New Entry on p3d main site.

[neilhewitt 494]

On 2/20/2023 at 4:37 PM, dave2013 said:

I don't agree with this at all.  I fly mostly freeware planes and still enjoy the sim.  I do spend a lot of time tuning the cfg to get the aircraft as close to real world specs as I can, but I don't need all the bells and whistles that overly expensive "study-level" payware planes offer.

Dave

I understand that everyone has different needs and wants for the sim. I personally have never flown a PMDG or FSL airliner, I don't generally fly airliners other than regional jets, but I guess my point was more that essentially no-one flies just the default aircraft in the sim, so we need third party aircraft (whichever ones you may want) and if they aren't being made, we can't do that. I imagine freeware would continue to be made but freeware developers are no more immune to the temptations of switching platforms than commercial developers.

But I take your point and mine was somewhat badly expressed.

To be clear, I am almost certain (without knowing or being a beta-tester) that v6 will not introduce a new engine or be effectively a new sim. When the work LM is doing with Unreal Engine comes to fruition, and I imagine that will be some time yet, it will most likely be a different product and quite possibly not one available to the general public. P3D is an anomaly in that respect. I'm sure that v6 will be an evolution of v5; what the 'big bang' new version features will be, we can only speculate. 

Edited February 22, 2023 by neilhewitt

[d.tsakiris 418]

17 minutes ago, neilhewitt said:

I'm sure that v6 will be an evolution of v5

Honestly, that's what I'm hoping for. Improve the graphics a little, maybe also the performance (always welcome), keep the compatibility. If V6 were to break compatibility, I wouldn't use it, and I'm guessing that goes for a lot of us.

[Christopher Low 5,354]

It is almost certain that I will stick with P3Dv4.5HF2 if P3Dv6 is only an evolutionary upgrade. There is little point in me risking compatibility issues for a handful of new (possibly even quite fancy) features when I am content with my existing simulation environment. Only a revolutionary upgrade (and by that, I mean based on Unreal Engine 5) would give me pause for thought.

[lwt1971 7,417]

On 2/12/2023 at 12:52 AM, Rogen said:

LM have practically already said their new simulation toolkit will be the 64bit Unreal engine, wouldn't have been possible without the Unreal engine's move to 64 bit.

Well, according to https://www.helisimmer.com/news/lockheed-martin-unreal-engine-p3d-prepar3d

Helisimmer: "I was quite curious as well, of course, so I have reached out to Lockheed Martin about this and I asked for clarification. I then got the following statement:"

LM: "Lockheed Martin is a proven leader in the simulation and training market. We match leading technologies with customer requirements, and the Unreal Engine partnership forms a foundational capability for many of the training and simulation customers we serve. Prepar3D has over a decade of continuous development and improvements supported by a robust third party ecosystem that will continue into the future.

We carefully consider the impacts on all product stakeholders when road mapping our products, and we have no plans to make major architectural changes that would undermine existing third party add-on compatibility with the platform. We are so appreciative of the flight sim community for the innovation, feedback and on-going dialogue to continue increasing capability and training realism."

Based on LM's statement to him it sounds to me like they'll be using the Unreal engine for their other aviation/military applications, not P3D. Would be interesting to see what exact products/applications they'll use it with, especially if it's civil aviation related.
 

Edited February 22, 2023 by lwt1971

[greggd 12]

I find this quote intriguing From Unreal Engine webpage https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/spotlights/lockheed-martin-engages-unreal-engine-for-aerospace-simulation-r-d;  "Because Lockheed Martin recognizes that the aerospace industry is focused on stability, accuracy, and repeatability, the goal is not to throw out existing systems, but to retain what’s working and incrementally improve it. “We're looking to do bits and pieces and enhance our systems as we progress,” says Breed. “And then, as time goes on, we’ll be able to simplify and enhance our systems further. “We support systems that go on for decades—in fact, we’re still maintaining some systems from 10 years ago as well,” he says. “Unreal Engine is showing that maybe the old way of doing things can be enhanced by some new pieces.” " 

Just want to say I am just a user and have no programing knowledge other than my imagination!

GreggD

Edited February 22, 2023 by greggd

[787flyer 633]

Exactly. Evolution not revolution is the best strategy. I am quite encouraged by the LM response posted above by @lwt1971 .

[shivers9 1,174]

8 hours ago, 787flyer said:

Exactly. Evolution not revolution is the best strategy. I am quite encouraged by the LM response posted above by @lwt1971 .

Agree. I am not sure how we all got to this conclusion that using some features of the unreal engine equals the complete end of current P3D add-ons. That is not at all what the LM reps said. In fact, LM seems to go out of their way to say just the opposite. We all sometimes forget that we simmers have never been the primary reason for the Prepar3d's development. Portions of P3d support existing big dollar flight systems and space systems, drones and likely many things that we don't even have a clue about. These systems in some cases have been around for many years and will likely be around for many years to come. It would be just plain stupid for LM to say to all of their military and civil partners..."Hey guys, we saw a post over at the MS gaming site that in order to continue our Simulations programs we have to change everything so that a couple of guys can see their house while flying. Now we know that you all have millions if not billions of dollars tied up with things like the F35 but we are just going to have to change and start all over. We regret the added expense and years of work this change will cause but someone at the "Milviz" web site said it is just too hard for them to continue making products for us." -----Yea LM is going to do that!!??? Come on guys...just use your brains and think a bit.

Edited February 24, 2023 by shivers9

[Rogen 1,089]

On 2/23/2023 at 4:28 AM, lwt1971 said:

LM: "Lockheed Martin is a proven leader in the simulation and training market. We match leading technologies with customer requirements, and the Unreal Engine partnership forms a foundational capability for many of the training and simulation customers we serve. Prepar3D has over a decade of continuous development and improvements supported by a robust third party ecosystem that will continue into the future.

We carefully consider the impacts on all product stakeholders when road mapping our products, and we have no plans to make major architectural changes that would undermine existing third party add-on compatibility with the platform. We are so appreciative of the flight sim community for the innovation, feedback and on-going dialogue to continue increasing capability and training realism."

The above would have to be the most typical corp speak PR piece that literally tells nothing about actual plans other than they are going to try and not break anything...

Heh, still a very much wait and see... in my books.

Cheers

[newtie 533]

I think we might be surprised.

[Juliett Alfa Romeo 540]

In a good or bad way? @newtie

[Rein2 117]

I also hope for an evolutionary next step. I am happy the way P3D has evolved the last 10 years. I hope for a better implementation of TrueSky and Nvidia water. Some performance improvements is always fine. I am confident that v6 will see the light in the next few weeks or months. There are two things that I am little afraid of; will AS keep their weather servers running for P3D and will AIG keep updating flightplans and liveries?

 

  

[newtie 533]

5 hours ago, Juliet Alpha said:

In a good or bad way? @newtie

Both.

For me, I'll appreciate any/all additions to a sim that's working for me.

For users on the other sim, the response may be, "I'm not going back for that."

To each his own.

[charliearon 3,024]

Stop discussing Sims other than P3d! 

[Rogen 1,089]

??? Other sims are relevant where the use and development of P3D are affected.

Cheers

[charliearon 3,024]

9 hours ago, Rogen said:

??? Other sims are relevant where the use and development of P3D are affected.

Cheers

Not when they cause arguments back and forth!