Just flight stopped development for Fokker 28 p3d

[jimimac 19]

Disappointed we will not be getting the Fokker 28 fellowship for P3d as just flight have moved there focus to msfs was looking forward to this aircraft. https://community.justflight.com/topic/2415/is-the-f28-dead-for-p3dv4-5
 

[G-RFRY 1,710]

Yes JF have moved to MSFS for future development FSX ,P3D and XP are no longer seen as sims worth supporting.

[neilhewitt 493]

Another blow to the P3D community. And I guess we'll never see the Avro Jet versions of the BAe 146 for P3D either, which is a shame as I have no interest in steam gauge aircraft. At least they were honest and straightforward about their decision and the reasons behind it. I can respect that even if I don't like it.

What bugs me is that by migrating headlong to MSFS we're rapidly creating another monoculture. MSFS becomes the only game in town, so everyone has to move there or get stuck in the past. If LM keeps releasing new versions of P3D (and it will) and these updates make more existing products incompatible, and developers won't update them, then we'll end up with a situation where 'stock P3D' is all there is. That may suit LM's commercial customers but it'll destroy their unofficial beta test group - ie us. Not sure what's going on in X-Plane land but historically it was all about the freeware there with commercial developer support only picking up recently and presumably dying back again now. I guess that's where P3D will end up too - reliant on freeware projects. 

Meanwhile those of us for whom MSFS simply doesn't cut it yet have to watch nervously to see if it ever adds the features we need or if we're just going to be excluded from any progress in the hobby from now on. It's enough to make a person think about moving to VR 😞

Oh, and when MS finally abandons the product - and it might well be the 10-year project they say it is, but it will eventually come to an end - then what do we all do then? While I don't want to get into the 'is it is sim or a game' argument the fact is that it's being developed by a game studio, hosted on a gaming platform, and ported to a game console (albeit one that is basically a high-spec PC), so like other games it will have a life span after which it's no longer relevant to the gaming community. When that happens, will MS be willing to keep supporting it as an online delivery platform just for the simmer community? My magic 8-ball says unlikely. Are we doomed to repeat this cycle forever?

(Spoiler: the answer is 'yes'.)

Edited July 6, 2021 by neilhewitt

[kaha 205]

I use MSFS, but I keep P3D V5. Probably I will not go to V6 then because I don't want to loose even more aircraft. 

Karl

[Shomron 251]

A bit off topic but related to the content in the post linked - I wonder why the x plane market is not as affected as the P3D market...?

[SimeonWilbury 220]

1 hour ago, neilhewitt said:

Oh, and when MS finally abandons the product - and it might well be the 10-year project they say it is, but it will eventually come to an end - then what do we all do then? While I don't want to get into the 'is it is sim or a game' argument the fact is that it's being developed by a game studio, hosted on a gaming platform, and ported to a game console (albeit one that is basically a high-spec PC), so like other games it will have a life span after which it's no longer relevant to the gaming community. When that happens, will MS be willing to keep supporting it as an online delivery platform just for the simmer community? My magic 8-ball says unlikely. Are we doomed to repeat this cycle forever?

This is probably my main concern with MSFS in terms of longevity, the system they use to deliver the visuals/ scenery etc. is ingenious but we also all know how trigger-happy companies are to shut their servers down when the product stops making money. One hopes that support will be more long-lived and take a more evolutionary approach but it very much depends on the business- model Microsoft and Asobo go after.

The issue with Software as a service is that one day the service stops and what happens to all your prior investments? The offline version at least mitigates this but I do quite like the security offered by older sims that keep all of their primary features in the box rather than the cloud.

I do still think MSFS is a promising platform and I hope it will evolve enough as a platform to make a good replacement for P3D for more hardcore simmers, though I am still disappointed at the speed at which support for P3D has declinded.

Insofar as Just Flight are concerned, they are also to their credit completing their P3D aircraft still in development in the A300B4-200 and 747 Classic which I still eagerly await as someone who enjoys a good steam-gauge jetliner (the 747 Classic in particular I've wanted a good simulation of since I started simming almost a decade ago).

I'm somewhat reconciled with the decline in support for P3D at this point. I'm simply glad at a personal level that by the time the last major outstanding P3D aircraft in development are released I'll have more or less what I want from the sim. I'll give MSFS a few years to have proper study-level coverage and then maybe I'll invest.

[neilhewitt 493]

1 minute ago, SimeonWilbury said:

I do still think MSFS is a promising platform and I hope it will evolve enough as a platform to make a good replacement for P3D for more hardcore simmers, though I am still disappointed at the speed at which support for P3D has declinded.

And (final point from me here, as this isn't really what the thread is about) if I'm being honest, I think we (the P3D community) are at least partly to blame for this. I well remember the many many people saying 'well, I'm not buying any more add-ons for P3D then, I'm going to wait for MSFS' - the day after MSFS was first announced! Developers heard this, they saw the revenue drop off as people did exactly what they said they would, and they made commercial decisions accordingly. We collectively made this bed, and now we have to lie in it. 

[SimeonWilbury 220]

5 minutes ago, neilhewitt said:

And (final point from me here, as this isn't really what the thread is about) if I'm being honest, I think we (the P3D community) are at least partly to blame for this. I well remember the many many people saying 'well, I'm not buying any more add-ons for P3D then, I'm going to wait for MSFS' - the day after MSFS was first announced! Developers heard this, they saw the revenue drop off as people did exactly what they said they would, and they made commercial decisions accordingly. We collectively made this bed, and now we have to lie in it. 

You are right on that, I'll admit to having a similar initial reaction (though wasn't that vocal) initially before I eventually decided to stick with P3D. In fairness given the length of time since a major Microsoft Flight Sim Announcement it was understandable. It's also why I don't at all blame Just Flight for their decision. frankly I'm just glad they're seeing their other P3D Projects through.

[Nuno Pinto 1,395]

I wonder if the 747 will still make it. It's been in development for like 20 years.

[CaptKornDog 282]

What a let down, ugh.

[SimeonWilbury 220]

37 minutes ago, Nuno Pinto said:

I wonder if the 747 will still make it. It's been in development for like 20 years.

JF have confirmed multiple times it is still in active development (most recently about a week ago), but from the sounds of it a lot of the hard systems-coding work is being done by a single developer so the bug-fixing etc. is taking time. The A300 has also spent a long time in the bugfixing stage.

It's not ideal given the lack of progress but in fairness I'm not aware of them dropping an aircraft at such a late stage of development and I'll forgive the length since the initial announcement if is released in a solid state. I've personally wondered as to whether JF should maybe wait a bit longer to announce these more major projects as these things do take time (specially when developed by a small team, iirc the Leonardo MaddogX for P3D was developed for multiple years in virtual silence).

Ether way I have very little in the way of criticism for them beyond the fact that I wished they were able to dedicate more in the way of post-release support after the initial weeks/months following release. I'm very fond of the VC10 but the JF aircraft (VC10 Professional) is still suffering from the same bugs in the DC electrical system in v4 that it did on release and lacks a proper load manager utility meaning I very rarely fly it.

[dbw1 445]

3 hours ago, Shomron said:

A bit off topic but related to the content in the post linked - I wonder why the x plane market is not as affected as the P3D market...?

I've got all 3 installed: MSFS, XP11 and P3dV5.

MSFS visually is great but weather (real world) is sub par -this needs work -  and more often than not does not depict what is actually there. With the PMDG and Aerosoft RJ there are a couple of good aircraft now. That said I am tired of all the CTD I am getting. I have it on 3 out of 4 flights since the last update. Being in Canada there are good add on airports now.

XP11... XPlane simple works. Some of the add on aircraft are simply great as is the quality of add on airports. Clouds are so so, not crazy about the dull views i get sometime but even though this is a little dated this sim simply works and for me has a lot less problems than the other two....It will stay on my computer. real world weather is usually pretty close. ORBX TE has made the world excellent. if I had to choose only one XP11 would probably be it.

P3d...Still good. Great aircraft (PMDG, FSLabs etc) and the real world weather is usually spot on. ORBX scenery has made the world here good.

[Biology 1,347]

5 hours ago, G-RFRY said:

Yes JF have moved to MSFS for future development FSX ,P3D and XP are no longer seen as sims worth supporting.

It seems like they only abandoned FSX and P3D.

It is quite upsetting as I just recently switched to P3D from X-Plane. I really don't know why only P3D market is affected while X-Plane market is "holding up well", but it is what it is. I was quite excited for their upcoming A300 but now I definitely won't get it as it is quite likely that they won't update the A300 and simply leave it with (most likely many) release bugs. Their lack of updates to the BAe 146 for P3D also shows that, contrary to the X-Plane version which got so much more love.

Edited July 6, 2021 by BiologicalNanobot

[Biology 1,347]

3 hours ago, Shomron said:

A bit off topic but related to the content in the post linked - I wonder why the x plane market is not as affected as the P3D market...?

This is something I have been wondering too. I think it is because MSFS is viewed as the successor to P3D with the same add-on ecosystem (including PMDG, Leonardo, A2A etc.) while X-Plane is a separate simulator with its own add-on ecosystem.

[pedrotrindade 335]

2 hours ago, Nuno Pinto said:

I wonder if the 747 will still make it. It's been in development for like 20 years.

The real one took less time...