And the Bottom Line is...

[Dillon 2,198]

I can go out and buy a decent new computer with a top of the line video card and enjoy P3D v2 on day one. This wasn't possible back in November of 2006 and has only recently became somewhat feasible two years ago with FSX. We lost many simmers and developers because of this and the community split. Now we have one sim that on release day anyone can use and you don't need a $3,000 machine to get there. In my book LM has done an outstanding job if by nothing else delivering a product that works. Now we can say like other releases of FS before FSX, "you might have to update some hardware to get the best out of the sim" but to flat out not have that hardware available and/or the target hardware will never be created because CPU cores split instead of increasing in single core speed is long gone. P3D v2 is like FS9 was when it was released, a usable sim out the box. It's like FS2k2, FS98, FS5.1, the versions that worked. For me the duds were FS95, FS2000, and FSX.

 

 

Now the community as a whole can enjoy PMDG, Aerosoft, and Orbix's latest works to name a few. I'll be buying a new PC within the next few weeks but I am so glade this era in our communities history is over. New simmers to our hobby can get a decent machine, install the communities main sim (P3D) and don't have to worry about tweaking (just adjusting settings in P3D's menu for their hardware). They can get into what they bought the sim for without hassle. FS9 and FSX are officially a thing of the past as our main driving force. We have choices now if we want to keep the old products but as of now everyone can update their hardware with a reasonable budget and have a great platform to use the latest add-ons in.

 

Thanks LM, all the community developers, and testers that helped out with this one (I know the work will continue). I truly thought we were done for with the legacy Franchise.

[AirborneZed 168]

It truly is a new chapter for me. Considering the fact that LM is open to the FS addon community and will continually improve the new sim platform. It's something I thought would never happen a few weeks ago.

[DylanM 1,069]

Can't agree more.

 

Actually I just finished tooling around my in my first flights...and I am blown away!!

 

As you can see from my specs, I have a mid-low end rig with a relatively fast card, and the sim is just spectacular. Even after enabling terrain and autogen shadowing, I was still able to keep the sim at a smooth 30fps.

 

I'm sure after I start piling on the addons, the FPS may have a bit of a hit but I have no misconceptions. It's all about finding a balance with your hardware, but now it's so much more predictable (and attainable).

 

It really is a great day for the hobby.

[Clutch Cargo 388]

Yea, I think many simmers don't remember when FSX first came out.  OMG.. the blowback was unbelievable!  This is nothing compared to that.  And practically nothing from FS2004 worked out of the box into FSX.  It took developers a good year to start producing addons that worked with FSX.  As mentioned,you could hardly even run FSX in default mode at first.

 

Here, we have many addons that already can be exported from FSX over from one day.  And look at that video a simmer produced.   His FPS are great and look how smooth she runs... and that's using fraps which is a FPS killer.  Granted, he has a Titan but what that means is if you have the budget you can run this thing smooth as butter with a better system.  And make setting adjustments accordingly.  That you could not do with FSX on day one.  And the interaction and communication with 3rd party developers is at levels we have not seen before.

 

Yes, we simmers hype ourselves into a frenzy don't we?  I guess with so many 1,000's of different systems and setups out there, there are bound to be many-many opinions of good and bad experiences.  Happens with every version of FS that is released.  That can only be expected.  All I can say I have been using v1.4 for over a year and enjoyed it more than I ever did with FSX.  So I am looking forward to 2.0.  If you guys don't like 2.0, please get out of the way so I can get a better d/l speed!  :lol:

 

It's a great time for flight simulation - thx LM.

[MikeT707 1,181]

Very well stated Dillon.  I am looking forward to the consumer community and developers coming together under one major platform to replace FS9 and FSX. This will benefit us all.

[addman 33]

So, I can run FSX atm OK with my "lowly" hardware but for P3D which, by judging from videos and screenshots, looks and fuctions nearly identically to FSX I need to go out and buy a brand new top of the line PC to get similar performance? Wow! what progress! Tell me, what do I exactly GAIN, coming from FSX, in upgrading to P3D? Better performance on the same hardware? no, apparently not. Higher graphical fidelity? yes but at what cost, performance-wise? For me, atm, buying P3D (or a license rather) would feel like buying FSX all over again but with very few benefits. I keep reading reports that P3D utilizes multiple CPU cores and offloads a lot of graphics work to the GPU, yet performance gains seems to be moderate at best, judging by early impressions. Why would you need a new beefy PC when P3D is supposed to better utilize modern hardware than FSX? Shouldn't we see noticeable performance increases even on moderately powerful rigs then?

 

I haven't made up my mind on P3D yet simply because I haven't tried it, 59.99$ is a bit too expensive for a "demo" so I'll just have to wait. It's hard to get a clear picture of it all because reports are conflicting. At face value, I think it looks like a pig in lipstick but I have to wait until I've actually used it myself before passing final judgement.

[WotanUK 289]

Amen to "Addman", what you are saying is that P3D is useable from Day 1...wow...so a sim that is substantially the same as FSX is usable 6 years after FSX was released in the same period as FSX is now perfectly usable, not a massive achievement.

 

Personally i would have preferred to have an entirely new sim, with new advanced features that couldn't be used on day 1 without turning things off or sliders down.  

[B777ER 2,492]

I think that even with a few year old rig if you just buy a newer nvidia card you will get by pretty good.

 

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk

 

 

[n4gix 4,961]

I haven't made up my mind on P3D yet simply because I haven't tried it, 59.99$ is a bit too expensive for a "demo" so I'll just have to wait. It's hard to get a clear picture of it all because reports are conflicting. At face value, I think it looks like a pig in lipstick but I have to wait until I've actually used it myself before passing final judgement.

You do know that L-M offers a very liberal 60 day no-quibbling R E F U N D if you aren't happy. So, tell me again what the risk is?

 

If you want to see how it runs, buy it, install it, then use it for up to 60 days. If you truly aren't impressed, ask for a refund! :He He:

[addman 33]

You do know that L-M offers a very liberal 60 day no-quibbling R E F U N D if you aren't happy. So, tell me again what the risk is?

 

If you want to see how it runs, buy it, install it, then use it for up to 60 days. If you truly aren't impressed, ask for a refund! :He He:

 

I didn't know that actually, no quibbling refund you say? sounds good, might go for it! Thanks!

[regulate 18]

The point being LM is doing something about a broken FSX, that was never designed or coded well in the first place.  It's a start, and if they continue to make advances to make the simulation work better so I can enjoy, at a higher level of fidelity than previously flying aircraft in a realistic manner, then more power to them and more enjoyment/realism for me and all of the rest of the simulation/training community. 

 

I attended the AVSIM conference in 2006 in Washington DC when FSX was introduced, and the excitement for a new product was high, with MS FSX pundits in attendence to promote the product.   One of their team members stood behind me as I fired up FSX for the first time on what was a state of the art computer at the time.  My jaw dropped, but not in a good way.  I turned around to told the rep (I'm sorry, I have forgotten his name) that they were going to be in trouble if this was the release RTM version.  He said it was. 

 

Now 7 years later LM has taken it up themselves to develop off of that MS platform and bring the base up to modern hardware standards, recoding the product to what it should of been in the first place.  So my hat's off to them!  I refuse to be a naysayer.  I only had a chance to fly for one hour last night, and I cannot wait to port over the licensed products I own that will allow me to do that!   So thank you LM, you will have my continued support. 

 

Respectfully,

 

Brian S.

[HighTowers 1,439]

This will shine a whole lot more once 3PDs realize and use its full potential especially with LMs invitation and all the hooks they have provided for devs. If there is a 60 day refund, then watch what happens when their products are updated for it and LM releases patches as need be. 

[n4gix 4,961]

I attended the AVSIM conference in 2006 in Washington DC when FSX was introduced, and the excitement for a new product was high, with MS FSX pundits in attendence to promote the product.   One of their team members stood behind me as I fired up FSX for the first time on what was a state of the art computer at the time.

I was at the 2005 DevCon in Redmond before FSX was released, and many of us pretty much had the same reaction...

 

...I still have a good giggle thinking back to that DevCon where the gave every one of us a tee-shirt, but then told use that we couldn't (legally) were it for five years because that's when the NDA expired!!!  :LMAO:

[Dillon 2,198]

So, I can run FSX atm OK with my "lowly" hardware but for P3D which, by judging from videos and screenshots, looks and fuctions nearly identically to FSX I need to go out and buy a brand new top of the line PC to get similar performance?

 

You know I'll add to this in saying I know exactly how you feel as an FS9 user still to this day. Our position back in 2006 until just two years ago was what good is graphics if the darn thing doesn't run smoothly (heck you could barely get it to look better than FS9 without a slide show). Now fast forward to today after you've worked and worked and worked and worked and waited, bought equipment for the umpteenth time and worked over the years an have FSX running the way you like it. I agree with you, why move?

 

The news flash for us is we don't have to do all that with P3D v2, just make sure we have the right hardware (that should be little over $700) and we're flying. This is what I've been waiting on since 2006. New simmers to our hobby is going to love this as well.

[1st fltsimguy 468]

I notice this morning that my email notices of new threads related to P3D are full of folks with issues that sound deadly similar to FSX.  I just saying.  I suspect that it is not all smooth sailing.

 

I am one who has an older computer, but has a hugely robust FSX setup that for the most part works well for me. But was still thinking I would give P3D v2 a try (I have v1.4 and it is quite frankly just FSX all over again so I don't use it).