Five months since HF2. Will there be 5.4?

[Ray Proudfoot]

Based on what ?
The new Sim has a minimum of 10 year development and support according to the makers and the big company behind it…
And the other Sim is evolving 3-4x as fast than P3D.
And there is a lot communication with their customers.

What has LM promissed you ? … Exactly: …nothing …

After two years MSFS still has no replay mode, no historical weather, no ChasePlane as the SDK is either incomplete or not available. The ATC is hardly any better than FSX.

As there will never be a new version it’s quite feasible it will be in beta for its full life. Enforced updates, no cirrus clouds and the Ai perform really strangely.

Evolving perhaps but not improving as quickly as some may wish.

That’s enough talk of MSFS. LM have the skill and resources to make P3D better. It all depends on what the agreement with Microsoft allows them to do.

[KevinKaessmann]

As there will never be a new version ...

Sorry, just my weekend joke:
Didn't they tell us the same for Windows 10 :-D
(But you're right, Windows 10 is a beta for its full life too :-D :-D )

[Ray Proudfoot]

Sorry, just my weekend joke:
Didn't they tell us the same for Windows 10 :-D
(But you're right, Windows 10 is a beta for its full life too :-D :-D )

😁 They did indeed. I take anything Microsoft say with a huge pinch of salt. I just don’t think they’ll be involved in MSFS in 18 years time and possibly much earlier. Once sales drop off they’ll dump it just like FSX. And do Asobo have the resources to support it? Hmmm.

[Peter1177]

Hi

I decided to join the forum after reading the current thread. Here are my thoughts on the situation today.

I have been using computer flight sims for some 30 years. The first I can recall was EE Lightning Simulator on the Sinclair Spectrum. It had wire frame graphics if you could call them graphics and I had no joystick, just the keyboard for controls. I remember being amazed that I could fly a plane. I still am today. Back then I could not have imagined being able to fly anywhere in the world in all types of weather, in areoplanes that are so accurate and close to the real thing that they can be used commercially and not just as a game. I enjoy the challenges of flying and for me P3D V5 fulfills that. It is a flght simulator not a game unlike MSFS. As regards scenery I have a large amount ORBX products installed and am really happy with visuals. My main requirement is performance and smoothness of frame rates and with V5 it is good in my view. This I think should always be the number one priority for LM, visuals second.

I did purchased MSFS (DVD boxed version). What a nightmare! Installation was dreadful, that it forced updates on you every time you started the sim. Yes the graphics are better, but thats it. The whole thing had the feeling of a game not a simulator. I got fed up very quickly and uninstalled it.

I like all of you would love LM to continue to develop P3D and I am sure they will provided they have sufficient commercial and military clients. That will be the deciding factor. Yes it is sad that practically all developers have abandoned P3D but this is not the end of the world as there are many excellent aeroplanes for V5 and don't forget, we have TacPack something MSFS does not. So come on do not be to downhearted or be to hard on LM.

Just enjoy flying!

Peter

[musterpilot]

😁 They did indeed. I take anything Microsoft say with a huge pinch of salt. I just don’t think they’ll be involved in MSFS in 18 years time and possibly much earlier. Once sales drop off they’ll dump it just like FSX. And do Asobo have the resources to support it? Hmmm.

So true I stated this on another forum I think good on you Ray

[Biggles2010]

I agree with many of the posts on this topic. For me, there is no competition from MSFS because I built a home cockpit and require support for multiple screens and full control functions, and I definitely do not want constant irrelevant updates messing things up. I do however have the feeling that LM are losing interest in maintaining the retail versions of their software.

The latest 5.3 release should be the best one, and it has some distinct improvements over earlier versions, but I am increasingly frustrated that LM has not addressed the various outstanding bugs. Whilst I don't use EA, which many have complained about, I am affected by changes made to View Groups, for no obvious benefit, which have introduced problems not present previously.

There has been a multi page topic about strange happenings with View Groups in v5.3 and Beau Hollis had participated briefly. He said they could not reproduce some characteristics I had mentioned. I then did some extensive testing, with default setups, on 2 different computers, and posted the results, with precise details of how to reproduce the effects. That was on 14 June. No response.

It has become ever more noticeable that there is hardly any LM presence in these forums any more, on any topic. I get the impression the development team has been drastically run down. Very disappointing.

[JorgenSA]

There is no retail version - check your EULA, section 1.

Jorgen

[Saldo]

I think you will find that P3D will be around a lot longer than that new sim that is out now 2 years on and that other sim has not graduated very far

Based on what ?
The new Sim has a minimum of 10 year development and support according to the makers and the big company behind it…
And the other Sim is evolving 3-4x as fast than P3D.
And there is a lot communication with their customers.

What has LM promissed you ? … Exactly: …nothing …

Why don't you knock P3D on another forum instead of here young fella

You started it old man….

[Daube]

I agree with many of the posts on this topic. For me, there is no competition from MSFS because I built a home cockpit and require support for multiple screens and full control functions, and I definitely do not want constant irrelevant updates messing things up. I do however have the feeling that LM are losing interest in maintaining the retail versions of their software.

Well, at least multiple screen support is coming with the next update ;)
For the "full control functions" I suppose you are referring to things liked to full home cockpits, which I'm not familiar at all with... I think there are some people using home cockpits in MSFS too, though... to be confirmed.
Concerning the forced updates, they don't break so much things as they used to do two years ago, honestly. Situation has improved quite a lot in this area.

The latest 5.3 release should be the best one, and it has some distinct improvements over earlier versions, but I am increasingly frustrated that LM has not addressed the various outstanding bugs. Whilst I don't use EA, which many have complained about, I am affected by changes made to View Groups, for no obvious benefit, which have introduced problems not present previously.

There has been a multi page topic about strange happenings with View Groups in v5.3 and Beau Hollis had participated briefly. He said they could not reproduce some characteristics I had mentioned. I then did some extensive testing, with default setups, on 2 different computers, and posted the results, with precise details of how to reproduce the effects. That was on 14 June. No response.

It has become ever more noticeable that there is hardly any LM presence in these forums any more, on any topic. I get the impression the development team has been drastically run down. Very disappointing.

The thing is, as somebody else told already, LM has no focus on us regular simmers. LM is focused on professional customers which are most likely communicating with them through anything but this forum. That being said, any bug or missing feature that would really be "disturbing" for professional users as well (not only for us regular simmers) have probably been notified to LM since long ago, and I'm pretty sure they are working on fixes and improvements in the background. They just don't communicate with us at all. After all, we're not even supposed to exists anyways.
So we just have to wait&see what will happen this year, if anything. Maybe a 5.4. Maybe a "6.0 that should have been 5.4 because they didn't add anything". Maybe a real 6.0 that will blow our minds (or not...). Who knows ? Nobody excepted the guys at LM which are too busy to write on the forums.

[Ray Proudfoot]

I can’t believe that of all those professional customers none are aware of MSFS. Some may have bought it for personal use.

Amongst them there must be some who are asking LM why can’t P3D have scenery like that.

Internet speeds have increased enormously in recent years which is why MSFS is possible. But here is P3D still using the same scenery technology as the earlier versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator released 30 years ago.

At some point a transition to a different method will be demanded by the professionals.

[Daube]

I did purchased MSFS (DVD boxed version). What a nightmare! Installation was dreadful, that it forced updates on you every time you started the sim. Yes the graphics are better, but thats it. The whole thing had the feeling of a game not a simulator. I got fed up very quickly and uninstalled it.

Unfortunately you have bought the DVD version which was (and is still today) the absolute worst choice. I suppose you did that choice too soon, back when the sim was just released, before everybody on all forums could explain how bad this medium was. We can only hope that people who buy that sim today can understand the DVDs should be avoided at any cost.

That being said, "forced updates on you every time you started the sim" is plainly wrong.
Again, we all understand we are on a LM forum here, but that's not a valid reason to spread fake informations about other sims.
As for the feeling on the sim itself, both sims have their flaws. Serious simmers here are able to analyze things a bit more deeply than that, fortunately.

I like all of you would love LM to continue to develop P3D and I am sure they will provided they have sufficient commercial and military clients. That will be the deciding factor. Yes it is sad that practically all developers have abandoned P3D but this is not the end of the world as there are many excellent aeroplanes for V5 and don't forget, we have TacPack something MSFS does not. So come on do not be to downhearted or be to hard on LM.

Just enjoy flying!

Peter

Yes, the amount of addons for P3D is really great so we simmers have a lot to enjoy any time already.
Concerning the "new" addons, everything will depend on what LM does. Today the 3rd party devs have all gone to the other side, but if LM manage to create a new version of P3D that is attractive enough to bring customers back, then 3rd party devs will come back as well.

[JorgenSA]

Ray,

Think like this:

Professional customers = military customers = SECURITY.

if I was a manager for a military flight simulator, I would have a major fit if it was on the Internet....

Jorgen

[Ray Proudfoot]

Ray,

Think like this:

Professional customers = military customers = SECURITY.

if I was a manager for a military flight simulator, I would have a major fit if it was on the Internet....

Jorgen

Jorgen, are all customers military? There are firewalls you know. The CIA and SIS (MI6) have websites. 😁

[JorgenSA]

There are large civilian organizations also.

But when it comes to real security, rated beyond Top Secret, I'll trust a firewall as far as I can throw it.

Even paranoids have enemies.

Jorgen

[Ray Proudfoot]

Jorgen, I think you’re underestimating the intelligence of the people who administer those sites and the military-grade firewalls they use.