V5 - What do/don't you miss?

[pinepix62 63]

Just realized, I am still missing ORBX's EGLC, come on ORBX.... 

[kenthom 19]

On 11/22/2020 at 10:48 AM, Bert Pieke said:

V5.1.1. is stable for me... and I am happy to have left the "cartoonish" look of V4 behind me.  No reason to start up V4.5.2. which I still have installed.

Hi Bert, this comment intrigued me.  Can you explain what you mean by cartoonish and what is different between the two?  I have not made the leap yet but plan to.  If I recall you generally fly low and slow and I fly tubeliners.  Can I expect a visual difference between 4.5 and 5.1.1? I  always value your remarks.

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

25 minutes ago, kenthom said:

If I recall you generally fly low and slow and I fly tubeliners.  Can I expect a visual difference between 4.5 and 5.1.1?

Tubeliners, maybe not...  I never venture above 12,000 feet and spend most of the time between 4 and 8,000.

But, performance is better and the slightly hazy look matches what I see in real life..

Edited November 25, 2020 by Bert Pieke

[IanHarrison 522]

Still no definition ( or examples ) of cartoonish!

12 minutes ago, Bert Pieke said:

Tubeliners, maybe not...  I never venture above 12,000 feet and spend most of the time between 4 and 8,000.

But, performance is better and the slightly hazy look matches what I see in real life..

Still no examples or explanation of what you mean by "cartoonish".😉

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

4 minutes ago, IanHarrison said:

Still no examples or explanation of what you mean by "cartoonish".😉

My kind of flying..

Edited November 25, 2020 by Bert Pieke

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

8 minutes ago, IanHarrison said:

Still no definition ( or examples ) of cartoonish!

 

Hard to define... Maybe:  V4 is too crisp, flat, and "artificial" for my taste..

V5 has more depth and looks more like what I see when I look out the window.

I no longer have V4 installed, so cannot contribute a screenshot.

You may be able to create the equivalent to V5 with a shader editor program..

Edited November 25, 2020 by Bert Pieke

[IanHarrison 522]

Thanks Bert. That does look nice.

If I ever can afford to go to v5, I will see what it looks like from 36000'!

[Anxu00 176]

On 11/22/2020 at 12:48 PM, Bert Pieke said:

V5.1.1. is stable for me... and I am happy to have left the "cartoonish" look of V4 behind me.  No reason to start up V4.5.2. which I still have installed.

hi Bert, can you elaborate on what you meant by "cartoonish" look of V4?  I have not moved yet, but other than DX12, the perf. gain, the ground and other scenery don't look that different to me from the YouTube videos.  Moreover, if you still use planes like RealAir or Flight1 which never update the textures, they still have those same non PBR looks.  With MSFS 2020 years away from having things like seasons (and since it use photogen, I doubt that it could) and with serious sim planes like PMDG still years away.  I don't know if P3D 5.x truly represents the next step or not to merit the current hassle due to its growing pain.  Which means that 4.5 still is a good platform for at least 2 years.

Edited November 26, 2020 by Anxu00

[Anxu00 176]

Ha, I see that others had the same questions as me then.

[Anxu00 176]

19 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

My kind of flying..

Is that the Baytower RV ?  I didn't know it works in v5

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

48 minutes ago, Anxu00 said:

Is that the Baytower RV ?  I didn't know it works in v5

Yup.. 🙂

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

55 minutes ago, Anxu00 said:

I have not moved yet, but other than DX12, the perf. gain, the ground and other scenery don't look that different to me from the YouTube videos.  Moreover, if you still use planes like RealAir or Flight1 which never update the textures, they still have those same non PBR looks. 

Frankly, if you are happy with V4.5., I would suggest staying there..

I had nothing better to do at the time, so I took the leap.. 😉

I have moved over the RealAir planes, so that is not the issue.

My concern would be me setting high expectations, and you finding that it did not live up to those.

There is money and effort involved, and if better performance and better overall look does not warrant that for you, then stick with V4.5! 

It is not a seismic change, that is for sure, but I have now actually deleted V4 off my system, after having had both installed, side by side, for about 6 months..

[Tim_Capps 474]

I'm very happy with 5.1. Performance is great. I have everything I want. I don't see changing until there is a compelling reason to. I feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of my system and my add-ons. One airport I had problems with issued a non-PBR version that solved them. I just don't use EA. Once we get a for-real-release weather program, my life will be complete. There's a six-year gap for me between FSX and 5.1, so I missed most of the LM drama, which probably helps. The big advantage I see is performance. I literally have a custom setting called "Crazy High" that works a lot of the time, and my normal custom settings are pretty ambitious. But I keep wondering why we're behind FSX in so many areas. If LM can show it has a future as a stable platform for developers, I think they'll catch up. 

[Bob Scott 7,720]

10 minutes ago, Tim_Capps said:

But I keep wondering why we're behind FSX in so many areas.

Say what??!! 

[Tim_Capps 474]

I say what??!! to your say what??!! 🙂 Yes, it runs like a dream. Remember, I'm talking about 5.1. The difference between 5.0 and 5.1 is huge. That's where I came in.

Weather and clouds like we used to have would be nice in a flight simulator. A choice from among a lot of nice airplanes, especially classic airliners. I look at what I used to be able to fly and what's available now and it's pretty sad. DC-9? 707? 727? Early 737 or even anything but the latest all-glass cockpit? Classic 747? Any 747 at all for 5.1? DC-3? A2A Shockwave lights? I see lots of glass in the future of flight simulation.

Coolsky made great airplanes. I liked iFly a lot, too. I do keep an eye out for what's available for 5.1. There's Leonardo's Maddog (now) which is the closest to ticking my boxes, and FSLabs Airbus. I have them both, and I'm sure they're very nice. But the only thing I've been flying is Captain Sim's L1011 because it's classic, not because it's the technical equal to the other two--it's a port with a few new features. It's good enough and fun. And we have their 757, which is pretty much a classic now. 

Sure, we'll probably see more brought up to date. Maybe a Leonardo DC-9, or a surprise from Coolsky. And Captain Sim might continue to bring their classics up. But I think as the hobby grays the demand for those will drop relative to the new stuff. I suspect that's why Captain Sim is concentrating on new airplanes, even though that's not what they're best at. (I think their niche is classics, and they'll just be blown out of the sky head-to-head with the bigger devs are offering the same models.) 

At some point, LM has to let the ball drop in their roulette wheel and give developers a stable platform, though. The frustration is palpable. 

And then there's MSFS. I have that, too. Let's check the Marketplace to find third-party airliners. Lot's of scenery... Ah. Aircraft. No jets listed. Even less of a future there for classics.

I am not knocking either one of these platforms. I do think they are dividing the resources of the developers, and some are just going to pick one or close shop.

So, yes, when I look at Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D 5.1 I'm reminded of the Lockheed Martin design for the lunar lander for the Artemis Project. Huh. Looks familiar. Oh, yeah. I was twelve and it was 1969. The same question arises: why aren't we further along after all this time? (And Boeing hasn't demonstrated it can even build an Apollo-looking space capsule that isn't a deathtrap.)

And let's call MSFS Space X Starship. Clearly forward-looking. Exciting. Even beautiful. Might eventually be what we (some of us, anyway) hope. Maybe the MSFS market will create a huge demand for airliners from fifty years ago. Do you really see that happening?

I guess your opinion is going to depend on what you like to do in your flight sim and both platforms require a leap of faith. But at this moment, I still don't have the options I had in FSX, which had a lot of very fine products available for it. What I do have is a promise that things will get better.

I might have a good five to ten years of this left and I'll enjoy them, probably 90% of the time in some version of P3D, because I'm famously easy to please. Let's have a sceenshot contest from FSX vs the latest P3D and see if we've moved ahead.

You did include a question mark in your response. 😉