For the last four years I’ve seen many people switch from P3D to MSFS. Fair play to them. Their money, their choice.

I’ve seen that sim on numerous occasions and there’s no doubt the scenery, lighting and weather are better than P3D. So why haven’t I switched?

Two big reasons…

1) Big financial outlay in P3D. I’ve spent hundreds over several years on addon airports and aircraft.

2) Many 3rd party utilities essential to the way I fly and maintain my airports are not available for MSFS.

• Aivlasoft’s EFB author has retired so there’ll never be a version for 2024.
• ScruffyDuck has retired so there’ll never be a version of ADE for 2024.
• Herve Sors has retired so his utilities will never work for 2024.

But the scenery, lighting and depiction of world scenery in v5 is more than good enough for my 95% IFR flights. When you’re 6-11 miles up the depiction of the ground scenery becomes less critical.

For the tiny number of VFR flights ORBX True Earth GB is great. Of course when you live in one of the cloudiest countries in the world flying VFR at 3,000ft becomes a bit pointless when you can see bugger all except cloud.

There’s so much more to consider when deciding on your sim of choice. Third party utilities are really important to me and those I’ve listed will always available to me as long as I stay with v5. I looked at v6 but will potential problems with compatibility I didn’t bother.

I’ll consider 2024 for low-level sightseeing but only when it’s stable. For IFR, P3D will remain my sim of choice for the foreseeable future.

Indeed, those a pretty much my sentiments too. The advantages of moving to 2024 don't outweigh the multiple compromises which would have to be made, in my opinion.

Edited January 20, 20251 yr by Ian S

Each to his own, there is multiple ways and not a good path or a bad path.

People are free to switch to msfs while other people are free to chose P3D or XP. And people are also free to drop msfs and come back to XP or P3D.

There are no need for justifications.

If you think P3D is the best choice for you Ray, then so be it.

Ray, you expressed my sentiments as if I had hired you to do it.

25 minutes ago, sdirand said:

There are no need for justifications.

Indeed there isn't but I've been asked on numerous occasions why I haven't or won't switch.

My post hopefully answers those who remain curious why I haven't.

I have slowly but surely migrated to XP12, although P3D remains the firm 2nd for planes I don't own (and that means probably no good one in the market anyway) in XP12.

For me, the only Major set back beside some aircraft, is no good AI-ATC combination, I currently settled at WT3+default ATC(before 12.1.13 I even tolerant WT3's ATC)

BetterPushback+AutoDGS is way better than UGCX, although I do miss the voice control sometime.

But the core issue for me is I have much more CTD in P3DV5 than in XP12. I tried everything in the CTD guide and isolated some add-ons in the play (no CTD for over night flight in PMDG747/777 for eg), but it's too many add-ons, I still believe the core issue in the sim, but I don't really have that much time to investigate my "No2" sim.... you see the vicious circle here...

btw WED for XP is more powerful, although sometimes less easy to use, than ADE for FSX/P3D.

P3D is also my number 1 flightsim. I have v4, 5 and 6. About 90% of the flying time is in v5. I'm curious about further developments for v6, I have patience. I don't have MSFS 2024 and not planning to buy it now or in the future. I don't like the forced updates and the dependency of streamed services. I have MSFS 2020 but hardly use it. The scenery looks good but that's not the most important.  When I fly in msfs then mostly with the turbo arrow from JF. But I can't really get used to it. Feels as if the light AC in MSFS don't have any real mass; don't know about the big ones. But when I fly the A2A C172 in P3D  I really have the feeling the airplane has mass.

And another thing I like in P3D. If you go searching the internet you can find real gems in scenery and AC. Today I found EBAW for p3d v4 here at the avsim file library. Scenery is from 2019. Here in the P3D forum Dan wrote a tutorial for adjusting scenery for v5. Works fine most of the time. I compared the scenery with EBAW in google earth and I must say the scenery looks really good. 

 

I've stuck with P3D mainly because it's familiar and works well 99% of the time, I already have dozens of freeware planes, and I have dozens of freeware airports and other scenery.  I switched to v6 because performance and lighting are better and I don't need addon shaders or hacks to make it look good and perform well.  Moreover, I don't use addons that aren't compatible with it, so that's not an issue.  However, it is a PITA to use ADE to modify airports as the author refused to update it for v6 - that's the big downside of v6 for me.

I must say that if not for ORBX openLC, I would have already switched to MSFS.  The scenery is very important to me, even when flying at 35,000ft, but especially during climb and descent/approach, and P3D simply can't compete with the satellite imagery of MSFS.  However, with openLC sometimes I look down and the scenery is very realistic and looks almost as good as an authentic aerial view.  The one big disappointment I have regarding P3D scenery is that ORBX never made good on their promise to complete openLC for Asia.  I actually avoid flying in Asia as the scenery in most cases is unimpressive and unrealistic.

If P3D doesn't evolve to using the modern and realistic scenery of satellite imagery and imagery-based object placement within the next few years, then I will eventually abandon it.

I totally understand why Ray would stick with P3D as it's what he's happy with and what suits his type of flying.

Dave

I still use P3DV5 almost exclusively.  I do have MSFS 2020 and XP12.  I do a lot of flying in Northern Canada and MSFS 2020 still has a lot of issues with scenery especially water bodies like lakes.  MSFS 2020 cannot determine whether it's a lake, trees or in some cases, snow. The few flights I have tried in MSFS have been disappointed, winter textures in summer, whole airport cover by a large building, poor scenery because of cloud cover or poor resolution in the original Bing data scenery. 

I like to tinker around with stuff and P3DV5 is the perfect sim for that. I can do whatever I want with P3DV5.  Airport not correct, can use ADE can fix it.  Vector Data not correct, can use OpenJump and free data to fix it. Gauge not working properly, I can use Notepad++ and Cabdir to fix it.

Finally, I have a large investment in P3DV5 and I'm still buying addons for it.

P3DV5, MSFS and XP12 are all great sim platforms, and we all have our reasons to use the one that suits us best.

 One of the nice things about P3Dv5 is that you don't need an internet connection to use it. I'm not saying that I'll never purchase MSFS 2024, but I'm in no hurry to do so.

Usage - 90% P3D5.4, 10% MSFS2020 

Edited January 20, 20251 yr by Beardyman

It`s not just the birds I fly, but with the tools and changes I can apply to the scenery and airports to suit my needs. 

I have Game Pass and access to 2024 free but not my cup tea. More for Gamers with task-based achievements.

I think that good third party airports from Flightbeam and Fly Tampa look much better and more realistic P3DV5 than MSFS.  I am still amazed how well P3D holds up to both MSFS 20 and 24.

I fly certain aircraft I love and only work in P3Dv3 with Orbx and REX 4 weather is all I need.

Oh, and don't have to buy anything any longer!  No more aircraft, scenery, and the such!

Howard

C-117D

MAAM B-25

 

Edited January 21, 20251 yr by TuFun

P3d v 5.4 is my absolute favorite.  I fly it every day.  However, my Jetline computer is getting a little long in the tooth...over 5 years old.  I'm getting ready to call them and put together a brand new Jetline.  It will be my 4th system from them, and I can't wait to get the latest and greatest.  I'm retired, and life is a "one lap race", so let's go!!!!

Edited January 21, 20251 yr by spilok