P3D v5 essentials

[benwbriscoe 7]

I'm returning to flight simming after nearly a decade away and I'm about to download P3D v5 for the very first time.

I'm more of a commercial sim pilot and I'd be really interested to know what everyone thinks are the essential add ons (scenery, aircraft, weather, enhancements etc)...

Ben

[pinepix62 63]

When I finally decided to go for V5 I did a clean install on a new separate SSD and I ran the sim clean sim out of the box. It has been the first time I saw the native scenery for a long time and I was shocked how bland the native P3D world looks like. Quickly popped over to ORBX to get a fix on the landclass textures. The other must have for me is Active Sky weather, Chaseplane for the cameras and I have a couple of good A2A GA planes to get going.

Ive been flying around in Africa with the new ORBX AfricaLC and I must say that LM did an excellent job with the vector data in the V5 release even for an area that was previously neglected in the sim. Accurate coastlines, water bodies, roads etc in V5. No need for ORBX vector or any of the other other vector add-on's I had to use in the past (thanks Aeroworx for your files that I have been using since the FSX days).

[PhotoReal Earth 93]

I would save my money for announced MSFS (FS2020).

They told us that you will be able to use your FSX addons in a legacy mode.
So if you want to invest money for future, it would be better to invest it in FSX.

But if you want to spend your money for experimentising with new visual effects then go for P3D.
P3Dv5 has still a lot of problems and LM have announced another hotfix coming next time.
So it might be better to start with P3Dv4.5 or wait some time.

Can your hardware reach the high system requirements for P3Dv4 and even higher for P3Dv5?

[CFIJose 5,485]

ORBX Global & LC + Terra Trees. 

ORBX TE Netherlands & any other TE scenery coming soon.

ORBX Regions (AU, NZ)

ORBX airports (too many to mention.)

Airports by FlyTampa, FSDT, LatinVFR, Flightbeam, + AI Traffic by AIG + GSX

Weather (ASP3D + ASCA or REX Skyforce)

Aircraft: Maddog

 

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

3 minutes ago, DJJose said:

ORBX Global & LC + Terra Trees. 

ORBX TE Netherlands & any other TE scenery coming soon.

ORBX Regions (AU, NZ)

ORBX airports (too many to mention.)

Airports by FlyTampa, FSDT, LatinVFR, Flightbeam, + AI Traffic by AIG + GSX

Weather (ASP3D + ASCA or REX Skyforce)

Aircraft: Maddog

 

This ^^, but I would also consider having a trial of XP-11 too. You might enjoy both...

[CFIJose 5,485]

Just now, Ianrivaldosmith said:

This ^^, but I would also consider having a trial of XP-11 too. You might enjoy both...

Don't confuse the OP. XP11 is a different animal. 😀

[PhotoReal Earth 93]

Oh no!

Ben, please don't waste your money for orbx landclass products.
They are so out of time!
There are a lot of very good photorealistic sceneries (payware and freeware) to enjoy until you are waiting for MSFS. Have a look in the screenshot forums!

Edit: just 2 links

 

Edited May 21, 2020 by PhotoReal Earth

[CFIJose 5,485]

1 minute ago, PhotoReal Earth said:

Oh no!

Ben, please don't waste your money for orbx landclass products.
They are so out of time!
There are a lot of very good photorealistic sceneries (payware and freeware) to enjoy until you are waiting for MSFS. Have a look in the screenshot forums!
 

Photo sceneries take up a lot of space plus they need AG, night lighting and mesh. Plus many airports are then displaced. It's a nightmare. That's why I recommended ORBX TE add-ons.

FTXG is for the entire world. At a minimum FTXG needs to be added to P3D v5. Have you seen the default textures and night lighting? LOL

I know you have!

[Chock 17,769]

Some good things you probably want to check out are:

Global (or possibly regional if you only fly on one continent) textures from Orbx.

Active Sky (or maybe an alternative) for your weather. RealTurb is also worth a look and is currently on sale at a considerable discount on the Simmarket web store. also whilst you are at it, from the same developer, RealVolmet.

A decent payware airliner. The most bang for your bucks in that regard is easily the Majestic Dash 8 Q400. But if you want a jet, then the QW B787, PMDG 737 NG, Leonardo MD 80 series, FSL A320, or one of the Aerosoft Airbus variants (not as good as the FSL one, but definitely serviceable and certainly cheaper).

If you want to go with the default ATC, MCE is your best option. Otherwise you might look at Radar Contact or something similar.

Chase Plane is good for setting up views.

GSX or Ultimate Ground Crew X adds a lot of ramp realism.

 

 

 

 

 

[PhotoReal Earth 93]

2 minutes ago, DJJose said:

Photo sceneries take up a lot of space plus they need AG, night lighting and mesh. Plus many airports are then displaced. It's a nightmare. That's why I recommended ORBX TE add-ons.

TrueEarth really takes up a lot of space. And how many regions are available?
So better to wait for MSFS and in the meantime enjoy normal photoreal sceneries

[pinepix62 63]

The OP already stated that he is going for V5. If MSFS was available I would also have given it a try but I wanted to fly now and not just watch YouTube videos of MSFS screenshots.

Edited May 21, 2020 by pinepix62

[PhotoReal Earth 93]

5 minutes ago, pinepix62 said:

The OP already stated that he is going for V5. If MSFS was available I would also have given it a try but I wanted to fly now and not just watch YouTube videos of MSFS screenshots.

So better to watch blurries and having OOM after 10 minutes because of lacking video card memory?

Edit: https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/575497-p3dv5-running-out-of-vram-all-the-time/

 

Edited May 21, 2020 by PhotoReal Earth

[CFIJose 5,485]

This thread is a good example of what's happening to our sim community. Too much bickering back and forth. Ben wants suggestions not confrontations.

[PhotoReal Earth 93]

6 minutes ago, DJJose said:

This thread is a good example of what's happening to our sim community. Too much bickering back and forth. Ben wants suggestions not confrontations.

That's exactly why I would recommend for Ben to read this link first to make a good decision:

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/575154-lets-be-more-critical-of-p3d/

[paulh1 0]

Hi Ben

 

I fly PMDG 747-400 I will upgrade to the 8 at some stage. However you can't go past PMDG. I have been testing Microsoft 2020 alpha ver. The 747 in there has no comparison

to PMDG aircraft. Half of the functions don't work, it is more eye candy than functional. What I am saying is if they put PMDG into 2020 it would be perfect.

Next addon is Active sky for weather. It gives briefing detail, and flight time as well as weather info.

Next is Chase plane for onboard camera set up, yoke or controller functionality.

Next is GSX 2 for activating jetways, boarding and cargo handling realism.

The biggy is navigraph charts, data manager and sim link  (must have)

I use PFPX and topcat for flight planning and thrust derates. However the new 8 uses the flightbag to get this info

UTLive (ultimate Traffic Live) I use for populating gates and airspace with other aircraft.

I also use WAMA (where are my aircraft) For assigning gates so when you arrive a gate, it has not been taken.

Many of my gates have been modified to take a 747 with 2 jetways. So I need to have that specific gate free for arrival,

WAMA will reserve them for me.

And for ATC you can use PRO-ATC\X this is not everyones cup of tea, its not 100% real, but ok

I have managed to run all this seamlessly, and get a fairly realistic overall effect.

Hope this helps 

Paul