5 hours ago, Baber20 said:

I am planning on installing P3D but I have a few questions if you would be kind enough to answer.

I would be mainly flying pmdg 748f.

1) Which version should I use? V6 or v5.xx ?

2) For ground scenery, is there a global addon ? Or is there any way to stream ortho ?

3) What are the must have addons ?

I have a very beefy system with 9800x3d and a 4090 so I am willing to go all out.

Thanks

Agree totally with @simfan1983

you do need ActiveSky for real time weather. Otherwise it’s just static presets in P3D. 

I personally really like Orbx True Earth, and I have their other older stuff for the regions not covered by True Earth. 
if you buy it, wait for a sale - many time it’ll go down to 40% off 😎👍

Edited April 28Apr 28 by UrgentSiesta

6 hours ago, Baber20 said:

Which version should I use? V6 or v5.xx ?

v5.3HF2. I had issues with 5.4. It has lots of 3rd party airports lacking for v6.

6 hours ago, Baber20 said:

For ground scenery, is there a global addon ? Or is there any way to stream ortho ?

ORBX FTX Global. No streaming options available.

 

6 hours ago, Baber20 said:

What are the must have addons ?

All those mentioned by simfan1983 plus FSUIPC6, Steam Lossless Generation and AIG Ai aircraft for full immersion at 3rd party airports lacking. I have TrueEarth GB and it add a lot to the realism.

Your system is very similar to mine and will cope admirably.

1 hour ago, UrgentSiesta said:

I say all this not to proclaim that one is better than the other, but rather that the only legit reason not to switch is the FSL Concorde. 

Aivlasoft EFB isn’t compatible with 2024 plus the lack of an AFCAD editor are key reasons I stay with P3D. I’ve seen 2024 lots of times and have given my reasons why I still prefer P3D.

Survey results were a bit depressing, but as per a few other responses here have found P3D super stable and have many pay-ware add-ons that I'm happy with and don't fancy buying again in MSFS despite the eye-candy.

@Baber20 I'd second ORBX FTX Global. Oh and P3D v5.3 too version wise.

If Orbx isn't your thing and you have loads of disk space and fly mainly in one or two countries/regions, do check out the photo-real/auto-gen from https://www.fcscenerys.com/newhomepage

Don’t forget Radar Contact v4 is available free of charge in the AvSim Library.

Works perfectly with AIG Ai aircraft too. 👍

Thank you for the suggestions.

First year P3D is not a sponsor at some level for FSExpo and also no representation either.  I think they have officially thrown in the towel on the consumer level product.

I was one of the people who did fill in this year's Navigraph's survey - However those numbers aren't surprising to me at all. The userbase is very small - most likely users who elected to keep this platform for obvious reasons. Planes like PMDG 747-400/800 or Majestic Q400 - There are no other options so P3D is still my go for these. However we must also consider that there might be other people out there who might still use P3D but did not fill in the Navigraph's Survey. So using survey results alone is not conclusive of actual P3D user base, but I don't expect that number to be particularly higher. PMDG recently claimed in their recent update that users using their P3D products and OC2 services has dropped significantly. LM tried to showcase their newer sim versions V6, V7 (Fuse) but failed to attract many simmers and developers. Yes they might be doing well with commercial aspect of their products but from consumer level (most simmers) - it is practically dead. 

Edited May 1May 1 by CAP1234

On 4/28/2026 at 1:55 AM, Baber20 said:

I am planning on installing P3D but I have a few questions if you would be kind enough to answer.

I would be mainly flying pmdg 748f.

If you're planning to install P3D, is the PMDG 748f actually available to purchase/download anywhere these days?

3 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

If you're planning to install P3D, is the PMDG 748f actually available to purchase/download anywhere these days?

Nope, sadly (I just missed out buying it before it went offline)

I did not respond to the survey as I was on an extended flight-sim hiatus until a few weeks ago.

For now I remain a P3D user, in large part because the FSL Concorde is my daily driver atm. It is still an enjoyable and reliable sim - although with the way third party support is going I don't dare try to do a full reinstall! In regard to non-concorde flight planning PFPX is still my go-to, and I will very much miss it on moving away.

I haven't yet tried either 2020 or 2024 (mainly for reasons of hard-drive space), but I expect it is a matter of time until I move over at this point, though that is still probably at least a year away at this point. The 747-100 PMDG have in the works might well be what has me take the plunge depending on how good it is. My understanding is a few of my main initial gripes are now fixed (If I am right they give you the last 24 hours of historic weather now) so I have less reason to be resistant now - though I expect will miss the more 'optional' nature of updates in P3D.

Edited May 3May 3 by SimeonWilbury

P3D dropping in the Navigraph surveys is not that surprising now, but a lot of longtime users still stick with it because they already built stable setups with expensive addons. Switching everything over is a much bigger hassle than people think.

On 5/26/2026 at 5:57 AM, kumarbr said:

P3D dropping in the Navigraph surveys is not that surprising now, but a lot of longtime users still stick with it because they already built stable setups with expensive addons. Switching everything over is a much bigger hassle than people think.

Absolutely. I have installed FS2020 several times over the years and always end up uninstalling. It’s just not worth the time, hassles and finances to repurchase all the addons. Having watched videos on how to set up control profiles in 2024 I definitely don’t need those hassles added to my life.