Upgrading PC any day now to get my hands on MSFS. P3D5 is on list as well to have some continuity for my FSX addons.

How ready is P3D out of the box. Is it only FPS and stability that I will get?

Otherwise is it the same flat desert as FSX was? 

Do I need to invest to global textures, landclass, elevation data etc. 

Out of the box it’s terrible. But with some time and money it can be wonderful 

If you like Airliners like:

• 787 (QW)
• 777 (PMDG)
• 767 (CaptainSim)
• 757 (CaptainSim and QW)
• 747 (PMDG)
• 737 (PMDG and others)
• 319 (Aerosoft and much preferred FSLabs)
• 320 (Aerosoft and much preferred FSLabs)
• 321 (Aerosoft and much preferred FSLabs)
• 330 (Aerosoft)
• or many other with a lot more system depth compared to the ones in MSFS and a functional Autopilot 😉

And...

• like working weather (with addons from freeware up to payware FSGRW or preferred ASP3D)
• like decent/outstanding performance
• want good integrated Groundhandling (GSX)
• want VR Readiness with good performance (maybe you like it for later) 
• want A stable and CTD free platform (if correct installed, configured and "maintained") The part between the brackets is very important!....

Than P3D V5 is the way to go.

I don´t have any additional elevation data (my taste: more details is less performance and v.v.)

Of course I can recommend ORBX Global Base and some Regions like Europe etc. too.

I own XPlane, MSFS, P3D v4 and P3Dv5....and IFR short-, mid-, and longhaul flights where never that good as in P3D v4.5 and v5.

If you just want some nice VFR flying without using of systems, just to look around and enjoy beautiful views, you should really go for/stay with MSFS.

I stepped into P3D after XPlane, end never regretted that step. 

P3Dv5 and Addons is not that "cheap" but you decide what and when to invest in that platform and it´s addons. 

So out of the box.....no...it does not met my requirements....like MSFS does neither!

I can really recommend P3D IF the above listed points met your requirements. And if this is the case, MSFS isn´t the right platform for you right now.

Here some screenshots, mostly from today (PMDG, FSlabs QW 787). Important: Midrange settings/sliders and Texture Resolution only at 1024x1024 (because I use it for VR only)

Marcus

 

Edited January 29, 20215 yr by mpo910

Out of the box it's an okay flight sim, stable and with lots of good functionality, and it has a reasonably decent and varied selection of default aeroplanes, many of which were once payware products, so you're good to go right after installation. The down side of it when default, is that it really does need Active Sky and Active Sky Cloud Art (or similar) adding to it to make realtime weather depiction good, and it also helps if you stick some Orbx world terrain and a few regional terrains in there to make it look decent on the ground as well as in the sky.

So, you can run it vanilla and it's okay, but you'll probably be throwing another 150 quid at it to have it look and act more realistic. However, that's an option and not a necessity, what is really good about it, is that you only have to throw about sixty quid at it for the add-on Majestic Dash 8 Q400 to make it perhaps the best PC-based realistic airliner flight simulator there is.

Also one of the major reasons I'm flying v5 now is the data along with a fully functioning RXP GTN and GNS which you won't see in MSFS for a long time to come.

Vanilla is horrible like Minecraft. However, if you invest on it like I don't know maybe around ~ 150 - 300 euros, can be not bad. However, in terms of scenery, no way to compare it to MSFS. If you are into airliners, P3D as well as XP11 have good choices comparing to MSFS (the sim is just half year out). In terms of performance and stability, I think this is a subjective topic depends on your PC, for example for me P3Dv5 didn't run smoothly (did all the tips .. etc, nothing much helped), meanwhile in MSFS since the release, it is pretty stable on my machine. 

I have found that the atmospherics has improved a lot over what FSX offered out of the box.

Having said that, you will need to invest in some add-ons to complement the base scenery such as Orbx land class etc. But i think every sim you have, you will end up purchasing more complimentary products. The question is how big is your wallet!

The aircraft addons and the flight dynamics are pretty accurate which is my focus .

I have to say i noticed an appreciable difference in performance moving from v4 to v5.1  and the stability is good now we have Active Sky for v5  stable release and a resolution (as far as I can tell) for the RealLight issue with the latest DLLs. I recently completed a 4hr flight from NZAA to NSTU without any issues

 

 

4 hours ago, Nurmblitz said:

P3D5 is on list as well to have some continuity for my FSX addons.

No-one seems to have asked you what FSX add-ons you are hoping to use in P3D v5.

Be careful, 32-bit aircraft almost certainly will not work on a 64-bit platform. The gauges' functionality won't transfer.

Most, but not all, scenery will work.
Though you may find that you need to apply exclusions to avoid having default objects peep through any payware objects (there are some exclusion files hosted by 'modders' such as iniBuilds) and there may be some artefacts or terrain issues that appear as the base data in P3D v5 is different from FSX's.

Not saying you cannot make FSX add-ons work in P3D, but you need to have realistic expectations as to what you can accomplish with old products in a newer platform.

DX12 is the future and your already there with V5 and will get better, MSFS has that leap to make later this year.

Thanks for the answers. So it was quite as I expected. Upgrade prices among aircraft addons are in many cases not so steep and was I glad to hear that at least sceneries have some functionality. But just to enjoy flying without OOM sounds terrific, although even that almost disappeared with Simstarter. I lost my IRL PPL last year after 37 years of flying, so I´m glad these simulators finally took a step ahead.

Out of the box scenery complaints can be easily fixed by visiting ORBX. Plus add in some of the great airports and planes from various developers and your good to go! As you can see from Marcus's pictures above what it is capable of.

I guess my opinion is the odd one out, but I found that P3Dv5, out of the box, was not as bad as previous releases. I believe EA brought a new breath of life into the default environment, along with higher resolution mesh, new vector and airport data, so that default P3Dv5 is not nearly as badly in need of updated everything as were previous versions. That said, when I installed OrbX Global's range (Note that I did NOT install Vector), clearly that was a pretty bug improvement. Although what for me made the biggest difference is actually OpenLC, more so than the other packages. Of course, I do install a ton of third party airport sceneries, though I restrict myself mostly to P3Dv5 compatible airports. And those that I bring in from P3Dv4 I try to convert myself. But, generally no FSX-era things for me anymore...

Weather and aircraft of course I use third party addons. No question about that... These days I find ActiveSky works very well with EA, and a lot of the initial complaints I found are mostly mitigated. To me, EA has been the breath of life that I wanted to see in the sim, along with spectacular performance.

39 minutes ago, Benjamin J said:

but I found that P3Dv5, out of the box, was not as bad as previous releases.

I just installed it like 3 days ago but to be the worst thing out of the box was the lack of a c172 or Baron 58, that's kinda low.

2 hours ago, FPStewy said:

I just installed it like 3 days ago but to be the worst thing out of the box was the lack of a c172 or Baron 58, that's kinda low.

Default airplanes have never been the high point of any flightsim.. so P3D is no better in that regard..

If you want a good C172, get the a2a version, or get the C182 instead - it is a nicer airplane 😉

Retractable gear, get the Bonanza.

For a twin, get the Alabeo Seminole or C421.

Edited January 29, 20215 yr by Bert Pieke

If you still have FSX hanging around the default C172 works with both P3Dv4 and v5. But, that said, I agree that the A2A C182 is the way to go with a payware option.