Future of p3d ?

[sim4life 24]

22 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

So…

• DX9 to DX12
• 32-bit to 64-bit
• the whole world’s coastlines and ground textures improved out of all proportion 
• road traffic fixed.
• Atmospherics hugely improved
• Assigning core functions to specific processors on your CPU resulting in far better performance

didn’t impress you? 😳

Impress? No, not at all. I would consider your list the bare minimum one could expect. In fact, taking into account how many years the above took and the amount of known things they still haven't fixed and the complete lack of any kind of general evolvement, it's nothing but a huge disappointment.

Anyway, you're getting off topic. This thread is literally about "the future", not "the past". No matter how awesome you think LM is for fixing the basic stuff, the flight sim community survey again confirmed what we all already knew and that is that the p3d community is dead in the water and that almost every single one of the developers we care about are long gone. I don't like this any more than you do but you gotta be honest here. LM was fat and happy and let the 3rd party developers keep the platform alive for many years as there really was no alternative. They didn't really do much themselves. And they cared absolute zero about the community.

Of course there are a lot of good addons already available and p3d won't probably just stop working any day soon. But again, this topic is about the future. Those of us who used FSX know how fast a working sim degrades when it's no longer developed or has a working community. Hardware will get incompatible, Windows introduces updates that makes things incompatible, addons get incompatible with each other and there is noone there to fix it, activation servers starts to get shut down so it gets harder and harder if you must reinstall something, and so on.

But more important, I really want my sim to improve all the time and I want to enjoy the new technologies and advances in software and hardware. If I wanted a static sim that is freezed in a working state I could just go to a museum.

 

[sim4life 24]

5 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

🤣🤣 You clearly don’t appreciate how many people are waiting for that aircraft.

I waited for that aircraft as well. I also stopped waiting for that aircraft quite some time ago. In fact, someone pretty much developed an entire new flight simulator while I waited. I get that there might be some users over at the fslabs forums that will get it but most not on the p3d platform, I'd guess.

Here in the p3d forum I've honestly only seen a single user talking about it regularly. I consider that some kind of indication.

[Ray Proudfoot 9,048]

@sim4life, looking through your posting history I see you have purchased MSFS. So no response from me to your posts. Enjoy yourself with your new sim.

[sim4life 24]

5 hours ago, d.tsakiris said:

I seriously doubt that's "a fact"...

There are a few projects that were initiated before the p3d platform died. I guess the developers hopes to get at least a few bucks for the work they spent the last years. The number of respected developers initiating new projects for the p3d platform in 2023 are maybe not literally zero but pretty darn close.

Many of the p3d users are still in denial and thinks that the p3d platform has a bright future. I mean the biggest thing that excited the p3d community (what's left of it) in the last months was a totally non-interesting article on the p3d web site, and a developer forgetting to remove som fictional internal "p3d v6" menu option from their internal testing screenshots. If you're a developer you can't afford that kind of denial. No community, no income. Simple as that. Don't take it from me though, take it from the flight sim community survey.

 

[sim4life 24]

12 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@sim4life, looking through your posting history I see you have purchased MSFS. So no response from me to your posts. Enjoy yourself with your new sim.

You don't talk to users based on they having bought another sim?  Omg, this really confirms the childish level in here these days.

Another way to see it is that users who use multiple sims actually have real experience and knowledge and are not stuck in their own little bubble.

But yeah, I have bought MSFS. I have also bought X-plane. And FS9, FS2004, FSX, P3D, DCS, Aerofly and pretty much any other sim out there. I have also developed addons for most of those sims. I do not like all of the sims I've bought, not at all. But they have still given me valuable knowledge.

And you know, one can express criticism and facts because one actually like a sim. I really liked P3D but LM completely blew it. Sitting here trying to defend them and convince the community how awesome they are is just silly and pure denial. Many of us invested a lot of time and money in this sim and we're not happy how things went.

Edited April 3, 2023 by sim4life

[David Vega 348]

23 minutes ago, sim4life said:

the p3d community is dead in the water

Then, why are you in this forum? I would think that this forum is for those P3D users that enjoy exchanging information about P3D. I fail to see the enjoyment of evangelizing about other simulators in the P3D forum.

We don't know what's in the future of P3D. We do know that it's not the most popular PC-based flight simulator, but most P3D users, whether it's their only simulator or not, are still using it, enjoy flying with it, and enjoy exchanging information about current and possible improvements. But new improvements are not necessary to enjoy P3D.  

[sim4life 24]

2 minutes ago, David Vega said:

Then, why are you in this forum? I would think that this forum is for those P3D users that enjoy exchanging information about P3D. I fail to see the enjoyment of evangelizing about other simulators in the P3D forum.

We don't know what's in the future of P3D. We do know that it's not the most popular PC-based flight simulator, but most P3D users, whether it's their only simulator or not, are still using it, enjoy flying with it, and enjoy exchanging information about current and possible improvements. But new improvements are not necessary to enjoy P3D.  

Because I'm a heavy p3d user and have been so from day 1. And I'm angry with LM for totally screwing it up. And I therefore gave my 2 cents on the "Future of p3d" as this topic is called. If you don't like facts or my opinion, well I can't do anything about that.

If opinions like that are not welcome here, maybe you should clarify that the rules here are that you are only allowed to express positive opinions of LM and p3d. This rule is pretty much alreay in place though, considering how people get bashed and banned for stating facts and expressing negative opinions of p3d.

I mean just look at this thread. If you own another sim you're obviously not even worth talking to. Thaẗ́'s not exactly a sign of a healthy community.

[Ray Proudfoot 9,048]

@sim4life, how can anyone talk about the future when we don’t know what LM will bring in v6? Hence why we talk about the present and for me, what I like about v5.3. Suggesting we’re in denial is insulting. Everyone has different priorities. LM has to stay within certain parameters with P3D. No one except them and Microsoft knows what those are.

I don’t see any praise from you for P3D at all. It’s all doom and gloom. Presumably why you bought MSFS. The more I read about that sim the less likely I am to buy it.

[Ray Proudfoot 9,048]

3 minutes ago, sim4life said:

And I'm angry with LM for totally screwing it up.

What have they “screwed up”? You haven’t listed a single thing. 🙄

[sim4life 24]

12 minutes ago, David Vega said:

But new improvements are not necessary to enjoy P3D

Well, it kind of is. Maybe not at first but things will move in that direction sooner or later. Anything that is not improved is degrading, especially in the software world. Good luck reinstalling your 15 year old FSX with 50 addons, where 80% them require a long gone activation server or a manual registration process from a developer that left the business 10 years ago. And your 24 core CPU and $9999 GPU won't be of any help either.

You can remain in denial and wait for this to happen again or you can do something about it before it's too late.

And as I said some of us are actually in this game to follow the technological advances. Using a simulator in a freezed working state would make this hobby completely meaningless for me. Especially when seeing how other sims improve daily and getting all the attention from the 3rd party devs and the community working together.

 

[sim4life 24]

6 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

What have they “screwed up”? You haven’t listed a single thing. 🙄

Did you read the flightsim community survey? Did it give you any kind of hint?

Is the p3d forums here full of life and positive attitude? Could that be another hint?

[Ray Proudfoot 9,048]

Just now, sim4life said:

Did you read the flightsim community survey? Did it give you any kind of hint?

Is the p3d forums here full of life and positive attitude? Could that be another hint?

Not in detail, no. The reason this forum is far quieter than the MSFS one is because far fewer problems are encountered with a mature sim. People tend to post when they have problems, not to say they haven’t.

[sim4life 24]

12 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

how can anyone talk about the future when we don’t know what LM will bring in v6?

Well, that's kind of the point.

Most of us prefer working with developers who actually communicate with the community and tells us what's coming in the next version. Developers who care about bug reports, listens to feature requests, presents a road map, and so on. That's how you involve the community and 3rd party devs and evolve together. I can't name a single sim other than p3d that completely screwed it by doing the exact opposite.

You on the other hand try to use LM's total lack of communication as something positive. I guess that's the ultimate sign of denial and that it keeps your hopes up. Since we haven't heard a word, it must be something big. Maybe this summer. Maybe this christmas. Maybe this year. Maybe this summer then. Ok nothing this year either. Wow it must really be something big.

Also, you miss the fact that p3d is beyond the point of no return. It doesn't matter if v6 is going to be totally awesome (although it won't, give LM's track record) even if it's ever released. But even if it would be awesome the marked is already gone. The community and the 3rd party developers won't do that kind of U turn twice, it doesn't work that way. LM has clearly showed that they have no intentions to work together with the community and 3rd party devs. A new version number won't change that fact.

 

[Kalnon 160]

Regardless of the future of P3D, overall, I am enjoying the current version of P3D and what it offers, now that I'm learning how to set up the sim the way that I want it.  I too have tried just about every modern flight simulator out there.  What I ask myself after every flight is, was the flight enjoyable? and did I have fun?  The answers to those questions when it comes to flying in P3Dv5.3 is usually yes and yes.  I can't say the same for the last few times I used MSFS.  Some of you may feel the same way, others may think I'm nuts.  Flight simulation enthusiasts are a passionate bunch and I guess we all have our differences but there's one thing that unites us all I hope, and that's our love for aviation and flight simulation.

[sim4life 24]

12 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Not in detail, no. The reason this forum is far quieter than the MSFS one is because far fewer problems are encountered with a mature sim. People tend to post when they have problems, not to say they haven’t.

Alright I can give you another explanation then, based on facts. This forum is far quiter because extremely few are using this sim these days and almost no 3rd party developer has any intention of developing anything new for it.

And again, I get no joy from that, but denial isn't going to make me any happier.