Future of p3d ?

[georgio1952 52]

I'm tired of the negative impressions you guys write about SIMULATOR PREPAR3D if you like the other GAMES like microsoft flight simulator or any other game so much you can tell me why you sit and write here  go and enjoy your own fairy tale. I have never visited other forums to prove to them that the game they play has no future..

[shivers9 1,174]

2 hours ago, Afterburner said:

Indeed, 19 months was the time period between the release of v3 in October 2015 and v4 in May 2017, with four point updates and three hotfixes in-between. It feels like P3D had its heydays during v3 and v4. Now, not only are updates coming slower, but they add fewer major features, and no one has an idea what they are currently working on.

I think that adding satellite image streaming (like in the other simulator) is the only way LM will be able to attract new and old customers in future versions. I just don't see many simmers willing to shell out another $200 for v6 Professional version that will bring marginal improvements.

Two points:

1. I know we all get a little worked up when we don't get some fresh red meat to chew on with our sims. I personally would rather wait until LM has a good solid upgrade than for them to keep dumping updates every few weeks or days that break all the features that they released in the last update. I love a good dumpster fire from time to time but don't want one every other week.

2. It's great that you enjoy the pretty pictures in your sim of choice but for many of us there are lots of other considerations for the sim that currently fits our needs and desires. Maybe think of it this way. Just imagine that the other thingy's did not have the Sat images and compare the remaining features to P3D as it exist today. That may help you understand better why many here are just not ready to move on. Maybe in a couple of years we will all be smiling and high-fives all around as we cruise on the deck of the USS Microsoft. Who knows!!?

[Captain Campion 7]

If the next upgrade demands the addons to be updated, how many third parties will come back to patch their products? How many users will upgrade to the next version then?

P3D is in a very complicated position now. Customers demand updates, but LM must be really careful with said updates.

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

11 hours ago, Afterburner said:

Indeed, 19 months was the time period between the release of v3 in October 2015 and v4 in May 2017, with four point updates and three hotfixes in-between. It feels like P3D had its heydays during v3 and v4. Now, not only are updates coming slower, but they add fewer major features, and no one has an idea what they are currently working on.

I think that adding satellite image streaming (like in the other simulator) is the only way LM will be able to attract new and old customers in future versions. I just don't see many simmers willing to shell out another $200 for v6 Professional version that will bring marginal improvements.

+1

[V1ROTA7E 718]

I think MSFS is what P3D was to FSX. The main difference was, we were desperately wanting a 64 bit sim that was using DX10, and the promise from P3D was there. The number of "tweaks" to get better performance out of FSX...oh lord...that .CFG. I'm so glad I don't have to worry about "affinity mask" and "bufferpools" anymore. We were all familiar with the sim engine and mechanics, we all had the right addon software and hardware, and P3D was just a better version of what we knew.

I felt like, during the FSX days, tweaking things became a huge part of simming for a bunch of us. It was almost like a PC benchmarking tool that we could fly with. I remember when P3D was new and folks were skeptical about going over to a new sim, in hopes that the magic fix for FSX was right around the corner. We get comfortable and used to our ways of doing things. We were finally able to stop constantly tweaking things and enjoy the sim we wanted from the beginning. How FSX was supposed to be. They did it, it works now, and it works well. Rob A showed us the 30hz trick, and we were finally getting smooooooth performance. We made the sim our own in a sense. Shoot, I remember when I had both FSX and P3D v2 installed simultaneously. I wasn't quite sold on P3D yet, but I took up the Cub, and saw the vertical stabilizer's shadow on the propeller. That right there sold me. Then with them fixing OOMs, FSX went bye bye without any hesitaiton.

However, there are still people active in the FSX forum, and there will still be folks active in the P3D forum. But I *think* that over time, as more familiar addons make their way into MSFS, that sim will be the natural progression of the hobby. It's been 15 years since FSX was released. 15. To die-hard Microsoft simmers (I stared with FS98), X-Plane is just...well, X-Plane. It's almost like it's a different category LoL. It's always been that sim over there. (I did have a period of about 3-4 years where I was very into X-Plane). Now, we're seeing a blurring of the sim world. If you have the hard drive space, I say, go for all 3. There's no need to pick and choose. I have spent A LOT of money on FSX, P3D, X Plane, and MSFS. I want to hold on to them all.

As far as the future of P3D, I don't know. @Afterburner said it well. I think either people will continue using P3D with it's updates and be very happy. Others will get frustrated with paying for new versions with "marginal improvements." I think it's fair to say now that P3D is a very matured sim, as well as X Plane. It's kinda like -- you know what you're gonna get with those sims. With MSFS, we don't know what we're going to get yet. It's a completely new simulator that's targeting....everyone. I think that because it's so new, and we're limited on how we can fine tune things as we have in the past (comes from our FSX tweaking addiction), MSFS is a turn off. We want the ability to "make the sim our own," and MSFS is making those choices for us. However, I think that in the next 2-3 years, we will see a huge percentage of P3D users make the jump over to MSFS as their primary sim. If it can do everything we want it to and more, there will be no reason to continue using P3D. If you have your PMDG 777, GSX, FS2CREW, ActiveSKy, ORBX, airports, etc., with better graphics and performance, why would one stay with P3D? That's assuming that P3D doesn't have an Ace up their sleeve. This is really a great time to be a sim pilot; between MSFS, X-Plane 12, and P3D, we've got a real choice of how we want to experience flight.

Long post, sorry, but I hope you take it with a grain of salt.

[JNS 106]

16 minutes ago, V1ROTA7E said:

. This is really a great time to be a sim pilot; between MSFS, X-Plane 12, and P3D, we've got a real choice of how we want to experience flight.

Long post, sorry, but I hope you take it with a grain of salt.

We may not as long as we have a bunch of people almost "hoping" for the demise of P3D and XP....and the developers and retailers dropping all interest in P3D.

[V1ROTA7E 718]

2 minutes ago, JNS said:

We may not as long as we have a bunch of people almost "hoping" for the demise of P3D and XP....and the developers and retailers dropping all interest in P3D.

I understand your sentiment, but what else is there to add to P3D? Everything you could want is already there. Maybe you want a specific airplane that hasn't been developed yet, but that's been the case since the beginning of flight simulation. I'm sure that developers will continue to update their products in P3D to maintain loyalty to their original customers. But owning a business, you have to focus on your bottom line, and if you make sales in XP or MSFS, that's where you'll go.

I don't necessarily agree that people are hoping for the demise of P3D and XP. Both communities are still very active. For developers, it becomes driven by the overall interest in a sim that will drive them to shift priorities.

[JNS 106]

26 minutes ago, V1ROTA7E said:

I understand your sentiment, but what else is there to add to P3D? Everything you could want is already there. Maybe you want a specific airplane that hasn't been developed yet, but that's been the case since the beginning of flight simulation. I'm sure that developers will continue to update their products in P3D to maintain loyalty to their original customers. But owning a business, you have to focus on your bottom line, and if you make sales in XP or MSFS, that's where you'll go.

I don't necessarily agree that people are hoping for the demise of P3D and XP. Both communities are still very active. For developers, it becomes driven by the overall interest in a sim that will drive them to shift priorities.

I basically agree with you. I was just commenting that if developers and retailers drop interest in P3D (for whatever reasons) then we could end up with no choices.  Actually, I was thinking that the discontent that many are having with the update problems, forced updates, and server issues with MSFS, the developers/retailers might have a little incentive to continue on with P3D for at least a while longer.  Who knows?  Myself, I'm holding off on MSFS for a while.  I'm just not in the mood to be continually chasing problems.  When MSFS was first announced I really was excited that we would have a fully (or at least mostly) working sim presented to us, not one that would take years more in the making.  And at the time, it seemed that many thought that MS had probably already spent 5 years in the development of MSFS.

Edited November 21, 2021 by JNS

[Christopher Low 5,353]

If P3D received streaming photoscenery, updated autogen, and a fully working implementation of TrueSky, then the new Microsoft Flight Simulator would have a fight on its hands. If LM decide to go down that route, then all bets are off in my house.

[blaunarwal 432]

14 minutes ago, V1ROTA7E said:

I think MSFS is what P3D was to FSX

You are certainly right for part of the users here. Like you, I´m from the tweaking generation and yet with P3D5.2 HF1 I have bought as many addons like never before. I remember people saying, they stopp buying addons for P3D when the first message came there´s a new MSFS on the horizon. I continued to enjoy P3D with new addons.

Now, a year waiting for the new sim and a year with the new sim available has gone. I didn´t take the plunge into the new world. I´m tired of tweaking which I did my livelong.

With P3D5.2 I have reached the destination. 

If I leave P3D for MSFS, it means tweaking the whole world from scratch again. Everything there seems to need an addon, a living world, seasons, airports and aircraft to name a few. Things, I expected from the new sim i admit. Pretty naive for a life-time simmer. 

I don´t feel tempted shopping fixes for MSFS. For P3D I don´t need to do this. I have time to fly. 

Yes, you said, one can have all three sims and even DCS on the drives. I use already too much time for one sim and one community. I can´t split myself into 3-4. I have not the time to use different sims. Maybe also not the brain, to have three sims in my mind, since all have different keys, different files to mod etc. I still have a job which needs my brain and it´s pretty filled with this already. 

Dan 😉

[Alti 65]

Those who operate a professional home cockpit will have to stay with the P3D. LM will do everything to ensure that the P3D is further developed for the professional sector. This is the claim of LM.
The MSFS is and remains a "game" for homecockpit operators, until Asobo allows the data of the sim to be read and influenced from the outside. 
For professionals, the simulation is in the foreground, not the beautiful streamed world of the ground.

Translated with DeepL.com/Translator.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

22 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

I agree completely about the lack of communication. I am not an academic licensee but paid good money for a professional version to integrate it with and use with real world flight training

Sorry for the delay in replying. Social activities!

That’s pretty poor but I read the T&C and no one is entitled to support. I would have thought Pro users would be. They don’t help themselves.

22 hours ago, coastaldriver said:

Once upon a time not so long ago I was asked to join the LM team with the instroduction of the sim into a military customers new training school I surrendered after attempting 4 times to provide them with the relevant docs etc via their employee portal and even in contact with them could not find anybody to sort that out or who could help. I thought do I want to work for them? No way and proceeded no further. So LM's communcations issues and customer service problems extend beyond P3D. 

It’s like their digging a hole for themselves. When you consider the point made by @Afterburner and @Sesquashtooit does make you think about what is the future.

But with 20+ years of experience with the ESP engine behind the various front ends I would lose all that knowledge if I switched to another sim.

Ultimately for me it comes down to what sim FSL Concorde is designed for. Let’s face it, when you’re 12 miles above the Earth travelling faster than a rifle bullet looking at the scenery isn’t exactly top of your list of priorities!

[Ray Proudfoot 8,954]

20 hours ago, Sesquashtoo said:

Ray, I think, truly that M.S. has taken some wind out of their sails...and I fear that they might just let the consumer side of P3D now slide into oblivion.  We all know that it is their military applications (Professional license) that are generating their interest and cash flow. Not us... So...I'm not scratching the side of my head in the lack of communication and actual updating.  v5.2 might just be the swan song, 'see ya'...on the consumer end. Might be.

Perhaps you have a point. Only time will tell. But there’s still a lot of products available for P3D and developers like FlyTampa are still happy to provide new products.

[sonny147 579]

IMHO, P£D is my sim to go too and will be for some time yet, it may not be the prettiest or the cheapest, but for shear immersion with all the well known addons and good hardware it simply cannot be beaten ( yet) after all we wouldnt be here would we 😁, P3D Pro Simming !

[reecemj 146]

44 minutes ago, sonny147 said:

IMHO, P£D is my sim to go too and will be for some time yet, it may not be the prettiest or the cheapest, but for shear immersion with all the well known addons and good hardware it simply cannot be beaten ( yet) after all we wouldnt be here would we 😁, P3D Pro Simming !

You said what I feel every time I fly P3D. Thanks!