1 hour ago, gyzmonfishball said:

and would not like to see another one get locked by admins.

It's more likely any miscreants will have a holiday for misbehaviour. Locking is last resort.

Just for fun, I asked ChatGPT what it would consider as essential for a military flight simulator. I then asked it for the same but for a civilian flight simulator. Here are its responses:

There are several essential features that are required in a military flight simulator to provide an effective training environment for pilots. Some of these features include:

Realistic Flight Dynamics: The simulator must be capable of accurately simulating the physics of flight and the behavior of the aircraft in different conditions such as turbulence, high-G maneuvers, stall and spin situations.

Authentic Aircraft Systems: The simulator should replicate the functionality of the actual aircraft systems including avionics, weapon systems, navigation and communication equipment, and other vital subsystems.

Advanced Visuals: A high-quality graphical representation of the aircraft and the environment is necessary to provide a realistic experience for the pilot. This includes accurate 3D models of terrain, buildings, and other objects.

Multiple Aircraft Types: The simulator should support a variety of aircraft types, including fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to enable pilots to train for different missions.

Scenario Creation: The simulator should have a capability to create custom scenarios and missions that simulate real-world situations that military pilots may encounter. This helps to provide a realistic training environment and prepare pilots for actual missions.

Multiplayer Capability: The ability to connect multiple simulators in a network allows for realistic joint mission training and enhances the training experience by allowing pilots to interact with each other.

Debriefing Capability: After the training session, a detailed debriefing session is crucial to assess the performance of the pilot and the effectiveness of the training program. The simulator should provide a comprehensive debriefing system that can review the entire mission from different angles, replay key moments, and provide detailed statistics on pilot performance. 

 

Civilian flight simulators are designed to provide a realistic experience of operating a civilian aircraft. Here are some essential features that are typically included in a civilian flight simulator:

Realistic Flight Dynamics: The simulator should accurately simulate the physics of flight and the behavior of the aircraft in different conditions such as turbulence, weather conditions, and different types of maneuvers.

Authentic Aircraft Systems: The simulator should replicate the functionality of the actual aircraft systems including avionics, navigation, communication equipment, and other vital subsystems.

Advanced Visuals: A high-quality graphical representation of the aircraft and the environment is necessary to provide a realistic experience for the user. This includes accurate 3D models of terrain, buildings, and other objects.

Multiple Aircraft Types: The simulator should support a variety of aircraft types, including single-engine, multi-engine, and different classes of aircraft to enable users to experience a wide range of aircraft.

Scenario Creation: The simulator should have a capability to create custom scenarios and missions that simulate real-world situations that civilian pilots may encounter. This helps to provide a realistic training environment and prepare pilots for actual situations.

Flight Planning Tools: The simulator should have the capability to plan and create flight plans using actual aviation charts, including routes, altitudes, and waypoints.

Weather Simulation: The simulator should include weather simulation capabilities, allowing users to experience different weather conditions such as rain, snow, wind, and fog, which affect aircraft performance.

Multiplayer Capability: The ability to connect multiple simulators in a network allows for realistic joint mission training and enhances the training experience by allowing users to interact with each other.

Debriefing Capability: After the training session, a detailed debriefing session is crucial to assess the user's performance and the effectiveness of the training program. The simulator should provide a comprehensive debriefing system that can review the entire flight from different angles, replay key moments, and provide detailed statistics on the user's performance.

That's pretty accurate, David!

Below is where I hope to see improvements in V6.  I think P3d (or 3rd party) already gives me what I need from the other points.

 

Advanced Visuals: A high-quality graphical representation of the aircraft and the environment is necessary to provide a realistic experience for the user. This includes accurate 3D models of terrain, buildings, and other objects.

Weather Simulation: The simulator should include weather simulation capabilities, allowing users to experience different weather conditions such as rain, snow, wind, and fog, which affect aircraft performance.

Prepar3D is known for it's best civilian flight models. PMDG / QW / FsLabs already created good enough planes to operate on VATSIM events, P3D has connection to Navigraph for navigation data and procedures, also A freeware program, called Tomato Shade can give this simulator advanced visuals when it comes to sky and cloud modification, also not to forget Hi-Fi Simulations Active sky. A2A Accu-feel add-on gives better physics and visuals in the sim, also ORBX offers landclass and photoreal scenery. 

What you guys on this page already want is already achieved in Prepar3D v4. if you want no add-on representation in this sim, on better graphical level, I sincerely doubt P3D would even consider the needs of civilian simmers as this. P3D is mainly used for training already, why they should consider better landclass scenery if ORBX already provided one? 

 

Edited April 6, 20233 yr by PavlinS

2 hours ago, PavlinS said:

P3D is mainly used for training already, why they should consider better landclass scenery if ORBX already provided one? 

This the exact topic of this thread. The future as it stands curently, doesn't include 95% of 3PD because they have already jumped ship. Will Orbx support landclass scenery for V6, that will all depend on the changes made to the upcoming version, backwards compatibility and all that jazz. If P3D users want to stay on the current versions then yes, we have tonnes of addon scenery and aircraft to choose from. Moving on to V6 may very well see none of these aftermarket scenery/aircraft packages being compatible and thats where the vanilla base package install needs to have these improvements such as ORBX quality scenery already built in.

6 minutes ago, Garys said:

Moving on to V6 may very well see none of these aftermarket scenery/aircraft packages being compatible and thats where the vanilla base package install needs to have these improvements such as ORBX quality scenery already built in.

I sincerely doubt ORBX will try to do new landclass scenery for v6, which means you might be right. 

8 minutes ago, PavlinS said:

I sincerely doubt ORBX will try to do new landclass scenery for v6, which means you might be right. 

The landclass for V5 was vastly improved by default so I imagine that will carry forward anyhow. If they could provide True earth quality textures upgrade in the base installers then that would be fantastastic.

This is a fun thread while we wait to see where LM goes with V6.0 if it comes to real life at all. For once in my life as a simmer, I am glad to find that I am not in that group of hand wringers worried about the next release. Like many others I have said before that I could be happy with the current version for some years into the future if that is what it comes too. My hope would be that should I not like where the LM sim goes I will at least have a few years for MS to improve on their product. Win Win for me.

We can all guess at what the next few months and years may bring from LM but we just really have nothing to base those guesses on. We know that LM is working on the new graphics program but none of us have a clue how that may be introduced into the sim. If you do know then you have a stack of NDA's as tall as your monitor laying there on you desk. LOL.

We do know that for right now there are not many folks making add ons for P3d. We also know that in some form LM is going to have a flight sim. We also can be pretty sure that they have and will continue to contract for content for that sim even if we are no longer allowed to purchase those new releases. I personally have reason to believe that LM gives a lot more credit to the value of the inputs from users here in our hobby than some seem to believe.

LM is a big company and as such are not going to have the time of even the desire to take the time to pet each of us on the head. This seems to really get some folks in an up roar but such is life. I look forward to seeing what comes next but for the first time in a lot of years of crashing into buildings, I  see that whatever comes next will just be icing on the cake.

 

As Garys said ground textures were upgraded for the whole world. They’re really good now although I still prefer the colouring that FTX Global gives.

I was disappointed with EA so hope there are improvements in that area. My humble 1080Ti struggles in 4K with EA on so if there are improvements I suspect I may need to get a better card. But I’m planning on a new system so that should handle everything thrown at it.

5 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

As Garys said ground textures were upgraded for the whole world. They’re really good now although I still prefer the colouring that FTX Global gives.

I was disappointed with EA so hope there are improvements in that area. My humble 1080Ti struggles in 4K with EA on so if there are improvements I suspect I may need to get a better card. But I’m planning on a new system so that should handle everything thrown at it.

When you say EA improvements do you mean the clouds or the lighting? 
 

While I fly with Volumetric Clouds off (hate the global weather phenomenon), I can never go back to EA-off. The lighting for me is just so much more realistic with EA turned on. 

5 hours ago, DChockey08 said:

When you say EA improvements do you mean the clouds or the lighting? 

While I fly with Volumetric Clouds off (hate the global weather phenomenon), I can never go back to EA-off. The lighting for me is just so much more realistic with EA turned on. 

Clouds. My flights are invariably in daylight so sunrise / sunset effects aren’t important to me. I’ve tried EA On several times and can’t live with the washed out sky, very hazy and bluish views of the ground. Plus darkened cockpits and yes, I’ve tried the well known fix but it didn’t work on the Xtreme Prototypes Lear 25.

EA off removes those problems as well as keeping the VC lighting bright enough.

Just to point out the obvious even if we are all satisfied with the landclass scenery depiction we currently have, either default or the enhanced Orbx renditions, a P3D6 that continues with at level of realisim is not going to attract back the 95% of users that have left the platform thus making it very difficult for 3rd party developers to recommit as well.

Bruce

23 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Clouds. My flights are invariably in daylight so sunrise / sunset effects aren’t important to me. I’ve tried EA On several times and can’t live with the washed out sky, very hazy and bluish views of the ground. Plus darkened cockpits and yes, I’ve tried the well known fix but it didn’t work on the Xtreme Prototypes Lear 25.

EA off removes those problems as well as keeping the VC lighting bright enough.

I agree that the cockpits are too dark with EA on by default (although there are add-ons that correct it), and that volumetric clouds can look bad (but you can use EA with legacy clouds) but I wonder about the "washed out" sky... I have not seen it - the sky on my system looks very realistic during daylight actually. Can you post a picture maybe?  (I want to compare).

And as far as haze and blueish views of the ground, having EA on matches the following view from the window of our beloved Concorde much more than the FS-98 like unlimited visibility:

The other thing I like about EA on is that the sun emanates a warm glow that I don't see with EA off. However, sunsets and sunrises become unrealistic, and as soon as they set in, I want to turn EA off.

I agree with you, photo taken during one of my réal flights.

Edited April 8, 20233 yr by vjeanmarc

1 hour ago, Afterburner said:

I agree that the cockpits are too dark with EA on by default (although there are add-ons that correct it), and that volumetric clouds can look bad (but you can use EA with legacy clouds) but I wonder about the "washed out" sky... I have not seen it - the sky on my system looks very realistic during daylight actually. Can you post a picture maybe?  (I want to compare).

Sorry, but I'm passing on this request. The problem with EA On is it also turns on HDR which I definitely don't want. I know editing the cfg can turn HDR off but the problem is if you make a single change to any setting in the sim HDR is turned back on! Arrgghh!!!

Also, my1080Ti returns poorer performance with EA on so that's another downside. I saw nothing that encouraged me to persist with it. Negative feeling all the way. It appeals to many I'm sure but not to this user.