@neil0311, I lean toward MSFS as the platform with the most potential long term growth and support, but what are your goals?

54 minutes ago, neil0311 said:

Well I can and probably will. Since I have P3D v4, wasn’t sure if the “bang for the buck” in v5 was worth immediately taking that plunge, but don’t want to go too far OT. 

I stuck with P3Dv4 and have MSFS never bothered to update to P3Dv5 as I was waiting for all my addons from v4 to be made compatible and the issues still reported in v5 with vram usage going way up again.

 

I am, however, finding it harder and harder to go back to P3D with the amazing visuals in MSFS but do miss some of my great payware AC.  For me MSFS has captured my attention more with the default AC so I’m primarily sticking with it and don’t think I’m ever going to bother upgrading to v5!

Your choice is clear! - buy MSFS now for VFR, but hang on to P3D v4 for jets until PMDG and FSLABS bring out their offerings for MSFS. That way you get the best of both worlds (and you don't waste money on v5). 😉

I have all of them and if they were released on the same day i would buy them all again so that i could benefit from PMDG,FSL,Majestic,MaddogXs performance and simulation experience and also do some relax bush or water exploring along the way with MSFS.

Michael Moe

Come feel the growing pains of a new budding Flight Sim with new technologies. It's going to be a wild and fun ride !!!!!!!! MSFS 2020 is really going to be the Next Gen of Flight Simming

Edited August 27, 20205 yr by SirDan

MSFS is the way to go, and I know you said P3D vs. MSFS (and never mentioned XP11), but I would say if you are not wanting to spend a lot of money on addons, then Xplane 11 is better than P3D. If you are more interested in having the absolute best flying aircraft (PMDG, Majestic q400), P3D, but XP11 costs a lot less for what you get for free. P3D is on the way out, so investing a lot of money in addons might be questionable, whereas XP11 has a lot more free stuff that is near payware quality.

The good thing about Xplane 11 is it has so many well done airports, the default medium-sized airports sometimes look better than the ones in MSFS.

The other thing is I prefer XP11's night lighting over MSFS, now that doesn't mean MSFS doesn't have good night lighting (it does), but I just find that it looks a bit inconsistent and blurred in the distance, whereas XP11 has a slightly more consistent look even if not quite as dramatic on the lighting (if that makes sense).

 

 

Edited August 27, 20205 yr by SceneryFX

I do not own MSFS, I just have P3DV5 HF2 and will be sticking with it for the following reasons:

LM updated a lot of airports for V5.  MSFS is very dependent on Bing maps and if a Bing map image of a airport is older and not up-to-date, the MSFS airport will be out of date.

Some Bing map airports and areas are blurred out for security reasons or just may be a poor image and will not show up in MSFS.  I do not feel like taking 2 or 3 hours to fly to an airport and find it missing. 

Bridges are missing in MSFS or under water.

Ships and other features that are attached to the coast in MSFS are shown under water. For example, coastal hotels that jut out in the water may be shown under water.

The main reason, I have finally got P3DV5 running nicely with my many addons and will just sit back and enjoy flying for awhile.  MSFS has lots of eye candy, but far as I'm concern, it's still in beta.  MSFS is a Cadillac flight sim using Bing data that can be marginal in certain areas. Will check in another year and see how they are doing with the aforementioned issues.

John Cottreau

If you already use P3D 4.5 I’d think the bang for buck factor would be considerably less in buying  essentially the  same sim again in slightly updated form ,compared to investing in the new  MSFS, which quite frankly is on another level (for VFR at least)

Edited August 27, 20205 yr by jon b

You can play MSFS 2020 for 1 us Dollar I think something to do with the xbox game pass

MSFS has been out not even two weeks. It's really hard to compare it to something that has been updated over the years. MSFS will be a different animal once it gets it's word not allowed together. 

If you have 4.5 already set up, P3dv5 is not much of a jump.  Yes there are clear advantages, but you will have to balance that with the torturous hell of upgrading all your addons, paying for a large chunk of them again, and installing them all.  Compare that to msfs which is at this point pretty self contained.  Were it me, and if you are generally happy with the 4.5 setup, I would get a game pass to have and try msfs, while doing whatever hard core simming you need to do on 4.5.  I think in about 6-12 months it will be pretty clear where the future is headed.

If you want spend money on a dead sim for the short amusement go with P3D. If you want the flightsim base for the next 10 years with visuals that are so far above everything we had before go with fs2020

To get decent weather and scenery, you will need to spend a lot of money on P3D.  complex airliners and GA will obviously arrive in MSFS.

7 hours ago, SceneryFX said:

MSFS is the way to go, and I know you said P3D vs. MSFS (and never mentioned XP11), but I would say if you are not wanting to spend a lot of money on addons, then Xplane 11 is better than P3D. If you are more interested in having the absolute best flying aircraft (PMDG, Majestic q400), P3D, but XP11 costs a lot less for what you get for free. P3D is on the way out, so investing a lot of money in addons might be questionable, whereas XP11 has a lot more free stuff that is near payware quality.

The good thing about Xplane 11 is it has so many well done airports, the default medium-sized airports sometimes look better than the ones in MSFS.

The other thing is I prefer XP11's night lighting over MSFS, now that doesn't mean MSFS doesn't have good night lighting (it does), but I just find that it looks a bit inconsistent and blurred in the distance, whereas XP11 has a slightly more consistent look even if not quite as dramatic on the lighting (if that makes sense).

 

 

I’ve tried various versions of XPlane going back almost 20 years.  Never been a fan. Just don’t care for the unrealistic way the aircraft fly and the way the models work. Personal preference as I fly in RL. 

9 hours ago, omarsmak30 said:

You can take a look at this video: 

 

Wow Prepar3d looks the worst in this video rip

I’d say as soon as the bugs are wrinkled out and add on aircraft are available, there is going to be no reason to use P3D again. I would personally hold off on v5 and get MSFS, and continue to use v4 if you still want to fly airliners etc. until PMDG releases their plane in a few months.