Sweet! XP11, P3D v.4 and FSW. It's a good time for virtual pilots.

So true!

The Prepar3D v4 addons compatibility list so far:


http://www.theskylounge.tv/topic/5106-the-ultimate-p3d-v4-add-on-update-compatibility-list/

Been waiting for them to go 64bit, time to jump ship from FSX:SE.

I've flying P3D since 1.4 and it is only getting better and better - v4 will have a more difficult transition than from 2 to 3 and it will take a few months for most add ons to be 64bits, but when it is done, it will be awesome.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it Tom

as soon as I can I'll review it

...and it's free for current v3 owners..

So, if one were to fork out for P3D what are the best terrains?

I'd focus on small plane flying here in Norway, so would it make due with the orbX Norway terrain?

64 bit - YES! I just hope it's able to actually USE this! If so, well that will be "FSX R.I.P" for me!

Really? Can you give us a link?

Oh really? As a v2 and 3.4 owner I wasnt impressed from the early access videos i've seen, nothing compared to DCS 2.0 to 2.1 difference, and was going to stick to 3.4 but if its a free update, count me in

"More details will be released over the next week with Prepar3D v4 being directly available from Prepar3D.com on May 30, 2017 at 2:00pm EST."

it is free for those that recently purchased v3 ( up to 60 days ago ) - I had to buy it today.

I bought v3 in August 2016 and I have (when I log in to my customer page) download links for v4?

Jens

You can only request a free update if you bought it 60 days ago, otherwise you have to buy v4.

Yep, you're right (and I was wrong). I just read it on the LM Frontpage. But what makes me wonder, is the fact that I have the download links for v4 on my customer page. Did you take a look at ypur download section before you bought again Tom?

Jens

I bought mine 2 years ago - no free update

Got it yesterday and what a performance boost and it looks great with my ORBX stuff installed. Had to do the upgrad€ to AS16 since my trusty ASN is now obsolete in V4. It worth every cent of the $59! Flying the a2a C172 and the Queen since there are not many birds converted to V4. With 64b it's great platform for the future. Bright times ahead for sure.

true

I'd sure be curious to hear what performance improvements you speak of - in particular via 64 bit....

No, not framerates lol - already mastered that years ago.....

Is there an increase in texture rendering radius?

I'm a bit behind the times on this too - can it utilize more system memory, videocard memory, etc?

Well I'm not a tech guy but yes, it can take much more advantage of your RAM and GPU than a 32 bits platform, much more optimized for modern computers with a good CPU as well. Two things I noted is that is much more smooth, and the texture rendering radius is way better with no blurries as I had even in V3. You can see much, much more detail now and farther away.
You still need a good computer and spend good money in some "essential" addons as a weather engine or a good landclass but well worth the investment.

A list of V4 new features:


""General Platform Updates

64-bit simulation architecture
Unicode compatible
Modernized User Interface (UI) design for quick navigation and customization
Updated native virtual reality (VR) support for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive
Updated vector data (coastlines, lakes, rivers, roads, rails, parks, streams and utility lines) for:

Africa
Middle East (Israel, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and more)
Southeast Europe (Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Black Sea, and more)
Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and more)
Updated custom 3D model placement in Athens, Egypt, Israel, Dubai and Hong Kong
Hundreds of new updated generic 3D model buildings in Tel Aviv and Hong Kong
Updated Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 90m digital elevation for Southeast Asia and Middle East regions
Updated native mission gauges to Scaleform
Views and panels can now be docked into any undocked view
Updated multiplayer voice chat codec – higher quality chat audio
Expanded ribbon drawing capabilities in the Navigation Visuals screen including drawing based on vehicle type and the ability to change color per category
Added video recording capability. Can be assigned to a key event in the UI.
Control Tower can now be selected in the Select Airport screen
Custom cameras can now be saved on a scenario or global level
Material temperatures – IR sensor views now react accordingly
3D trees (SpeedTree) integrated into autogen system. This feature can be toggled on and off in the UI under Options – World (Dynamic 3D Autogen Vegetation).
New 3D rain/snow system. This feature can be toggled on and off in the UI under Options – Weather (Detailed Precipitation).
Dynamic lighting support
Support for local SpeedTree wind effects
Support for higher resolution ground textures
Autogen visibility range can now be configured
Updated various textures including runways, taxiways, hangars, and terminals
Added SceneryLodOrigin and TerrainLodOrigin fields to camera definitions preventing terrain paging issues when switching between certain views.""

http://www.prepar3d.com/news/2017/05/114192/

Well that settles it then, for the first time in years I'm going to have to build a flightsim PC!

And I've been out of the loop for so long that this plus addons will probably feel like FS12 or 13 to me!

Have any of you guys posted any videos of this anywhere?

EDIT: Actually to my surprise there's a fair number of videos on Youtube already. But still it's always cool to see it from a SimHQ'er...

I bought into X-Plane 10 very late and it came with a free version of 11. I think I am done with FSX. XP 11 works just fine with FSEconomy and at altitude the graphics are amazing.

I've done the same - moved from MS FS to XP at the end of XP10 and certainly with XP11. Now I'm certainly not going to jump back to prepar3d, FSW or Flyinside FS for a long while. At least with XP11 I have the feeling that I can entertain myself for a long while for free using ortho4xp and freeware stuff with a few payware planes. With FSW/Prepar3d I would have to rebuy/upgrade a lot of the scenery itself with no freeware option - I spend so much money on FSX scenery back then - and it's not only money, it's the time it takes to install it all when you need to (ie when changing OS, from FSX to Prepar3d etc), all the effort to deal with all the DRM (what was my JustFlight password again? Where have saved my serial info for the OrbX stuff - so much time spent logging in old accounts, emailing stores to update expired email addresses...). Last time I tried reinstalling FSX and addons I gave up after not being finished with just re installing stuff for 2 weeks - that's when I thought: hang on, instead of reinstalling all that stuff let's try something new. In a few years maybe I"ll reconsider, but for now I'd rather observe from a distance and see what happen.

I took a years long break from FSX - oh it's installed on my current machine, but I very rarely mess with it anymore. I too have had both freeware and payware addons over the years.

I'm also interested in getting into X-Plane 11 - but I see no procedural difference. If you're truly going to rock a flightsim it's going to involve mods at some point, and all that comes with that.....

For me, there's a LOT of FS stuff I've never played with in the past 7 years or so, so there's "new fun" there for me.

I could see where if someone has done it to death they'd be moving on though.

The thing I found interesting with XP11 was the ability to get decent (sometimes even really nice) scenery by relying on freeware only and without spending too much time having to configure things. With FSX, FSW, Prepar3d etc, I still have to reinstall tons of OrbX sceneries (and others) to get rid of the ugly default look of the ESP based terrain textures and autogen.
The big drawbacks of XP11 currently are the lack of good and easy to configure AI traffic and above all the limited offer in terms of aircraft - I have FSX envy almost everytime I check simflight and see a whole bunch of payware aircrafts released, and that's especially true for vintage aircraft. I'm also struggling with performance in VR currently (and for that it's Aerofly FS2 which shines... But that one doesn't have helicopters, ATC and AI traffic...)

Well, the hobby hasn't changed then lol!

But the results of messing with it are sure insane compared to ten years ago......

VR is what I'm kind of waiting for too - a bit too pricey for me right now, but next year......