P3D V3 Out VERY Soon

[SeanTK]

http://www.airdailyx.net/fsnewsbreaker/ ... repar3d-v3

V3 out in a couple days!

[toprob]

Certainly exciting things coming up for simmers, with a lot of news and interest in new and upcoming simulators -- Prepar3D is still in the No 1 position for development, so I'm very much looking forward to this. I don't think I'll have time to even look at it this month, so I hope that a few of you are going to grab it early, and let us know the good/bad!

Looking forward to the 'default' Black Hawk!

[toprob]

"Platform now supports SpeedTree models which are high quality 3D trees, with wind animations and smooth LOD transitions"

It's funny what gets me excited....

And:

"Cube map render added to system enabling real-time reflections on objects"

[Timmo]

Ha those points also got me excited Rob!

[Dean]

Hopefully not every developer on the planet has to update their products again for V3 compatibility?

[toprob]

Hopefully not every developer on the planet has to update their products again for V3 compatibility?

It'll be interesting to see what works and what doesn't, but I would guess that at the very least we'll need updated installers just to find 3.0. I'm certainly looking forward to the approx 30 hours it'll take to re-upload my Subscription installers...

One thing I've been looking at is a way to add compatibility to installers without having to redo them -- maybe some sort of script which adds all the info required to find a new version of any sim, and make any small changes required. For example, with P3D 2.x the only real required change for my scenery was that the windsocks no longer worked, but I had to put a lot of work into the dual installers just so they could find P3D. A couple of kilobytes worth of script would be a lot better than an entirely new installer, that's for sure.

The other side of this, which I see as a very good thing, but some won't, is that it might be a good time to look at Prepar3D-only features, which will take advantage of improvements. The down-side might be more expensive products, as developers will effectively be doubling up on a lot of the work if they want to support two separate development paths, FSX and Prepar3D.

[NZ255]

Real time reflections?! ekkkkk!!!

[Ian Warren]

Hopefully not every developer on the planet has to update their products again for V3 compatibility?

I feel for the ones who brought P3D 1 , then 2 now guess 3 extra again .. course the payware updates with what I have, frig !

[NZ255]

Devs are making it hard for themselves by having an installer that doesn't allow you to pick a path.
If v3 is backwards compatible with v2 then customers will have to wait for a new installer, or manually move things (which could be difficult depending on the add ons)

[NZ255]

Interesting...?

Watch on youtube.com

....edit 12:13am: Well, it's Sept 30th......where is it?

[omitchell]

It has a Blackhawk.....

[toprob]

I've just had a great idea for an addon, to encourage younger folks to get into simming... It's called:

'V' for Me!

Flying to Paris, London, New York? On your virtual world trip, keep in touch with your friends, and make them jealous! Whenever you press the 'v' key, Prepar3D will take a 'selfie' of your avatar, and upload it to Insta-Facebook-Gram!!!

To make sure your avatar is looking it's best, you can use ctrl-J to call a full length virtual mirror onto the tarmac! No more duck-face disasters!

[AdrianPetford]

I'm positively drooling at the prospect of avatar mode. I know there are third party apps which do it but this looks like the best iteration of the concept yet.

If I read the release notes correctly, it looks like they have fixed VC clickspots on FS9 portovers as well, which will solve one of the most irritating problems I've had with P3D.

Credit card is armed. In pursuit and closing on a day one purchase. I'm going in, I'm going in...

[Ian Warren]

I'm going in, I'm going in...

Hey that's my line ! .. won't tell what I'm going in for tho

[cowpatz]

Not trying to sound pessimistic but I wouldn't advocate being first in the queue unless you like the frustrations of beta testing and having some of your add ons fail to work .
Also the recommendation is for a 4 GB GPU so there may be challenges for lower end systems.
Like windows 10 I might just be patient before committing.

[toprob]

I think if I went to 3.0, I'd need to keep 2.5, for a while at least, so I might need to look at sprucing up my PC a bit anyway, just to fit another sim on it... Whenever I develop another photoscenery, I have to take something off to make room!

I'd be keen to try it on my 2GB card, but once again, time goes on and at some point I would need to look at upgrading. I've already gone to Pricespy, clicked the '4GB' button on GPUs, and sorted by price, so I know the lowest price I'd need to spend to get 4GB... About $380. Sure, that's still a low-end card, but I'm not made of money.

This would double my monthly license fee, from approx NZ$18 to $36, and considering that some months I can't afford the $18, it may be that some months I still won't have a sim... thank god for FSX, which is my fall-back when times are tough:)

However, the point I meant to make amongst this rambling is that you could try a developer license, for a month or two.

[AdrianPetford]

Good advice guys. I'd certainly agree with you that anyone with doubts should hold off for the moment, until some more detailed reports come in. However as an avid tinkerer I don't mind jumping in, with all the potential triumphs, danger and disasters that can bring. I was day one on v2 and never regretted it. I will certainly keep 3.0 at defaults for a considerable time though, and probably alongside 2.5 until it is thoroughly tested.

When I originally boarded the P3D train it was 1.3 I think, and 2.0 was already on the cards, so I took the monthly developer subscription for a while and then paid for 2.0 when it was released. I agree that the dev subscription is a great way to test the product on your own setup, especially as you can renew month by month if you wish. Apparently it's now possible to transfer your dev subscription from 2.x to 3.0 which could save you some cash Rob, if you decide to go down that route.

[cowpatz]

From a personal perspective I think it is a bit of a push to really call it V3. I thnk John Venema (ORBX) was right when he said it was really a 2.6.
The new version mostly consists of bug fixes that plagued 2.5 and that should really have been addressed before moving on to V3.
It is a bit of a double whammy because the new license definitions mean it is really a US$199 investment now instead of US$59.
There is some new stuff there but really I think charging $199 for it is probably pushing the boundary and there will be some backlash.
This may well push some P3D users on to other platforms such as Xplane. it will be interesting to monitor reactions in the various forums.
It is really a situation of wanting to encourage P3D development and provide revenue for the developers but at the same time P3D need to ensure that their product is fit for purpose and that they should be responsible for fixing known bugs first before offering a new version.
Should the bug fixes at least not be made available as an update for 2.5 users?

[NZ255]

Hey Rob, do you have to have a dev licence to develop for it?

[toprob]

Hey Rob, do you have to have a dev licence to develop for it?

No, you don't need a license, but it does give you the SDK. You could use the FSX SDK which his 98% compatible with Prepar3D 2.x.