FSX Steam on sale for only $5! Limited time only!

[tommieboy]

Not laughing Tommy, but you REALLY should get rid of that old XP stuff ;-)

Hi Francois,

I am planning to do a major hardware / OS upgrade, but that will have to wait until next year 2016. One of my vintage guitars is going to get the TLC it has been sorely needing for the past few years. The repair costs for that one guitar alone will blow the computer budget clear out of the water and into the stratosphere. But I am really excited to finally get the ball rolling on that restoration.

So until 2016, it's XP Home Edition or BUST!....Hopefully it won't be BUST!

Who knows, maybe by 2016 we will have access to Win XP Steam Edition too....


Regards,

Tommy

[Lewis-A2A]

Remember that XP is fast becoming a security risk, with Windows 7 going into extended life support now in preparation for win10 I am thinking that 2015/16 is the time XP becomes the hackers playground for easy targets as a practice arena so to speak.

Its worth bearing in mind and an OS upgrade doesnt tend to cost the earth either, put some money aside each month and in less than half a year you can have enough for a OS these days.

[tommieboy]

Remember that XP is fast becoming a security risk, with Windows 7 going into extended life support now in preparation for win10 I am thinking that 2015/16 is the time XP becomes the hackers playground for easy targets as a practice arena so to speak.

Its worth bearing in mind and an OS upgrade doesnt tend to cost the earth either, put some money aside each month and in less than half a year you can have enough for a OS these days.

Yeah, I can swing the cost of a new OS this year.....and will probably do so. Just not so sure which OS to upgrade to with my current computer setup.

Tommy

[Wizard]

Ok, I see what you all are saying about the SDK/P3D. But still the Academic license is oriented around a school. And personal / home entertainment is forbidden. Yeah, I know the academic license is a way around the MS/LM deal. And most probably LM isn't going to enquire into who is actually purchasing the Academic License. Sorry, but it still makes me a bit nervous.

So far I have had precisely 2 enquires as to whether NEUWUC supports P3D. All I can say is that it does seem to still work. If I see a demand for it, I could certainly purchase it and recompile the code specifically for the P3D platform. The SimConnect function calls are identical. Perhaps, if and when, the groups I fly/steam around with move to P3D I will move as well.

I dunno - that license wording is awful flimsy. I suppose that NEUWUC is all about learning strategy and tactics in a "combat" environment, and therefor academic.

Oh, and while LM may not see any direct pecuniary benefit from my work - if it should become popular, people will buy their product to use my software. So, yes, they do indeed benefit from third party developers. If it wasn't for the third party developers in FS9 I should never have purchased FSX. I would probably have gotten quickly bored with FS9 with it's limited platforms. I've actually bought FSX and then the Gold edition because of all the cool stuff developers have made.

And then there is the Steam Edition...

[fsafranek]

Ok, I see what you all are saying about the SDK/P3D. But still the Academic license is oriented around a school. And personal / home entertainment is forbidden. Yeah, I know the academic license is a way around the MS/LM deal. And most probably LM isn't going to enquire into who is actually purchasing the Academic License. Sorry, but it still makes me a bit nervous.

So far I have had precisely 2 enquires as to whether NEUWUC supports P3D. All I can say is that it does seem to still work. If I see a demand for it, I could certainly purchase it and recompile the code specifically for the P3D platform. The SimConnect function calls are identical. Perhaps, if and when, the groups I fly/steam around with move to P3D I will move as well.

I dunno - that license wording is awful flimsy. I suppose that NEUWUC is all about learning strategy and tactics in a "combat" environment, and therefor academic.

Oh, and while LM may not see any direct pecuniary benefit from my work - if it should become popular, people will buy their product to use my software. So, yes, they do indeed benefit from third party developers. If it wasn't for the third party developers in FS9 I should never have purchased FSX. I would probably have gotten quickly bored with FS9 with it's limited platforms. I've actually bought FSX and then the Gold edition because of all the cool stuff developers have made.

And then there is the Steam Edition...

Unless you are a developer making money from something you develop for use in P3D you should be fine with the academic license.
If you ran an anonymous pole here I expect you would find that somewhere near 99% of non-developer users have the academic version.

[fsafranek]

I followed this thread the first few days but haven't had a chance lately so please bear with this question. If it has been answered please point me to the answer.

So, if you already have FSX (assume Acceleration but figure at least SP2) installed and then install the Steam version as well then the Steam version would go under "Program Files/Steam/Steam Apps/common/...". Correct?

And if you do not have the Microsoft version of FSX already installed I would expect the Steam version to do the same as above but I think I've heard that it goes under "Program Files/Microsoft Games/...". That doesn't make any sense to me but would appreciate it is someone can verify either way. Thanks in advance.

[flaviossa]

Where FSX STEAM will be installed has much to do where you installed STEAM in the first place. For default it installs at "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam". But you can install it anywhere as you have this choice in the instalation process. After STEAM is installed it creates this folder structure:

XXXXX:\.......\Steam\SteamApps\common

It´s inside this folder that FSX SE (And any other STEAM game) will be created and will follow the path where you installed STEAM as said above. IF you don´t have any previous FSX installed the information that it will be installed under "Program Files/Microsoft Games/..." is INCORRECT. It will be installed as the same above, in "XXXXX:\........\Steam\SteamApps\common"

The first tip is: don´t install STEAM under C:\Program Files (x86)\. Install it where windows don´t force it´s folder security (UAC).

The second tip is: STEAM has a very nice feature that is called "LIBRARIES". In other words, you can configure STEAM to work with multiple folders for whatever game you have. For example, here, i have a dedicated SSD (D: to FSX SE, so i made STEAM create a library exclusively to FSX in this SSD. And now i have a folder with this path "D:\Steam\steamapps\common\FSX" exclusive to FSX and all of my other steam games in another partition, "G:\Steam\steamapps\common\"

Here is an example in the moment of FSX SE installs and choose the D: Library:


Hope this information helps.

[YoYo]

Del, sorry.

[Pepere]

Maybe this is a dumb question but what is the advantage to FSX Steam?

David

[Alan_A]

Maybe this is a dumb question but what is the advantage to FSX Steam?

David

According to discussion on Avsim, Dovetail has done some performance optimization - better use of virtual address space, for example.

I hadn't been thinking about adopting is - I'm mainly on Prepar3d these days - but if performance is in fact better, I'll consider it.

[Daube]

Maybe this is a dumb question but what is the advantage to FSX Steam?

David

- Painless install/uninstall of the game
- no need to keep DVDs
- no risk of damaging or losing them
- cost was only 5 euros when we bought it
- a few bugs fixed
- a few tweaks added by default to the FSX.cfg
- developpers are keeping an eye on the forums to look at the feedback, and try to take a look at the reported issues, and when we are very lucky, they even try to solve them

[Alan_A]

- Painless install/uninstall of the game
- no need to keep DVDs
- no risk of damaging or losing them
- cost was only 5 euros when we bought it
- a few bugs fixed
- a few tweaks added by default to the FSX.cfg
- developpers are keeping an eye on the forums to look at the feedback, and try to take a look at the reported issues, and when we are very lucky, they even try to solve them

The more I hear the more appealing it sounds. My interest in P3D was mainly to get a smoother-running FSX, but if Steam Edition offers somewhat smoother performance (as some have suggested), it might provide a "third way" that doesn't have all the license-related drama clanking along with it. Granted, P3D offers more features (lighting, shadows) but has its own issues as well. So I'm open.

[srgalahad]

Since FSUIPC (4.938c) has been updated to handle FSX-SE, has anyone installed the Duenna software and tested it?

I realize that most here are not often users of tracking software but this is a relevant question, not only for the upcoming Round the World Race but other events which require Duenna tracking.

If you don't want to post comments in here you can PM them to me with "FSX-SE Duenna" in the Subject line. Thanks.

[Lane Street]

...what is the advantage to FSX Steam?

Two more changes I didn't see mentioned, might have missed them.

One is you do not have to mess with registering FSX when you install it anymore.

The second is that all of the working files, the .dll and .exe files, were recompiled with the latest VS compiler. This should better optimize FSX for current hardware.

cheers,
Lane

[Daube]

The more I hear the more appealing it sounds. My interest in P3D was mainly to get a smoother-running FSX, but if Steam Edition offers somewhat smoother performance (as some have suggested), it might provide a "third way" that doesn't have all the license-related drama clanking along with it. Granted, P3D offers more features (lighting, shadows) but has its own issues as well. So I'm open.

No it doesn't.
The P3D 3D engine is vastly superior to the old FSX one, which is totally unmodified in FSX-Steam.
If your FSX works correctly, then it's not worth it to buy FSX-Steam at 25 dollars. (current price).
Back when FSX Steam was only 5 dollars, then there were no questions to ask. Many of us just bought it instantly, but never installed it.
But today, buying FSX Steam at 25 dollars just to replace a correctly-working FSX install is really not a wise move.
Wait for the next sales period instead.

[Alan_A]

The P3D 3D engine is vastly superior to the old FSX one, which is totally unmodified in FSX-Steam.

I should have been more precise - I meant to say that there have been some claims that FSX Steam Edition is smoother than FSX Gold or FSX Acceleration, maybe not dramatically but there seem to have been some small refinements, for example in VAS handling.

Prepar3d has of course been more heavily reworked, which as usual is a mixed blessing - for example, the next (2.5) update will require a full reinstall since file structures are changing. Price of progress, I suppose.

I would have been willing to look at the Steam Edition for the sale price but yes, having missed that, I'll probably hang loose and maybe take a look at it the next time a sale comes up.

[Alan_A]

For those interested - this thread on Avsim includes a number of reports and some videos, all consistently showing improved use of VAS in FSX Steam Edition. Pete Dowson among others seems to have a favorable impression. Worth a look if you're exploring the differences between FSX flavors.

[keithb77]

I'm using FSE-SE for photo-scenery, and I'm certainly seeing the ESI scenery better than ever before and faster too.
Largely due to a base install of FS-SE with just VFR-UK and ESI scenery, but I'm certain it's an improvement on FSX and well worth £4!

P3D is still my main sim (with FTX Global etc etc) but I've barely used it in the last week.
With P3D needing a full reinstall, I'll probably focus on FSX-SE until P3D2.5 is out.

Cheers
Keith

[Naismith]

How many of us are kicking ourselves for not taking the $5 deal. Damn my skepticism.

[ak416]

It will almost certainly be heavily discounted again during Steam's annual Summer Sale, if you can wait that long

[Navy Chief]

Am sure when Steam is offered at a discount again, the sales will be much larger! NC

[Dangerous Beans]

It will almost certainly be heavily discounted again during Steam's annual Summer Sale, if you can wait that long

Ther'll probably be an Easter sale before that.

[fsafranek]

Thank you for the information on the Steam install path flaviossa.

And looking at my TS2014 notes from last year, Steam had a March Madness sale and an Easter sale (coming up in the next couple of months). No doubt FSX-SE will be heavily discounted for part of those sales periods. Since you don't have to install it at the time of purchase it's not a bad idea to just get it anyway.