My 3 big wishes for P3D v5

[pmb]

I disagree. Backwards compatibility has been one of the root principles of Prepar3d, and I am sure has much contributed to its success as it brought prominent addon developers on board from day 1.

If anyone can prove me conclusively that the file formats are the root of the present Prepar3d issues, I will gladly change my mind, but I still have to see any proof of this. Hovering houses, autogen disappearing and loading in patches, morphing textures, erroneous airport elevations ... I doubt are the result of the file formats but rather of shortcomings mostly of the terrain engine. The same applies to performance no longer keeping pace with what state of the art autogenated photo sceneries make possible as a result of the aging display engine.

So I agree, Prepar3d is in - actually urgent - need of a basically updated terrain and display engine to stay competitive, but I don't see any conclusive reason the devs have to abandon proven file formats and lose valuable 3rd party support - the latter certainly turning to that *other* simulator which didn't replace basic file format either over the years, and for a reason.

Perhaps there may be one exception to this: All default airport and navaid data belong into an updatable database rather than hard-coded into .bgls. But even this modification should (and can) be accommodated without giving up present file formats like .bgl, .dds, .bmp and such themselves.

Kind regards, Michael

[jetpilot1980]

I disagree. Backwards compatibility has been one of the root principles of Prepar3d, and I am sure has much contributed to its success as it brought prominent addon developers on board from day 1.

If anyone can prove me conclusively that the file formats are the root of the present Prepar3d issues, I will gladly change my mind, but I still have to see any proof of this. Hovering houses, autogen disappearing and loading in patches, morphing textures, erroneous airport elevations ... I doubt are the result of the file formats but rather of shortcomings mostly of the terrain engine. The same applies to performance no longer keeping pace with what state of the art autogenated photo sceneries make possible as a result of the aging display engine.

Keep in mind it is not just scenery that people are worried about... it's aircraft and utilities as well. For example PMDG to my understanding had to pay for a whole new dev license when switching from v3 to v4 so they treated the v4 software as different developments / products and charged customers all over again. As did VRSimulations with their Superbug and Tacpacks… So to lose that backwards compatibility could cost $210+ for a Queen of the Skies user ($140 base + 70 for -8 expansion) or a Tacpack / Bug user $104+ to purchase this software all over again if compatibility is lost... If people keep taking expensive hits every time P3D is upgraded eventually they will give up and go to another platform...

[Cyclone1]

Senchay nailed a good part of it, well done sir. I would like to add that I run P3D4.4 and recently X-Plane 11. Being that P3D is for training why then does it not incorporate the flight dynamics that are a part of other flight simulators that are just designed for flight simulation and not realistic training? I noticed that wing flex and heat blur are 2 things that are not represented very well in P3D, can this be added in future updates. Also the aircraft that come installed in P3d are well less than desirable; if these planes were freeware they would not find their way into my sim, absolute garbage and in no way could be used for training seeing that just about every system is not even legible much less functional. Anyway to package in some aircraft that actually function for training, after all this simulator is for training? Milviz are default in another well know flight simulator maybe we could step up the quality of aircraft? I do enjoy that fact that I can now fly without the OOM's of past simulators but it feels like P3D needs a big breath of fresh air in terms of aircraft flight dynamics. And least but last please do something to fix the stutters in the simulator, I would guess over half of the community is having an issue with this, we are on version 4 now and the issue is still alive and well, what gives? Lastly please come up with a solution for downloading scenery and aircraft, this is crazy! The fact that a 3rd party freeware was created to sort out this mess is tell tell of a big problem, this should not be needed! XML method, cfg. method then the library is screwed up, programs in the root, programs not in the root creates a huge mess to this day that has had no improvement. Most of us simmers are not programmers and know just enough to screw things up, why so complicated please fix this. I think it is great that it is a 64bit program but I have the feeling it is not even close to being optimized to utilize the cores and threads of current computer system CPU's and graphics cards. Please help us all out with these and other wishes of the community.

[Firerx_1]

My wish list it rather simple and more to the point of visual.

1> Please FIX the bloody roads and sloped runways issue.

2. Please Fix the water fall depiction Effect.

3. Update and enhance the Vehicle Ai's in Traffic. add some EMS/police vehicles running code 3 lights.

4. add Rail Traffic animation.

5. and Exhaust Blur. Please.

These should add some "spark" to the sim.

[dsdawson]

...
Perhaps there may be one exception to this: All default airport and navaid data belong into an updatable database rather than hard-coded into .bgls. But even this modification should (and can) be accommodated without giving up present file formats like .bgl, .dds, .bmp and such themselves.
Kind regards, Michael

This is an excellent suggestion. It will allow users to maintain this information much more easily.

[peterk41]

P3D is a great product and was pushed by LM far beyond MS's FSX. Yes frame rates are one of the most important things.
However I believe the trouble are not coming from LM bur more from the developpers side and the clients request. The request for more and more details eat up all FPS winning by codes and new techniques.

P3D is a Flight Simulator and not a architecturial shader. Why I need to have airport buildings interior ? Why the construct thousands of walls inside buildings we never see in take-off or approach ? What is important when flyiiing ? yes a general overview I'm at this airport. But do we need for a proper approach the paper inside the toilets ? And don't tell me the drop of airframes is not coming from these things. Even they are not showed, somehow they have to be checked to pop-up or not.

Why I have to see each rivet in 3D on the airplane ? Load a simple AI-traffic airplane as your aircraft and look at the FPS gain you have. And you don't feel bad in a smooth approach.

A basic switch to allow to get rid of all these super-details would be great, or from developpers 2 versions: detailed or FPS friendly (all time above 30 FPS, any conditions).

With clouds and autogen objects it is a different story. Yes, they influence the flying feeling. Yes LM to put there the energie to improove.

Regards to all
Peter

[JoeFremont]

For example PMDG to my understanding had to pay for a whole new dev license when switching from v3 to v4 so they treated the v4 software as different developments / products and charged customers all over again.

Its my understanding that LM always charges for the new version when jumping to the next whole number but developer licenses are paid on a monthly basis so its not really an extra charge unless you want both at the same time. I also agree that backward compatibility is very important, personally its what keeps me from moving to X-Plane.

My list of things they should update:

1) Airport database, we are still using the basic airports that were from FSX in 2005, so many airports have been created, closed or had there codes changed that it gets harder to do realistic routes.

2) Curved runways and airports that are not level. There are a few developers who have figured out how to do it in P3D but most are perfectly flat where in the real world most are not perfectly flat.

3) Better handling of complex scenery. This can be seen with some new scenery packages like ORBX True Earth where P3D gets really bogged down while other sims like X-Plane handle it much better.

Remember to focus on what the pilot would see from the VC, things like PBR textures and Exhaust Blur are unimportant except when applied to AI aircraft or scenery, a real pilot would never get to see the external view of there aircraft so don't make compromises to fix that.

[gazman56]

Hello

Everyone makes excellent suggestions.

I would like a better user interface, resizable with larger map
Ability to save aircraft in different categories of favorites
Quicker loading times - 10 mins on a SSD is a joke.

BUT

above all else - sort the stuttering out!!!
Please.

[supersym]

Hi !
Something to know here ?

[supersym]

https://www.prepar3d.com/home-slider/2020/04/115906/

yess ! XD