Some serious questions for people to ponder as they consider MSFS and it's state of current maturity...  I wonder what would happen if this was posted in the P3D forums? 

How was the FSX or P3D 3rd party integration 10+ years ago when it was first released? P3DV1, was that a masterpiece?  V2?  V3? 

Why did it take the major add-on dev's years to actually develop native P3D products, according to your logic it should have been ready day 1 yet dev's like PMDG and FSL took YEARS and didn't even run reliably until P3D introduced 64 bit.    

Why is P3D's current "upgrade" STILL  breaking add-ons from the generation before?  How many times did we live with "well we will have to wait for the developer to update it to the latest version" 

I'm just genuinely curious why people were SOOOOO tolerant of P3D giving it basically 5+ years to mature, holy cow how many CTD threads are there on P3D.  It took LM probably 6+ years until a 64 bit release to even run high end add-ons without OOM errors which BTW are now GDI errors with VRAM in V5, EA is completely buggy, yet their expectations of MSFS are so intolerant and everything should just work...   Did people genuinely forget what a cluster FS9-FSX- FSX-SE- P3D V1, V2, V3 really was?  The config tweaks, the limiting v-sync to 1/2 trying to maintain 30FPS!!!! How many years did it take for the HW to mature to properly run P3D?  How "advanced" were the default aircraft?  Who even wanted to fly a default AC in P3D when they had their add-ons in prior sims?  How many stuck with FS9 because it had all their add-ons fluidly when FSX was released and was labelled as "eye candy" as a vanilla sim?

 Do they forget that currently people are STILL trying to figure out P3D V4.5 or 5.0 or wait for "another" hotfix to fix 5.0 10 years on??? 

I just don't understand the hypocrisy and double standards comparing P3D TODAY which is still full of it's own issues and built on legacy code after 10+ years and thousands of $$$ in add-ons to a vanilla sim 60 days in...  

From the P3D forum just today:

Quote

Does not P3D V5 have live weather ?

By XXXXX  13 hours ago in The Prepar3d Forum

Posted 13 hours ago

At least I can't find any setting to load and use real time weather like I can in FSX (although that don't work now for reason I don't understand) and in XP11.

I have Active Sky Next for P3D but that version is not compatible with P3D V5. So for now live weather not possible unlike the other sims, or ?

Quote

With P3D live weather has always been through 3rd party like Active Sky. And amazingly you just missed an upgrade Window on the 15th for persons to upgrade to the current beta for V5.

Quote

Posted 6 hours ago (edited)

  13 hours ago, XXXXX said:

At least I can't find any setting to load and use real time weather like I can in FSX (although that don't work now for reason I don't understand) and in XP11.

I have Active Sky Next for P3D but that version is not compatible with P3D V5. So for now live weather not possible unlike the other sims, or ?

Edited 6 hours ago by XXXXXXX

If you're in desperate need of a free live weather engine, try out P3DWX. I used this before ASP3D was released and it worked quite well in v5 although I will say the clouds and winds aloft are a little bit funky in P3DWX. It also does not have any sort of weather radar integration with aircraft, so the WX mode on the NDs won't work.

Unfortunately unless if you owned ASP4 (which is ActiveSky for P3Dv3 and P3Dv4) you cannot get ASP3D at the moment as it's currently in open beta for previous ASP4 owners. And I believe that this promotional already ended 6 days ago anyways. 

You're just going to have to wait for ASP3D to release, because as of now, unless if you upgraded from your ASP4 purchase, I don't think you can buy ASP3D. So yes, technically there is no ActiveSky for P3Dv5. P3DWX is the only option for those who were not able to upgrade from a previous AS purchase.

 13 hours ago, XXXX said:

So for now live weather not possible unlike the other sims, or ?

FYI...If you are looking for a P3Dv5 weather engine available today you could also try Opus since you missed out on the Open beta for ASP3D (this closed on 10th October). P3Dv5 is supported officially.

http://www.opussoftware.co.uk/opusfsi.htm

Alternatively as the others mentioned wait for the Beta version of Active Sky to be officially released.But it will likely cost you some money. 

Perhaps HiFi will offer an upgrade promotion for previous customers that missed the registration window for the Open Beta.

So maybe it's time to take off those Rose colored P3D glasses, come to terms that it has had its own issues for years, continues to have its own issues and your expectations of a 60 day old product when LM hasn't been able to get it right and is still breaking things after 10+ years are unrealistic.    If MSFS doesn't offer what we want we can all go back to P3D with all it's add-ons but to stand in the P3D house and throw stones at the MSFS house is indeed throwing rocks from a glass house...   For me, I'm going to enjoy both sims, accept they both have flaws, use them for their individual strengths and just enjoy...  Today I am taking P3D V4.5 to Japan to overfly Suzuka in MSFS so I can race a Porsche at Suzuka in iRacing tomorrow!  Life doesn't suck LOL 

 

Edited October 17, 20205 yr by psolk

Well, now that's off your chest.. 

Back to flying..

2 minutes ago, Wobbie said:

Well, now that's off your chest.. 

Back to flying..

Yeah, I just hate hypocrisy and a lack of honest assessment and realization which I am seeing so much of lately. I'm also from the NYC area so tend to be very reserved and quiet with my "opinions" which I like to say are not worth the pixels they are typed with but they are mine and as the mods are intent on letting people speak their mind I thought I'd have at it 🙂  

PS I'm usually the quiet guy in my meetings too LOL 😉 

7 minutes ago, psolk said:

Some serious questions for people to ponder as they consider MSFS and it's state of current maturity...  I wonder what would happen if this was posted in the P3D forums? 

Well, years of observation pretty much tells you what would happen if you tried a thread like that.

That's why I made a personal commitment years ago to avoid the p3d Forum as much as possible, and when a subject (rarely) that does interest me comes up there I try to hop-on and hop-off pretty quickly.

Kind of like jumping onto an off of lava before your sneakers melt! 😃

As an aside, even in a completely different subforum, this topic will probably have a limited lifespan.

P3D V5 as did V4 works fine for me with complex add-ons and with ASP3D, for which I did pay attention and get the beta version for V5.  The only time I have problems is when Windows insists on updating Visual C++ etc without asking. 

Just as I didn't rush to go from FSX to P3D, I'm steering well clear of MSFS until the inevitable bugs are fixed and the add-ons are available.  That way I'm stress free and have no need to rant.

 

1 minute ago, HiFlyer said:

Well, years of observation pretty much tells you what would happen if you tried a thread like that.

That's why I made a personal commitment years ago to avoid the p3d Forum as much as possible, and when a subject (rarely) that does interest me comes up there I try to hop-on and hop-off pretty quickly.

Kind of like jumping onto an off of lava before your sneakers melt! 😃

As an aside, even in a completely different subforum, this topic will probably have a limited lifespan.

I've been here since the Tom day's, original donor and sadly left with all the FS9 V FSX battles, I rarely visited the P3D forums as I found the overall tone of the forums just became far more negative over the years and I was off racing in real life, MSFS actually brought me "back" to the forums and it's like being back here ten years ago with FS9 V FSX all over again...     

Please NO, not another P3DV4 vs P3Dv5 vs MSFS & why I'm not going to play ___   Fill in the gap!

We have had more than enough of this on many other forums.. It's boring & really of no more interest!!!

Cease & Desist!! 

6 minutes ago, Wobbie said:

Please NO, not another P3DV4 vs P3Dv5 vs MSFS & why I'm not going to play ___   Fill in the gap!

We have had more than enough of this on many other forums.. It's boring & really of no more interest!!!

Cease & Desist!! 

This wasn't intended as that, as I mentioned 

Quote

"For me, I'm going to enjoy both sims, accept they both have flaws, use them for their individual strengths and just enjoy...  Today I am taking P3D V4.5 to Japan to overfly Suzuka in MSFS so I can race a Porsche at Suzuka in iRacing tomorrow!  Life doesn't suck LOL "

So it was really more of a let's all be honest with ourselves, nothing is perfect, stop constantly criticizing others for what they enjoy and all get along thread but I guess it lost it's kumbaya along the way.  Sadly that is on me and my argumentative tone so I again, apologies that's how this came across.  

Edited October 17, 20205 yr by psolk

7 minutes ago, psolk said:

I've been here since the Tom day's, original donor and sadly left with all the FS9 V FSX battles, I rarely visited the P3D forums as I found the overall tone of the forums just became far more negative over the years and I was off racing in real life, MSFS actually brought me "back" to the forums and it's like being back here ten years ago with FS9 V FSX all over again...     

There is always the option to just read the interesting threads and ignore the obvious clickbait .

1 minute ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

There is always the option to just read the interesting threads and ignore the obvious clickbait .

Quite true...  Not sure why this pushed my buttons as it did but as you inferred, this is more on me than the forums...   Not ashamed to admit it this is on me so I do take personal responsibility for my reaction. 

Edited October 17, 20205 yr by psolk

26 minutes ago, psolk said:

Yeah, I just hate hypocrisy and a lack of honest assessment and realization which I am seeing so much of lately.

If people want to drag the P3D v MSFS down to "my dad is bigger than yours" level, then let them get on with it,

I now just read there BS and lol and I stop feeding there need to "prove to themselves" there sim is best "bigger". I will enjoy 3 sims P3Dv 5.1 MSFS and DCS. Because I am over 7 years old.

Edited October 17, 20205 yr by Nyxx

39 minutes ago, psolk said:

I just don't understand the hypocrisy and double standards comparing P3D TODAY which is still full of it's own issues and built on legacy code after 10+ years and thousands of $$$ in add-ons to a vanilla sim 60 days in...  

It's the norm, issues that users moan about today in MFS would have been laughed at last year or so. As for hypocrisy,  How many people moan about lack of seasons in X-Plane, but nobody cares that MFS does not have them (and yes, I know it has snow, but that's not the same thing). Maybe it's because the sim makes up for it in other areas, but I don't get it myself.

P3D/FSX was always an interesting case. It always amazed me to see posts of users tweaking everything just to get a "smooth" 15-20fps a second, but in MFS if it drops below 40fps there is suddenly a big cause for concern. 

23 minutes ago, tonywob said:

How many people moan about lack of seasons in X-Plane, but nobody cares that MFS does not have them (and yes, I know it has snow, but that's not the same thing). Maybe it's because the sim makes up for it in other areas, but I don't get it myself.

I guess folk don't whine about it in MSFS because it has been stated by the devs it is on the roadmap. XPlane..not so much (as you know).

I don't recall MIcrosoft, Lockheed Martin, or Laminar employing thousands of volunteer Alpha and Beta testers many months prior to the release of a particular sim:  In effect, a very effective method of hyping a half-baked product to the multitudes to who later actually pre-purchased it...

But I do admit the potential is certainly there for MSFS2020 to be a truly amazing flight simulator, hopefully someday soon...  

Its about setting an expectation. MSFS expectation was set high due to its marketing. And in some parts of MSFS expectations were not delivered - yet. It is very nice and good in terms of visualisations (which was the focus whole time I think), but some other parts are lacking. For me I miss some realism and sometimes I find flightmodel odd. Which than brings me to paralisis what simulator to use. P3D or MSFS. 🙂