what is payware?

[jlab58]

sorry,this question must have been answered somewhere. can anyone direct me to a link? i want to know where do i find it, how much does it cost, how can i pay? these kind of basic questions. thanks.

[Isak922]

Payware is a type of add-on available for the Flight Simulator series.

It can really be anything... Environment packages, sound packages, scenery, aircraft of all sorts, additional programs that do a wide number of things... Just about anything you can think of, really.

They're usually designed by a group of people, with the intent of putting out a "higher quality" product. Because of the extra time and effort they put into it, they charge for the software. Thus the term "Payware".

As far as where you can get it... There's plenty of sites that offer a wide variety...

http://secure.simmarket.com/default-en.html is a pretty big one that has products from a huge number of Developers... But some groups even have their own websites... Captain Sim, Aerosoft, Alphasim, Etc.

[SeanTK]

Payware is basically any FS addon that you have to pay money for before acquiring.

You will notice on this website that when you download a file, you do not need your credit card info to use it, and everything works fine.

Other websites create high fidelity scenery or aircraft that can be anywhere between $5 to +$60.

Most FS addons can only be purchased online (a few exceptions, but not much). The most common way to pay for these is to use a debit or credit card, and then you can download the product.

There are many different payware creators, and payware distributors. Here are just a few:

http://secure.simmarket.com/default-en.html
http://www.fspilotshop.com/
http://www.flight1.com/
http://www.carenado.com/ecommerce/index.php3
http://www.aerosoft.com/cgi-local/re/iboshop.cgi?show0

There are hundreds of payware addons out there, and this list is far from complete.

[jlab58]

thank you very much guys it helped a lot.

[snippyfsxer]

If you've ever wanted to be a perpetual beta tester, buy yourself some payware, lots of it.

[jlab58]

i'm not sure what you mean? are you being ironic? meaning, payware are unfinish products that still need experimenting?or do you see beta testing as a good thing. all these REX,etc, things in your signature, aren't they payware?

[Isak922]

i'm not sure what you mean? are you being ironic? meaning, payware are unfinish products that still need experimenting?or do you see beta testing as a good thing. all these REX,etc, things in your signature, aren't they payware?

What he's trying to say, is that; In some circumstances, if you purchase quite a bit of payware and make yourself friendly with the developers (Usually on their forum), there's a small chance they might invite you to test out a new, unreleased product of theirs. It's called "Beta-testing", and is actually a very common term in the video game industry.

Basically, they give you an early (Un-finished) copy of the aircraft. Then you play with it, find any bugs, tell them what you like and what you don't like. All to help make the final product even better.

[SeanTK]

...or he's upset with a few buggy payware products and is using it as an excuse to make a blanket statement regarding all payware developers....

[snippyfsxer]

What good is Snark if you can't let it dangle in thin air for a little while?  No, seriously, some payware is very good very good right out of the box, no doubt about it.

[Isak922]

...or he's upset with a few buggy payware products and is using it as an excuse to make a blanket statement regarding all payware developers....

Seems I read his post wrong... 

Oops