So, sell me on Prepar3D

[DennyA]

Okay, guys, other than the knowledge of knowing you're using a still-supported product, what are the selling points for Prepar3D?

With a gazillion-gigabyte FSX install, give me some bullet points as to what P3D does better/improves that would make me want to switch, or at least run it in parallel, with FSX.

Thanks!

[Naismith]

imho and I am bound to be pilloried for saying this, if you have a heavily modified FSX and it is running smoothly for you then P3D offers nothing in truth, in fact it is still deficient in a number of major areas. The main positive is that it has taken an abandoned product and promises to give it a new lease of life. I think v2 when it appears will be the major step forward. As far as I can tell, those impressed with it are those upgrading from FS9 or those who had issues with FSX in the first place.
I bought the academic version and it sits hardly used on my system, in fact I use FS9 more than P3D. But I have a heavily modded FSX which runs well.

[Lionheart]

Naismith has pretty well nailed it.

If you are having issues running FSX, then you need to at least try out P3.

If FSX has smooth frame rates and is running fine, you might as well stay where you are.


Main differences are that there arent as many planes in P3 as FSX, no start up screen, no active weather built in. You can use other weather programs that go online and generate your weather. You also have the built in weather themes that come with P3.


For me, FSX just wouldnt run on my rig unless everything was turned off, and still it ran 'scrappy'. P3 runs brilliant on my rig and I have traffic, cars, 3D clouds on, etc.


Bill

[ZEUS67]

P3D have many improvements, but most of them are not on the graphics side. Most of them are inside the flight dynamics engine, simconnect, multi-monitor support, etc. Stuff that you are not aware that is running. The main selling point for me is that it is actively supported and upgraded. Reported bugs are dealt with and of course new ones always appear, which is normal for an active piece of software.
If you are not sure, you have two options:
1. Purchase the developer's version which is $10 a month and if you don't like it, cancel it;
or,
2. Wait until ver 2.0 comes out, which everybody is still in the dark about that one.

If you like it, you can switch to an Academic License which is a single $50 payment.

[Lionheart]

I can tell you, I love my P3.... If I could take it out of the hard drive and wax it and detail it, change its oil, put it on display, I would. It was able to tare me away from FS2004. I was ready to quit developing for FSX and move to X-Plane... Thats how bad I had issues with FSX.


Again, if your FSX is running fine, you may as well stay where you're at.



Bill

[MudMarine]

How about this: FSX is a nightmare of bugs and has driven me crazy for too many years. I took a leap of faith, that and the help and advice of people here, and bought P3D. It's like the the sky opened to a new world!! No buggy crashing, no crappy frame rates just smooth running game. I'm now flying without looking at the FR all the time and it's SMOOTH! P3D is what fsx SHOULD have been but NEVER came close! Just my Humble Opinion.

[Lionheart]

How about this: FSX is a nightmare of bugs and has driven me crazy for too many years. I took a leap of faith, that and the help and advice of people here, and bought P3D. It's like the the sky opened to a new world!! No buggy crashing, no crappy frame rates just smooth running game. I'm now flying without looking at the FR all the time and it's SMOOTH! P3D is what fsx SHOULD have been but NEVER came close! Just my Humble Opinion.


Thats how I feel man.... Group hug! lol...

[Gdavis101]

Thats how I feel man.... Group hug! lol...

That is how I feel too! And with the promised support and further upgrades its the future of Flight Simulation.

[MudMarine]

Awww.........group hung! We need a "Former fsx Owners Group"! We can sit around and talk about what fsx did to our lives. That way we can heal from our past abusive experiences and learn to move on with our better fsx-free lives! Just a thought?

[JAllen]

FSX runs fine on my machine, but, I have P3D too. Why? Because it is there I guess.

Anyway, one day I run FSX and the next it is P3D. I get excited each time something comes up that says FSX and P3D. The anticipation of the future with P3D keeps me on the hook.

I just can't leave FSX though! I keep falling off the wagon and going back to old habits. I am an FSX junkie and I know it. Looking forward to kicking the habit entirely.

[Clutch Cargo]

Why go P3D? Good question especially if you have an FSX system that is "finally" running pretty darn good (mine was - must admit a high-end system running at 4.8GHz.). Here's a personal testimonial of why I switched. I posted this elsewhere but thought it was relevant to your question:



Is it possible to have a "WoW" moment slowly creep up on you rather than a instant "WoW? That's what I think I am seeing here or should I say feeling here. After reading many threads at different P3D forums out there I "Prepar3D" myself (pun intended!), NOT to expect much difference between FSX and P3D. If anything, since P3D would be maybe a little bit of a let down as it would be in strictly default mode.

And at first, this is what I was sort of feeling. I had no tweaks set. Just see how it runs out-of-the-box. And I was not disappointed. Sure, if I stare at my FPS I was seeing relatively the same. And I did see a few "artifacts" popping up when I was in the outside Spot view. So I was telling myself "maybe I should have waited until v2.0 to try this thing". There are a few items I am not "gaw-gaw" about like no start-up screen to set up your initial flight, ATC window is not transparent, but I continued.

Have really no clue what to do for tweaks, what I did was take my FSX.cfg file, renamed it to Prepar3D.cfg and dropped it into the proper P3D folder not knowing what to expect... well actually I was expecting a crash. And I don't think Nvidia Inspector is set up right as I have made no profile for P3D - I don't think it will work if set to FSX? So I just restarted and I all I got was an "initial flight not available" warning and it went to the default flight. And it looked REALLY good. I mean REAL GOOD.

So I took off from Norfolk, the default airport. It flew REALLY smooth. This I did notice right off. Looking down below scenery just seemed to flow past me with no micro stutters. People mention better color, sharper images - that has not really caught my eye. I mean it does look clean and crisp but in my view so does FSX in my setup. So maybe this is more subjective or due to my displays. Are they using the same building textures for autogen? They seemed different - better.

Ok, big test time. Loaded up my Nvidia Surround which consists of three 27" Asus displays and a 4th 12" LCD off a second system for external gauges. This is where the WoW kept getting bigger. In FSX, with no add-ons, I moved all my sliders down to 50% (autogen Normal), traffic at 10%, weather, 60 miles - light clouds, textures are 1024x1024. At that, I was seeing roughly mid-teens (15-16 FPS). Very close to my cutoff point which is acceptable (around 13FPS and only for brief periods of time). This was at Seattle KSEA.

Now with P3D in Surround, Settings to my normal 75-80% (autogen dense), traffic 30%, weather 90 miles - light clouds, detail radius now at 6.5 miles, textures at 2048x2048 I was consistently getting mid to high 20's and at many times I am getting 30FPS (Have my FPS locked at 30). This is with three freakin' screens! I thought I would only be able to use Surround once in a blue moon like remote VFR flights. But this is something I could fly with everyday. Is Lockheed Martin doing something already with multiple GPUs? It sure seems like it. And when I do go single display mode 30FPS is most common.

I also like how they have Wide-View Aspect in the setup menu as I can switch back and forth without having to edit my cfg file like in FSX. This sets up the view setting just right when you are flying in a wrap-around environment.

So very unscientific, very subjective but I can easily say I got a very good impression with my first experience with this platform. Does it have some issues... do we miss things we have in FSX... Yes, but as others pointed out to me, this takes a back seat when what you really are seeking is performance. And that's what finally sold me. I still have FSX loaded and it will remain as I have the space and will reference it. But I can say whole-heartedly that P3D is now my main sim of choice. For me, P3D is FSNext

hope that helps somebody who is on the fence about moving forward.

Clutch

[falcon409]

Just to add my opinion....my overall reaction initially was just what most others here suggest, not much to be excited about. With tweaks, it gets better. I don't care for the fact that P3D will probably not have a way (internally) to run TrackIR which I have become accustomed to using with every flight, thus requiring the user to purchase a $35 program just to get TIR to function. I've had numerous problems concerning my scenery.cfg file and the Scenery Library, but they are too numerous and freakish to pursue here. As far as performance is concerned, I have not seen enough of a performance increase overall to say it made a big difference in that area. I did see some changes in fps, but not across the board. Blurries are still present for me, that despite some claims that P3D took care of that.

I have not seen DennyA come back on since he asked the original question, so I don't know if he took the plunge or not. Denny, if you haven't purchased it yet, I would suggest you read every forum you can that discusses P3D in it's current state. If you only have FS9 then you might consider this as your next step, only because most addons for FSX will migrate to P3D fairly easily and support for P3D most probably will continue along with periodic improvements which you won't see from FSX. However if you already have FSX installed and have spent a fair amount of time tweaking it and building it up with addon's, etc., I would think twice before purchasing P3D at this stage as it would be like starting all over again with FSX and I don't know that the few supposed advantages (better fps and less blurries) are worth it just yet.

I have decided, at this point, to put P3D on the back burner. Not enough of a difference compared to my current FSX setup to spend any time on it right now. If 2.0 raises the bar I might take another look later.:salute:

[GypsyBaron]

Falcon, you do not need a $35 addon to get TrackIR to work. There is a simple fixthat just entails making a change to the language.dll file that will 'tell' TrackIR that P3D is actually FSX. Then all is well. That 'fix' is described on one or more of these P3D-specific forums. I just can't remember where I saw it.

Paul

[falcon409]

Falcon, you do not need a $35 addon to get TrackIR to work. There is a simple fixthat just entails making a change to the language.dll file that will 'tell' TrackIR that P3D is actually FSX. Then all is well. That 'fix' is described on one or more of these P3D-specific forums. I just can't remember where I saw it.

Paul
Thanks Paul, yea, I knew about that and used it in my short-lived test of P3D. . .worked great. Dumb as it may sound the reason I dumped it was because, for me, P3D wasn't enough of a difference as it was, from FSX and actually without any tweaks, Ver1.4 was worse looking. When I changed the language.dll and then started P3D back up, I was overjoyed at the fact that TrackIR was working, then I happened to look at the upper LH corner of the sim and it said "Microsoft Flight Simulator X". It hit me right there that here I had paid $50. for another sim, that didn't look as good as FSX, made very little difference in performance and in order to get TrackIR to work I've even taken it's identity away and made it FSX, lol. That's when I dumped it.:salute:

[Panther_99FS]

What has better frame rates - Prepar3D or MS Flight :ques:

[Roger]

Flight probably but that's irrelevant now as MS have stopped all development for Flight. When P3D go Dx11 in V2 then I expect that P3D will be the sim of choice.

[DagR]

I bought P3D today, now to download, I wonder how it'll run :-)


Best
DagR

[Paul Anderson]

Went to P3D site and under Features it said:
High-detail living world with 45 airports and 39 cities

Really only that few?
Anyone know if they have or are planning on cloud shadows option like FSX originally teased us about?

[SkippyBing]

Went to P3D site and under Features it said:
High-detail living world with 45 airports and 39 cities

That's the number of high detail airports and cities, the same as FSX I'd imagine, all the others are more generic in terms of building etc. rather than them being modelled on specific examples, again the same as FSX.

[Paul Anderson]

That's the number of high detail airports and cities, the same as FSX I'd imagine, all the others are more generic in terms of building etc. rather than them being modelled on specific examples, again the same as FSX.

Thanks for the clarification. Still under consideration then.
I believe there was a software outfit showing screen shots of clouds with land shadows. Did that ever happen?

[Clutch Cargo]

The default flight out of Norfolk, Virginia is new and they did a nice job of detailing it. Take a look around. Not sure about the list as I have never tried to track them all down. I remember a military base very detailed... maybe Andrews Air Force base? I think that is all newly detailed.

I have not read of any specific enhancements such as cloud shadows. There are supposed to be significant enhancements for version 2.0 in 2013 such as DX11 which would surpass MS Flight and FSX. I say this only as a possible measuring stick on how the "look" of 2.0 might be if you ever flew MS Flight and liked its look.

[clmooring]

A few items not clear to me:

1. Can I purchase the student license or is it $199 for a 50 year old flight simmer?

2. Can I have both fsx and P3 installed?

3. can I load models i have purchased for fsx into P3?

4. do I have to uninstall fsx add-ons from fsx before I can install them in P3?

[Flyingsub]

A few items not clear to me:

1. Can I purchase the student license or is it $199 for a 50 year old flight simmer?

I purchased the academic license although I am 53. Mind you, I am a permanent student too. It is meant to be a learning tool and I read it that it is OK to use this version as long as you have a genuine desire to learn (as opposed to just "playing").

2. Can I have both fsx and P3 installed?

I did for a while (although FSX has now bitten the dust).

3. can I load models i have purchased for fsx into P3?

I have yet to come across any add on that hasn't worked. And I have lot of them. FSX to Prepar3d migration tool is really useful http://www.flightsim.ee/products/fsx-to-prepar3d-migration-tool

Just make sure that you respect EULAs

4. do I have to uninstall fsx add-ons from fsx before I can install them in P3?

Mostly you can leave them in one place and point the respective program at the location. P3D specific programs will have to be installed separately.

Hope this helps you to make the jump to P3D. It really is worth it.

[clmooring]

flyingsub I appreciate the responses.

I live in Chesapeake VA and for some reason do most of my flightsim flying around hampton roads va. Just seeing norfolk so well rendered in the promotional shots makes me want to make the switch.

From what I read, I guess the whole world is available in P3 but just certain cities are rendered to real life... like fsx?

[ZEUS67]

flyingsub I appreciate the responses.

I live in Chesapeake VA and for some reason do most of my flightsim flying around hampton roads va. Just seeing norfolk so well rendered in the promotional shots makes me want to make the switch.

From what I read, I guess the whole world is available in P3 but just certain cities are rendered to real life... like fsx?

I think only 49 airports/air bases are rendered to real life, including Norfolk. But yes, most of all known airports, airfields, etc. are available.

[Lionheart]

Hey Flying Sub,

I'll answer these below;



A few items not clear to me:

1. Can I purchase the student license or is it $199 for a 50 year old flight simmer?

I purchased the academic license although I am 53. Mind you, I am a permanent student too. It is meant to be a learning tool and I read it that it is OK to use this version as long as you have a genuine desire to learn (as opposed to just "playing").

Its based on honor. If you are a student of flight, you definitely qualify. If you can afford the pro version, and you arent a student, please help out P3D with your pro purchase.

For Developers, we can get it at $10.00 USD a month. Also, if you want to 'demo' the platform to see if it will run on your rig, buy the 'one time, 30 day purchase of the Developer version for $10.00 USD and you can run it for 30 days to see if you like it. I did that and fell in love with the sim. (FSX wouldnt run on my computer, this, P3D, does...).

2. Can I have both fsx and P3 installed?

Yes

I did for a while (although FSX has now bitten the dust).

3. can I load models i have purchased for fsx into P3?

Yes

I have yet to come across any add on that hasn't worked. And I have lot of them. FSX to Prepar3d migration tool is really useful http://www.flightsim.ee/products/fsx-to-prepar3d-migration-tool

Just make sure that you respect EULAs

4. do I have to uninstall fsx add-ons from fsx before I can install them in P3?

No, not usually, but with some ultra sophisticated addons, you might have to ask the developer team if you can. Usually you can load anything that is for FSX into P3D 'also' as they are the same sim platform. P3D is an advanced version of FSX; same folder system, etc.

Some scenery systems, as like ORBX still slightly are, have DLL's and programs that run scenery, and are delicately installed into specific locations. Some people can put a copy of the FSX.exe program into the main Prepar3D folder and that will fool the installers into loading FSX meant scenery packages into P3D.


Mostly you can leave them in one place and point the respective program at the location. P3D specific programs will have to be installed separately.

Mainly with 'scenery' will you need to do this. You can link in scenery directly from FSX into P3D. But, things like ORBX DLLs and scenery management programs, those need to be 'in' the P3D folder system (the programs) and they need to run 'with' P3D. ORBX was running fine with P3D, but on the latest update to P3D, some DLL's had issues. I am not sure if ORBX have cleared that up yet. Popups come up during P3 bootup concerning 'dll' performance, asking 'do you want to run this or cancel. It asks this 'every time' you boot up the sim. Annoying. Its never done this before.

Hope this helps you to make the jump to P3D. It really is worth it.

Flying Sub, I dont know if you were asking questions or answering them, so I answered some above, though it looks like you had some answers already. Just helping out.

[clmooring]

Thanks Bill. Thanks all!

[Lionheart]

Thanks Bill. Thanks all!


Ahhh... You were the one with the questions. My apologies, Flying Sub.

Yep, I am loving this sim. Every 30 days, its some of the best $10.00 I can spend. I actually have 2 licenses as a dev, which cover 2 computers each, so that allows me to have it on my 3 rigs. I sooooo love smooth frame rates.

[clmooring]

I hope I dont wearout my welcome but 2 more questions:

1. does p3 support realworld weather like fsx?

2. does realityxp work? and if so is it difficult to setup under p3?

thanks again for any input.

[Lionheart]

I can answer number one. P3 does not have active weather. It can run most weather programs though. I am running REX on mine presently. One weather program does not work, (suddenly after Build 1.4). I do not know which one it is.

The weather programs are usually installed in FSX and automatically kick in when P3 is activated, from what I have read.


Bill