I was mostly certain that I was going to get V4 but just a little while ago I saw a picture by GSalden in this post that made me doubt myself again:

Anyway, I'm still on the side of V4, but I thought I'd ask just to see how owners here feel about V5, and if there's any apps/addons/enhancements that they had in V4 and will not be updated for V5 that they miss-- or, if there is anything they had for V4 that they find they don't need in V5.

V5 is much better than V4... so no, I never start up V4 anymore.

5.1HF1 is superb.  LM finally got v5 right.  Took a while but we got here.  I do not see myself ever returning to v4 anymore.  It is just that two birds of pmdg are still in v4.

I'm on 5.0 (not going to 5.1 HF1 yet) after jumping from 4.5.
I miss nothing because all I need (FSL A32X, ASPD3 and all the scenery and tools I use) is working.

Comparison? The main advantage for me has been performance.
For instance in 4.5 in huge busy airports I saw around 20 FPS in my A32X cockpit. Now in 5.0 in the same situation I see around 40 FPS! The gain is unbelievable.
On final approach or at crusing altitudes the difference is not so big, but still very impressive. 🙂👍

9 hours ago, Skywolf said:

5.1HF1 is superb.  LM finally got v5 right.  

It will get better..

EA clouds still look like a joke. Even with ActiveSky. But less of a joke than before.

Performance is great. Finally heading in the right direction, 7 months later than expected,

@Simbol: Don't stop writing please...! 😉

Edited November 22, 20205 yr by LarsA

9 minutes ago, simbol said:

It will get better..

That's nice! I'm sharing the same feelings with the author, I simply can't decide what to get. I already have the v5.0 HF2, but I'm still thinking of getting v4.5 HF3 because of its stability. I like the look of v5.1 HF1, but I also want a bugless & crashless, set & forget experience with minimal amount of tweaks, and therefore a stable simulator. In other words, I want to fly more and wait less for updates / bugfixes. Do you recommend me the v5.1 HF1?

Edited November 22, 20205 yr by BiologicalNanobot

I keep both P3D v4.5.3 and v5 (currently still v5.0.2, waiting for FSL and the Milviz wx radar before updating to v5.1.1).  There are a few acft that haven't come across to P3Dv5 yet (PMDG 777 and DC-6, Milviz DHC-3T for example), some sceneries that aren't compatible (some of the ORBX freeware collection, for example), and some utilities/enhancements (like Trueglass and PTA) that don't work with v5/DX12.

Biggest thing, though, is that P3Dv4 is mature and stable now that it's in its final form.  So if/when the v5 update stream causes some issues with certain acft/gauges/sceneries etc I can always fire up v4.5 and have at it there while we wait for a fix.  SSDs are cheap these days--keeping a parallel installation of v4.5 is a great fallback during the occasions we have to struggle with the by-products of progress in v5.  I'm always surprised to hear people talk about moving to v5 as if that includes a requirement to leave v4.5 behind--it really doesn't at all.

11 minutes ago, w6kd said:

I'm always surprised to hear people talk about moving to v5 as if that includes a requirement to leave v4.5 behind--it really doesn't at all.

That's right, it doesn't. However, maintaining two versions of P3D on my PC requires a lot of effort, time and disk space that I'm unwilling to spend.

For all its faults with their implementations in P3D, DX12 capability (with the associated performance improvement) and Enhanced Atmospherics (with the associated visuals impriovements) have made it a significant leap between v4 and v5.
My own view is that the move between v5 and v4 is similar (in certain respects) to the move between MSFS and P3Dv5.
 

11 hours ago, Fredco said:

if there's any apps/addons/enhancements that they had in V4 and will not be updated for V5 that they miss-- or, if there is anything they had for V4 that they find they don't need in V5.

I miss a shader program like PTA / EnvShade* / Tomatoshade that I can use with E.A. turned on.
I also miss some of the //42 Immersion Packages that weren't updated and PrecipitFX.
(*Update being worked on)

Apart from those, there is nothing that would cause me to want to revert. With some tweaks, a lot of products can be made to work well in v5.
For me, v5.1 HF1 is miles ahead of its v4.5 predecessor.

I am following this thread.  I am considering P3D.  The only important add-ons that I am using in my FSX that are not yet compatible with v.5 are REX's Texture Direct 4 (won't be updated), Worldwide Airports, and Sky Force 3D (these two are being tested).  Does the default environment of v.5 at least equates the three REX add-ons or come close?  If not I may wait until later this winter when REX is hoping to have WWA and SF3D ready for v.5.

18 minutes ago, TextRich said:

 Does the default environment of v.5 at least equates the three REX add-ons or come close?

No.  The default environment is as basic as it ever was.  EA, if they ever get it working right, would replace SkyForce 3D.  But the ground and default airports are still basic fare that needs some add-on love for best effect.

My don´t missings are:

• 2D clouds
• rotating clouds
• dull textures
• ctd
• bad performance
• small "sun" 😉 
• stars drawn up to the end of the horizon!
• Old fog rendering
• DX11
• The LOOOOOOONG loading times

What I miss:

• Better implemented cloud layer. Visually the clouds up to the horizon is not good implemented. The Cloudlayer is too flat and raises way to much up to the sky at horizon. Sun shines below at sunrise and dusk.....
• Better Dusk and Dawn colorizing
• Less grid
• Less cloud pixels (minecraft is here sometimes ;-))
• More stable FPS. In VR it is necessary to set unlimited in the sim. FPS is still to jumpy and that has impact on VR frametimes.....stutter. Or they need to more smooth out the frametimes for VR 
• My triple 77777777777777777 from PMDG
• The LOOOOOOONG loading times! BUT just at early morning to get my coffee done in between 😉! 
• More Updated scenery to make use of the features the P3D SDK delivers! 
• More love to LM P3D as it is actually a very nice platform with lots of features other platforms do not offer! NONE of them.

😉

Marcus

Edited November 22, 20205 yr by mpo910

I still have v4.5HF2 installed, and like Mr F737NG I prefer to only have one version on my PC. That being the case, I would need the following working to consider "making the leap to the promised land"....

• REX Texture Direct 4 Enhanced Edition (or a suitable alternative that is stable)
• All of my existing AI plane models (which are v4 compatible)
• All of my UK/Ireland/Netherlands airports
• Maximum scenery complexity and autogen density settings without a CTD (6GB GTX 980Ti @ 1920x1080)

Autogen density (in ORBx TrueEarth) at anything less than maximum is a big "No, No" in Mr Chris land.

1 hour ago, mpo910 said:

My don´t missings are:

• 2D clouds
• rotating clouds
• dull textures
• ctd
• bad performance
• small "sun" 😉 
• stars drawn up to the end of the horizon!
• Old fog rendering
• DX11
• The LOOOOOOONG loading times

What I miss:

• Better implemented cloud layer. Visually the clouds up to the horizon is not good implemented. The Cloudlayer is too flat and raises way to much up to the sky at horizon. Sun shines below at sunrise and dusk.....
• Better Dusk and Dawn colorizing
• Less grid
• Less cloud pixels (minecraft is here sometimes ;-))
• More stable FPS. In VR it is necessary to set unlimited in the sim. FPS is still to jumpy and that has impact on VR frametimes.....stutter. Or they need to more smooth out the frametimes for VR 
• My triple 77777777777777777 from PMDG
• The LOOOOOOONG loading times! BUT just at early morning to get my coffee done in between 😉! 
• More Updated scenery to make use of the features the P3D SDK delivers! 
• More love to LM P3D as it is actually a very nice platform with lots of features other platforms do not offer! NONE of them.

😉

Marcus

Mate, I must say majority of those issues you have mentioned above is due to the fact you have a thousand addons in your sim.

And that my friend is a recipe for disaster.

mike