It's been half a year since 5.3 came out

[Stavros 295]

Anyone hoping for some mega update P3D v6 with scenery on the level of MSFS are delusional. Prepar3d was already a niche product, and it will only continue to grow more niche as the 'casual' simmers gravitate toward MSFS. These features are simply not important to the main customer base of P3D (who aren't people posting on this forum).

P3D will not die, I'm positive, but I can imagine that 3rd party development will slow down significantly (already happening, it seems). The products that are developed will continue to target the most serious simmers (home cockpit builders and those willing to shell out $120+ for an addon). I suspect scenery development will largely stagnate as well as it simply cannot generate the revenue necessary with a smaller and more focused user base (and frankly, those who *do* care about scenery will no doubt prefer MSFS anyway).

Those that still fall into the niche that P3D serves will no doubt continue to be served for years to come. But the more casual userbase who provided the income necessary to develop visual and scenery addons have already begun to move on and will no doubt continue to do so.

Edited August 26, 2022 by StAgre

[Patco Lch 1,465]

Count me proudly amount the niche P3D serves and I am preparing myself to spend $150 on a study level addon.

[Boeingnut 72]

1 hour ago, StAgre said:

Anyone hoping for some mega update P3D v6 with scenery on the level of MSFS are delusional. Prepar3d was already a niche product, and it will only continue to grow more niche as the 'casual' simmers gravitate toward MSFS. These features are simply not important to the main customer base of P3D (who aren't people posting on this forum).

P3D will not die, I'm positive, but I can imagine that 3rd party development will slow down significantly (already happening, it seems). The products that are developed will continue to target the most serious simmers (home cockpit builders and those willing to shell out $120+ for an addon). I suspect scenery development will largely stagnate as well as it simply cannot generate the revenue necessary with a smaller and more focused user base (and frankly, those who *do* care about scenery will no doubt prefer MSFS anyway).

Those that still fall into the niche that P3D serves will no doubt continue to be served for years to come. But the more casual userbase who provided the income necessary to develop visual and scenery addons have already begun to move on and will no doubt continue to do so.

Cool- can you provide the best lottery numbers as well; oh and an accurate seasonal forecast for the weather?

[chapstick 2,757]

2 minutes ago, Boeingnut said:

Cool- can you provide the best lottery numbers as well; oh and an accurate seasonal forecast for the weather?

The stuff he’s talking about already started happening basically as soon as MSFS was announced…

[jlohrenz 133]

Something is in the works.  I use Prosim for my cockpit 737 simulator and their most recent release notes contained a line that stated 'various updates for future Prepar3d release'

 

[spilok 1,134]

5 hours ago, Boeingnut said:

Cool- can you provide the best lottery numbers as well; oh and an accurate seasonal forecast for the weather?

My Magic 8 Ball says..."Highly unlikely" when I asked it if P3d was becoming stagnant.  I am a true lover of P3d and I look forward to its bright future.

[kevinfirth 1,394]

16 hours ago, StAgre said:

Anyone hoping for some mega update P3D v6 with scenery on the level of MSFS are delusional. Prepar3d was already a niche product, and it will only continue to grow more niche as the 'casual' simmers gravitate toward MSFS. These features are simply not important to the main customer base of P3D (who aren't people posting on this forum).

P3D will not die, I'm positive, but I can imagine that 3rd party development will slow down significantly (already happening, it seems). The products that are developed will continue to target the most serious simmers (home cockpit builders and those willing to shell out $120+ for an addon). I suspect scenery development will largely stagnate as well as it simply cannot generate the revenue necessary with a smaller and more focused user base (and frankly, those who *do* care about scenery will no doubt prefer MSFS anyway).

Those that still fall into the niche that P3D serves will no doubt continue to be served for years to come. But the more casual userbase who provided the income necessary to develop visual and scenery addons have already begun to move on and will no doubt continue to do so.

That's probably a pretty fair summary.

[dave2013 1,130]

I'm just hoping for some improvements to EA, volumetric clouds, and performance.

I'm talking about the next v5 update, not a new version 6 if that even happens.

Wouldn't it be great if version 6 does include satellite imagery-based scenery and accurately rendered buildings and vegetation?

Dave

[kevinfirth 1,394]

1 hour ago, dave2013 said:

Wouldn't it be great if version 6 does include satellite imagery-based scenery and accurately rendered buildings and vegetation?

Yes, but I wouldn't bet on it

[Stavros 295]

I think it's worth clarifying a bit of my previous post as well:

On 8/26/2022 at 11:47 AM, StAgre said:

[p3d] will only continue to grow more niche as the 'casual' simmers gravitate toward MSFS.

I know these are loaded words, but 'casual' simmers here includes people flying PMDG, FSlabs, and other 'study level' addons. This is in contrast to 'serious' simmers, those who are using features that P3D supports that MSFS will likely not support anytime soon (if ever). For example, home cockpit building, training solutions, etc. 

 

19 hours ago, spilok said:

My Magic 8 Ball says..."Highly unlikely" when I asked it if P3d was becoming stagnant.  I am a true lover of P3d and I look forward to its bright future.

I'm not suggesting P3D doesn't have a 'bright' future, but I do think its worth keeping expectations in line. If you spend most of your time flying things like PMDG airliners or A2A GA aircraft between sceneries offered by Orbx, Flightbeam, or the myriad other similar developers, and you look forward to new addons and airports coming to the sim in the future, then I predict the future will not be 'bright' for you.

However, if you are a home cockpit builder who uses ProSim for example, or are specifically using P3D in a training environment, then I am positive P3D will continue to serve your needs for years to come with meaningful performance and usability updates.'

 

I am happy to be proven wrong, but I think it's not hard to see where developers are budgeting their time and development effort. PMDG will likely be porting addons to MSFS until the end of 2023, at which point I will be *very* surprised if they release their 737MAX for P3D.

FSLabs do have 2 aircraft coming to P3D - the Concorde and A330, but they have stated they will be bringing their product catalogue to MSFS as well.

Eaglesoft seem to be the only major aircraft dev who have not shown interest in MSFS.

There have been a couple Orbx scenery releases for P3D, and of course there are other new sceneries popping up on Simmarket for P3D. But it's definitely a slower pace and I see this trend continuing.

Edited August 27, 2022 by StAgre

[Patco Lch 1,465]

LOL, serious simmer or not I definitely have some serious money tied up in P3DV4and 5. I consider any new addons I buy will build on what I already have instead of repurchasing the same stuff for a prettier platform. IFly will release their 737MAX soon and in my opinion their 737 NG Advanced made specifically to be used with Enhanced Atmospherics is superior to the NGXu. If nothing much new comes out for P3D I still have a large selection of products available. If PMDG wants to sail away, I'll stand on the dock and wave a hanky, but I will certainly not follow that band wagon any more with their carrot on a stick PR approach. May not be many like me but even if there are no new P3D versions I am quite content. 

[Multisim 116]

On 8/26/2022 at 7:32 PM, Boeingnut said:

Cool- can you provide the best lottery numbers as well; oh and an accurate seasonal forecast for the weather?

It would be more constructive if you told us which parts you think he got it wrong.

Since the things he said has already become reality I think the odds are a bit better than a lottery.

 

[anzac1977 140]

Defining a simmer based on how much money they can afford to spend on a simulator is just wrong. Anyone who sims should be supported and not judged on their bank balances.

To me a "serious" or "casual" simmer is how they interact with the sim, i.e. follow real world procedures compered to using unlimited fuel.

The main thing is that they enjoy it.

[Stavros 295]

40 minutes ago, anzac1977 said:

Defining a simmer based on how much money they can afford to spend on a simulator is just wrong. Anyone who sims should be supported and not judged on their bank balances.

I think you missed the point of my post and delineation of simmers; It has nothing to do with money. But I did need a way to break down the kinds of simmers that exist and what they are looking to get out of their chosen sim platform, and defining 'casual' and 'serious' simmers in the way that I did was an easy way to describe the kinds of people that P3D and MSFS respectively are looking to target. 

If you're a home cockpit builder or prosim user for example, it is unlikely that MSFS will ever truly meet your needs, at least in the next few years. For these 'serious' simmers, it's obvious that P3D will be their platform for a long time in the future.

But I think it is worth mentioning the 'casual' simmer too, (I hate that word because everyone defines it differently, but it's obviously the best word to differentiate from the 'serious' simmer I've described above), and in contrast to the former, the 'casual' simmer would be the majority of people who post on Avsim or on the flightsim discord or the myriad other forums and discussion boards. People who still take their flights seriously, following procedures, maybe using Vatsim, and wether it be a 747 or a Piper Cherokee, they're following checklists and procedures as they would if it were real life. For these 'casual' simmers, I think P3D still provides a good experience, but it's clear that over the next few years the vast majority of developers who cater to these simmers (PMDG, FSLabs, A2A, etc.) will transition toward MSFS.

Edited August 27, 2022 by StAgre

[Nocturnal 117]

And we're back to the old MSFS vs P3D argument again...........🙄🤓