#3509797 - 02/02/12 11:46 PM
A Short Review of Prepar3D
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Sauron
Successor to Bill the Cat!
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Successor to Bill the Cat!
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Quantum Superstate
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The other day, The Lioness heard about Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D. She asked me if I'd like to have it. I said, "Sure, I'll give it a try!" So she subscribed to it for me and said she'd keep it going in perpetuity if I liked it. She feels that $9.95 per month is well worth it, and noted, as did someone in the Civil Aviation forum, that we spend more on Netflix and I spend a lot more time flying than watching movies. Well, I got it installed today. And here's my review: If you care about realism, buy it right friggin' NOW! It looks better than FSX, and the flight models actually make me feel like I'm flying an airplane rather than playing with a toy. I can no longer pull the arrogant crap I got in the habit of doing in FSX. It will punish you if you do outlandish things. This is what FSX should have been. It's worth every penny. And since I registered as a developer, and have been wanting to create aircraft for FSX, The Lioness says she's going to buy 3D Studio Max for me to develop freeware for the Prepar3D community instead. I told her the price, she said it didn't matter as she feels I need my hobbies and knows that I love aviation. Is it any wonder that I love the woman? In the meantime, I'm already at work in GMAX, and GMAX aircraft work fine in Prepar3D. The CBFS Beaufighter and Ant's Tiger Moth never felt better than they do in Prepar3D. My FSGenesis landclass scenery works fine, as do all the freeware scenery items I had installed in FSX. This is a massive improvement in my opinion. Sauron's take: If you like civil aviation, get it. And jump right in with the rest of us who are developing for it. It's what I've always wanted in a civil flight sim. Highly recommended. Cheers! Rick...
"We are extending ourselves in Space and Time not because of capitalism or socialism but in spite of them. The Right/Left Capitalist/Socialist establishments are psychologically unprepared for our emerging situation in Time and Space." - F. M. Esfandiary, Upwingers
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#3509882 - 02/03/12 12:56 AM
Re: A Short Review of Prepar3D
[Re: Sauron]
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 16,082
- Ice
Veteran
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Philippines / North East UK
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Wait for it Sauron... she's got her eye on a new bag/makeup kit/car. You're easily buttered up and distracted.
- Ice
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#3509924 - 02/03/12 01:51 AM
Re: A Short Review of Prepar3D
[Re: Sauron]
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 9,710
Legend
Legsie is such a
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Legsie is such a
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Zutphen, NL / ShangHai, China
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LOL Ice! That was my first thought as well.
Thanks for the review Sauron!
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the universe is for it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
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#3509939 - 02/03/12 02:14 AM
Re: A Short Review of Prepar3D
[Re: Sauron]
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Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 5,872
Sauron
Successor to Bill the Cat!
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Nah, she knows she can have whatever she wants, she doesn't need to butter me up, LOL! I don't think I've said "no" to the woman in all the years we've been married. She's spoiled, and I'm proud of myself for doing it. The nice thing is she spoils back, and makes enough money to do it with style! Pics? OK. I've got the FSX Hornet here, modified with a correct HUD display and with flight dynamics that put it a lot closer to the real thing, and wearing a VFA-143 Pukin' Dogs skin. It was nice in FSX, a great improvement over the default Hornet. It's mind-boggling in Prepar3D. I feel like I'm really there. So here I am enjoying this beast at NAS Lemoore. These are completely unaltered Prepar3D screenshots, other than converting to .jpg in PSP 8.1 so I could upload them. The "Upload Image into Post" button won't take a .bmp file. I'm loving this. Lockheed Martin has done a fine job already and they're just getting started. They'll be issuing continuing updates and the updates so far have this thing leaping ahead. I won't be bothering with FSX anymore. It just doesn't have the great, immersive feel of this one. This is good enough for me to suspend my disbelief and feel like I'm there. Cheers! Rick...
"We are extending ourselves in Space and Time not because of capitalism or socialism but in spite of them. The Right/Left Capitalist/Socialist establishments are psychologically unprepared for our emerging situation in Time and Space." - F. M. Esfandiary, Upwingers
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#3510014 - 02/03/12 05:13 AM
Re: A Short Review of Prepar3D
[Re: Sauron]
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Joined: Nov 2009
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Sauron
Successor to Bill the Cat!
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Successor to Bill the Cat!
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For those with an interest, here's a few more completely unedited screenshots. The only change was conversion from .bmp to .jpg for forum use. Filling in for BeachAV8R on the St. Thomas trip. KA350 in St. Thomas, USVI. Lockheed L-188 Electra over the San Joaquin Valley in California. Cheers! Rick...
"We are extending ourselves in Space and Time not because of capitalism or socialism but in spite of them. The Right/Left Capitalist/Socialist establishments are psychologically unprepared for our emerging situation in Time and Space." - F. M. Esfandiary, Upwingers
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#3510101 - 02/03/12 11:04 AM
Re: A Short Review of Prepar3D
[Re: Keithb77]
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 2,896
bogusheadbox
Opinionated Aussie Bloke
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Opinionated Aussie Bloke
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For $10 its worth a shot, they will even refund your money if you dont like it... Crikeys, you don't see that everyday !
Fighterops...
The only TRUE Stealth crowd funded game.
Devs said there was stuff there, but you just couldn't see it.
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#3510170 - 02/03/12 01:26 PM
Re: A Short Review of Prepar3D
[Re: Keithb77]
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Joined: Nov 2009
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Sauron
Successor to Bill the Cat!
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I kind of figured the Reeve Aleutian Electra belonged in Alaska, Ken. Unfortunately for them, I prefer the weather in California, and those nice big runways at Lemoore, LOL! For $10 its worth a shot, they will even refund your money if you dont like it... Wonder if I can let subscriptions lapse and resume as I cycle through my addictions.
Sauron, how big is the download? Think its 20GB 'on-disk'. Have LM updated the FSX Hornet as a showpiece for their product or are those 3rd-party fixes?
Cheers Keith It's 10.37 GB in three .zip files. I have the world's worst Internet connection outside of dial-up and it took me about 12 hours to download the whole thing. Lockheed Martin, as one might expect, has very good servers so it goes quite fast, even through my rural satellite connection, and I used a download utility that allows me to start and stop the download at will, so it wasn't too uncomfortable. Anyone with a better connection than me, that's pretty much anyone who isn't on dial-up, should have no trouble. My satellite connection is just horrible, slow, and tempermental. LM did not include the Hornet at all with Prepar3D. I took it out of FSX myself and installed it. The version I fly has the following mods: Enrico B's HUD glass mod (gray smoke choice in the zip), file name "fa_18_hud_mods.zip" Jivko Rusev's HUD mod, file name "NEW_Realistic_HUD_for_the_FSX_Hornet.zip" USNVT's Hornet Mods and VFA-143 skins, file name "USNVT_FA-18.zip" I believe I got all of those files at Simviation. If not, a quick Google search should find them. They greatly improve the default Hornet. Yes, you can let your subscriptions lapse and resume as you cycle through your addictions. But you may find this is good enough so you don't want to let it lapse. Give it a try Keith, you'll like it. You can subscribe like I did and cancel at any time, or you can go month by month with a non-recurring license. Or you can pay non-recurring for six months or a year. You could also buy the disc outright, but that's $499 and will only take you to version 2, which is coming eventually, and then you'll be into it for another $499. I like modeling airplanes, so I signed on as a developer and subscribed for $9.95 per month with automatic billing and it takes me right on through version 2 and beyond. It's a subscription I intend to keep forever. Cheers! Rick...
"We are extending ourselves in Space and Time not because of capitalism or socialism but in spite of them. The Right/Left Capitalist/Socialist establishments are psychologically unprepared for our emerging situation in Time and Space." - F. M. Esfandiary, Upwingers
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#3510244 - 02/03/12 02:55 PM
Re: A Short Review of Prepar3D
[Re: Sauron]
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Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 9,947
Dervish
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I flew on that Reeve plane when I went from Anchorage to Shemya Island, now known as Eareckson AFB in 1973.
We were keeping an eye on Russian missiles for the Army Security Agency.
Last edited by Scylla; 02/03/12 02:57 PM.
FTX Global
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#3510259 - 02/03/12 03:08 PM
Re: A Short Review of Prepar3D
[Re: Sauron]
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 17,632
SkateZilla
Skate Zilla Graphics
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Skate Zilla Graphics
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Lockheed needs to come to an agreement with MS to just release it retail. a good chunk of their new subscriptions have been people moving from FSX, and the more people that move and write reviews, even more people move, the amount of users transitioning to Prepar3d from FSX grows exponentially with every user that transitions and writes a review.
the $10/Month or $500 Perm. License is because its not meant to be a Public release, it was meant to be a Private Business Program.
HAF922, Corsair RM850, ASRock Fata1ity 990FX Pro, Modified Corsair H100, AMD FX8350 @ 5.31GHz, 16GB G.SKILL@DDR2133, 2x R7970 Lightnings, +1 HD7950 @ 1.1/6.0GHz, Creative XFi Fata1ity Platinum Champ., 3x ASUS VS248HP + Hanns�G HZ201HPB + Acer AL2002 (5760x1080+1600x900+1680x1050), Oculus Rift CV CH Fighterstick, Pro Throt., Pro Pedals, TM Warthog & MFDs, Fanatec CSR Wheel/Shifter, Elite Pedals Intensity Pro 10-Bit, TrackIR 4 Pro, WD Black 1.5TB, WD Black 640GB, Samsung 850 500GB, My Book 4TB
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#3510290 - 02/03/12 03:58 PM
Re: A Short Review of Prepar3D
[Re: Sauron]
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Joined: Nov 1999
Posts: 1,524
Keithb77
Member
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Member
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UK
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Thanks Rick. I suspect that if it was sold as a game then the commercial training organisations that are the real $500 targets would be harder to convince? 10 GB will take me a while...better get started! BTW the default vehicles are Maule Orion Piper J3 Cub Mooney Bravo Robinson R22 Beechcraft Baron 58 Beechcraft King Air 350 P-38 Lightening Lockheed Constellation Neptune SubmersibleNote the last doesn't fly, and Lockheed can't spell Lightning There are some sponsored free Lockheed downloads too (including an Electra (need a Buffalo skin for Ice Pilots!)) Cheers Keith
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#3510363 - 02/03/12 05:04 PM
Re: A Short Review of Prepar3D
[Re: Sauron]
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 2,890
Warbirds
Senior Member
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Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 2,890
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I did not know it came with the Just Flight Connie. I do repaints of that and just completed a whole cockpit repaint. Looks like I will have to invest in it. Can anyone give more information on flight models and visuals compared to FSX?
"A time when America was great,,when the chrome was thick and the women were straight" - Micheal Savage
"If you really want to experience flight in this life then you have to strap a DC-3 to your ass." - Buffalo Joe McBryan President & Captain Buffalo Airways
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#3510377 - 02/03/12 05:21 PM
Re: A Short Review of Prepar3D
[Re: Sauron]
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 24,314
BeachAV8R
Lifer
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Lifer
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 24,314
KCLT
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Is the King Air 350 included a decent King Air..or just a port over from FSX (which had a terrible cockpit..)?
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#3510540 - 02/03/12 08:07 PM
Re: A Short Review of Prepar3D
[Re: Sauron]
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 17,632
SkateZilla
Skate Zilla Graphics
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Skate Zilla Graphics
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Virginia Beach, VA
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can i borrow your wife? so i can prove to other gamers that there are wives that support gaming/simming/hobbies.
HAF922, Corsair RM850, ASRock Fata1ity 990FX Pro, Modified Corsair H100, AMD FX8350 @ 5.31GHz, 16GB G.SKILL@DDR2133, 2x R7970 Lightnings, +1 HD7950 @ 1.1/6.0GHz, Creative XFi Fata1ity Platinum Champ., 3x ASUS VS248HP + Hanns�G HZ201HPB + Acer AL2002 (5760x1080+1600x900+1680x1050), Oculus Rift CV CH Fighterstick, Pro Throt., Pro Pedals, TM Warthog & MFDs, Fanatec CSR Wheel/Shifter, Elite Pedals Intensity Pro 10-Bit, TrackIR 4 Pro, WD Black 1.5TB, WD Black 640GB, Samsung 850 500GB, My Book 4TB
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#3510557 - 02/03/12 08:23 PM
Re: A Short Review of Prepar3D
[Re: Sauron]
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Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 22,854
Rick.50cal
Lifer
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Lifer
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 22,854
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Hang on a sec: better realism....but landing a Hornet with no flaps?!? I'm sure it can be done, say at a landing speed of maybe 200kts!!
Looks good Rick, nice to have a wife that appreciates you!
POLITICS, WAR, ECONOMY, CONTROVERSY! and other heated discussions and debates in the PWEC sub-forum at the bottom of this forum main page. See you there!
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Exodus
by RedOneAlpha. 04/18/24 05:46 PM
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