A rant from the heart

[Bob Scott 7,720]

If I could boil things down into a nutshell, it would go back to this sage old wisdom: "The key to happiness is to focus on wanting what you have, not on having what you want."

From my perspective as a pilot who first taught real-world USAF student pilots in a full-motion simulator nearly 40 years ago, we have a *lot* now with P3D in its current form.  I'd have loved to have the kinds of tools that I have in my man cave now back when I was teaching students in the T-38.  Most of the buzz (and the angst) with brand X is that people are fixated not on what they have (which is really deeply flawed), but on what they hope they might have in the future.  The flight dynamics are still boofered nine months in..."it's coming."  The weather engine doesn't really set current weather nor does it allow you to set one of the most basic wx parameters--visibility..."it's coming."  There are no high-fidelity complex aircraft..."they're coming."  I don't want any more weekly changes to keep breaking my sim.  "They're coming, too."

With P3D v4 or v5, even without the artistic but intermittent appeal of EA in v5, I can still do the important weather stuff from a pilot's perspective--set winds, ceilings, and visibility fairly accurately so that a CAT II ILS approach to mins, or a low-vis circling approach, etc can be done in a way that approximates the real challenges weather presents.  I have a virtual hangar full of acft that let me fly and manage an aircraft's systems and navigation as I would in real life.  And, despite an undeniable slowdown in new scenery coming to market, I still have hundreds (325+ at last count) of add-on airports available to me that, despite not all being cutting-edge pretty, still well-approximate the approach, departure, takeoff, and landing environment pretty well.  And it's stable...you aren't forced to install sim updates that break things, and you can go back and re-install a previous working version if something doesn't work out the way you want/need.  That stability is not a trivial thing--it's the very desirable flip-side to roughshod and careless "progress."

I think development for P3D will continue, albeit I grant you, at a significantly slower pace due to the dilution effect from having developers trying to cash-in on the Brand X market.  Whether that market proves sustainable past the honeymoon phase from millions of gamers taking a look-see is unknown.  I don't have a crystal ball...and neither do the Brand X fans loudly proclaiming to know what the future holds.  But then again I don't need a crystal ball to enjoy what works well and which I already have, and I do that daily without so much as an anxious glance elsewhere.

 

[GSalden 4,656]

V4.5 was the best P3D version in years.

Then came V5.0....  Better performance ! But several issues for many users. And an EA preview mode. Now several HF + V5.1 HF 1 further EA has not improved much. 
It gives me the FSX DX10 preview mode feeling.

Imho V5.2 has to be released only then when the most important issues have been solved and EA has been improved a lot. Sure it is taking longer than ‘normal’ with an update but it might be that they are redesigning parts from scratch. Something we will not know.

If LM can make EA work as intended, if they can fix the most important issues and if they will improve the oldfashined AG, then P3D might have a bright future.

 

[micstatic 4,319]

4 hours ago, nirgal76 said:

you're right. Stop calling it MSFS2020, in reality, it is MS Flight 2 😛 

I call it Microsoft flight simulator or msfs because that’s what the developers call it 

[jfri 42]

11 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

As far as the waiting game is concerned, I have been waiting nearly a decade for Space Shuttle Mission Simulator 2, and I suspect that it will be another decade before the cancellation is finally announced.

It seem the cancellation is already made see

https://www.gamepressure.com/games/space-shuttle-mission-simulator-2/za25b1

I remember when they said it was expected to be released at Christmas hinting that it was almost finished. So why could they not finish it?

[nirgal76 100]

11 hours ago, micstatic said:

I call it Microsoft flight simulator or msfs because that’s what the developers call it 

The producers, not the developers

[GSalden 4,656]

Does he know something we don’t ?

Première 25 mai 2021 ....

Edited May 19, 2021 by GSalden

[kand 205]

40 minutes ago, GSalden said:

Does he know something we don’t ?

Première 25 mai 2021 ....

Hes been dropping hints on the facebook group for months that 5.2 is about to release, whether he has inside knowledge or not remains to be seen but eventually his persistence will be proven correct!

some people crave attention, else why would anyone need premiered YT instructions on how to update apart from absolute newbies! clickbait I think 

Edited May 19, 2021 by kand

[simbol 5,819]

I would ignore..

S.

[coastaldriver 919]

13 hours ago, w6kd said:

If I could boil things down into a nutshell, it would go back to this sage old wisdom: "The key to happiness is to focus on wanting what you have, not on having what you want."

From my perspective as a pilot who first taught real-world USAF student pilots in a full-motion simulator nearly 40 years ago, we have a *lot* now with P3D in its current form.  I'd have loved to have the kinds of tools that I have in my man cave now back when I was teaching students in the T-38.  Most of the buzz (and the angst) with brand X is that people are fixated not on what they have (which is really deeply flawed), but on what they hope they might have in the future.  The flight dynamics are still boofered nine months in..."it's coming."  The weather engine doesn't really set current weather nor does it allow you to set one of the most basic wx parameters--visibility..."it's coming."  There are no high-fidelity complex aircraft..."they're coming."  I don't want any more weekly changes to keep breaking my sim.  "They're coming, too."

With P3D v4 or v5, even without the artistic but intermittent appeal of EA in v5, I can still do the important weather stuff from a pilot's perspective--set winds, ceilings, and visibility fairly accurately so that a CAT II ILS approach to mins, or a low-vis circling approach, etc can be done in a way that approximates the real challenges weather presents.  I have a virtual hangar full of acft that let me fly and manage an aircraft's systems and navigation as I would in real life.  And, despite an undeniable slowdown in new scenery coming to market, I still have hundreds (325+ at last count) of add-on airports available to me that, despite not all being cutting-edge pretty, still well-approximate the approach, departure, takeoff, and landing environment pretty well.  And it's stable...you aren't forced to install sim updates that break things, and you can go back and re-install a previous working version if something doesn't work out the way you want/need.  That stability is not a trivial thing--it's the very desirable flip-side to roughshod and careless "progress."

I think development for P3D will continue, albeit I grant you, at a significantly slower pace due to the dilution effect from having developers trying to cash-in on the Brand X market.  Whether that market proves sustainable past the honeymoon phase from millions of gamers taking a look-see is unknown.  I don't have a crystal ball...and neither do the Brand X fans loudly proclaiming to know what the future holds.  But then again I don't need a crystal ball to enjoy what works well and which I already have, and I do that daily without so much as an anxious glance elsewhere.

w6kd - In a nutshell I can only concur. I have the same background as yourself but with the RAAF. It would have been an amazing teaching tool to have had to get students sorted out with procedural stuff and for simple practice and now it is! It is basically this system that is now integrated into real aircraft electronics so you can run the same scenario in the sim then go and plug into a real aircraft and then do it again for real! Not sure what half these simmers are whingeing about or what they expect - I guess if you have done enough real world flying then you can actually appreciate how impressive this is sitting on a desk top PC!

Quote

 

 

Edited May 19, 2021 by coastaldriver

[GSalden 4,656]

43 minutes ago, simbol said:

I would ignore..

S.

You’re probably right 😬

But I hope that he is right .... 🤠

[simbol 5,819]

1 minute ago, GSalden said:

You’re probably right 😬

But I hope that he is right .... 🤠

Have I released my updated version of AILRP witch will include some new landing lights? 

[GSalden 4,656]

3 minutes ago, simbol said:

Have I released my updated version of AILRP witch will include some new landing lights? 

Please, let me be happy with my phantasy 😫

Btw : your lights , can’t fly without them 👍

Edited May 19, 2021 by GSalden

[simbol 5,819]

Just now, GSalden said:

Please, let me be happy with my phantasy 😩

[micstatic 4,319]

3 hours ago, nirgal76 said:

The producers, not the developers

actually both.  all the major developers are also calling it msfs.  

[KL Oo 699]

1 hour ago, simbol said:

Have I released my updated version of AILRP witch will include some new landing lights? 

Hi Simbol,

When are you planning on releasing an updated version of AILRP? 🙂  

On a completely unrelated note I'm really hoping 5.2 brings some much needed improvements and bug fixes...the longer it takes the firm the hold MSFS cements...