When Rob Ainscough says its in the works, that is more than enough for me. His reputation is about as rock solid as there is in the community.

So with LM basically confirming that P3D v7 is moving to Unreal Engine, I think it’s worth asking what that actually means for us home simmers. 

P3D’s user base is pretty much gone, and most third-party devs have already moved on. That ecosystem isn’t coming back unless LM suddenly decides to target consumers again, which they haven’t shown any interest in for years. Their real customers are military and training organizations, not folks flying A320s on VATSIM.

Even with Unreal, everything they’re doing points to v7 being built for training: controlled scenarios and repeatable missions with very specific procedures. That’s fine for their market, but it’s the opposite of what most home users want. Even in combat sims like DCS, people want dynamic environments, deep aircraft, and open-ended gameplay, not scripted training loops.

Could UE let P3D become some sort of DCS alternative? Maybe in theory, but LM clearly isn’t aiming at the entertainment space. And without 3rd-party support, it’s hard to imagine hobbyists jumping back in anyway.

All in all, an interesting move for sure, probably great for their military clients, but I don’t see this being any kind of comeback for the home sim crowd. I'd love to be proven wrong, though...

Well, a user base can always be built, even from scratch, provided your product provides interesting features.

Of course it will never be a huge user base such as MSFS, but if P3Dv7 comes with things that are not available on other sims, then some people will be interested in it, and a market can exist. Smaller user-base means much higher prices for addons, though... that's the bad news. For people who were used to MSFS pricings, returning to the P3D environment will be painful.

Regarding this Unreal engine, I really don't know what to expect. Somebody mentioned stutters... I think the biggest issues are more like the blurries and terrain/object LODs, plus the color rendering. If that Unreal engine brings it some realistic skies and colors, that would be a nice improvement too. 

 

Very interesting - I do wonder if you can even replicate the full world in unreal engine. As if you can't then it's going to be limited to specific areas for the military operations they are wanting to replicate/train for. 

We'll just have to wait and see what type of Flight Sim is released tomorrow. With LM anything is possible!

MSFS proved you can start from scratch and build a new user base.

But, right now, P3D user base is 99% gone so to attract new devs and new users it should bring something never seen before, something that will make msfs24 something from the past immediately. (in one way, just like what msfs achieved with P3D when it was released). That's the only way to see msfs users switch back to P3D.

LM should also have the desire to push it's products more agressively, even if it will never have the market power of Microsoft. Another force from Microsoft is that they also focus on the xbox and soon PS5 markets and it's a great opportunity for the devs to attract more custumers. the PC market is not as powerfull as it was 10 or 15 years ago.

In theory, nothing is impossible but I have doubt that LM really want to fully go into that direction.

 

Edited December 1, 2025Dec 1 by sdirand

1 hour ago, sdirand said:

MSFS proved you can start from scratch and build a new user base.

But, right now, P3D user base is 99% gone so to attract new devs and new users it should bring something never seen before, something that will make msfs24 something from the past immediately. (in one way, just like what msfs achieved with P3D when it was released). That's the only way to see msfs users switch back to P3D.

LM should also have the desire to push it's products more agressively, even if it will never have the market power of Microsoft. Another force from Microsoft is that they also focus on the xbox and soon PS5 markets and it's a great opportunity for the devs to attract more custumers. the PC market is not as powerfull as it was 10 or 15 years ago.

In theory, nothing is impossible but I have doubt that LM really want to fully go into that direction.

 

MSFS never started from scratch ASBO used the FSX base code same as P3D. In the first interview ASBO dev`s said starting from scratch with new code would have taken another few years and cost would have been a lot higher.

And this was a help to third party developers in modifying P3D product for MFSF. Which MS relies on to support the product into the future like FSX.

Well hopefully at some point down the road we see some study level aircraft otherwise this will be short lived for us folks. It will either be xplane or msfs.

4 hours ago, Daube said:

 Smaller user-base means much higher prices for addons, though... that's the bad news. For people who were used to MSFS pricings, returning to the P3D environment will be painful.

Who do you expect to make these addons? The major legacy devs have fully redone their workflow and are unlikely to come back unless the userbase is there. 

LM will not be bound to any MS contractual agreements as they were with prior versions of P3D that used MS platform.

Tomorrow will be interesting.

Maybe this will force MS/Asobo to release SU4 final build today 🙂  hehe … oh the irony

And even more important, an sdk that doesnt give fits to developers.

35 minutes ago, ZLA Steve said:

Who do you expect to make these addons? The major legacy devs have fully redone their workflow and are unlikely to come back unless the userbase is there. 

I'm wondering too... But I just thought, if P3Dv7 uses a new base/graphic engine, maybe the skills required for addon creation might not be too far away from those required for MSFS addons ? After all, we know nothing yet about retro-compatibility or such... If it ends up being somewhat "easier than expected" to create addons for that new sim, maybe a few editors (or even new actors) might get interested in giving in a shot...

There is a very large tooling community for UE5…including LOD generation tools 😉

I would dare suggest many of the modelers  used in MSFS products have already worked with UE5 assets.

The biggest question is even if V7 comes out - what good would it be for hobbyist and flight simmers? Almost all addon developers have abandoned P3D development and support. Without the support for third party addons - V7 is going to be absolutely useless at least for me, What am I going to fly if none of my addons work in V7. Even if LM tries hard to stand out V7 - I do not think many developers will return back to P3D development, the flight simmer market for P3D is long gone. Same thing happened with P3D V6. Although V6 might have been used by training organisations or other commercial contractors, For flight simmers and hobbyist - certainly did not do enough to motivate people and developers to return. 

Edited December 1, 2025Dec 1 by CAP1234

2 hours ago, ywg256 said:

And even more important, an sdk that doesnt give fits to developers.

Absolutely! A mature and comprehensive SDK is worth a great deal. I’ve just watched a PMDG 737-800 video for MSFS24 and there’s still no ChasePlane or weather radar. Five years since the initial release.

But a v7 would have to be extraordinary to attract simmers away from Asobo / Microsoft.