Simviation Forums

The PrePar3D Scramble Begins.

All the Aircraft Developers & Scenery Developers and Trinket Developers are scrambling to make their products work for the new version of PREPAR3D.

My Question is,,,, that 3 to 5 years down the road from now, or sooner, are they going to have to JUMP thru all these hoops again ??

when another NEWER version of Blankty Blank rolls out to make what many of us have now work with Blankty Blank Version V.25 whatever

Wonder if what most of us have now will even work in 3 to 5 years down the road or will we all have to buy new whatevers and what we have now will become useless junk

Don't know about the rest of you, But, I can't afford to replace all kinds of PAYWARE Aircraft and scenery all the time.

Innovation is nice and advanced technology is great, but it comes with a stiff cost too .

I have resorted to the fact and reality that I can not keep up with all the updates for everything constantly, not just flight simming, but all the other computer stuff related stuff too, spending as much time keeping updated on everything as flight simming.

OK, let your Opinions, Wisdom, Rants run Wild

My bet?

This may be the last time that "THEY" redo their software without a charge.

Just taking Orbx as an example - They had to do a lot of work moving from V2 to V3.

Moving from V3 to V4 seems to be taking much longer.

Well this news comes from the other Flight Sim Source, which I seen this coming

Developers have decided to QUIT Support for the ORIGINAL FORMAT Version of FSX, that rolled out in 2006.

LINK : https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/content.php?17537-Flytampa-Flightbeam-FSDT-and-29Palms-future-products-to-be-P3D4-only

Can't say I Blame them it just takes soooo much effort on their part too, to try to keep up and please every venue available, its a major burden & overlaod on their staff as well as us .

Which is kinda slightly what my above post was about too.

Back to the Futurstic Question tho,,,, whats in store for us Flight Simmers 3 to 5 years from now ??

Will they be forced to abandoned support for what we have now too ? PREPAR3D ?

The other Question that needs a serious reality check, is how many of us Flight Simmers will even be Flight Simming in 3 to 5 years ????

I suspect some other new totally KICK ASS Flight Sim Venue will take over , BUT it too will require all kinds of crazy updating constantly to the point it'll drive ya nuts !

What many of you have now may NOT even work with some NEW Windows platform, that'll Roll Out in 3 to 5 years from now too.........

I hate to say it, BUT this new innovation could be spelling the end of Flight Simming as we all knew it, kinda like the old Record Albums , 8- Track Tapes - Cassestte Tapes of the era and NOW days the CD/ DVD's,,,, Hey, we can Download now and Stream ,, record and CD / DVD Store owners in cities are a thing of the past .

Think I'll hang onto and KEEP my Boxed version of FSX Flight Simulator for another 25 years, it may be worth a lotta money by then for some reason !!!!

Lets NOT forget all the FREEWARE Devlopers out there too who spent countless hours and money giving us FREEWARE to try & Enjoy as well as all their time UPLOADING their stuff to all the web sites too,,,,,, time consuming !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Much of their stuff will NOT work in some of these newer Flight Sims that are rolling out

LINK : https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/content.php?17537-Flytampa-Flightbeam-FSDT-and-29Palms-future-products-to-be-P3D4-only

OK, Let your opinions, rants, raves , gripes, thoughts roam !!!!

yer right my friend.....very simple and very obvious........there are many who still collect and stand by the old vinyl records and even the cassettes.....to me the quality of the sound was more alive and had great presence and frequency response was super at the cost of some hiss or scratches.......digital, even though very sophisticated now, makes me feel like it's in a box.........
so if one has the nostalgia for old planes ...hundreds of them......fsx to me will never die, cause any new super flight sim, will never replicate the variety of addons created for fsx.... it will probably cater to newer aircraft ...i could be wrong, but seems to make sense to me.....
and look how far fsx has come from the original concept.....amazing.....and i bet there's still a ways to go.....

I really believe that in 4-5 years time, we will be having exactly the same conversation.
Time changes, as does technology, but our constant search for the Holly Grail carries on.

there will always be those that want to squeeze their older add-ons into the latest sims, & will moan that they cannot. There will also be those that are constantly getting the best hardware to squeeze whatever they want out of the sim, & there are those that forget that new iterations of the sim MUST be regarded as totally new sims, with the bonus of having some, not all of their older software, & maybe hardware working.

And there are those that still enjoy the older sims & support the freeware developers that still give amazing add-ons back to us.

So, nothing much will change, really!

Remember, just because payware developers stop developing for a sim, that certainly does not mean that it is dead!

I have to agree with the various points of view above.
It is indeed a bit scary to see things moving on in our very little sim world.
FSX is now reaching the end of its life, and that's really not a bad thing, because it is being replaced by something that is similar yet much better, and that is P3Dv4...
And that was even P3Dv3 until not so long ago...

In any case, FSX has nothing left to offer but troubles, both for the simmers and the developpers. Personnally I'm very glad to finally see developpers moving away from that platform.
Of course many of us have spent a lot of money in FSX addons, that's true. But that was also the case back in the FS9->FSX days, and fortunately this didn't prevent the community from moving to the new sim at that time. Consequences were greater addons that were not possible to make in the previous sim.
The FSX->P3Dv4 transition will be exactly the same, really. You will still be able to use some of your FSX planes or sceneries, for a while.... but the truth is, when you will see the quality of the addons mades specifically for P3Dv4, you won't be interested in your FSX addons anymore, just like you forgot your FS9 addons when the FSX ones appeared.

Yes, this means spending money again, yes.
But frankly, the money I spent in FSX has been worth it for quite a while. For example, the $60 I spent for the FSX Accusim P-51 or even the P-47 brought me hundreds of hours of joy in FSX, then in P3Dv2, and then in P3Dv3. For P3Dv4, I'll have to buy a new version of that plane, when A2A will build it, because the current Mustang will not be converted... And I'll be more than happy to spend that money.
No, I won't have to buy everything at once. I'll buy progressively, just like I did with FSX.

Understand Wobbie

BUT ,,,,

Also I'm NOT getting any YOUNGER at 54 yrs old, meaning - that when I 1st got into this Flight Simming I was 38 in 2002.

I'm sure many of the former freeware Aircraft Developers & Scenery developers aren't getting any younger either , the Flight Sim Community has already lost a significant number of quality developers thru the last 10 years, either due to quitting or due to their Deaths.

On the FREEWARE side of development I'm NOT seeing new developers of "Quality" like once was, the likes of former KBT TEAM (their L188 Electra and others) and many I can't remember, 1 comes to mind is that of Eric Cantu, wherever he is now ?? and all his boeing models from 2002/2004 , most have been ported over by somebody else ?

Another one is the Famous Milton Schupe, who's not cranking out the FREEWARE like he used to either.

Being able to import semi decent FREEWARE is what built this Flight Sim Venue and we didn't have to wrap up hundreds / thousands of dollars in all this to actually ENJOY IT as I recall, back in 2002 thru 2009.

Only to end up years later being told that majority of what we have or purchased won't work properly in the NEW Flight Sim whatever version V.75 or whatever ??

I myself personally along with many others have wrapped up a fair chunk of $$$$$$ in Aircraft and scenery to me anyway thru the years.

I can't justify every few years constantly attempting to replace everything that I had, so it'll work,,, its just too much $$$$$$$$$$

Look, I had at least somewhere around 170 Payware sceneries thru the years and hundreds more Freeware sceneries and at least 70 to 80 Payware Aircraft thru the years as well.

I'm currently NOT Flight Simming and have emptied out my computer totally, BUT when I start back up again I've pretty much made the decision to just go back STOCK / DEFAULT for what I'm going to be doing with flight simulator FSX Gold / Acceleration.

Before I was all into low level flying below 7,500 feet mostly with smaller aircraft,,, and had all kinds of nice scenery what was available anyway for todays times, but it still lacked that true feel even with a lotta ORBX & FTX add ons once outside certain areas.

When I get back into it in November / December sometime I'm mainly going to be cruising a Vintage Jetliner I've decided on that I like the most, that being the Lockheed L-1011 Tri Star , for i'll have all 3 , the FREEWARE version of Thomas ruths and the Just FLIGHT / Black Box version, and Captain Sims version for which I already have anyway.

I'll just get more into the Naviagtion aspect of Flying using INS and the FMC and flying at Higher Altitudes of 25,000 to 40,000 feet and attempting to get from A to B more correctly.

so, I won't need all that up close great looking scenery I once had.

and I've decided instead of FLYING everywhere all over the place like I was with no real purpose or destinations , from now on I'm just going to be flying the south pacific regions and only about 4 or 5 airports back and forth to Las Vegas / KLAS.

Also, I've got too many other things going on to donate hours upon hours flying like I was to bacically no where, but, everywhere in everything under the sun Icould get my hands on, just to see what it was like

I'm just not interested in constantly updating the sim all the time and all the products too, AND everything else that makes the computer work so those products will also work.

On TOP of this property I've got to maintain mow and keep up, along with the maintence of the riding tractor, as well as both my vehicles and the house too,,,

Basically, I just don't have enough hours in my day / week for all this like when I was "YOUNGER", and had more piss & vinegar in me than I do now

I found sitting for um'teen hours in front of this GIZMO Device tinkering around with constantly updating this and that , watching time just FLY by, and the grass getting taller than it should
after a while I really don't feel like FLYING,, too damn tired.

and who really knows in 3 to 5 years if anything FSX will even still work on some NEW Microsoft operating system, they'll roll out ????

we ALL found out that WINDOWS 10 didn't exactly do us much favor with all the complaints .

I'm just NOT ready to sink a bunch of money and time back into something again, that may NOT even work down the road in the future.

OK,,, time to get on my Riding mower and MOW GRASS before the City fines me !!

I understand what you mean, but it's not as critical as it sounds.

The thing is, no matter your flight-style of the moment (low&slow, or high altitude liners, etc....) the sceneries and planes are available, and they get better and better with each new version of the simulators.

Let's take the low&slow VFR leisure flights for example.
For such flights, usually you need some nice airplane with good navigation instruments, and you also need some good ground scenery, including landclass, mesh and custom objects.
Now, if we focus on this precise type, what kind of experience could you get from a sim to another ?:
- in FS98, planes were still very basic, no virtual cockpit (only 2D), and the scenery was very sparse, making any slow flight the most boring thing in the world.
- in FS8 the planes were more or less the same, but autogen appeared if I'm not mistaken, making the low&slow flights a bit less desertic.
- in FS9, planes started to get more complete, with full virtual cockpits, good instruments, good graphics, and even the ground scenery started getting better, with more autogen and nice custom sceneries. Ground was still blurry but global rendering started to get pleasant.
- in FSX planes got even better, simulating things that were never simulated before, and the ground scenery finally started to be "good", with nice texture resolution (not blurry) and very dense autogen. OrbX unleashed the full potential of the generic areas (landclass-based) as well as photosceneries together with other editors.

If you look at these steps, one thing you'll notice is the impossibility to go backward.
I mean, once you start enjoying a low&slow in a realistic FSX aircraft, you can't really enjoy the same flight in FS9 anymore. Same back in the FS9 days: when I started enjoying Milton's or Piglet's aircrafts over some nice area by Holger Sandmann (now OrbX), trying the same in FS98 was just a nightmare.

With P3Dv4, once the "real" dedicated addons start to appear, the same phenomenon will probably happen. Going back to try the same flight in FSX is not really going to be enjoyable... provided you can do the flight at all (without OOM, I mean )
It is necessary to go forward in the sim technology, so that our simulators can continue to improve. FSX has reached its limits a long time ago, and everybody (simmers and editors) was fed up with these limits. The new technologies might force us to get rid of old addons from previous sims, yes. But how many new addons will be discover in future ?

Now thrill is coming on the way!

There are many people still using FS9. They can continue to do so without loosing anything that they've invested in.

There are many people still using FSX. They can continue to do so without loosing anything that they've invested in.

There are many people still using P3d V2/3. They can continue to do so without loosing anything that they've invested in.


Now we have a 64bit system in P3d V4. It's not an update, it's a separate program from V3 so I can continue to use P3d V3. I've lost nothing.

Correct that - To use SOME of my payware aircraft I have to use V3. But I can still use them. Just not in V4.

As the old saying goes - The King is dead. Long live the King. I other words? Life has changes but it still goes on.


That saying also applies to the freeware creators. Some who have spent the last decade creating content for FS9 or FSX will decide that they have done enough.

But others? I think that you'll see new people who can't wait to be free of the limitations imposed by the "old" 32bit software.

"The King is dead" may bring some uncertainty

But "Long live the King" can bring the hope of an entire new world to come.

hmmmmmm...i was also thinking, that maybe freeware addons for the latest technology may be more difficult and time consuming to create, compared to addons for fsx...and if so...........it may be discouraging for those creative personalities.....so maybe it all comes down to how rich or poor you are ...
you got the bucks...fsx sucks......bank account deplorable...fsx adorable

"you got the bucks...fsx sucks......bank account deplorable...fsx adorable"

Have to agree. But I know I will upgrade; in fact, I was considering it an hour ago.

yancovitch wrote:hmmmmmm...i was also thinking, that maybe freeware addons for the latest technology may be more difficult and time consuming to create, compared to addons for fsx...and if so...........it may be discouraging for those creative personalities.....so maybe it all comes down to how rich or poor you are ...
you got the bucks...fsx sucks......bank account deplorable...fsx adorable

No difference - FSX native aircraft work ok in P3D v4 - so it goes on with already new freeware being released almost daily that are compatible with V4.

Yes they do, Pete, but only the ones who don't use complex gauges within DLL or GAU files.
Also, the FSX-standard level of detail will probably soon become outdated, so yes, creating an aircraft for P3Dv4 will definitely be more time consuming than it used to be in FSX.
This is exactly the same situation than the FS9 -> FSX transition, or the FS8 -> FS9 transition.
Before FS9, most plane makers were still building simple aircraft models that didn't even have a virtual cockpit. In FS9 however, the virtual cockpit became almost mandatory after a while.
And in FSX, one had to create a separated VC, and include some new techniques of texturing (bumpmaps etc....), together with more refined 3D models. All of this was more time-consuming than it used to be for FS9-standards models.
In P3Dv4, we can expect the same to happen. The standards and driven by the expectations of the community, and they raise with the years.