sim itself.

6) Know your expectations

Do not overlook this.  Some developers are crappy (this is a small number) and Majority are great.  Do your research.  If you see users reporting problems with the addon, wait before buying it and if the bugs are not fixed - then skip the addon.  Money speaks.  Half baked or unresponsive developers will not get my support/money period.  

7) Don't overtweak too much

First run the system with the suggested settings by the developers before you go all crazy with tweaking.  I will admit over the years, I spent time tweaking this and that, and yes I got good results.  But for me to whack my prepar3d installation was the norm (I really should be on LM's beta team, especially the amount I know on how this sim operates - Rob/Poppet wanna recommend me 🙂 ).  Now, I am really trying to spend time on flying and not worrying about so much tweaking.  P3d4.3 graphics are awesome, flying pmdg birds over FTX regions is awesome and be glad we all have 64bit.  No more VAS hell.

8 ) Be careful what you download off the net.

This will be controversial paragraph.  Do not install any third party addon freely found on the net, especially if it requires admin privileges.  It is known fact that majority of us run our sim in Admin mode, b/c scenery.cfg etc get accessed in ProgramData directory etc.  Even PMDG and other developers recommend to run in admin mode.  If everything is okay in the system.  You will not have any problems.  But if you install/run all sorts of exectuables/shaders in your system (hint: unauthorized/illegal) - the damage is yours.  Crying on avsim about it will not help.  Infact it will get your banned at times.  And your system integrity will 100% go down the toilet.

 

As Prepar3d moves forward, it will keep on diverging from FSX.  At this point, it is a very different sim.  It just appears by the looks only the file structure it is similar to FSX, but it is not.  All flight save files are now XML for example.  Things are changing and moving forward.  

 

So grateful that right now we are witnessing the second or third Renaissance of Flightsim.  Let go of the past old habits.

 

Enjoy your weekend.

 

Skywolf

 

PS - All of this is my opinion as written above.  You may not agree.  That is fine.

 

 

 

Edited July 8, 2018 by Skywolf

[FrankSalo 272]

I've personally been trying to follow point 1. If it's an add-on airport that I absolutely can't live without that won't likely be updated (like some freeware) I pass its bgls and textures through Model Converter X and ADE and truthfully they perform much better than when I just added them as is. I've made this my default habit.

Edited July 8, 2018 by FrankSalo

[harrry 322]

A case of blaming the user.

I have good reason to want to continue using FSX although my  main sim is P3D.  There should be no interference between newer programs and old.  P3D is newer than FSX. If there is it is a programming problem not a user one.

[Bob Scott 7,720]

Thanks for the effort, but I have to take serious issue with a number of the suggestions here:

1.  Do not MIX FSX only addons inside P3D4.3 now  Although it's generally preferable to have (in order) a P3Dv4-native scenery designed with v4 ground polys, materials and lighting, or a P3D v3-native scenery, many sceneries designed for previous versions of P3D and/or FSX do work acceptably in P3Dv4.  And many do not.  If you don't know what you're doing, maybe it's best to leave FSX-sceneries alone, but many folks, me included, use a wide range of older FSX sceneries to good effect in P3Dv4.  The most likely issues to be found are lighting, and performance issues with some scenery elements, but in many cases they present minor to nonexistent effects on the sim.  But a carte-blanche "get rid of all of your FSX scenery" recommendation will take a lot of good destinations off the table.  Also, many add-ons designed to interface with FSUIPC work with P3Dv4 just as well as they did with FSX, as the interconnect protocol is virtually the same. 

2) Use Windows 10 and keep it fully patched up.  Sorry, but your suggestion that Win 7 is somehow unsuitable and ready for the dustbin is patently untrue.  Native SSD trim support is indeed included in Win 7, and frankly, if your hardware will support it, I would still recommend Win 7 over Win 10, as it does not have the automatic update features that have broken my Win 10 based sim platform multiple times in the last 18 months.  The ONLY reason you would be compelled to move to Win 10, IMHO, is new hardware (generally the newer CPU and motherboard chipsets) that is not supported in Win 7.  Win 10 has been a nightmare for me, and I am not alone.  If you have P3D running on Win 7 and it's working, there is virtually nothing to be gained in terms of sim performance or reliability by moving (note I avoid the term "upgrading") to Win 10.

3) Have a clean system without FSX.  Sorry, but I fail to understand how this is even relevant to a stable P3D system.  Many folks still use add-ons that are not available for P3D (e.g. PMDG MD-11 and Jetstream 4100), and having a concurrent install of FSX to run some old favorites that aren't (and perhaps never will be) available in P3D is not a detriment to a stable P3Dv4 system.

4) Focus on Prepar3d 4 products only.  Going back to #1, many add-ons designed originally for earlier versions of P3D and FSX do work well in P3Dv4.  If a v4-specific version is available, in most cases it will work better...but in some cases I can't discern any operational difference between a v4-specific version and its predecessor(s)...and in a fair number of cases, the only difference in the new v4 version is a new v4-ready installer that installs the exact same software elements.

Regards

 

[fghdgdfdfgfgf 111]

Oh, I could make a strong case that anyone with Win10 should uninstall p3d V4.3,  go to your favorite hardware store and pick up a new 250 GB EVO and a copy of an oem Win7 Pro license. Install Win7 on the new 250GB drive then reinstall P3D V4.3 on you're existing slave drive .....that is if you're half as serious about P3d as I am.  There's not a damn thing that WIN10 can do better than Win7 Pro with regards to P3D  ...well ...except maybe automatically updating your system to the latest my chit doesn't work since the autumn update -rofl

Oh, and the new drive will give you all the tools you need to make your new drive works just as fast as anything on Win10. 

C'MON MAN!

[Skywolf 992]

2 minutes ago, w6kd said:

Thanks for the effort, but I have to take serious issue with a number of the suggestions here:

1.  Do not MIX FSX only addons inside P3D4.3 now  Although it's generally preferable to have (in order) a P3Dv4-native scenery designed with v4 ground polys, materials and lighting, or a P3D v3-native scenery, many sceneries designed for previous versions of P3D and/or FSX do work acceptably in P3Dv4.  And many do not.  If you don't know what you're doing, maybe it's best to leave FSX-sceneries alone, but many folks, me included, use a wide range of older FSX sceneries to good effect in P3Dv4.  The most likely issues to be found are lighting, and performance issues with some scenery elements, but in many cases they present minor to nonexistent effects on the sim.  But a carte-blanche "get rid of all of your FSX scenery" recommendation will take a lot of good destinations off the table.  Also, many add-ons designed to interface with FSUIPC work with P3Dv4 just as well as they did with FSX, as the interconnect protocol is virtually the same. 

2) Use Windows 10 and keep it fully patched up.  Sorry, but your suggestion that Win 7 is somehow unsuitable and ready for the dustbin is patently untrue.  Native SSD trim support is indeed included in Win 7, and frankly, if your hardware will support it, I would still recommend Win 7 over Win 10, as it does not have the automatic update features that have broken my Win 10 based sim platform multiple times in the last 18 months.  The ONLY reason you would be complelled to move to Win 10, IMHO, is new hardware (generally the newer CPU and motherboard chipsets) that is not supported in Win 7.  Win 10 has been a nightmare for me, and I am not alone.  If you have P3D running on Win 7 and it's working, there is virtually nothing to be gained in terms of sim performance or reliability but moving (note I avoind the term "upgrading") to Win 10.

3) Have a clean system without FSX.  Sorery,but I fail to understand how this is even relevant to a stable P3D system.  Many folks still use add-ons that are not available for P3D (e.g. PMDG MD-11 and Jetstream 4100), and having a concurrent install of FSX to run some old favorites that aren't (and perhaps never will be) available in P3D is not a detriment to a stable P3Dv4 system.

4) Focus on Prepar3d 4 products only.  Going back to #1, many add-ons designed originally for earlier versions of P3D and FSX do work well in P3Dv4.  If a v4-specific version is available, in most cases it will work better...but in some cases I can't discern any operational difference between a v4-specific version and its predecessor(s)...and in a fair number of cases, the only difference in the new v4 version is a new v4-ready installer that installs the exact same software elements.

Regards

 

Well said points.  And everything you pointed is 100% correct.

I should have made one point clear that my original post is aimed at users who are not computer savy in technicals and new to flightsim.  Experienced users know how to tackle the system issues.

But to run p3d newer hardware is the way to go eventually.  I have VR and there is no way I will be able to run VR effectively in Windows 7 environment.  For many users Windows 7 works flawlessly.  But with the new cpus coming in the market, Windows 7 will not run on it (this is by Intel design).

 

 

[Skywolf 992]

Again guys, i am not asking to follow on what I am saying.  I was just stating my opinion 😉  We all will have different opinions and that is awesome.

One of my friend is a ATC controller and wants to get a system for flightsim, he is not going to Windows 7, nor he is going to find an effective way to get the license.  His options are strictly down to Windows 10 at the moment.

[lownslo 592]

18 minutes ago, w6kd said:

Thanks for the effort, but I have to take serious issue with a number of the suggestions here:

What Bob said...

Greg

Edited July 8, 2018 by lownslo
Got names mixed

[shivers9 1,174]

I run Windows 10 and yes it sucks big time. I do own copies of Windows 7 but I stay with 10 for some of the things that Skywolf said are good points. Yes I know that Windows 7 is or at the very least was a better operating system for P3d. One of my top reasons for going with Prepar3d was that I was sick and tired of years of chasing around the forums trying every hack (read that as tweak if you wish) in order to get FSX to work. I just plain got feed up with that approach. 

I have done my best to get rid of every thing on my Flight Sim computer that is not made for or tested with Win 10 and Prepar3d V4+. Now, I will be the first to say that I miss some of the add on's but I do not miss all the hacking them in. The things I do have now seem to work pretty good and I spend a lot more time "flying" than ever before. Folks like Bob Scott and many others who are experts would no doubt have a problem understanding that decision. For me, "Less is more" approach has increased my enjoyment of the hobby. Also along those lines, I don't clog up my system with junk ATC programs, and Tomato, Banana boo or Happy Hooker shaders. All that stuff is great if you like messing with it but I can live with the stars and sunsets that I have. Having said that, I am not against progress or new things that work. I have been through all the ATC stuff and IMHO it all ends up pretty much in the same place. It turns your Flight Sim into a Flight Plan Sim. I am a GA guy for much the same reason. It just takes way too much overhead to maintain and run a Flight Sim, A Flight Plan Sim, A ground equipment Sim, A Weather Sim, An Airline Passenger Sim and on and on. LOL! I would pull my hair out I am sure.

The bottom line is, Like it or not, the time is coming when we are all going to be stuck with Windows 10. For the guys who like to make windows 7 continue to work then great. That's a part of the hobby also. For many others Skywolf's opinions are valid again IMHO. 

[pracines 823]

...next we'll hear FS9 is better than FSX...🤯

[monica6211 175]

9 minutes ago, pracines said:

...next we'll hear FS9 is better than FSX...🤯

of course, FS9 is way better than FSX, and even better than P3D(all versions). I get no OOMs, very smooth frame rates, and it doesn't take up as much hard drive space.......what can be better than that? (except maybe FS4)

[kurtb 121]

enjoy it

[mtrainer 136]

Good 'ol FS9, gotta admit that on modern hardware, or just about any computer made within the past 10 years, the frame rates make for a butter smooth experience.  

I've kinda come around to Sam's (Shrivers9) approach about a year ago when I had to reinstall everything - I too was fed up with fiddling with things and said to myself that this year was going to be the year I spent flying and not dorking around.  I have Prepar3d V4.3 add-ons, but they are all the big-brand stuff that's been out there for a while and compatible with 4.3.

Using Windows 10 Pro- but not a big fan of it (never seen a company literally dumb down a user interface so horribly).  The creators update initially wrecked my system, bad!  Had to reinstall the OS to get control again.

Mark

 

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

5 hours ago, w6kd said:

Thanks for the effort, but I have to take serious issue with a number of the suggestions here:

1.  Do not MIX FSX only addons inside P3D4.3 now  Although it's generally preferable to have (in order) a P3Dv4-native scenery designed with v4 ground polys, materials and lighting, or a P3D v3-native scenery, many sceneries designed for previous versions of P3D and/or FSX do work acceptably in P3Dv4.  And many do not.  If you don't know what you're doing, maybe it's best to leave FSX-sceneries alone, but many folks, me included, use a wide range of older FSX sceneries to good effect in P3Dv4.  The most likely issues to be found are lighting, and performance issues with some scenery elements, but in many cases they present minor to nonexistent effects on the sim.  But a carte-blanche "get rid of all of your FSX scenery" recommendation will take a lot of good destinations off the table.  Also, many add-ons designed to interface with FSUIPC work with P3Dv4 just as well as they did with FSX, as the interconnect protocol is virtually the same. 

2) Use Windows 10 and keep it fully patched up.  Sorry, but your suggestion that Win 7 is somehow unsuitable and ready for the dustbin is patently untrue.  Native SSD trim support is indeed included in Win 7, and frankly, if your hardware will support it, I would still recommend Win 7 over Win 10, as it does not have the automatic update features that have broken my Win 10 based sim platform multiple times in the last 18 months.  The ONLY reason you would be compelled to move to Win 10, IMHO, is new hardware (generally the newer CPU and motherboard chipsets) that is not supported in Win 7.  Win 10 has been a nightmare for me, and I am not alone.  If you have P3D running on Win 7 and it's working, there is virtually nothing to be gained in terms of sim performance or reliability by moving (note I avoid the term "upgrading") to Win 10.

3) Have a clean system without FSX.  Sorry, but I fail to understand how this is even relevant to a stable P3D system.  Many folks still use add-ons that are not available for P3D (e.g. PMDG MD-11 and Jetstream 4100), and having a concurrent install of FSX to run some old favorites that aren't (and perhaps never will be) available in P3D is not a detriment to a stable P3Dv4 system.

4) Focus on Prepar3d 4 products only.  Going back to #1, many add-ons designed originally for earlier versions of P3D and FSX do work well in P3Dv4.  If a v4-specific version is available, in most cases it will work better...but in some cases I can't discern any operational difference between a v4-specific version and its predecessor(s)...and in a fair number of cases, the only difference in the new v4 version is a new v4-ready installer that installs the exact same software elements.

Regards

 

I couldn't possibly agree more!

Performing FSX/P3D tech support professionally for some time, I took exception to the initial post as well.

 

[shivers9 1,174]

47 minutes ago, DaveCT2003 said:

I couldn't possibly agree more!

Performing FSX/P3D tech support professionally for some time, I took exception to the initial post as well.

Perhalps the OP should have given a bit more context from the begining but I don't see a reason to take exception. There are examples of many bits of software that work fine with both FSX and P3d as well as Windows 10 and Windows 7. There are others that just don't work out that way. There are lots of folks with Flight Sim experience or IT experience that can sort out any conflicts that come up just fine. There are also many Simmers that don't know the difference in a mouse and a hard drive. I think that is more his target for his comments.