This post is definitely my personal feelings and musing, but sometimes it's nice to share our experiences to discuss with others.  Since MSFS came out, I've run P3D and MSFS side by side.  Today, that ended and P3D is departing my system. 

The final straw was trying to start P3D today and it is now crashing starting a flight.  Life is busy and I hadn't started P3D in 2-3 months (have done some short flying in DCS and MSFS).  It did it's moody thing and wouldn't load in to flight.  It seems it would do this every 6 or so months and I'd end up reinstalling everything.  With some 150 add-ons to install, it was a several day task. 

I have been a little particular purchasing nearly every MSFS addon through either the marketplace or Orbx Central.  This makes reinstalling basically a 2 click process.  I have the FBW and WT aircraft, but that's in the the community folder.  P3D seemed to have too much meddling in the background. 

Of the time I've spent with sims, I've spend so much more time actually flying with MSFS compared to P3D.  Today was the lightbulb that made me realize that.

I don't have everything I did in P3D.  Very high level airliners are still missing, and most notably missing for me are the peripherals.  I had a CDU and MCP for 737NG's.  I expect these will eventually come to MSFS, but they're not there yet.  ATC, AI, and weather get knocked pretty frequently, but I don't find them to be that far off from vanilla P3D.

Sorry for the rambling musings, but it was time to share.  It feels almost as if a load has been lifted not trying to maintain P3D anymore.  Realizing how nearly all of my time in MSFS has been flying instead of tweaking/troubleshooting was the final nail in the coffin.

@ESzczesniak Great concise wrap-up! I’m sure excerpts of your post fit the feelings and experiences of many. Much of all that good stuff you are missing now is in the pipeline for MSFS!

33 minutes ago, ESzczesniak said:

Of the time I've spent with sims, I've spend so much more time actually flying with MSFS compared to P3D.  Today was the lightbulb that made me realize that.

Welcome to the dark side! I haven't done a single tweak in 2020, not one, zero, nada! Like you, coming from years of tweaking and effing around with the cfg files, I can now actually do what we should do, FLY! Given I have a 2.5yo kid, I am welcoming this with open arms. I remember days before World of AI and AIG where I spent countless hours adding repaints to my AI, by hand. Never again! 😆

Absolutely my experience this weekend too. I loved P3d, but the old girl took up to much time with tinkering, getting it to run smoothly.

And finally, i have MSFS running very sweet, the first time ever. I wont be looking back. Which I never thought would happen to me. P3d will be uninstalled for the last time over the next week.

She did me good for many years.

Edited November 8, 20214 yr by dazza1980

It’s a lot of work to maintain multiple simulators, I’ve part with it also as I don’t have the time or energy to maintain multiple sims… and had to choose msfs for multiple reasons. Having said that I am very thankful for Lockheed Martin and all(well most all) third party developers for devoting time to p3d as it served me well in my years of using it and have no regrets of the money I spent on it.

I realize this is the MSFS forum so a lot of us will like your post etc...  I did the same 2 weeks ago when I cleansed my system from XP11 as well.  Technically I did reinstall a vanilla version for beta testing.  MSFS has its moments but it's getting better.  Honestly...every other sim was a tech demo for its first few years too imho.

Back in my time with P3D I remember it was never good combat sim. Even with VRS Superbug it lacked tremendously. There are DCS, Il2 for those who crave air combat.

I also run Aerofly 2 when I want to go VR. Basically the fps are about 8 times faster (in non VR 30 vs. 240 fps) And the controllers work to grab the knobs, no mice. I hate Meeces to Peeces !

EDIT: (The Steam Halloween sale had all the Aerofly2 stuff on sale).

Edited November 8, 20214 yr by Fielder

Day one convert for me to MSFS and I have never looked back . Thanks for your honest comments in starting this thread . 

I hear you @ESzczesniak !!

I just started to uninstall it recently and heck, it's a whole LOT of a sensation no other gives me ! It has to be this sim !

I have uninstalled pretty much all other sims you can name, but there's a special feel about this one, something in the Air - might be that MeteoBlue injection ?

Yeah, I can weap off X-Plane without pain, and P3D takes a bit more to byte the dust, IL-2 and DCS are fast, MFS, well, it actually sometimes uninstalls itself for me ! Did I ever get that sensation of starting a sim and then, out of nothing, it uninstalling itself in front of me, like capturing my deepest thoughts ? No ! NADA ! Nothing even close ! I have to take my hat off for ASOBO and MS !!!

@Joke-MODE-OFF: Congratulations @ESz... it's indeed a very tempting platform, has the potential to become a great simulator of flying around the World, let's all hope the developers can keep working and dedicating their time & efforts to making it even better !

😉

Edited November 8, 20214 yr by jcomm

I've bought a brand new pc just 4 weeks ago and bloodyhell if you have the machine fs2020 is phenomenal,  ive got everything on ultra and been flying the FBW A320 for the first time..... since the sim came out, im an xp11 simmer at heart but I won't be installing it....Im not running 2 sits.....very happy now with fs2020....its fantastic!

I completely understand anybody who decides to run just MSFS. It really is next gen.  For me though the flight simulation hobby is what excites me, not an individual sim.  I have P3d and XPlane alongside MSFS.

Post SU6, my MSFS looks stunning and is running beautifully.  Pre SU6 it looked awful. I even had a four day period with no simulator due to an SU5 update problem.

I use all three simulators because they all contain unique features - for example, Airfoil labs or A2A aircraft or my local airfield with Orbx scenery. None of these excellent products are available in MSFS, so there is no way I would uninstall the other simulators.

The next version of XPlane will be a day one purchase for me.  I can hear the remarks about no global satellite scenery, but not an issue for me as I can load up MSFS for that.  Having multiple sims to choose from is so good - the recent release Q4XP for XPlane is a case in point 

So good to have so much choice!

I went from FSX to P3D to XP10, then back to P3D and finally to XP11. After getting MSFS on day one, XP11 was removed from the system. I don't want to maintain two or more sims and MSFS, despite its flaws, is the future.

Running P3D after MSFS 2020 is like dating your X wife. 

Funny I was thinking the same this weekend. I have X-Plane 11 on the same 1TB NVME as MSFS2020 and I haven't really touched it since SU5. I too was thinking of archiving it too one of my backup drives as I really am enjoying MSFS for now. I do wish Microsoft/Asobo had adopted the philosophy that X-Plane uses for installing. I always have a current backup that I can instantly copy across to my Sim drive if anything catastrophic happens.

Maybe X-Plane 12 will once again create a very viable alternative for us flight sim fans. I am still looking forward to seeing the real reviews once it is released.