6 hours ago, Daube said:

Thanks for the video above, it illustrates quite well how much addons can improve the base sim. I wish he had shown the sim at night as well though, because flying an helicopter over a big city in XPlane at night (or dusk/dawn) is quite something. I'm especially a big fan of spotting and trying to follow the police cars (with their flashing lights) on the highways 😆

The XP12 is a “high crime area” and I find the police cars adorable, and yes, the night lighting at dusk/early AM is incredible.

I’ve not tried improving the ground/autogen aside from Orbx True Earth which I don’t currently have installed - I instead tell myself that the sim (because the physics are so good) is meant to simulate a plausible world (sort of like P3Dv5) and just enjoy it that way.

If there IS a P3Dv7 with improvements I’ll probably buy that even without ortho scenery as a convincing plausible world based on real data is close enough for me (and never had weird colors etc).

I’m a model railroader as well and there are many who enjoy realistic operation with a minimum of scenery - just as a play can be convincing with great actors and minimal scenery - something like that.

That said, I’m going to try firing up my old True Earth sceneries in P3Dv5 when I get a chance!

I am another that flipped to xplane. What I thought was going to be a daunting task turned out to be painless. I went the payware route and picked up toliss narrow bus NEO and CEO and with the KOSP soundpack, I have not looked back. The one thing I miss is AIG AIM but that is the only thing I miss. Sucks making the move but I lost faith in P3D and it was time to move on to something else.

On 8/12/2026 at 5:02 AM, spilok said:

A total P3d upgrade to P3d v7 (or whatever it will be called). I would love to see an LM P3d version that transforms the world into scenery that is comparable or even better than what's found in MSFS. I still fly both sims every week several times, but I must say that I really do prefer the "close to reality" scenery I see in MSFS.

Do all of you P3d'ers still hold out hope for a new upgraded sim, or have you lost faith?

It’s helpful to remember that P3D is, first and foremost, a com/mil/gov training & simulation tool. And it’s heavily weighted towards not only multi player, but also multi domain training (eg, ground and sea as well as air).

And while it’s clear that there is a trend in professional sims towards higher visual fidelity, it’s just as clearly not the primary focus.

Further, given LM’s own statements about separate simulation paths within in their own portfolio, it well may be that P3D is more or less in maintenance mode, even for professional users. I.e., it’s good enough to fulfill current or relevant training pipelines.

So there’s literally no incentive for them to beautify the sim for consumers (especially since MSFS has already won over the vast majority of former P3D users).

And given those alternative LM sims and the lack of advancement on P3D, it may just be that there simply isn’t enough headroom in P3Ds codebase to create an MSFS competitor in any case.

Which means the next version of P3D for consumers, IF there will be one, likely would be P3D in name only. No compatibility - AND no developers.

So, no - it’s best just to enjoy what we already have. There’s still quite a bit of enjoyment to be had, especially with those P3D addons that remain BETTER than anything available in MSFS. 🤙

5 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

So, no - it’s best just to enjoy what we already have. There’s still quite a bit of enjoyment to be had, especially with those P3D addons that remain BETTER than anything available in MSFS. 🤙

None more so as far as this user is concerned than the best Concorde available for any of the three main sims. The offering by FS Labs for P3Dv5 beats the competition even if the development team are probably the worst when it comes to communication.