Prepar3D version 5 announced

[B777ER 2,486]

6 hours ago, bonchie said:

The lighting is still just horrendous. Looks exactly like FSX. The performance may be better, but it's still woefully behind visually. 

This may be a good stop gap for people who have v4 FPS issues though. 

trueSky looks like FSX? Can we stop with the over the top, I will defend MSFS at all costs, even if I make zero sense type of posts??

[David Mills 4,763]

Those of you saying that V5 doubles the frame rate of V4 are comparing a bare-bones V5 with a V4 larded down with clunky add-ons. Once V5 is larded down with clunky add-ons, you'll be very lucky to get the FPS you're currently getting from V4. Bare-bones, I get about 90 FPS with V4. With all my add-ons, I get about 45. So you need to compare clunkers to clunkers. I'm MSFS2020 all the way now!

[snglecoil 1,828]

I saw a little bit of a live stream of V5 today. It is definitely evolutionary. Some parts looked great. Performance was really good, but it was 100% stock. No huge improvement of terrain or autogen that I could tell.

They showed Courchevel airport. The runway follows the terrain, but unfortunately the autogen didn’t. They floated awkwardly off the ground like always. I’m assuming that all the ORBX stuff is still going to work. Real-time weather will still require a 3rd party. Once add-on compatibility is determined, I may pick it up for TruSky alone. In the absence of MSFS this would be a solid step forward I believe. Good base sim, but completely reliant on 3rd party for a lot of features. The promise of MSFS is still much more interesting at this point. 

[Tuskin38 6,499]

16 minutes ago, snglecoil said:

I saw a little bit of a live stream of V5 today. It is definitely evolutionary. Some parts looked great. Performance was really good, but it was 100% stock. No huge improvement of terrain or autogen that I could tell.

They showed Courchevel airport. The runway follows the terrain, but unfortunately the autogen didn’t. They floated awkwardly off the ground like always. I’m assuming that all the ORBX stuff is still going to work. Real-time weather will still require a 3rd party. Once add-on compatibility is determined, I may pick it up for TruSky alone. In the absence of MSFS this would be a solid step forward I believe. Good base sim, but completely reliant on 3rd party for a lot of features. The promise of MSFS is still much more interesting at this point. 

You got a link to that stream?

[Noodle 626]

1 hour ago, B777ER said:

trueSky looks like FSX? Can we stop with the over the top, I will defend MSFS at all costs, even if I make zero sense type of posts??

TrueSky in P3D5 doesn't look as good as it did in FSW, and nowhere near as good as MSFS default clouds do, in my opinion.

Despite some bolt-on improvements, P3DV5 looks remarkably similar to FSX, again, in my opinion.

[Lenny777 299]

Too little too late I'm afraid. Bye  bye P3D and whatever incarnations will/have been hobbled together these last few years. It served its purpose but now looks like a scramble job because the big boys are back in town. When 3rd party developers start leaving the support behind it will be another vestige of flight simming in the past. 

[snglecoil 1,828]

1 hour ago, Tuskin38 said:

You got a link to that stream?

Matt Davies on Twitch. But it looks like the replay is only available to subscribers which I am not. 

[Tuskin38 6,499]

12 minutes ago, snglecoil said:

Matt Davies on Twitch. But it looks like the replay is only available to subscribers which I am not. 

Sad.

Thanks.

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

This would have been quite impressive one year ago, now not so much. If it manages to retain good backwards compatibility, then it will have its uses for quite some time.

Still though, we are not their target market, so no need to feel sorry for them. They won't be missing much if we abandon Prepar3D.

[LHookins 3,103]

26 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

They won't be missing much if we abandon Prepar3D.

I somehow doubt Prepar3D will be abandoned any more than XPlane will.

Lots of people will move from P3D, I'm sure.  Lots may stay.

Hook

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

38 minutes ago, LHookins said:

I somehow doubt Prepar3D will be abandoned any more than XPlane will.

Lots of people will move from P3D, I'm sure.  Lots may stay.

I'll be surprised if this is how it goes, as X-Plane has many die-hard fans that refuse to look at anything else, while Microsoft Flight Simulator is the overhaul to the familiar engine that everyone was looking for in Prepar3D. Now that I've caught up with the thread and the information, since it seems that backwards compatibility will still be in good standing and that many add-on developers will offer free upgrades, I have the feeling that v5 will do well until Microsoft Flight Simulator is mature enough with plenty of add-ons, but v6 and on will be mostly overlooked by the simmers.

[bonchie 2,305]

12 hours ago, B777ER said:

trueSky looks like FSX? Can we stop with the over the top, I will defend MSFS at all costs, even if I make zero sense type of posts??

I don’t care what the fuzzy clouds look like. 95% of that video looks like FSX.

And yes, FSW with its new clouds still looked almost exactly like FSX.

I used to defend P3D to the death but I’m done. I’m done being strung along by claims of massive backend changes that change little about the actual gameplay or graphics. I’m done paying to “upgrade” every year for what are small incremental changes at best. I was willing to give P3Dv5 a chance but this release is worst case for me. They did nothing revolutionary at all. Not even a little bit.
 

If MSFS is all a big scam, then I just won’t sim anymore. But I’m done with P3D, spending crazy amounts on addons that should already be default by in 2020, and still having a sim that looks, feels, and operates like its from 2006.

Edited April 9, 2020 by bonchie

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

42 minutes ago, bonchie said:

I used to defend P3D to the death but I’m done. I’m done being strung along by claims of massive backend changes that change little about the actual gameplay or graphics. I’m done paying to “upgrade” every year for what are small incremental changes at best. I was willing to give P3Dv5 a chance but this release is worst case for me. They did nothing revolutionary at all. Not even a little bit.

While I wouldn't say the visual improvements over Flight Simulator X are minimal, I can agree with this part. I still hold to my opinion that v2 did not deliver on the hype and certain promises by Lockheed Martin, and that v3 was a joke at full price. v4 and v5 would have been great if they were released earlier. Only reason the v5 trailer looks dated is because Microsoft Flight Simulator happened at E3 2019. It shows off stuff like the volumetric clouds in a time lapse, improved lighting and sloped runways that the E3 trailer did better, almost one year ago.

By the way, it's disappointing to see that they're still sticking with this dark and desaturated look during daytime, even Flight Simulator X did better in that regard. The bright and vibrant sunlight of Microsoft Flight Simulator is a breath of fresh air. Also there is no word on support for deferred rendering, which means subpar performance when lots of dynamic lights are used once again.

Edited April 9, 2020 by ChaoticBeauty

[CFIJose 5,485]

11 hours ago, snglecoil said:

Matt Davies on Twitch. But it looks like the replay is only available to subscribers which I am not. 

Good to know that this guy is still around.

[skully 1,045]

I agree, all they had to do was add sunshine. 

It still has that dark lighting like your wearing sunglasses all of the time.