MSFS 2020 or P3D v5

[spilok 1,136]

Thank you, OP, for that enlightening comparison.  I use P3d v4.5 and v5 AND MSFS.  I don't have Xplane or Aerofly.  I was amazed at the comparison/contrasting videos.  What are my impressions?

• I think Xplane looks quite good. I am surprised.  Over the years I tried Xplane demos and even bought it once.  I just couldn't get it to work well for me.  I was too impatient to try to learn it as well.  I feel the same way today.
• I was surprised at Aerofly.  Not bad.  Much better than I would have thought.  I had Aerofly when it first came out.  It was too static for me with limited scenery (Switzerland, I think), so I got bored with it.  It has come a long way.
• P3d looked so "cartoonish" to me (compared to the others).  I still use it every day for IFR flights and as some have said here...some of the most sophisticated simulations deal with the flying dynamics, not the scenery. I agree. I only wish I didn't spend $200 upgrading to V5.  The previous version works much better for me, and I still have tons of performance issues with V5.  I love P3d most because I can use my Microsoft FF2 joystick.  Without that feedback, all other sims feel kind of dead to me.  I've always had the FF2 since it came out, and with Russell Dirk's FSforce, it works flawlessly.  Russell is working on providing it to MSFS......soon!
• MSFS was the clear winner for me because of its wonderful realistic scenery for VFR flying.  Soon it will have other planes and FFeedback, and I will be in Heaven.  MSFS is the future and it will just get better and better...EVERY MONTH.  Think about it.

Overall, we are all very fortunate to have these sims available to us.  Since the pandemic, I'm simming more and more, and I keep looking to the future for some fantastic developments in our hobby.

Edited September 14, 2020 by spilok

[Noel 4,503]

I've spent far more time lately in MSFS than in P3D 4.5, though I enjoyed the old girl this morning w/ a nice PMDG 777 flight from CYYC to KSAN, and it was great.  So I'm flying P3D 4.5 between larger terminals, and then flying MSFS to regional airports, so a fabulous sequence of how to use these two wonders.   I'm only missing FSCaptain, but the devs there are working on it and have an alpha running themselves only already.  I would NEVER fly P3D w/o FSCaptain.  But...MSFS, is another story.  I don't mind flying it w/o the incentive of FSC to add meaning.  Flying thru reality, or much much closer to reality, is that meaning.

This being said, what I've discovered in flying in MSFS, mostly the TBM930 and KingAir, is that there is more to 'eye candy' than simply nice looking visuals.  It's meaningful to fly thru what's actually there, versus landclass based artwork that we have in ORBX regionals.  MSFS cranks out an incredible amount of detail and w/ excellent performance--I just need a better GPU to get the most out of it.  I'm on the notification list for RTX 3090 FE and will pick one up at the first opportunity.  I am glad I did not move to P3D v5.x w/ the heinous laborious requirement to get all of that software installed yet one more time, and configured perfectly.  No thanks, just not worth it.  

[ThrottleUp 617]

On 9/3/2020 at 6:01 PM, RobJC said:

I think both P3D and XP11 have their place TODAY, but the writing is on the wall. The tech used in MSFS is going to be very hard to equal let alone surpass. 

I dont know anything about P3D but I am a long-time Xplane user and I highly doubt the "writing is on the wall" for it. XPlane has been around since 1995 and granted they will always always be in the shadow of Microsoft but they will not vanish. Its an extremely passionate program for Austin and his team at Laminar and will continue to be this way. 

I am a multi-sim user as I dont believe in all that "Bye xplane11!", "See ya FSX it was good!" , all of them have their strengths and weaknesses. 

I plan to get  MSFS in the next 6-9 months, will use it for sight-seeing and keep XP11 as my primary airliner (Zibo) sim. 

[bean_sprout 1,201]

Another big factor is the P3D pricing.  Way too steep for a retired simmer IMO.

Cheers

bs

 

[IanHarrison 522]

Has anyone got the answer to how much data MSFS uses for a flight, say 2 hours duration?

All that live scenery must come at a cost.

[FilbertFlies 980]

5 hours ago, Noel said:

This being said, what I've discovered in flying in MSFS, mostly the TBM930 and KingAir, is that there is more to 'eye candy' than simply nice looking visuals.  It's meaningful to fly thru what's actually there, versus landclass based artwork that we have in ORBX regionals.

Yes, exactly this. I was surprised by how much of a difference this makes, even flying tubeliners. I thought I'd be using MSFS for VFR and P3D for IFR for the foreseeable future, but it turns out I'm very fickle and will sacrifice a good amount of systems detail and autopilot reliability for the realism of flying over the real world!

[FilbertFlies 980]

16 hours ago, SUNDR1V3R said:

Just look for Edetroit in YouTube.. That’s the sim we all want.. 

It's probably the most reliable sim I've ever had and definitely the one I put the most hours into, but it's not the sim I want now.

What I DO want is Ed's cinematography skills, GSX or equivalent, a decent camera add-on and a decent ATC add-on! Thanks for pointing me in his direction - fantastic, engaging videos and he does make FS9 look incredible.

Edited September 15, 2020 by mrfilbert

[FilbertFlies 980]

[deleted - duplicate post]

Edited September 15, 2020 by mrfilbert
Duplicate post

[Ricardo41 5,949]

38 minutes ago, mrfilbert said:

the realism of flying over the real world!

this is the true revolutionary breakthrough of MSFS - in this respect MSFS is in a wholly different class compared to P3D and X-Plane. Real-world vs. an artifically created toy-world. It's as simple as that.

A few years ago, X-Plane did have a chance to become a more mainstream simulator: paid addons were released, mainstream addon developers started to pay attention. This time has come and gone. But you can play X-Plane on your mobile device! So there's that.

With regards to P3D - you had to spend hundreds of $$$ just to bring it up from atrocious to decent looking.

The sound you hear is the sound of users abandoning these two sinking ships.

Do I feel sorry for either of them? Not really. They both probably thought they had the market to themselves, and then look what happened. Bam! MSFS steamrolled right over them.

Edited September 15, 2020 by Ricardo41

[styckx 1,871]

19 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

A few years ago, X-Plane did have a chance to become a more mainstream simulator: paid addons were released, mainstream addon developers started to pay attention. This time has come and gone. But you can play X-Plane on your mobile device! So there's that.

 

I do not feel sorry for Orbx who not just a few years ago jumped on the Ortho wagon with X-Plane (and later P3D) and started charging US $55 for custom photo scenery REGIONS when with just some basic reading and tools the average user could create themselves, for free, on a far larger scale, and in most instances actually look better and more accurate than the fleecing Orbx was offering

Edited September 15, 2020 by styckx

[LHookins 3,103]

1 hour ago, IanHarrison said:

Has anyone got the answer to how much data MSFS uses for a flight, say 2 hours duration?

All that live scenery must come at a cost.

I just averaged 45 flights and it was 800 meg per hour.  That was just an average of all flights, a few had a bit more, with one each flight of 2 gig, 3 gig and 4 gig.  I did not include the 3 and 4 gig per hour in the 800 meg per hour average.

Estimate about 1 gig per hour streaming data and it should fall near or under that.  It might be higher than 800 if you fly over a lot of complex cities.

I'm running Ultra settings with 16 gig RAM with a 33 MBps download speed and I don't exceed those.  My RAM usage only exceeds 9 gig when I first start a flight;  it's typically 3 or 4 gig flying over open country.

Hook

[LHookins 3,103]

31 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

With regards to P3D - you had to spend hundreds of $$$ just to bring it up from atrocious to decent looking.

The sound you hear is the sound of users abandoning these two sinking ships.

Don't delete P3D just yet.  It is very likely that in order to be competitive they'll add streaming scenery in a future version.  It's not just for the consumer market;  when their commercial clients see what MSFS can do with streaming scenery they'll likely be demanding it.

Not to take anything away from MSFS and Bing, but I'm betting that Lockheed Martin can do it better, as they won't be constrained by what can be done with Bing data. 🙂  In the mean time I'm flying MSFS and every time I get the urge to boot P3D I look at some P3D screen shots and decide to hold off for a while.  

Imagine having everything you already have in P3D along with streaming scenery.  I have aircraft that may never be converted to run in MSFS!  

Here's hoping.

Hook

[SUNDR1V3R 72]

17 hours ago, wthomas33065 said:

Not necessarily. 

Not all of us are interested in tubeliners, and what is an adequate out the window view of the world from 45000 AGL using decent mesh and landclass breaks down at 4500 AGL.

Some of us want the actual airports in as much detail as possible while others want the area surrounding the airport to be detailed.  Especially when such details are what we use to help line up a visual approach.  

Yeees but no.. Let me explain MSFS is the future no doubts.. But I can’t stand they didn’t pay attention to most important things than VFR scenery.. Which btw was super ambitious and is far from being well done..

In the other hand and taking visuals a side the approaches or the ATC are a joke.. Even if you fly in VFR conditions.. What the hell with the 3knots wind.. And even flying GA the airplanes are beyond basic.. So maybe just for bush plane flying right now is good..

Let’s think that all of that i wrote is not important for you.. I tried to fly from KMFE to MMMY last night at night because there is not historic WX in the sim.. I had like 3 or 4 taxi lights at the same place in the middle of the taxiway how real is that..? But what was worse was that taxiways where named randomly.. ATC give you a taxi clearance how are you supposed to comply with that..?

G1000 is like super basic and cannot edit the flight plan.. 

What I love about Edetroits sim is the fact that let you feel your are flying as it supposed to be.. I do not like flying huge planes as well I’m a corporate pilot in real life and enjoy more super mid size planes for routes no longer than 1hr of flight.. Or any GA faster than 200KIAS.. I usually fly from KVNY to the rest of the SoCal, Tijuana or Nevada..

 

For me everything has to be very balanced something that this sim doesn’t have.. But I think we are in a good path.. As long as they keep updating the sim for the next 10 years..

Edited September 15, 2020 by SUNDR1V3R

[sholay 45]

Have not read entire thread yet, but...

I have a gaming laptop which runs P3D v4.5 on Medium settings in 2-25 fps.

I was obviously playing around with MSFS for last couple of weeks. Sightseeing, doing some bush flying, I was missing Aerosoft's A320 and Majestic Q400. SO I came back to P3D v5.

Oh, boy... HOW CRAPPY P4D LOOKS NOW!!!

Yes, IFR - great. But day or night final approach to 90% airports I own, be it Drzewiecki or Flightbeam or ORBX.... 

I am wiping my tears off. 

On my relatively mid-to-low-end rig, MSFS looks like P3D with all the addons on a $2000 gaming rig. 

Tough to come back.

 

&

PS

To be clear - yes, I am staying with P3D until MJC Q400 and AS320 are there along with Polish airports, but still.

Crying....

Edited September 15, 2020 by sholay

[Manny 1,293]

I felt the same way when FSX was released. I had my FS9 tuned up with all then add ons in top condition. And FSX had so many teething issue..except I could port many fs9 sceneries in fsx.

 

Now, I have invested so much in P3D especially airports. I never realized how many add on airports and scenaries I had collected. I love flying around in the Cessna 172 analog gauge aircraft in MSFS, but I don't care to land anywhere cause the airports are not as good as the P3D ones. 

 

So like someone said, I am holding on to P3D for a while...until I catch up with addons and tools for MSFS.