I want your opinions on Flight Sims

[Wulf190]

Howdy Everybody! Happy New year!

This is silly, but I am torn between upgrading my copy of FS9, or changing to P3D (Prepar3d). I do have FSX:SE (steam edition), but one large draw back is the requirement to log in to STEAM before I can play FSX. Thus FSX (at least right now) cannot be played off-line.

Computer hardware wise, I should not have a problem. I am running an i7 930, which I will overclock to 3.6 GHZ, 6 GB of RAM, a GTX 970, a 500 GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, and two Seagate 500 GB HDDs. FS9 runs rings around P3D frame rate wise, but that is more indicative of the age of FS9 than anything else.

What I am grappling with in the fact that I have amassed a collection of fantastic FS9 aircraft that I know will not work in P3D; and the cost of P3D itself. With the vast majority of aircraft and add-ons for P3D being payware in nature, it is not an inexpensive platform.


What are your thoughts? I appreciate your time to reply.

[n4gix]

Just as a point of possible interest, 99.9% of FSX freeware aircraft and scenery will work just fine in Prepar3Dv2.4...

[rhumbaflappy]

I guess it depends on what you want to do with a flight sim. If your investment of time and money is an issue, then stay with FS9. You don't seem to need or want multiplayer, so if that avenue dries up in FS9, it shouldn't be an issue.

If Dovetail resolves the issue of needing to log on to steam, FSX:SE might be fun. Lot's of addons will work with it. It seems to work pretty well from the get-go, not needing a lot of tweaking. (It has been indicated by Dovetail that some FSX addons might not work in the future, as the sim will develop with it's own improvements, making some backward compatibility broken.) Dovetail says by fall 2015 it will have it's own flight game, so any future with FSX:SE is a bit clouded, as they'll want to spend their resources on their new game.

Flight still works for a few brave souls. GA free-flight, missions and aerocache hunting. New addons now allow default world FSX scenery conversion. There is multiplayer. Not as real as it gets, but fun. Future? Who knows... a small number of friendly enthusiasts are keeping it going.

P3D? The academic license is reasonable and pertinent to "students of flight", which we all are. Has the advantages of FSX addon compatibility for the time being. Again, a smaller number of enthusiasts than either FSX or FS9. P3D is still in a beta phase to some extent. Lots of changes with the updates, and it doesn't always go smoothly from what I gather. P3D is pretty much the future of the old MS Flight Simulator series, unless Dovetail performs a miracle at the end of this year with their new flying game (making it an improved simulator, and a good SDK for 3rd party developers).

There's always X-Plane if you want to explore the dark side... probably about the same number of fans as P3D.


Dick

[Tom Clayton]

If you think you might like P3D, but aren't quite sure if you want to take the plunge, there's the option of paying $9.95 US for a one month, non-recurring "Developer" license. If you don't like it, you're not out much cash, and if you do like it, then you can pay for a permanent license.

I've been meaning to do this myself, but I never have the time when I think about it. I want to do it when I have a couple of hours to d/l the installer and then actually sit and fly a little bit.

[OleBoy]

My being a past user of FS2004, I enjoyed all the models that were available. A thing of the paste where people shared things a the simulation grew. So many aircraft. Almost anything one wanted. Then FSX comes to light, and slowly gains headway to become the lime light. Slow at the beginning. Most comfortable stayed behind in the comfort zone they long enjoyed. I moved on like many others. Superior it was, FSX had it's quirks that always needed a kick in the pants to get going. Once optimized the enjoyment was worthwhile and rewarding as I soared the skies. Until the next "tweak" to gain 1 FPS and the upper hand from my hardware. Then, back to square one to start all over again, as the FSX.cfg has not gotten backed up, and everything was a total mess for weeks until I wiped the drive and started fresh.

All while adjusting and dealing with "issues" long since forgotten and never written down, forever getting frustrated from the instant replays and carrying a toolbox with me at all times. I wondered why my shoulder was always hurting. My head too.

During all these times I would venture down to the CFS2 & CFS3 forums which seemed another sort of fun. As tempted as I was by the features they contained, I did my best and stayed away from a new beginning of tweaking yet another flying game. It looked like fun.

Then along comes FLIGHT. The make-up she wore was like nectar to a honey bee. Was it really? I waited. Eventually the excitement seemed to pass, and most, again we're back in their comfort zones. FLIGHT sure looked inviting.

Today, I find what enjoyment I can gain from LM Prepar3D to be my "fix" for virtual flight. Like the rest of the flight simulations, it too has "issues" that hopefully will get ironed out in a big way in the next year. Currently it's a diamond in the rough. From an add-on buying standpoint to gain better enjoyment, my bank account is "closed' as I am willing to invest no more at this time.

Pick your poison. Add seasoning to taste. YMMV. They all have their "quirks'

Xplane? Who knows? I doubt it.

[Blackbird686]

I tried Xplane and it wasn't for me. I have FSX Gold with Acceleration and like Ole Boy says, it has it's quirks. I have found that despite not being as "state of the art", FS9 has been the most trouble free and versatile. That's why I have ALOT of freeware and payware add-ons for FS9, and only a scant few for FSX. I recently procured a copy of Virtavia's B-24 Liberator with the intention of flying it in FS9. It included the FSX version so I dropped that one into my FSX install. That plane is a dream in FSX, it looks absolutely stunning and is a very gentle flyer. The same can be said of FS9 although the plane's textures seem to look a little nicer in FSX.

So like the man says... Pick your poison. Flight sim is a hobby for me, not an obsession. I probably won't use P3D, even though I have a machine with enough power to handle it.

BB686:US-flag:

[Dumonceau]

Wulf190,

FSX when bought through Steam isn't necessarily always online. The beginning of the game is (Like Cliffs of Dover and Battle for Stalingrad), but the game itself is single player and multiplayer as before.

But I feel your pain: steam is a bit of a headache!

I was myself contemplating moving over to P3D, until I bought my new GFX card. An EVGA GTX970 factory superclocked. Not too expensive, and now FSX runs like FS9 did before! (don't have FS9 installed anymore). So P3D is no longer needed anymore. especially since not all FSX addons will run as they should in P3D v2.4 and you can forget about FS9 portovers altogether. Which is a shame...

A question: did you buy FSX standard edition, or FSX Accelleration?

Take care,
Dumonceau

[Penzoil3]

I have Bill Lyon's Piper Apache ported to Prepar3D. So it is not impossible. It did take a bit of work, but then, I had already redone the gauges to get it to work in FSX.
LOL
Sue

[Wulf190]

Well I have FSX:SE, and that looks like it includes Acceleration. So I am guessing that it is analogous to FSX with SP2?

[Dev One]

Wulf190,

...... and you can forget about FS9 portovers altogether. Which is a shame...


Dumonceau

Apparently not quite true, the Tangmere museum has run my piston Provost on P3D & I have experimented with them & provided a modification to the .mdl which was to change the blurred prop texture only. (This was done remotely as I don't have P3D!)
Keith


P.S. I also gather that my Miles Falcon six over in the CBFSim library will work in P3D - it has the same prop mod.