Hi all, I am somewhat new to P3D and have to ask the inevitable question from a new user: addon recommendations !

I have played flight sims for some years, I own X-plane 11 and 12..which to your joy I have abandoned in favor of P3D, I also own MSFS..also abandoned for P3D, so you can see what my favorite sim is. I've had P3D for a while but haven't bought much addons for it, and I think it's quite difficult finding addons for it right now, I know they are there, but google prefers to give me MSFS results when I search for P3D.

This is what I own:

- Orbx Global

- Orbx Vector ( I don't use this because it's buggy, so looking into UTX instead for the areas I fly the most )

- ENVTEX

- Aerosoft Antarctica

- Milviz airplanes gone freeware, namely the Beaver and the Twin comanche

- A2A Accufeel

So what should I look into next, aircraft, scenery and various beautification ?

Disclaimer: I am on P3DV5 and I am to be considered a new pilot, meaning I do like high fidelity aircraft, but I am nowhere near touching study level airliners, though something in between as a stepping stone is welcome. I mostly fly in Europe but sometimes also Asia.

Oh..PS It doesn't have to be payware, I am looking for both paid and free.

Chaseplane.

2 hours ago, Olsby1 said:

- Orbx Vector ( I don't use this because it's buggy, so looking into UTX instead for the areas I fly the most )

Neither needed in V5.

If you want weather then:- ASP3D .

 

3 hours ago, Olsby1 said:

I also own MSFS..also abandoned for P3D

Interesting, what made you choose P3D over MSFS?

Some nice addons (apart from the ones already mentioned) that I can recommend include:

- FSUIPC - for setting up your control profiles

- GSX - for nice groundhandling

- AIG Traffic Manager/Controller - for AI traffic

- FS global - for the best mesh

- MatthiasKNU photoreal and autogen scenery (free) - this is even better than ORBX but demands quite a bit of storage space.

- RAAS professional - for aural smart landing and smart runway calls

- Envshade/Envplus/Envsound - for better immersion and visuals

- TFDI Pacx - for passenger announcements, etc.

 

In terms of aircraft addons (mainly airlines since I prefer to fly that) the ones I can recommend are (not exhaustive list): 

- The whole PMDG lineup

- Aerosoft A330, CRJ series and DC-8

- FSlabs Airbuses

- Leonardo Maddog (MD82, MD83, etc.)

- Majestic Dash 8 Q400

- Ifly 737Max 

- QW 787

- TFDI 717

- Just Flight Bae 146

- Coolsky DC-9

- KAI31 TU134

- Fishbed Mig-21 Extended edition

 

Edited March 6, 20242 yr by Blasb

2 hours ago, Sparkrite said:

Neither needed in V5.

If you want weather then:- ASP3D .

 

Yeah I noticed they may not be needed when I added some custom scenery and saw the roads had a near perfect fit with P3D's roads. Do you have any knowledge about how lakes and rivers look with and withouht UTX, default they can be a bit blocky/jagged but maybe that's the same even with UTX ?

@bendead I feel like the planes in MSFS doesn't really want to fly, the flight model just seems off, I know there are some good addons, and a user on flightsim.to named MGouge makes some fantastic edits which makes the aerodynamics on the default planes a lot better.
I played X-plane 11 extensively and the planes just wanted to fly, the same with Aerofly, but MSFS default is like flying a rock in my opinion. P3D is much closer to the feel I am used to from other simulators.
Mind you I'm not a real world pilot so my thoughts are just based on how I think the sim should feel with the experience I have from other sims. MSFS does have the upper hand with their satellite image streaming, but now you can do the same in both AeroflyFS4 and X-plane 12, so now it eventually comes down to what gives you the feeling of actually flying, and I think P3D does a pretty good job there.

Edited March 6, 20242 yr by Olsby1
Edited to avoid multi quoting

30 minutes ago, Olsby1 said:

@bendead I feel like the planes in MSFS doesn't really want to fly, the flight model just seems off, I know there are some good addons, and a user on flightsim.to named MGouge makes some fantastic edits which makes the aerodynamics on the default planes a lot better.
I played X-plane 11 extensively and the planes just wanted to fly, the same with Aerofly, but MSFS default is like flying a rock in my opinion. P3D is much closer to the feel I am used to from other simulators.
Mind you I'm not a real world pilot so my thoughts are just based on how I think the sim should feel with the experience I have from other sims. MSFS does have the upper hand with their satellite image streaming, but now you can do the same in both AeroflyFS4 and X-plane 12, so now it eventually comes down to what gives you the feeling of actually flying, and I think P3D does a pretty good job there.

Thanks for your reply,

I never flown on either X-plane or P3D, just FSX, which P3D is based on, before with a ton of addons.

Based on my experience flying on the 172, I really like how MSFS behave, feels really alive and close to the feelings i had flying the real thing.

But that's just my opinion. As long as you have fun, the xyz sim doesn't matter

 

 

31 minutes ago, Olsby1 said:

Yeah I noticed they may not be needed when I added some custom scenery and saw the roads had a near perfect fit with P3D's roads. Do you have any knowledge about how lakes and rivers look with and withouht UTX, default they can be a bit blocky/jagged but maybe that's the same even with UTX ?

@bendead I feel like the planes in MSFS doesn't really want to fly, the flight model just seems off, I know there are some good addons, and a user on flightsim.to named MGouge makes some fantastic edits which makes the aerodynamics on the default planes a lot better.
I played X-plane 11 extensively and the planes just wanted to fly, the same with Aerofly, but MSFS default is like flying a rock in my opinion. P3D is much closer to the feel I am used to from other simulators.
Mind you I'm not a real world pilot so my thoughts are just based on how I think the sim should feel with the experience I have from other sims. MSFS does have the upper hand with their satellite image streaming, but now you can do the same in both AeroflyFS4 and X-plane 12, so now it eventually comes down to what gives you the feeling of actually flying, and I think P3D does a pretty good job there.

The P3d Military options and add ons is what keeps me going back. Like AI carriers, VLSO, and VRS Tac Pac, to name a few.

Mike 

10 hours ago, Olsby1 said:

Hi all, I am somewhat new to P3D and have to ask the inevitable question from a new user: addon recommendations !

The link below has the names of the addons I'm using, note some are P3D version specific, e.g. I'm running v4.5.

However there are a bunch that would be useful for any P3d version.

Cheers

 

4 hours ago, bendead said:

I never flown on either X-plane or P3D, just FSX, which P3D is based on, before with a ton of addons.

Yeah I used to just have FSX which was pretty great at the time, but the 32bit limitations were a real killer to really enjoying the sim.

There was a constant need to plan the airports vs. scenery vs. aircraft against major flights to avoid runing out of VAS.

When I found out about P3D and that I was able to migrate over the majority of addons and aircraft to a 64bit sim I couldn't have been happier.

Things are smooth and I'm happy with the look feel I've been able to achieve, plus I have a ton of aircraft to enjoy.

Cheers

 

@Olsby1, although the installer is for P3Dv4 it can be fooled with a Registry entry so it’s fine in v5.

Vertx DA-62 is a superb twin engine with the best G1000 cockpit I’ve seen. The author doesn’t give support after the death of his wife but there’s enough experience here not to need it.

 

For some really really cool freeware planes and scenery look around here.

https://flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/p3d/

I'm late to answer my own thread, but thank you for all the tips guys, I have a bit to work with now 🙂

There was one thing I wanted to ask and hope someone sees it so I don't have to make a thread for it: I bought the Carenado C208 and once had it installed, but after a clean windows install I can't seem to figure out the path it needs to install and I ended up having to contact Carenado to reset the activations, the installer only goes to P3DV4 but you can choose your own installation path, my P3DV5 is installed in C : Program Files (default installation path) ?

2 minutes ago, Olsby1 said:

I'm late to answer my own thread, but thank you for all the tips guys, I have a bit to work with now 🙂

There was one thing I wanted to ask and hope someone sees it so I don't have to make a thread for it: I bought the Carenado C208 and once had it installed, but after a clean windows install I can't seem to figure out the path it needs to install and I ended up having to contact Carenado to reset the activations, the installer only goes to P3DV4 but you can choose your own installation path, my P3DV5 is installed in C : Program Files (default installation path) ?

I just pointed it to the P3DV5 folder and it works fine.

2 hours ago, Olsby1 said:

I bought the Carenado C208

Which Carenado C208 was it ? (steam or glass gauge).

If it was the Steam there are a number of improvements available, like PBR model, immersive cockpit sounds and improved flight model.

Cheers