P3d 'Academic' license $50

[AusWilko]

So is SOH going to give this its own forum, preferably not buried down the bottom as it seems to be getting bigger as time goes and more people become interested in it

[warchild]

Im hearing some good things about P3D from our customers. Had one guy cram in the SportStar and Seabee into P3D and says it runs better then FSX! I think im going to invest in a dev license and support it with my own products. I really hope 2.0 comes soon! Would be great to see what DX11 can bring. Tessilation is the #1 feature I think would do WONDERS for simming in both the land (no more jaggies) and water (real waves).

Ive realized one issue with P3D when developing Flight Models on it. It works too well.. I have to take my flight model back into FSX and tune it back to allow for the places that FSX screws up. I'll be glad when more people find out about P3D and I can actually ditch FSX entirely..

[orionll]

They are identical. The only difference in the Academic version is the unobtrusive "watermark" that appears on the top menu bar, which is of course hidden by pressing the ALT key...

There are two key things to note when reading the requirements for the Academic version...

1. Undergraduate or lower (presumably this includes kindergardeners since it is demonstrably lower than undergraduate level)
2. HOME (which means that you are allowed to use it at home)

Tongue-in-cheek mode:ON
I guess that graduate students will have to fork out for the Professional version...

BTW, no one is asked for a photocopy of their student ID, much less where you are registered as a student...

I've had my developer's license for over a year already.

They do say K-12 in the license comparison: http://www.prepar3d.com/prepar3d-license-comparison/. I'm glad for once someone's allowing students below college level to be eligible for student pricing.

[warchild]

They do say K-12 in the license comparison: http://www.prepar3d.com/prepar3d-license-comparison/. I'm glad for once someone's allowing students below college level to be eligible for student pricing.

LM knows very well that the virtual pilots of today, will become the Predator and global hawk pilots of tomorrow. its in their best interest to get it into the hands of as many peoplke as possible..

[Sascha66]

Just for fun, I unlocked the FPS in P3D and got between 100 and 130 fps on my system - mid range Q6600 @ 3 GHz 4 gig ram and Nvidia 460. No stuttering or microstutters. And very stable.
Aircraft is A2A P40, by the way.

Cheers,
Mark

Attachment 61872

That looks awesomely real! Is this feeling of depth that the screenshot exudes happening when you fly? Most FSX screenshots seem "somehow flat" to me, so this would ne a major "feel-there" reason for me to take arunning jump into p3d.

Does it have AI and traffic control?

[CG_1976]

If ya like Canada go here for Prepar3d payware http://simaddons.com/
I'll fire up Prepar3D next weekend and give a pic taste if Milviz gets that 737 I'm hunting and yes I'm going to get her and try plopping her gavel kit into Prepar3d as a Academic experiment ya experiment

[Lionheart]

Does it have AI and traffic control?

Yes.

This was my own stock setting that the installer has me at.

Settings along the bottom.

[Lionheart]

Its so wierd to be flying along, smooth frames, and look down and see traffic on the highways, and then realize that clouds are on also, and its running smooth! lol... I am loving this.


Note, I turned on AA (anti aliasing) in the Display settings, and my sim (PP3D) went down to a wopping 3 FPS, so I will not be using that unless doing screenshots. I couldnt use that in FSX either, so no loss there.


SCHWEEEET!!!!!

[TeiscoDelRay]

So nice to see so many students here, I am one myself. I learn something new each day and today I learned that I must get this program.

[strykerpsg]

So, after reviewing this thread and really giving this product much thought, does REX, GEX, UTX or any Orbx products directly port over? Also, if they do port over, will this require purchasing a P3D version or will the FSX one work without flaws?


I really do like where my FSX is, but it's a huge cost of add ons and I would hate to see them not be usable. Anyway, really liking the direction this one is taking.

Matt

[Prowler1111]

If you are getting big fps hits on coastal sceneries, be sure to uncheck the Bathymetry box at the scenery settings. Bathymetry renders the ocean floor (used for submarines) and it´s hard on performance, since you´re using a plane, there is no use for it,and you´ll get even more FPS.
Best regards
Prowler

[kjb]

I picked up the academic version yesterday and imported the FSX sceneries I have, and they all work correctly. The only issue is that you have to run P3D in administrator mode to add scenery. If not run in admin mode, it crashes with a fatal error.

There are differences in color with P3D more biased toward red. It seems like a lot of the little annoyances with FSX have been fixed. Adding scenery works correctly, without the right click. As noted by others, things like clouds and autogen don't flash. It seems like they're busy cleaning up the code at this point, a first step toward adding the things they'd like to see in the sim.

You have to like the progress and the potential. I never saw Lockheed-Martin as one who'd pick up the ball when Microsoft fumbled, but I'm glad they're doing it. I think Microsoft went brain dead in their transition to Flight. It strikes me as a business model that's bound to lose. As evidence of that, I offer Austin Meyer's April Fool's announcement. It's the new features in X-Plane 10.1 and funny

I read this and imagined someone at Microsoft saying the same...and getting the proposal approved!!!

Laminar Research press Release, Scheduled for April 1 but released early here:


Hello, I am Austin Meyer, author of X-Plane, and I am announcing some major new
improvements and pricing strategies for X-Plane 10.1, due out in a few weeks!

First of all, starting with X-Plane 10.1, we will be REMOVING almost all of the
world-wide dynamic scenery that X-Plane is known for. It is simply too much work
for us to create, maintain, and improve this kind of massive database, so we are
cutting the Global Scenery out of X-Plane starting with version 10.1. Of course,
we still need to have SOME scenery to fly over, so, to keep our jobs simple, we
will be cutting the scenery down to the smallest and most geographically
isolated area we can imagine: Hawaii. We chose Hawaii because that is such a
small area that we can very easily create and distribute it. As well, this tiny
flying area will be TOTALLY STATIC. There will be no moving cars, no dynamic
lighting, and no living cities. No immersive 3-D world loaded with AI cars and
planes to fly in… there is simply no need for this complex and dynamic
environment and it is actually a very difficult job for us to continue to
provide this stuff for you.

As well, we have grown tired of supplying so MANY airplanes. It takes effort for
us to build the countless airplanes that we do, so we are cutting the fleet WAY
down. Starting with X-Plane 10.1, rather than having about SIXTY-FIVE airplanes,
ranging from the Cessna 172 to the Space Shuttle, with the SR-71, X-15, B-2,
Piaggo Avanti, and Boeing 747 in between, we will cut X-Plane down to TWO
airplanes. Both single-engine props. That is simply all of the airplanes that we
feel the need to give you in a simulator like this. And, you will NO LONGER be
able to design your own airplanes to test how they would fly in reality, as
Plane-Maker will be removed entirely. I see no need for anyone to have any
planes other than the TWO that we give you. So, rather than the SIXTY-FIVE
planes that come with X-Plane and the THOUSANDS of others that are freely
downloadable from the net, and the ability to make ANY AIRPLANE YOU CAN IMAGINE
for FREE, you will be restricted to TWO airplanes. We may let you buy three
additional aircraft as add-on purchases at some point in the future, though.
These will be incredibly boring single-engine props, though, and will be
surprisingly expensive.

Also new for 10.1 will be a new "flight model" for X-Plane! Unlike previous
versions of X-Plane, this model will not have un-needed things like "accuracy".
We here at Laminar Research feel that "accuracy" is over-rated, and the most
important thing that we can do is make sure that X-Plane is so easy to use that
nobody feels sad that they cannot fly like a professional on their first flight.
Marketing assures us that customers "feel better" if they have no challenge.
Certainly, the FEELING that you can fly is more important than ACTUALLY BEING
ABLE to fly. For myself, I cannot think of a single reason that anyone would
ACTUALLY want to know how to fly a REAL airplane! Better to leave ACTUAL FLYING
to someone ELSE, and simply have a game that is accessible to all. So, the new
flight model will be designed by our marketing team to be accessible even to
toddlers. Starting with 10.1, the ACTUAL laws of physics need not be applied…
why would the laws of PHYSICS matter to anyone? MARKETING is more important than
PHYSICS!

New also will be the removal of all navigation, air traffic control, and
real-weather options, since they are somewhat challenging to master and would be
too much work to properly code. Since these elements of aviation may pose
'challenges' for 'some' we have decided to remove those feature from the sim
entirely so that NOBODY can enjoy them.

Also, we will be changing our pricing structure. 10.1 will be free, but by the
time you have bought the tiniest quantity of add-ons, you will have paid us a
notable amount and never be able to expand upon that without paying us more. And
more. And more.

Our programers did notice that this update to X-Plane 10 will make it completely
useless, but our marketing team has decided upon the perfect solution to this
problem! We are going to 'spruce it up' by adding JEWELS IN THE SKY! You will
aim one of the TWO airplanes you get towards those jewels!!! When you do so,
there will be a little noise that is played, or something like that… our
marketing department is still working out the details.

Also, we at Laminar Research have noticed that it is a somewhat formidable
achievement to make X-Plane work on Mac, Windows, and Linux… it simply involves
a decent amount of knowledge, savvy, and work. Also, we love the constant
viruses, crashes, and frustrations that we go through with Windows so
frequently, so we have decided to REMOVE support for Mac and Linux and JUST
provide X-Plane on Microsoft Windows. We here at Laminar Research believe that
the success of Apple is just a fad, and that MICROSOFT will be the future of
computing, since we all love Microsoft Windows so much, just like we know you
do.

So, hopefully this will make X-Plane have more "mass market appeal", and
therefore be a better sim for all of us!

To the future!

austin

[Lionheart]

Thats hilarious KJB! (At first it did freak me out, but as I read on, it came to me... Only ms, lol...).

Prowler1111

If you are getting big fps hits on coastal sceneries, be sure to uncheck the Bathymetry box at the scenery settings. Bathymetry renders the ocean floor (used for submarines) and it´s hard on performance, since you´re using a plane, there is no use for it,and you´ll get even more FPS.
Best regards
Prowler

Thanks for the heads up on that Prowler. I was wondering what that meant.

I'll be able to install my Type VII-C U-Boot in this! Brilliant!


I remember asking for 'underwater capabilities' with Aces when they were making FSX and they laughed their butts off. (This is an airplane sim!!!) I think we developers could see the needs for other uses for FS, the 'world sim'. With Lockheed, they indeed have, using it for army tanks training deployment, submarines (the sim comes with a sub), training for students (I think MS was originally really against using it in schools, afraid for some reason).


I had to fly it again tonight. I have even just been booting it up just to look at it. I am totally amazed. Mind you, it 'appears' almost identical to FSX, trees and terrain and water, and the Maul. BUT!!!!!!!! It runs smooth!!! It is FREAKING ME OUT! Is this a dream???



Bill

[roger-wilco-66]

That looks awesomely real! Is this feeling of depth that the screenshot exudes happening when you fly? Most FSX screenshots seem "somehow flat" to me, so this would ne a major "feel-there" reason for me to take arunning jump into p3d.

Does it have AI and traffic control?

I must say, that's a custom scenery we're developing right now, not a default one. But generally, the shaders are good and I like the colors and visual scaling of P3D better than FSX.
The very high FPS on that screenshot come from no clouds and the lack of scenery elements in that stage of development of the scenery, but like most users feel, it is generally better and smoother than FSX.

And yes, AI and ATC is the same as in FSX.

@Lionheart: I renamed the Prepar3D.CFG to fsx.cfg and ran it through Jesus Altuve's FSX optimizing routine, it does the same magic to FPS in P3D as it does for FSX, at least on my machine. After that, rename the optimized fsx.cfg back to Prepar3D.CFG and put it back to the LM / P3D folder. This is even mentioned as a suggestion to improve performance in the LM P3D documentation.

Cheers,
Mark

[wombat666]

So is SOH going to give this its own forum, preferably not buried down the bottom as it seems to be getting bigger as time goes and more people become interested in it

It's under consideration and if members really want it then it will be done.
A little patience for time being please.

[AusWilko]

It's under consideration and if members really want it then it will be done.
A little patience for time being please.

Cool, can't ask for more than that Cheers

[UKMIL]

what is the difference between the dev and student versions, apart from the 'discreet' logo?

I see it comes with the SDK, but since FSX models work ok, then I will just use that? I cannot see why I would pay $10 a month when I can get it for $49 total

[Bone]

Does anyone know if FSrecorder, AIcarriers, and some of the other utilities work in P3D?

[roger-wilco-66]

Does anyone know if FSrecorder, AIcarriers, and some of the other utilities work in P3D?

FSrecorder does work

[OleBoy]

P3D is sounding better and better the more responses I read. It seems to have taken a giant leap forward and has great reviews, and sounds like more good is just around the corner.
$49 to have the code cleaned up so all the muss and fuss is gone sounds great to me!!
No stutters, jaggies gone, real water, real clouds, cross compatibility to 3rd party add-ons?
I'm looking into getting P3D right after this post.

[Xilence]

After quickly comparing the Professional License with the Academic License I noticed the following 2 differences in the description:

The academic license seem to miss the following:

-Whole Earth WGS-84 Model
-Realistic Air Traffic Control

This doesn't necessarily mean that it's not present in the Academic version, but I'd like to be sure .
Also, these are licenses, does that mean that you have to renew licenses later on? I wouldn't want to spend a lot of money now just to find out I have to spend more money on version 2....

[OleBoy]

Something else I would like to know.
Considering my connection, the thought of downloading 11 gigabytes isn't going across very well with me.
I looked around the P3D website for information pertaining to a possible DVD form to purchase, but I didn't find anything like this for an option.
Can someone tell me if they'll send P3D to me via USPS or other form?

[Lionheart]

@Lionheart: I renamed the Prepar3D.CFG to fsx.cfg and ran it through Jesus Altuve's FSX optimizing routine, it does the same magic to FPS in P3D as it does for FSX, at least on my machine. After that, rename the optimized fsx.cfg back to Prepar3D.CFG and put it back to the LM / P3D folder. This is even mentioned as a suggestion to improve performance in the LM P3D documentation.

Cheers,
Mark

Thanks Mark. Thats good to know. It would be nice to get AA running like glass.

It's under consideration and if members really want it then it will be done.
A little patience for time being please.

Awesome!

Something else I would like to know.
Considering my connection, the thought of downloading 11 gigabytes isn't going across very well with me.
I looked around the P3D website for information pertaining to a possible DVD form to purchase, but I didn't find anything like this for an option.
Can someone tell me if they'll send P3D to me via USPS or other form?

OleBoy, you could try a business center or Library that has high speed internet and see if they can download these for you. Our libraries have computers you can use. Just bring some DVD's and you should be good to go.

For me, 3.6 Gigs (one of the three packages) took 5 hours to download on a evening, and 4 Gigs the following morning, around 8AM, took 40 min's. I dont know why, probably lag from others downloading. But also check local business shops that do fax services, etc. Maybe they could download it for you, transfer to DVD's, and it might be a good price. Just an idea.


Bill

[Lionheart]

Yesterday evening, I was going to transfer some of the stock planes from FSX into P3D and found that the stock planes (that appeared to be missing in P3D) are 'in' the P3D airplanes folder. Further investigation found that they were missing their Panel folders, thus they are probably just AI planes until someone places the Panel folders in them.

So just a heads up. Looks like FSX planes are in there, just in need of panel folders.



Thanks Lockheed Martin for this great sim! I am loving it.... Inspiration to build is renewed...



Bill

[stovall]

"Thanks Lockheed Martin for this great sim! I am loving it.... Inspiration to build is renewed..."

This is great news Bill, I have enjoyed your creations for years and looks like that will continue. Prepar3d has given inspiration to me as well.