Go P3D V3 or stick with V2.5

[Montie]

Is there anything special to gain with V3 over P2.5? I have not been using V2.5 for a while because I got a bad case of OOM's at one point.

[Dangerous Beans]

If you don't fly 2.5 just because of the OOM's then definitely get 3 as that's one of the biggest fixes.
I should still be possible to provoke an OOM if you really push it but its a lot less likely now.

[IanHenry]

Montie, there's no contest, v3 is far better than 2.5. I to was plagued by OOM's with 2.5, but I've had none with v3. It's the best flight simulator I've ever had.



Ian

[Ripcord]

I must concur. The biggest reason not to switch is that you might have large volumes of addon scenery or addon aircrafts, etc., that are not compatible with v3. Many are compatible, some officially, some unofficially (eg, they work by either copying files over or using a migration tool), and many more are being adapted. So if you have few addons, and the ones that are most important to you are known to work with v3, then maybe you go for it. Or perhaps the opposite is true and it makes sense to wait.

I suffer from OOMs but I probably have just way too much stuff installed. So I am wanting to make the switch to V3 eventuall,y but it will probably be sometime in the next 6-12 months when things shake out. I'm tired of spending my weekends installing and testing. I'll hang out and fly for a while.

[donnybalonny]

Good answer Ripcord. I agree.
I wont update to V3 now. Maybe in the future. It all depends on how P3D devellops and on how my FS pc works.
My V2.5 is working very well and I´m not in the mood for a new install. I dont have OOM problems. I havent had any.
One of the reasons is that I have FSX-SE installed as well. The 2 sims have different scenery and aircraft addons. That way i can keep them both "slim". Also FSX-SE is way better for older stuff like Miltons Lodestar and many older jets as well.
I like my P3D and I use it a lot, so for now 2.5 is my way.

[n4gix]

Is there anything special to gain with V3 over P2.5? I have not been using V2.5 for a while because I got a bad case of OOM's at one point.

Since you can have both installed at the same time, why not get V3 and install it?

[Montie]

Since you can have both installed at the same time, why not get V3 and install it?

Well the main reason I asked was if it was worth spending another $60 upgrading to V3.

[n4gix]

Well the single most significant improvement to V3 is much, much better release of unnecessary resources resulting in lower potential for OOM's, I'd have to say yes, it's definitely worth the expense.

[mmann]

I can't comment on the V2.5 to V3 update, but I can say that V3 is the first Prepar3d version that sounded enticing enough for this long time FSX user to give it a try.

Overall, I'm very happy with P3DV3 compared to FSX. My only complaint is that performance is a little off (I have to lock at 20 fps instead of 30 fps in FSX) and I lose another 5 fps when flying in clouds. Apparently these same performance issues existed with V2.5.

My performance is probably a result of only having an i7-4770 @ 3.90 GHz and a ZOTAC GeForce 750 Ti 2GB video card. LM recommends having a video card with 4GB +.

[Naismith]

Well the single most significant improvement to V3 is much, much better release of unnecessary resources resulting in lower potential for OOM's, I'd have to say yes, it's definitely worth the expense.

Maybe some clever techy type will be able to reverse engineer whatever it is in P3D that achieves this and bring it to FSX. I have P3D v3 and am not so enamoured by it mainly because of the huge investment I have in FSX software wise.

[donnybalonny]

Well the main reason I asked was if it was worth spending another $60 upgrading to V3.

Money is personal, so impossible to answer. Your economy may be very different from mine or the economy of Mr X.

[JensOle]

Maybe some clever techy type will be able to reverse engineer whatever it is in P3D that achieves this and bring it to FSX. I have P3D v3 and am not so enamoured by it mainly because of the huge investment I have in FSX software wise.

That sounds very unlikely, probably both impossible and illegal as well.

[n4gix]

Maybe some clever techy type will be able to reverse engineer whatever it is in P3D that achieves this and bring it to FSX. I have P3D v3 and am not so enamoured by it mainly because of the huge investment I have in FSX software wise.

Oddly enough, the nice folks at L-M talked with the nice folks at DTG and learned how DTG had gone about addressing the OOM problems with FSX:SE.

L-M applied the same ideas for v3, and added their own improvements on top of that.

[Firekitten]

Most FSX addons work fine in P3d... so the investment is nothing really... Orbx released new installers for the areas I bought in fsx... for p3d when I went to 2.5, now 3 too...

Most if not all aircraft for fsx work unless complex, and those devs updated installers. So it all works fine.

If an installer lets you, install to a desktop folder, then put the files where needed... done.


As for P3d 3 vs 2.5... different sim performance wise. Faster, more efficient, never had OOM errors myself, but FPS is much higher and more stable over complex scenery, and it runs like a dream.

Post processing lighting effects are awesome too.

[gman5250]

I finally had some time to bring P3Dv3.0 up to date with updated ORBX, OPUS, ASN, Migration Tool etc.

Today I flew an IFR flight in the Milviz 737 (I acknowledge that Milviz does not support V3) from KRNO to Flightbeam KSFO HD. Using OPUS live weather with REX textures, soft clouds with volumetric fog enabled. With live weather provided by OPUS the flight encountered thick fog at SFO resulting in IFR instrument approach and landing.

In P3Dv3 the volumetric fog and cloud cover was completely realistic and significantly improved upon anything I have experienced in previous simulators. The fog was seamless with no abrupt edges or artefacts to distract from the immersion of the approach. With a ceiling of 100 ft. I broke out just beyond the threshold, which faded into view beautifully.

If I were to recommend V3 for any reason beyond what has been stated above, I would add that cloud rendering with volumetric effects has improved to the point of being entirely convincing.

This flight has always been prone to OOM crashes in previous versions of P3D. I am not experiencing OOM crashes and overall performance is improved significantly from earlier versions.

IMHO:
3.0 is definitely superior, especially for systems capable of running higher demand environments and aircraft.

[donnybalonny]

Most FSX addons work fine in P3d... so the investment is nothing really... Orbx released new installers for the areas I bought in fsx... for p3d when I went to 2.5, now 3 too...

Most if not all aircraft for fsx work unless complex, and those devs updated installers. So it all works fine.

.

Ehem. So it all works fine? What about PMDG JS41, Leonardo Maddog, QW B757, Realair older FSX aircraft, and many other aircraft. There are no updated installers for those
Some of them will show up in P3Dvx and a few will fly, but then after a little while you find out that many systems fail.
And besides that we have the price that some devellopers ask for a P3D update. PMDG for example.

I´m glad you like the sim, and its fine that you would like others to use V3 as well, but arent yo exagerating a bit? and if so, does it help others?

[Firekitten]

not exaggerating at all.

As I said with the caveat of 'unless complex'

Most fsx aircraft developed with regular fsx systems will install manually, ie, installing to a created folder and moving the files in.

A lot of complex aircraft may require you to move some DLL's in, and some require entries in the p3d dll.xml file.

A program like notepad++ should open it no problem, simply install said complex aircraft to fsx, check in fsx's appdata/roaming/ms/fsx folder for its file, copy the entry in that dll.xml file into your p3d one, hey presto, in many cases said DLL's work.

I have all my A2A accusim aircraft, accufeel, and a couple of other systems heavy aircraft in p3d3 so far... no issues when installed correctly and external DLL's reading in the sim, that's probably the reason you're having issues.

The core sim itself is the same realistically... all you need to do is make sure things go where they need to, and relevant entries are active in config and xml files needing them.

simples... ish.

[dhazelgrove]

I don't know how long you'll have to wait for TacPack, though.

The VRS support forum has something to say on the subject here.

Dave