P3Ds future: I prefer facts - the more, the merrier!

[UrgentSiesta 930]

7 hours ago, level7 said:

Not any new ones for the past 2 years according to their recent update.

Ironically, their T-6 Texan II was criticized for it's poor flight model in some obscure test evaluation I was able to unearth.

I assume this is because they've stated repeatedly that network scenarios can not be supported with their EFM/AccuSim. Which then makes me wonder how they managed to overcome this for the intrinsically networked MSFS...

[UrgentSiesta 930]

7 hours ago, d.tsakiris said:

Maybe, but consider this: Even a brand-new sim is only brand-new for a while. What to do when updates are necessary? The developer has to find a balance between progress and compatibility. Personally, I prefer LM's approach.

At least in MilViz's case, the compatibility problems of so many of their addons seemed to have been caused by their own (graphics related) code. 😮

For e.g., BOTH A2A and Carenado addons were quite literally drag n drop to v5.0.0, and once you fooled the PMDG installer to think v5 was actually v4, everything worked fine.

[UrgentSiesta 930]

4 hours ago, rocketlaunch said:

Well it worked for a while but the ESP engine is really beginning to show it's age.

 

3 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

32-bit DX9 7 years ago and now 64-bit DX12. Please explain what aspect is showing its age.

Later: as an example I have to scale back scenery density at EGLL in P3Dv3 to prevent VAS going above 3.8Gb. Little of my i7-8086K CPU is used. A GPU with 11Gb VRAM is total overkill.

Now, in v5, airports like LatinVFR Miami can look great with up to 10Gb of VRAM used. Specific P3D core actions can be assigned to individual CPU logical processors.

LM has made huge strides in performance and compatibility.

 

Indeed, the incredible performance gains of v5.0 were the primary reason I was willing to leave a bunch of favored addons behind in v4.5, And even the relatively pokey v4.5's performance vs visual fidelity was better than X-Plane v11 at the time.

[d.tsakiris 418]

32 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Product was scheduled to be released over a year BEFORE the invasion started...

That means it was delayed before the invasion started, and now it's on hold because if the invasion. We will see what happens - maybe v6 will render such add-ons obsolete?

33 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

all you have to do is go look for new v5 scenery vs the same devs/production houses output for MSFS.

I don't know if that's fair comparison, as MSFS is new, so of course there are more releases... Now, I'm not saying that's the only reason, but it's one I think is often overlooked.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,961]

25 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

The fact is that LM themselves remain highly dependent on addons developed by the likes of MilViz (yeah, for .Mil, that's still their name

And according to Neil earlier in this topic many commercial customers are still using v3 because of the need for the 32-bit G1000 unit. We’ll never know the sales by version but it’s reasonable to assume many aren’t on the latest version. But LM keep rolling them out every couple of years.

I don’t see the Milviz jets available. Presumably for certain customers only.

[UrgentSiesta 930]

46 minutes ago, neilhewitt said:

I could see UK2000, for example, opting to make their new MSFS stuff P3Dv6-compatible if it was easy and enjoyable for Gary to do so without needing to operate two sets of tooling and doing two lots of testing. 

I remember this was one of the reasons given for halting development of X-Plane versions.

However, there seem to be enough similarities in production techniques that some ESP scenery devs are still making P3D & MSFS versions (e.g., MK Studios, et al).

I think what it really boils down to is your other point: market size and RoI. Essentially, it's the classic analogy: anything can be made to fly...given enough horsepower.

So while it's also true that there's a lot more developer competition in the MSFS market, there's obviously more than enough customers to make up for it.

[UrgentSiesta 930]

15 minutes ago, d.tsakiris said:

maybe v6 will render such add-ons obsolete?

We can but hope so!

It is interesting though, as @Ray Proudfoot pointed out, that the scenery addon market is still so strong in MSFS. I myself have bought into most of the Orbx mesh improvements for MSFS mountain regions, even though the Default terrain is relatively spectacular. I ascribe this to intimate personal familiarity with mountainous regions, though, rather than an inherent lack of quality for the Default.

But, given the drama around X-Plane v12 and its own default scenery (despite the substantial improvements made across the board), the new standard is quite high for the new majority of consumer users...

[d.tsakiris 418]

2 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

It is interesting though, as @Ray Proudfoot pointed out, that the scenery addon market is still so strong in MSFS.

I don't think it's surprising at all. It's a new niche in the market, easily accessible, with lots of (new) users (although I do think number like 10 million aren't representative).

[UrgentSiesta 930]

20 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I don’t see the Milviz jets available. Presumably for certain customers only.

Sadly true. I happened to be one of the lucky few who grabbed the T-38C before it was yanked by the USAF (presumably due to sensitivity over the systems replication).

The Talon-A is still available, though, and for anyone who appreciates an extremely fast steam gauge, stick and rudder hot rod sans autopilot, it's highly recommended. Fast enough for Astronauts & SR-71 chase, fast enough for me 😉

p.s.: The good news is that the Talon-C appears to have been sanitized enough that it's coming to MSFS via MilViz consumer division, BlackBird Sims.

 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,961]

21 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

It is interesting though, as @Ray Proudfoot pointed out, that the scenery addon market is still so strong in MSFS.

Did I? Given I don’t have that sim I wouldn’t be able to say what was available.

[omarsmak30 4,068]

4 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I don’t believe any sim can run without third party addons. To believe so is fantasy. All require enhancing hence why there is an active third party market.

In MSFS you can 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,961]

18 minutes ago, omarsmak30 said:

In MSFS you can 

Theoretically yes, just like any sim. In practice default airports look very ordinary. Having seen EGCC I barely recognised it.

That’s all I’ll be saying about that sim.

[UrgentSiesta 930]

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Did I? Given I don’t have that sim I wouldn’t be able to say what was available.

I believe you said something along the lines of all sims need enhancements. 

[UrgentSiesta 930]

1 hour ago, omarsmak30 said:

In MSFS you can 

Yes, you CAN, but just as with all the other sims, what’s there by default leaves plenty of room for improvement (especially in the aircraft dept. 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,961]

7 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

I believe you said something along the lines of all sims need enhancements. 

What I said was… “I don’t believe any sim can run without third party addons. To believe so is fantasy. All require enhancing hence why there is an active third party market.”

I don’t believe any sim enthusiast in these forums runs a basic sim with no addons whatever one it is.