Classic British Flight Sim

Hello Chaps, hope you're all well.

I'm doing some looking into a change from FSX to P3D.

To my detriment, I haven't paid any notice to the development and progress of it and so find myself not knowing anything about it.

I have FSW and dislike it. I've obviously become institutionalised with FSX.

My FSX has ORBX global + England and Scotland. I spend most of my time in either the PMDG 737, QW146 or FSL Concorde. Other than that I bimble around in GA aircraft doing local flights.

So a couple of Questions;

What's the opinion of you learned people who have it?
What PC spec do I need to make it worthwhile?
Anything else I should be aware of?

Cheers!

Paul

I couldn't go back to FSX. I find P3dv4 to be much better.

I don't use ORBX stuff, but I think that should transfer over to P3d OK. Others will be able to provide details there.
The PMDG 737 will need to be re-bought at full price if you want that. No upgrade offered.
The QW146 won't work at all in P3dv4. Apparently they are working on an update, but whether it will be full price, free or what, isn't known at this stage.
Most payware aircraft will require new versions. The upgrade policy varies between companies, but most will involve some cost.

Some freeware stuff will port over, but anything that uses .gau or .dll type gauges will need those replaced. FS9 native models won't work at all.

PC spec-wise, you'll need a reasonably good system with a decent GPU. The system requirements are here: http://www.prepar3d.com/system-requirements/, but I'd say the recommended specs shown are really the minimum needed for a decent experience.

HI Paul,

I don't know what the specs to your system are. For me when I read the requirements I decided it was time to upgrade but V4.0 was released before my new system was ready so I tried it there. I had a 3rd gen i7 with 16gb of ram and a 3gb video card and on that it ran better than FSX or P3Dv3 did on the same system. As long as you meet the minimums I would go for it.

As for my ORBX files they moved over pretty easily, just copy/move the ORBX from your FSX program folder to your P3D program folder and start up ftx central and it will use it.

The biggest downside saying goodbye to all my FS9 compatible aircraft, but most FSX native aircraft work fine, as long as they don't have to many 32 gauges or dll files (repeating Dave G).

For me FSW has some promise but its not ready for prime time, while P3D is well established. I agree with Dave, for me there is no going back.

Hi Paul,

I had a new PC made for me by PCSpecialist just before P3D V4 hit the street. I tried to future proof my kit as much as possible so I have an i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20 GHz, 32 GB RAM and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080.

I had a full set of ORBX on FSX which transferred across to P3D V4 with ease, although the bigger files did take a while to update. I get good FPS from around 60 over London/New York to in excess of 120 at altitude and over rural scenery.

Altogether the jump to 64bit flight simming was the best move I've made in a long time and there is no going back to FSX.

ATB

Allan

Still using FS9 but alot of my local flights are with P3DV4. Love it apart from the fact that I cannot use SLI at the moment as my PC has 'lost' one of my GTX980 cards.

Orbx is fine with it too.

No going back to FSX!

Nev

I fully understand your "I've obviously become institutionalised with FSX." feelings. I am the same.
I have P3Dv4 but forgot to properly uninstall it when I reverted back to W7 after a long foray into W10 - great OS but there were so many issues with non compatibility with various things I had to revert. W7 is still a great OS though.

Back on track - so I haven't even bothered to reinstall P3D yet. I absolutely hate the interface. (Same goes for FSW which so far I have for free as I got FS SChool and used twice lol) and I cannot say I have noticed any wonderful improvements over a heavily modified FSX.

I have so much invested in FSX (I now use the Steam version which I got for $5 ages ago). I find it stable and runs well. I feel no inclination to reinstall P3Dv4 - rather a waste of money, I don't know why I even relented, I had V1 & v2 was unimpressed so didn't bother with v3.



PS I still retain FS9 which is great for those grand old Russian Liners, CalClassics & HJG and also ported over CFS2 Japanese 'planes.

Done it and wow.

What an instant upgrade to everything. Admittedly I've no payware that I like that works properly, but ORBX has gone over and even with default weather, I'm more than happy.

Thanks for the advice gents.

Paul

Most of theCarenado stuff has been upgraded to P3Dv4. JF is working through their list and the Dove and FR Heron work as does DG's Rapide. AH Argonaut and nearly all DC3s work and you can transfer the default FSX Aircraft. I run my one on a Nvidia 770 GTX and have Orbx and real weather. I get the occasional freeze that lasts for about 30 secs at the most but I can live with that and will carry on till I upgrade my GPU as it still works better than FSX.

Most of my older JF and virtavia FSX aircraft work fine on V4, as well as the default FSXA aircraft that LM did not retain (the hud in the F-18 is the one exception)

I actually setup external folders where I install all my addons. In FSX you could define your own SimObject folders in a cfg file, in P3D you can define extra effects, gauges, sounds, ect.. folders. Take a look at the cfg fines in c:\\programdata\lockheed martin\Prepar3dv4 and you should be able to figure it out.

I keep meaning to write a guide on how to do it, someday.

I'm likewise now considering the switch to P3d, but which licence do I get?