Ok, i know that a lot has been said about upgrading, yet i still am not sure whether i can/should upgrade. 

I have an ageing PC (i7 [email protected] 16gb gtx970 ssd disks, win7), but reasonable FPS (avg 30), GA only flying, loads of ORBX sceneries, i prefer bush (rural) over city (urban) flying, most options on high

AS for p3d4
envdir
navstax
gsx
trackir 5
chaseplane
most of the ORBX sceneries & airports
most of europe, oceania, NA covered with payware sceneries/airports

 

Why i am even considering upgrade when despite poor equipment i have a reasonable performance?

Well, milwiz PC-6 porter requires 4.5 and LM will only supports 4.5 and after all, new should be better than old

Should i upgrade client only or can i also upgrade content/sceneries?

- will i have to reinstall my addons?
- will i have to reinstall my sceneries/airports?
 

Big thank you for helping me (decide what to do).

Opps  - reread the OP's post, and I'dd made the assumption of FSX was in use because no mention of an actual P3D version.

And now... assuming a version of P3D v4.

Generally P3D minor updates come with a fps cost e.g. 4.4 to .4.5 HF1 is on average a few frames less (around 7% less) and same for earlier releases. LM should concentrate in gettting fps up foir their next release to make up for those lost in previous releases.

That said in 4.5.12 many things are resolved and the small trade off is well worth it for the additional improvements, in fact with some tight tuning I can typically increase my scenery draw distance a notch more than with earlier versions.

Generally you can install just the client and enjoy the new functionality, however some things (like PBR) would require everything updated, which in turn would mean some third party items would need to be re-installed and verified (like Orbx) where they install into the main P3D folders and overwrite default items.

Plus in any case there would be third party bits and pieces needing update as they can be can be quite P3D version specific, like Active Sky and the GTN GPS units.

Perhaps others could chime in with their experiences with similar hardware?

Cheers

Edited August 10, 20196 yr by Rogen
missread

You can upgrade from FSX to P3D but your add-ons may not be compatible and you would have to reinstall them for P3Dv4 as you are going from a 32-bit application to a 64-bit application.  I have both FSX (boxed) and P3Dv4 installed.

1 hour ago, AndrejS said:

Ok, i know that a lot has been said about upgrading, yet i still am not sure whether i can/should upgrade. 

I have an ageing PC (i7 [email protected] 16gb gtx970 ssd disks, win7), but reasonable FPS (avg 30), GA only flying, loads of ORBX sceneries, i prefer bush (rural) over city (urban) flying, most options on high

AS for p3d4
envdir
navstax
gsx
trackir 5
chaseplane
most of the ORBX sceneries & airports
most of europe, oceania, NA covered with payware sceneries/airports

 

Why i am even considering upgrade when despite poor equipment i have a reasonable performance?

Well, milwiz PC-6 porter requires 4.5 and LM will only supports 4.5 and after all, new should be better than old

Should i upgrade client only or can i also upgrade content/sceneries?

- will i have to reinstall my addons?
- will i have to reinstall my sceneries/airports?
 

Big thank you for helping me (decide what to do).

It's always better to update to the latest version available to be properly supported and to get advantage of the improvements on the sim. I suppose you're already using P3Dv4 (most probably v4.4), so I recommend to do the update to v4.5 HF#1. I don't think you'll be loosing any FPS for doing that, in fact I have not experienced any FPS loss during any of my previous upgrades (and if that happens to you, you could always play a bit with the sliders). Also, remember that you don't have to do a fresh install, considering that you'll only need to update the Client component (if you're already using P3Dv4.4, but if you're using a previous P3Dv4.x version, you should also consider updating the Content component, as they were important improvements at one point to allow for the use of PBR textures).

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Ed

Yea, first sorry for not being clear about what sim i am using, it's p3d v4.3.29.25520. So, according to Ed, i have to install both client and content and since all counties that i fly are (or will  be when Orbx launches their Africa & Asia packages) covered with bought scenery packages, there's no need to update the scenery package. And i hope i won't have to reinstall all of my Orbx and European packages since it will take a day or two to reinstall them all. 

If i update both client and content and the new version drops in fps too much, can i safely go back to previous version (still on my disk somewhere)? Uninstall the new and reinstall the old version?

PS : Will update my signature so you won't have to guess about my sim and hw. 

1 hour ago, AndrejS said:

Yea, first sorry for not being clear about what sim i am using, it's p3d v4.3.29.25520. So, according to Ed, i have to install both client and content and since all counties that i fly are (or will  be when Orbx launches their Africa & Asia packages) covered with bought scenery packages, there's no need to update the scenery package. And i hope i won't have to reinstall all of my Orbx and European packages since it will take a day or two to reinstall them all. 

If i update both client and content and the new version drops in fps too much, can i safely go back to previous version (still on my disk somewhere)? Uninstall the new and reinstall the old version?

PS : Will update my signature so you won't have to guess about my sim and hw. 

Yes, I would do that if I were you. P3Dv4.4+ offers too many advantages to previous versions with the introduction of PBR textures, and enjoy many add-ons that are already adopting them. I've never updated the Scenery components in between versions, mainly because like you, I have a lot of scenery add-ons and don't really mind about default scenery.

Don't be afraid about losing FPS, you won't notice any change. It's always possible to revert to old P3Dv4.x versions by simply uninstalling Client (and Content in case you did it too) and installing them again with the new version you want to use. For that you should have the necessary files in your backups, as LM only keeps in their site the more recent versions.

Good luck. Cheers, Ed

 

4 minutes ago, edpatino said:

Yes, I would do that if I were you. P3Dv4.4+ offers too many advantages to previous versions with the introduction of PBR textures, and enjoy many add-ons that are already adopting them. I've never updated the Scenery components in between versions, mainly because like you, I have a lot of scenery add-ons and don't really mind about default scenery.

Don't be afraid about losing FPS, you won't notice any change. It's always possible to revert to old P3Dv4.x versions by simply uninstalling Client (and Content in case you did it too) and installing them again with the new version you want to use. For that you should have the necessary files in your backups, as LM only keeps in their site the more recent versions.

Good luck. Cheers, Ed

 

Ok, here i goooo ..... ???  ooops, where am i  ......  oh, there's light far ahead ..... ok, i'm safe now .... here i am, back again, safe & sound (hopefully )

Edited August 10, 20196 yr by AndrejS

Go ahead and jump in. That way you'll get practice.

Looking at your specs, consider at some point upgrading your video card to maybe a 1080Ti or one of the newest series GTX 2070 or 2080. Seems to me that you could have a bottleneck with the GTX 970. These sims (like P3D and XP) are very demanding in terms of hardware.

Cheers, Ed

 

I know, but there are other things to spend money on and flying isn't top priority although when looking at my pack of sceneries, planes and airports it's worth a good computer (little short of 3000€). It feels great, started in KSEZ and i might be for a ORBX reinstall, no FPS drops but that might be connected to ORBX andf lack of it's autogen. 

GFX won't help, it's the i7 that's on the edge. New proc + gfx = 1500€ 

1 hour ago, AndrejS said:

I know, but there are other things to spend money on and flying isn't top priority although when looking at my pack of sceneries, planes and airports it's worth a good computer (little short of 3000€). It feels great, started in KSEZ and i might be for a ORBX reinstall, no FPS drops but that might be connected to ORBX andf lack of it's autogen. 

GFX won't help, it's the i7 that's on the edge. New proc + gfx = 1500€ 

If you already updated the Content, for ORBX is just required to open ORBX central (before it was the case with FTX Central), change regions back and forth, and the autogen will be regenerated automatically for you.

Cheers, Ed

Edited August 10, 20196 yr by edpatino

I'll google what "back and forth" really means, but if it's no reinstall, i'll be more than happy. Off to Orbx site. 

24 minutes ago, AndrejS said:

I'll google what "back and forth" really means, but if it's no reinstall, i'll be more than happy. Off to Orbx site. 

Don't need to reinstall. If you have several regions, switch to a region of your choice and then switch back to any other region. That will do it and you'll have your ORBX autogen rebuilt. That's my meaning of "back and forth" 🤣

Cheers, Ed

Oh well, tested on KSBA  and KEGE : verified files, uninstalled and reinstalled the airport, verified Buildings HD, verified NA Southern California and still urban areas are left with flat photoreal layer only. Airports are ok. Tested on some other European airports and it's the same, no autogen. 

Hopefully, ORBX support will have a solution to the problem. 

After verifying BASE, Vector, OpenLCNA, Trees and Libraries problems with missing autogen are gone (tested in NA and Europe). I guess not every verification from that list is necessary, but i wanted to be sure and verified them all. 

Enyoing it 100% with no FPS drop so far.