7 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Consider the aircraft speed. Concorde’s is considerably faster than other jets. In  a 737 I do get more time to look out of the window but below 10,000ft I rarely do. That’s the most intensive part. If something is directly ahead then yes, admire the view but panning left / right should be a no-no. 😉

Yea, my point is that P3DV? is still a pretty good scenery sim if that’s what a simmer wants.

50 minutes ago, Patco Lch said:

Yea, my point is that P3DV? is still a pretty good scenery sim if that’s what a simmer wants.

With a little help of course. FTX Global from ORBX and FS Global from Pilots to enhance the terrain.

On 4/19/2025 at 10:26 AM, hervesors said:

 Does it suggest that P3D is almost an end of life sim, at least on the non-military side? 

It is an end-of-life sim.  
 

The market, both customers and developers, have moved to a new generation of sim, now in its second version.  
 

Does that mean that P3D is useless?  Of course not, people use what they want for what they need.  I just wouldn’t count on much new or groundbreaking to be released for it. 

Last time I check it still runs on my computer, so not dead.

Will, entertainment version of v6 could dead one day as well as MSFS2024 then, that's the "beauty" of Always-online

Always-online could well be the future, software or game with terabyte's of data could be accessed without need of large PC storage. Talk is windows could go this way no need to update all done in the cloud you just login.

Some already run addons that will not work without online connection.

Why users on the forums now saying you need 64GB of memory were does it end???.

Edited April 21, 20251 yr by G-RFRY

On 4/19/2025 at 11:59 AM, dave2013 said:

I don't care about backwards compatibility for payware planes as I only use freeware,

Great post, Dave!

I'm "stuck" on v5.3 because of the MilViz T-38C, which was 1/3 of the reason I got into P3D in the first place 😉

There are some other MilViz addons that are now freeware that are also v5 compatible (King Air), and the PMDG's seem to work well enough there, too.

I could go to v6 as it does seem like a legitimate upgrade, but for me that would mean being limited to the VRS SuperBug and the Majestic Q400 (and I don't like that trend... 😞 )

Curious as to what your favorite freeware are that work in v6...? I might add v6 to the list if there are some other good aircraft that are compatible (and that take a minimum of fuss to get running in v6).

On 4/19/2025 at 9:29 PM, Daube said:

And the point in the discussion was... ?

We're taking about the results of the navigraph survey. Do you think the msfs users who filled it are arcade players ? No, they are people who are flying pmdg (amongst others) liners using navigraph while brosing forums. And the survey shows that this profile of pilots have migrated to the new sim. Did they become arcade players now?

Also, how would that be an argument not to switch ? "Ah, that other sim has nice stuff, but most users are arcade players, so i cannot go there"... let's be serious for a second. It was just an opportunity to insult the users of the other sim. 

Careers are gaming ? What about the missions in fsx/p3d then? How are these different ? Also, what part of this is mandatory to the user ? Can't you just do free flight ? Yes you can. P3d users just like to focus on these gaming side-features, as if they missed them 🙂

As long as the sim developers keep interacting with the addon developers, listen to their feedback and requests etc, the situation should keep getting better and better. We'll see what the next updates bring. 

THANK YOU for saving me the time - GREAT response!

On 4/20/2025 at 1:55 AM, Ray Proudfoot said:

I fly the departure manually and with a rotation speed of 170kts increasing to 230kts within a minute plus two big right hand turns to head south it requires total concentration.

Anyone thinking of looking out of the window to admire the view would soon regret that decision.

An extremely valid perspective that many don't seem to appreciate.

I remember tagging along with my IP father when he went to instruct in Level D full motion sims. At the time, the graphics were so bad that ALL flights were at night with only the barest of scenery (like only major highways, rivers & perhaps a skyscraper or two).

And yet the training was so intense the trainees would literally sweat and become entirely task-saturated. Never heard one complaint about the scenery 😉

The view out the cockpit is useful, and can be vital at times, but it sure doesn't need to be pretty!

On 4/20/2025 at 2:49 AM, IanHarrison said:

For me, it is simple economics. I cannot justify spending my pension money on a new sim. when my existing one does everything that I need.

There is the Sunk Costs aspect, but if you think about it, the newer sims have pretty much everything you need for $60 - $80, so the cost is really rather minor vs the general cost of living. (or, perhaps I just seem to believe that flight simming is THAT important to me 😉 )

A big reason to stay on P3D, though, is if moving to one of the newer sims forces you into a computer/hardware upgrade, and/or as others have said - if your favorite aircraft is only available in P3D.

On 4/19/2025 at 6:26 AM, hervesors said:

According to the recently published Navigraph FlightSim Community Survey (2024), only 1.9% of respondants (around 23,000 answers) reported that they (still) use Prepar3D (all versions) as their primary flight sim software. The figure was 4.6% in the 2023 survey. Does it suggest that P3D is almost an end of life sim, at least on the non-military side?  Are there any other statistics you know that could contradict this disappointing current state?

Regards

Hervé  

 

I had some very lively debates over on the other fora in regards to what the survey results can tell us. In sum, it is highly skewed (unintentionally and perhaps unavoidably).

I think at this point, for the Navigraph Survey and its audience, P3D has become like Xbox. E.g., only two per cent of NS respondents reported running on Xbox (pretty much the same as P3D). Whereas MS/Asobo claim that nearly HALF of MSFS users are on Xbox.

So, while a LOT of P3D users have undeniably migrated to MSFS, there are still a bunch of folks who are still using, and intend to continue using P3D.

But it's easy to see that for 3rd party developers of consumer products, it's dead. And we killed it by only buying products for MSFS and a few for XP.

I remember a couple years ago, MilViz said they were down to low single digit unit sales PER WEEK for P3D. That's when they decided to pull the plug on new sales as the cost of maintaining the infrastructure and providing tech support significantly outweighed their revenue.

For those of us who still use P3D, it will continue to work as well as it ever has. For those of us for whom that's "good enough", it won't die any time soon.

But our numbers are (relatively) small, and I believe, quickly shrinking as time goes on.

Take a look at the P3D forum at prepar3d.com. There is still traffic, and still responses from a couple of the regular guys who keep close watch on things. They, and others can be very helpful, but it is clear the forum use is shrinking.

And, the FB P3D forum is still useful, though, again, I keep seeing the same posters with not too many newcomers.

 

Sherm

One thing that I do not understand. If you sell software and you stop selling it because there is "no demand", isn't that software still operational? It is not dead and buried.

Why can it still not be sold with no support? After all, it is only a package of code that will continue to work for years.

2 hours ago, IanHarrison said:

Why can it still not be sold with no support? After all, it is only a package of code that will continue to work for years.

That one was answered here:

I remember a couple years ago, MilViz said they were down to low single digit unit sales PER WEEK for P3D. That's when they decided to pull the plug on new sales as the cost of maintaining the infrastructure and providing tech support significantly outweighed their revenue.

If the cost is greater than the income, as a business decision it's not sustainable.

Edited April 22, 20251 yr by Reader

I think the best chance for a resuscitated P3D would be if history repeated itself and LM purchased the commercial licence rights to MSFS 2020/24 and took it in a new direction with an emphasis on "serious flight simming".  Why reinvent the wheel for the basic flight sim engine?  Such a move would reopen the third party addon market for P3D.  But of course this time Microsoft has skin in the game not as before when it walked away from flight simming but I'm sure given how much resources they have devoted to MSFS leveraging the commercial possibilities would have been part of their thinking when they decided to re enter the flight sim space.

Bruce

If the sim you’re currently flying gives you what you want why the need for change? Will a newer sim improve your landings? Unlikely. It just makes the view look prettier. But those who have remained with P3D don’t consider the view the most important feature. Providing it reaches a certain level of reality that’s enough.

What is more important perhaps is stability. Knowing that when you fire up your computer P3D will work without any glitches or needing to wait for a large download.

Plus there’s the learning curve of understanding all the idiosyncrasies of a new sim. I know P3D inside out and because it’s a well established sim it’s very stable. Those annoying little features of road traffic having a severe impact on fps are gone. EA has vastly improved the look of the whole sim and Steam Lossless Generation has provided a great boost to performance for a tiny amount of money.

Do those of you who are married consider a change of wife because the new younger versions are more attractive? I guess you don’t because there’s a lot more to a spouse than looks. 😉