Migrating from FSX to P3D

[swimeye]

Hello!

First of all i would like to apologize if there already is a post that covers this question, I tried to search but got no results that matched.

I have been sitting on my FSX installation for many years now and right now I have been considering a re-install. But then it hit me, why not look into P3D.
So I did and I really like what I see. But before I jump on the train I have some questions:
1. Shall I keep my fsx installation or can I remove it before I install P3d?
2. Is 3:rd party programs that handle wheater and clouds compatible or needed?
3. Which ORBX products is recommended to use with P3d? I have got some sceneries and airports from ORBX but I am considering this being a good start to buy their global enhancement products.
4. Is there a list of compatible aircrafts somewhere to be found?
5. Do the more advanced aircraft addons like Milviz F-15 and the VRS Superhornet work with P3D?

That is all for now, I bet more questions will arise later on =)

Best regards

/Sims

[Daube]

Hi,

These questions have been discussed quite a bit in that section, so you'll surely find a lot of details about this in the other topics.
However, here are some short answers:

1- You can keep your FSX, there are no conflicts between the two sims. However, if you use OrbX sceneries, I believe the FTX Central will recognize only ONE of the sims. I have installed PNW for P3D, and the FTX Central recognizes only P3D, even though FSX is also there (and PNW was installed for it...). That means I can't use PNW on my FSX anymore. (and I don't mind).

2- There are some compatible programs for weather. Yes, they are needed because P3D cannot download real weather. FSRealWX lite is often said to be the best freeware choice, even though results are not always perfect.

3- Not all OrbX products received a P3D conversion yet. PNW is ready, though, as well as a few others. The choice is up to you.

4- Not really. Basically, FS9 aircraft show well but cockpits are not clickable anymore, and 95% of the FSX planes will work without problems. You just need to be carefull with complex aircrafts that use complex gauges, like external programs or dlls. Some companies do not support P3D, like PMDG or VRS for example.

5- From what I read, the Hornet and the TacPack kind of work in P3D, but the installation is rather complex. Also, you won't get the FLIR, because that works only in DX9. So the AG weapons will be very limited. Concerning the F-15 from MilViz, I have installed it but the FPS impact was really dramatic. So I removed it. Other Milviz planes like the Sabre or the Baron do work beautifully, though.

From these answers, you should understand that removing FSX from your computer might not be such a good idea for the moment.
Some addons won't work in P3D, so keeping FSX to use them might be nice.

[Mach3DS]

I have both and use both. You will want both for now. P3D is not fully ready in my opinion for a complete migration. Or rather the 3rd party software is not completely ready for a full migration. As stated it's not all compatible yet. Most airplanes are, but many sceneries are not. My biggest reason for not completely switching yet is Tacpack. It's not available yet in P3D. I don't want to perform the gerry rig install for it so I'm waiting for an official supported release.

[swimeye]

Great, thanks for the answers, it was exactly what I needed to know.

[Chris Sykes]

Im the same, both running, seperate drives now (did have them on same drive but moved as im installing stuff to Prepar3d and my drive was filling up) holding off trashing FSX as Tacpack is FSX only atm.

[gdavej]

Hi,

These questions have been discussed quite a bit in that section, so you'll surely find a lot of details about this in the other topics.
However, here are some short answers:

1- You can keep your FSX, there are no conflicts between the two sims. However, if you use OrbX sceneries, I believe the FTX Central will recognize only ONE of the sims. I have installed PNW for P3D, and the FTX Central recognizes only P3D, even though FSX is also there (and PNW was installed for it...). That means I can't use PNW on my FSX anymore. (and I don't mind).

Sorry, but that's wrong. I have FSX, P3D v1.4 and P3D v2.2 (don't ask why) all installed on my PC, all with Orbx sceneries. Each sim has it's own dedicated FTX Central, and each FTX Central will modify only the appropriate scenery.dat and autogen for that sim. There's no conflict, and everything works well.

[Daube]

Well, when I installed PNW for P3D, it added a new FTX Central link on my desktop. So I had the old one, for FSX, and the new one, for P3D, right ?
However, when I click on the old one, the choices inside mention "P3D Default", not "FSX Default"....

EDIT: this might be a side effect of the "symbolic link" technique, though.

[Clutch Cargo]

"I have FSX, P3D v1.4 and P3D v2.2 (don't ask why)"

Why?

[falcon409]

"I have FSX, P3D v1.4 and P3D v2.2 (don't ask why)"

Why?

That's a combination I never considered when doing my "poll" questions, but I've actually come across several others who are running that very same combination.

[WND]

WELL, I have FS9 / FSX / P3D v1.4 AND P3D v2.2 !!!!!

Right now I'm keeping FS9 for 'sentimental' reason's - probably because I've got so much time / money and everything else invested in it !! At least until some morning when I'm having coffee and decide to just get rid of it !!

FSX I'm using for 'tweaking' and 'experimenting' purposes at the moment - planes / files / sim adjustments etc - at which point then I forward it over into P3d v1.4 ..

P3D v1.4 I'm actually starting to use more and more - which I actually like much better than FSX anyways - and when I get most if not all my FSX stuff moved over and comfortable with, then I'll probably get rid of FSX ..

AND finally, P3D v2.2 !! This one is still in it's infancy stage - still 'tweaking' and learning - slowly moving planes / scenery etc over into it and finding out what will work and what won't BUT right now I'd have to say I'm impressed !!!!

Eventually my goal will probably be that I'll end up with only v1.4 and v2.2 and whatever I can't develop and get to work in 2.2 I'll just fly in 1.4 ...... Looking back over my log books, at this point I haven't flown FSX for almost 2 months - just 1.4 and 2.2 !!!!!

Bill

[AussieMan]

I also have the 3 major sims running on my computer but only use FSX for comparison if I think some scenery or aircraft doesn't seem right. I also have all my ORBX stuff running in P3D V2.2. To do this I have used the Estonia Migration Tool and then edited the XML. Everything seems to work well but PAKT looks awful. But I have discovered it is the same in FSX and P3D V1.4.

[flyerlie]

Im the same, both running, seperate drives now .

I am about to buy P3D, but have a couple of questions regarding the installation.
Currently, I have both FSX and FS9 on my Windows 7 64 bit 3.6 gHz C/ Drive, an nvidia 520 graphics card, two monitors, and I would like to install P3D on my second internal 2 tb HD, H/.

I have a lot of room on the H drive (2 TB), I keep FSX and FS9 addon scenery and extra freeware fsx planes in the sim there now, and I would like to move the whole FSX there to the H drive eventually, along with it's GEX, UTX and terrain mesh.

My main question is about the P3D going to the H drive, if that's possible. If there would be a conflict, or it would bog down my pc to have both P3D and FSX on that same H drive, then I won't worry about moving FSX, being it runs OK and good enough where it's at.

There are so many threads and posts out there on all the sites regarding moving FSX to another internal drive, and I have too much add on FSX stuff.
That is why I'm not concerned with moving FSX right now, and it looks painful and time consuming too. It would be nice to do, but it's not a game breaker if I don't move FSX.

I want to make P3D the priority sim, so I want the P3D to run smoother, and it should on the second drive, even if that means FSX stays put on the C drive, right? I want the P3D on the drive where it will run the smoothest.

I had no luck in finding this out, nor I'm not the greateast at finding how to install it at the P3D site, so that's why I asking here now. Thank you.

[BPbobafett1982]

Hey Flyerlie,

The short answer is YES. I currently have both my FSX:G and P3D plus add-ons on my 2Tb drive. As both require a different installation neither will interact with the other as long as you don't try running both at the same time.

Just make sure when you install P3D, you indicate where you want it installed at during installation.

I hope this helps,

Brian

[flyerlie]

Just make sure when you install P3D, you indicate where you want it installed at during installation.

I hope this helps

Very much so, thank you!

On a side note, I was worried that my nVidia GT520 wouldn't be able to handle dx11, but some of the tech sites say it should be OK for this.
When I installed FSX new on my pc with a 500w power supply and the 520, my FSX, it looked like I was watching the plane fly live in person.
Two years worth of add-ons later, yes it's taken a FPS hit, but it still runs decent enough for me.

In the future, I plan on upgrading the graphics card, and will upgrade the power supply while doing so, being power supply units are known to go on the frits after four or five years anyways. And if the internal SSD's with major GBs are cheap enough by then, then I will add that in also and do it all in one shot. Then my FSX and P3D will be good to go.

The more I read about it, my thinking is that P3D is the wave of the future for flight simming, and I think now is a good time to get on board.

You've been a great help, thanks again Brian!

[Daube]

A GT520 ? You might have to upgrade it sooner than you expected.
Yes, it is surely compatible with DX11, but this is a very low-end card. As you know, contrary to FSX, P3D puts a lot of work on the video card (while FSX puts all the work on the CPUs).
Your video card might not perform so well in P3D.
But for the testing period, you will be able to disable (or at least reduce) the tessellation factor in the options of P3D. You might loose some graphic features, but this will make it easier for your video card.

Concerning the hardrives, there won't be conflicts between FSX and P3D. The huge amount of files from these two sims combined might slow down the performance of the hardrive a bit, but it will be fine. In these days, a lot of simmers like to buy SSD drives (prices have dropped) and install FSX or P3D on these dedicated drives. When you will upgrade your computer, you might want to take a look at the prices, just in case.

[flyerlie]

You might have to upgrade it sooner than you expected.

Well, "sooner" has now become today. I went with the EVGA GTX 750 ti Superclocked 2GB, as seen here.
Those 760-770-780's sure are nice with 4096 MB and the 224/288 gb memory bandwidth, but are too far out of my $$$ range. I don't think my mobo could handle those cards anyways.
The price seems right on this 750. The way i see it, anything i get now should be a major improvement than what the 520 offered, and hopefully this new card will get me by for now.

[napamule]

I have been shopping for a new video card. nVidia. This fills the bill and the $153.99 price is just right for my tight budget. Thanks for posting link. Sound perfect for my i7 2600k rig.
Chuck B
Napamule

[Daube]

It's been a while since I checked the video card prices...
What about the generation 6xx of the NVidia cards ? There must be some kind of performance comparison somewhere....

EDIT: on this site, the comparison shows that the GTX750 has equivalent performance to my old GTX480:
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/916-...es-debuts.html

And here, you get a very nice table comparing the performance (on 3DMark) for a lot of video cards, with average price indicated in some cases. The GTX750 is not a bad choice.
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/vi...750+Ti&id=2815

[AussieMan]

For those who are wondering which ORBX files are compatible for P3D V2.2 check here: http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/top...orbx-products/

[IanHenry]

Hi,
if it's any help I'm currently running P3D v2.2 on my old GTX 580 2Gb and it runs rather well. I'm sure that the latest 780's etc would be better, but at the moment I'm quite happy.


Ian