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1600vw
12-18-2013, 11:13 AM
Why just why did they stop making FSX? I always wanted to ask someone this, and why just why would they shut down the on-line portion of this simulator? I know you can find forums supporting the on-line portion but why did they shut it down?
Was this a move by TSA? I heard it was for both the stopping of making this simulator and the on-line portion.

Tony

Hal Bryan
12-18-2013, 05:01 PM
Why just why did they stop making FSX? I always wanted to ask someone this, and why just why would they shut down the on-line portion of this simulator? I know you can find forums supporting the on-line portion but why did they shut it down?
Was this a move by TSA? I heard it was for both the stopping of making this simulator and the on-line portion.

Tony

(Split to new thread.)

Definitely nothing quite that sinister, Tony. The Feds looked at us in the immediate aftermath of September 11th because copies of one of our products had been found in the home of at least one of the hijackers, and a French news show used our sim to recreate the attacks on television which prompted a brief "ban it!" outcry. We moved on from that pretty quickly.

As for the shutdown, only some key Microsoft management folks know for sure, but I can tell you that while, FS was an expensive product to make, every version was solidly profitable. That said, we had a long shelf life, so, towards the end, when our colleagues in the Microsoft Games Division working on titles like Halo and Gears of War were grossing 3 to 4 times in their opening weekend what we'd make in 3 years, it was tough to compete. Should we have been competing with titles like that? Should we have been in the Games Division at all? I think the answer to both of those is probably "no", but that wasn't my decision to make. Anyway, when The Day came that they brought everyone together for the big news, a lot of us thought that the announcement would involve us moving to another division, not that we'd be shut down entirely.

I obviously don't agree with the choice that was made, but I can't complain: First, Microsoft was extremely generous with other offers within the company and, when I decided against that route, with the severance package. And second, if I hadn't left, I wouldn't have landed here in Oshkosh, which was always a semi-secret dream of mine anyway. :)

1600vw
12-18-2013, 10:12 PM
(Split to new thread.)

Definitely nothing quite that sinister, Tony. The Feds looked at us in the immediate aftermath of September 11th because copies of one of our products had been found in the home of at least one of the hijackers, and a French news show used our sim to recreate the attacks on television which prompted a brief "ban it!" outcry. We moved on from that pretty quickly.

As for the shutdown, only some key Microsoft management folks know for sure, but I can tell you that while, FS was an expensive product to make, every version was solidly profitable. That said, we had a long shelf life, so, towards the end, when our colleagues in the Microsoft Games Division working on titles like Halo and Gears of War were grossing 3 to 4 times in their opening weekend what we'd make in 3 years, it was tough to compete. Should we have been competing with titles like that? Should we have been in the Games Division at all? I think the answer to both of those is probably "no", but that wasn't my decision to make. Anyway, when The Day came that they brought everyone together for the big news, a lot of us thought that the announcement would involve us moving to another division, not that we'd be shut down entirely.

I obviously don't agree with the choice that was made, but I can't complain: First, Microsoft was extremely generous with other offers within the company and, when I decided against that route, with the severance package. And second, if I hadn't left, I wouldn't have landed here in Oshkosh, which was always a semi-secret dream of mine anyway. :)


Thanks for this info. I did not know this ran so deep as to cause some to lose jobs. I just thought they stopped making the simulator. But like you said, the Lord does work in mysterious ways. I have purchased a few copies of this simulator and handed them out as gifts as I am sure others have done. I wish they would have offered more missions or even add ons. But great work, I love this simulator.

My very first simulator was purchased back in 1990, this was an Indy 500 simulator and really good for the time, so I have been using them for a while and really like FSX.

Tony

Jim Rosenow
12-18-2013, 10:41 PM
And second, if I hadn't left, I wouldn't have landed here in Oshkosh, which was always a semi-secret dream of mine anyway. :)

I think a lot of us have had THAT dream over the years, Hal! Live the dream, man!

Jim

Hal Bryan
12-19-2013, 08:10 AM
Thanks for this info. I did not know this ran so deep as to cause some to lose jobs. I just thought they stopped making the simulator.

I don't recall the exact number, but I believe it was just over a hundred positions that were eliminated.


I have purchased a few copies of this simulator and handed them out as gifts as I am sure others have done.

Thank you for having helped me pay the mortgage! :)


But great work, I love this simulator.

Thanks, Tony - on behalf of a lot of great friends and former coworkers. It was a lot of fun, a real labor of love for all of us who worked on it.


I think a lot of us have had THAT dream over the years, Hal! Live the dream, man!

Jim

Doin' it every day, Jim! :)

Mike M
12-19-2013, 08:51 PM
i seem to remember being told microsoft flight is functionally the same and now available as a download?

Jim Rosenow
12-20-2013, 08:19 AM
i seem to remember being told microsoft flight is functionally the same and now available as a download?

I can't speak to MS Flight...haven't tried it, but I do know it's available as a download @ https://microsoftflight.com/en-US/home/ The software is free (the business model was to charge for additional content, apparently), but Wikipedia says in July 2012 MS permanently discontinued development.

I do know that Lockheed Martin bought the the intellectual property rights and source code for the Microsoft ESP product. Microsoft ESP is/was the commercial-use version of FSX SP2, which now lives on as Prepar3D. Haven't tried that yet either, but I hear good things about it. LM updated it to use multiple computer cores and be more 64-bit OS friendly. It's good to know Hal's excellent work lives on!

Jim

1600vw
12-20-2013, 09:18 AM
I did not think FSX used dual core even if your machine had it. Hal what about this, it seems I read somewhere FSX does not use dual or quad core. Is this correct? If it does is there something one needs to do to get the most out of this program?

Tony

Jim Rosenow
12-20-2013, 10:59 AM
Tony,

It's my understanding that you are correct about FSX not using multiple cores....based on discussions, not my personal experimentation. I'm not aware of a way to make it multiple-core aware (I think it's called hyper-threading) cause it's not programmed into the software (not a lot of multiple-cores around when it was written). P3D has been re-written internally to allow H/T.

Hal Bryan
12-20-2013, 11:13 AM
I did not think FSX used dual core even if your machine had it. Hal what about this, it seems I read somewhere FSX does not use dual or quad core. Is this correct? If it does is there something one needs to do to get the most out of this program?

Tony


Tony,

It's my understanding that you are correct about FSX not using multiple cores....based on discussions, not my personal experimentation. I'm not aware of a way to make it multiple-core aware (I think it's called hyper-threading) cause it's not programmed into the software (not a lot of multiple-cores around when it was written). P3D has been re-written internally to allow H/T.

Service Pack 1 for FSX did add multicore support - you can read my friend Phil's blog post about some of that work back in '07 here, if you're interested:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ptaylor/archive/2007/05/15/performance-work-in-sp1.aspx

Jim Rosenow
12-20-2013, 11:15 AM
EXCELLENT! There went any reason for me to ever change from FSX!! I'm so happy about that I don't even mind being previously-ill-infomed! Thanks, Hal!

PS- I took a look at the blog...I'm gonna need that in human English! Lordy!! :-)

I_FLY_LOW
12-20-2013, 02:45 PM
I messed around with m$ flight last night...
Me no likey...
I'll stick with FSX...
It's my fave.
Y'all sure made a great product.

falcon21
02-15-2014, 12:03 AM
The only thing that I found that was better than FSX is flying in real life!

I remember the days of FS95 (barely) and each version after that. With each one seeming ever more realistic and bringing more features. I have logged many hours in these simulators and it probably helped lock in aviation as my main interest. It was unfortunate to see such a great and long running series come to an end.

Hal I use to read your's and the other developers' blogs. I was a big fan of the Aces Studios and your guys work.

Hal Bryan
02-16-2015, 05:42 PM
The only thing that I found that was better than FSX is flying in real life!

I remember the days of FS95 (barely) and each version after that. With each one seeming ever more realistic and bringing more features. I have logged many hours in these simulators and it probably helped lock in aviation as my main interest. It was unfortunate to see such a great and long running series come to an end.

Hal I use to read your's and the other developers' blogs. I was a big fan of the Aces Studios and your guys work.

Wow - thank you very much, Falcon21 - you made my day!

Best -

Hal

falcon21
02-20-2015, 07:07 PM
Your welcome Hal, I'm glad to have made your day!

There is some good news! For those of you that don't know FSX has been re-released on steam by Dovetail Games. It includes some bug fixes, a new online platform and it supposedly runs smoother overall. I just recently got a copy myself even though I already have FSX. I haven't played with it too much yet and have yet to try the new multiplayer but it does seem to run pretty good on my laptop. Hopefully this means they will be working on the next installment of the Flight Simulator series!

By the way Hal, why did you guys have to torture us with Gamespy? I had so many issues online rarely was I able to find a session without any errors. That was my only real gripe with FSX. I remember contacting both FSX support and Gamespy and they both blamed the other. I think we all know it was Gamespy's fault though ;).

tcbetka
01-17-2017, 12:50 PM
Why just why did they stop making FSX? I always wanted to ask someone this, and why just why would they shut down the on-line portion of this simulator? I know you can find forums supporting the on-line portion but why did they shut it down?
Was this a move by TSA? I heard it was for both the stopping of making this simulator and the on-line portion.

Tony

The way I understand it, Microsoft sold (licensed?) the source code to Lockheed Martin, and they've continued to develop it as Prepar3D--which is alive and well, depending upon who you ask.

TB

1600vw
01-17-2017, 03:29 PM
From what I understand. This website are from the designers of FSX. I have purchased a few add-on's to FSX and really like them. Hal do you have anything to do with this website and am I correct that some from the original team are running this site?

http://www.justflight.com/

1600vw
01-18-2017, 08:46 AM
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Hal Bryan
01-18-2017, 09:13 AM
The way I understand it, Microsoft sold (licensed?) the source code to Lockheed Martin, and they've continued to develop it as Prepar3D--which is alive and well, depending upon who you ask.

TB

Mostly true - we/they (Microsoft) licensed the enterprise version, ESP (which some will tell you doesn't stand for Enterprise Simulation Platform, but it does), to Lockheed Martin, who was the biggest customer of the product at the time our group was shut down in January of 2009. ESP started life as a stripped-down version of FSX with an updated license agreement that made it legal to use for training, research, DoD purposes, and all the other things that used to terrify the lawyers we worked with in the Games group at Microsoft. Eventually, ESP started getting some better tools and a few other enhancements, but the $800 price tag was really all about the license agreement. Lockheed Martin now sells it as Prepar3d, and they've continued to iterate, fixing bugs and adding features.

In parallel with this, as Falcon21 pointed out a while back, Dovetail Games in the UK has licensed FSX (the consumer version) and sells it along with add-on content via the Steam platform. They've also released Dovetail Games Flight School which is a training mission based program that clearly still has a lot of FSX guts, but some improved eye candy.


From what I understand. This website are from the designers of FSX. I have purchased a few add-on's to FSX and really like them. Hal do you have anything to do with this website and am I correct that some from the original team are running this site?

http://www.justflight.com/

JustFlight, based in London, has been around for a long time - if memory serves, they started in 1995 as Interactive Associates and changed their name in about 2000 or so. The head guy there, Publishing Director Alex Ford, is an old friend of mine, and his bio says he started with them in 1997. Anyway, while it's possible that some of my former colleagues may do some contract work for JustFlight, I don't know of anyone who does. As they were in business alongside us (as great friends and partners, I might add) for 15 years, they definitely weren't started by members of our team. And I agree about their add-ons - I'm a big fan!

It's possible that you're thinking of the short-lived product called Microsoft Flight, which came out in February of 2012 and was canceled 5 months later. I know of a few friends and former colleagues who worked on that product, albeit briefly.

1600vw
01-18-2017, 10:03 AM
Hal what great info. Thanks for sharing this. I do believe I confused MS with FSX. Justflight is awesome and seems to use a different engine then FSX. It seems FSX does not use dual core and Justflight's engine does. After I downloaded Justflight my FSX software seemed to run better.

I liked the multi-player option. It would sure be cool to have a bunch of us fly multi-player and all go for a flight somewhere. Something to do on a cold winters day when one does not want to be out in the hangar for it's to cold. Maybe do some short field landings and see who can land the shortest. Things like this for the EAA group or forum members to do together.

I am not sure if any multi-player version of FSX is still around though.

1600vw
01-18-2017, 06:36 PM
Hal how can I down load a GPS pic of my home field and load this onto FSX. My field looks nothing as it does in real life. No building or homes on the property. It does not show the heli pad either. I would like this to be more realistic. I found this info somewhere once but lost it. It seemed involved to set this up. Can you explain how to do this. It would make using FSX so much better, for me anyway.

Tony

roger-wilco-66
01-19-2017, 06:11 AM
Hal how can I down load a GPS pic of my home field and load this onto FSX. My field looks nothing as it does in real life. No building or homes on the property. It does not show the heli pad either. I would like this to be more realistic. I found this info somewhere once but lost it. It seemed involved to set this up. Can you explain how to do this. It would make using FSX so much better, for me anyway.

Tony

Let me chime in here.
There are a few vital tools required for scenery design. ADE for airport design, SBuilderX for scenery design in general, as well as various 3d software if you want to build your own scenery objects. It is a good thing to go through a few tutorials and the SDK documentation that comes with FSX or P3D (I would recommend the latter). A good source of information and help, if required, is www.fsdeveloper.com or Sim Outhouse www.sim-outhouse.com , where I am the admin of the Prepar3D forum. A lot of good SIM people are on SOH and there is always help if something comes up.

Cheers,
Mark

Hal Bryan
01-19-2017, 08:08 AM
Let me chime in here.
There are a few vital tools required for scenery design. ADE for airport design, SBuilderX for scenery design in general, as well as various 3d software if you want to build your own scenery objects. It is a good thing to go through a few tutorials and the SDK documentation that comes with FSX or P3D (I would recommend the latter). A good source of information and help, if required, is www.fsdeveloper.com (http://www.fsdeveloper.com) or Sim Outhouse www.sim-outhouse.com (http://www.sim-outhouse.com) , where I am the admin of the Prepar3D forum. A lot of good SIM people are on SOH and there is always help if something comes up.

Cheers,
Mark


What he said. ;)

Thanks for chiming in, Mark! And thanks for your work at SOH - that was always one of my favorites.

Hal Bryan
01-19-2017, 08:19 AM
Hal what great info. Thanks for sharing this. I do believe I confused MS with FSX. Justflight is awesome and seems to use a different engine then FSX. It seems FSX does not use dual core and Justflight's engine does. After I downloaded Justflight my FSX software seemed to run better.

I liked the multi-player option. It would sure be cool to have a bunch of us fly multi-player and all go for a flight somewhere. Something to do on a cold winters day when one does not want to be out in the hangar for it's to cold. Maybe do some short field landings and see who can land the shortest. Things like this for the EAA group or forum members to do together.

I am not sure if any multi-player version of FSX is still around though.

Happy to chime in, and now sorry if may have confused things a little further...! ;)

To be super clear (though I know you know most of this):

MS = Microsoft, FSX (Flight Simulator X) was a Microsoft product, so you didn't confuse those two. JustFlight isn't a simulator product and doesn't have its own engine - they're a company that makes add-on aircraft for FSX, etc. When you buy and download an aircraft from JustFlight, and then install it in FSX, you're not changing the core FSX engine in any way - just adding another cool airplane to the hangar!

Hope that helps straighten it out the rest of the way.

As for multiplayer, the latest iteration of FSX, Dovetail's FSX Steam Edition, has both local and Internet-based multiplayer. Here's the full description of how it works: https://fsxinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Guide-to-FSX-Steam-Edition-Multiplayer-Features.pdf

An EAA Forums multiplayer bash would be a lot of fun!

falcon21
01-19-2017, 04:49 PM
Hal how can I down load a GPS pic of my home field and load this onto FSX. My field looks nothing as it does in real life. No building or homes on the property. It does not show the heli pad either. I would like this to be more realistic. I found this info somewhere once but lost it. It seemed involved to set this up. Can you explain how to do this. It would make using FSX so much better, for me anyway.

Tony

I use ADE9x (Airport Design Editor) to modify or add airports to FSX. It is a fairly easy program to use and best of all it is free! My local airport was not quite accurate either, with 24,000 airports in the game though they didn't really have the time or resources to make them all 100% true to life. With ADE I was able to adjust the runways and taxi ways to the actual layout, you can overlay a satellite photo to trace over which makes it very easy. I used a plugin for Google Sketch-up to generate 3-D hangars and loaded them into the airport where the real ones were. When all done the airport looked very recognizable in the game without using satellite scenery. If you just want to go the satellite scenery route I found a program called SBuilderX, I haven't really played around with it though.

1600vw
01-20-2017, 06:23 AM
Thanks for all the info from everyone. I will be busy now working with FSX.

Hal a On-line Multi player, would be a cool addition to this EAA forum. We could log in and fly and not just have conversations on this forum. If this could be done it would be very cool. I am sure others would really enjoy this also. Can you do this for us and EAA?

Tony

P.S.Hal not only have you worked for or on FSX but you are on staff at EAA. Hal my hat goes off to you.

spokes2112
01-20-2017, 08:01 AM
We have a multiplayer flight "hoedown" just about every Saturday over at Avsim (http://www.avsim.com/forum/227-avsims-round-the-world-race-forum/). The Comradery is the best part. Been friends with the guys for over 8 years. We have pilots from all over the world joining in during our ~3 hour flights. Discussions during the flights are had on just about anything over unicom - News, politics, events, flight sim stuff, manly things :rollseyes: etc.. Make it just about every Saturday unless.. RW flying or chapter event etc..

If interested, here are some links for multiplayer usage -

JoinFS (http://pmem.uk/joinfs/) - The new kid on the block! No server is necessary to host, fluid MP visuals (up to 30FPS), super easy to use. The designer is constantly working on this great program with updates coming nearly weekly. Still a beta but robust and error free at this point. (Free, good for FSX (any) thru P3D, Windows only)
FSHost (http://www.chocolatesoftware.com/fshost/) - The 'ol guy on the block. A dedicated server is necessary to host, visuals limited to 3 FPS updates :(, easy to use, a mature program. (Free, good for FS2002 (probably deprecated), FS9/2004 thru P3D, Windows/Linux for host, lots of features on the server side) You can download FSHostSpy from the site to see who is hosting a session.

Digital Theme Park (http://digitalthemepark.blogspot.com/) - A multiplayer community based on JoinFS (previously FSHost) & TeamSpeak. For a "newbie" I would recommend going here.

TeamSpeak (https://www.teamspeak.com/) - The de-facto voice client, requires a host server, free.

Sim Outhouse (main site (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/content.php)), (flight center (http://www.sim-outhouse.net/?tabid=29)) - A flight sim community that has excellent designers, flights and have their own voice & FSHost Servers also have a Combat Flight Sim 3 setup.

Once you go multiplayer there is no looking back. Simming will never be the same.

1600vw
01-20-2017, 09:18 AM
We have a multiplayer flight "hoedown" just about every Saturday over at Avsim (http://www.avsim.com/forum/227-avsims-round-the-world-race-forum/). The Comradery is the best part. Been friends with the guys for over 8 years. We have pilots from all over the world joining in during our ~3 hour flights. Discussions during the flights are had on just about anything over unicom - News, politics, events, flight sim stuff, manly things :rollseyes: etc.. Make it just about every Saturday unless.. RW flying or chapter event etc..

If interested, here are some links for multiplayer usage -

JoinFS (http://pmem.uk/joinfs/) - The new kid on the block! No server is necessary to host, fluid MP visuals (up to 30FPS), super easy to use. The designer is constantly working on this great program with updates coming nearly weekly. Still a beta but robust and error free at this point. (Free, good for FSX (any) thru P3D, Windows only)
FSHost (http://www.chocolatesoftware.com/fshost/) - The 'ol guy on the block. A dedicated server is necessary to host, visuals limited to 3 FPS updates :(, easy to use, a mature program. (Free, good for FS2002 (probably deprecated), FS9/2004 thru P3D, Windows/Linux for host, lots of features on the server side) You can download FSHostSpy from the site to see who is hosting a session.

Digital Theme Park (http://digitalthemepark.blogspot.com/) - A multiplayer community based on JoinFS (previously FSHost) & TeamSpeak. For a "newbie" I would recommend going here.

TeamSpeak (https://www.teamspeak.com/) - The de-facto voice client, requires a host server, free.

Sim Outhouse (main site (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/content.php)), (flight center (http://www.sim-outhouse.net/?tabid=29)) - A flight sim community that has excellent designers, flights and have their own voice & FSHost Servers also have a Combat Flight Sim 3 setup.

Once you go multiplayer there is no looking back. Simming will never be the same.

Wow thanks for this info. I say the same thing about competing against others when running an RC car. Once you compete in a race and feel that excitement from the competition closing in on you or you catching and passing the fastest car on the track, you are hooked. You willnever again want to go out and just " bash " your RC car. I assume this will be the same when going multi-player on a flying sim. One will never want to just fly the sim and not be in multi-player mode.

Thanks again and I will check these sites out. It would be nice of one of these area's or sites had an area for registered EAA members. You can only fly in this mutil-player area if you have an EAA membership. Each week or month have a new mission. One month it could be short field landings, cross winds, tail wheel, mountain flying...ect. For the best they get some sort of metal that is attached to there profile. Kinda like a patch one would but on a jacket but attached to their screen name.

I think this would be kinda cool.

Tony

1600vw
01-21-2017, 05:33 AM
Happy to chime in, and now sorry if may have confused things a little further...! ;)

To be super clear (though I know you know most of this):

MS = Microsoft, FSX (Flight Simulator X) was a Microsoft product, so you didn't confuse those two. JustFlight isn't a simulator product and doesn't have its own engine - they're a company that makes add-on aircraft for FSX, etc. When you buy and download an aircraft from JustFlight, and then install it in FSX, you're not changing the core FSX engine in any way - just adding another cool airplane to the hangar!

Hope that helps straighten it out the rest of the way.

As for multiplayer, the latest iteration of FSX, Dovetail's FSX Steam Edition, has both local and Internet-based multiplayer. Here's the full description of how it works: https://fsxinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Guide-to-FSX-Steam-Edition-Multiplayer-Features.pdf

An EAA Forums multiplayer bash would be a lot of fun!

Hal you can buy more then just an aircraft from Justflight. I have purchased complete flight sims. One is AirHauler. It does inner react with FSX but it also has it's own info on the operating system needed to operate it. It's different from just FSX.

System Requirements:


Flight Simulator X or FS2004
Pentium III 1.7GHz PC or better
512Mb RAM
Windows 8 / 7 / XP / Vista (32-bit or 64-bit)
1Gb hard drive space
Microsoft .Net Framework 2 (included)
FSUIPC 4.50 for FSX, 3.90 for FS2004 (included)

Is this not different then FSX?

Tony

1600vw
01-21-2017, 06:24 AM
Let me chime in here.
There are a few vital tools required for scenery design. ADE for airport design, SBuilderX for scenery design in general, as well as various 3d software if you want to build your own scenery objects. It is a good thing to go through a few tutorials and the SDK documentation that comes with FSX or P3D (I would recommend the latter). A good source of information and help, if required, is www.fsdeveloper.com (http://www.fsdeveloper.com) or Sim Outhouse www.sim-outhouse.com (http://www.sim-outhouse.com) , where I am the admin of the Prepar3D forum. A lot of good SIM people are on SOH and there is always help if something comes up.

Cheers,
Mark

Mark I know this is going to be a stupid question, but I seem to ask a lot of stupid questions. People will say no question is a stupid question..well then they have not read mine and people have no problem telling me I post stupid questions...but what is P3D?

Tony
My dad always said. You don not have to know or have all the answers, you just need to know where to find the answers.

1600vw
01-21-2017, 07:23 AM
Hal how do I run or Join FS. I see the little box comes up. I go to join and it says I am in or joined. But how do I get this on FSX? I have FSX opened, do I then go to multi player in FSX?

Tony

roger-wilco-66
01-23-2017, 12:31 AM
Mark I know this is going to be a stupid question, but I seem to ask a lot of stupid questions. People will say no question is a stupid question..well then they have not read mine and people have no problem telling me I post stupid questions...but what is P3D?

Tony
My dad always said. You don not have to know or have all the answers, you just need to know where to find the answers.


Hi Tony,

in my view there are no stupid questions :-) And your father is a wise man, obviously. :-)

P3D is short for Prepar3d (spelled prepared) which is Lockheed Martins flight simulation software. They licensed Microsofts ESP (the simulation framework behind MS FSX) and develop it further. It is like FSX on steroids, if you like. It is still mainly compatible with FSX, but one should look for dedicated P3D versions of add ons when planning to get something.

HTH
Mark

lnuss
01-26-2017, 07:36 AM
I am not sure if any multi-player version of FSX is still around though.

Tony, the Steam FSX and P3D both offer multiplayer. Both FSX and P3D allow two basic methods of multiplayer: Connect to some server such as what's been discussed above or to VATSIM and such. The other way is to connect directly to another user, with one hosting and up to 8 (or perhaps a few more) can be connected to a single host. A friend and I (both real world pilots -- I used to fly for him) have been doing this since the days of FS98. We've used various programs over the years to talk to each other, currently using a free (both as in beer and as in freedom) program called mumble. We carefully coordinate the aircraft add-ons (and scenery add-ons) that we get so that we both are able to see and fly the same aircraft and scenery as we tool along. We've flown over most of the U.S. at different times (generally in light singles or twins), sometimes flying tight formation, sometimes loosely flying near each other, perhaps with one veering off to see something and the other looking at something different. It's been a great experience to fly for all these years (almost weekly, sometimes more) with a good friend.

P3D offers a lot of enhancements over FSX, as well as better (computer) performance, since it harnesses the power of the graphics card, in addition to the CPU, unlike FSX.


P3D is short for Prepar3d (spelled prepared)
I think you mean pronounced prepared, since it's spelled Prepar3d...

roger-wilco-66
01-27-2017, 12:33 AM
I think you mean pronounced prepared, since it's spelled Prepar3d...

Sorry, you're right of course :-)

1600vw
01-27-2017, 06:53 AM
I checked out P3D. That program is over my head. I am one of those who just want to open a program and use it. This is to in depth for me. But thanks for sharing. Maybe someday I will find a friend who will help me with this program. But for now I will leave it alone.

Thanks Again for sharing.

Tony

lnuss
01-27-2017, 01:55 PM
That program is over my head. I am one of those who just want to open a program and use it.

Over your head? Hmmm... Granted that I'm still on P3D v2, but it was almost as simple as FSX to install and use. Is there something specific about P3D V3 that causes a problem?

The multiplayer direct connection in both programs doesn't need much more than finding the IP address of the host then putting it in the dialog box. Even simpler for single "player" (I like "user" better, but...).

If you have specific problems or questions you want answers to, I might be able to help, and there are likely others here, too, that can help.

1600vw
01-28-2017, 05:50 AM
Over your head? Hmmm... Granted that I'm still on P3D v2, but it was almost as simple as FSX to install and use. Is there something specific about P3D V3 that causes a problem?

The multiplayer direct connection in both programs doesn't need much more than finding the IP address of the host then putting it in the dialog box. Even simpler for single "player" (I like "user" better, but...).

If you have specific problems or questions you want answers to, I might be able to help, and there are likely others here, too, that can help.

I have no idea where I landed when I did a google search for this product. But it was all about landscape design and other things like this. I just now did another search after reading your post and came across the correct sight or page.

http://www.prepar3d.com/

This does look to be very cool. Thanks for sharing. I did not know this was out there. My wife says I live under a rock and miss everything...lol

Tony

lnuss
01-28-2017, 07:09 AM
Glad you found the right site -- Enjoy.

roger-wilco-66
01-29-2017, 11:20 AM
If you want to check what can be done with P3D, there's a screenshot-thread over at SOH (Sim-Outhouse) :

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php/96608-Prepar3D-v3-Screenshots

1600vw
01-29-2017, 01:54 PM
If you want to check what can be done with P3D, there's a screenshot-thread over at SOH (Sim-Outhouse) :

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php/96608-Prepar3D-v3-Screenshots

Wow... I may have to spend 60 bucks on this sim. Looks awesome. I purchased X-Plane and it gives me a head ache when I use it, so I don't. It was a waste of money for me. I wish I could test fly this program to see if I like it. FSX never did give me a head ache when using it. I have no idea why x-plane did and never dreamed it would or any non-motion sim would or could.

Tony

lnuss
01-30-2017, 06:41 AM
I wish I could test fly this program to see if I like it. FSX never did give me a head ache when using it.

You can, in a sense. LM has a 60-day refund policy, so you can ask for a refund before two months is up. You'll find it much like FSX, only (IMHO) better. Look at the refund policy (http://www.prepar3d.com/support/refundpolicy/) under the SUPPORT tab.

1600vw
01-30-2017, 06:51 AM
You can, in a sense. LM has a 60-day refund policy, so you can ask for a refund before two months is up. You'll find it much like FSX, only (IMHO) better. Look at the refund policy (http://www.prepar3d.com/support/refundpolicy/) under the SUPPORT tab.

Again I thank you for this info. I know what I will be doing today...lol

Thanks again Larry.

Tony

lnuss
01-31-2017, 06:36 AM
You're welcome, Tony -- hope it pans out for you.

1600vw
02-01-2017, 07:03 AM
I read everything about this product P3D. I really like this but one thing I found really funny. You can not use this for entertainment. I get it, this product is for training and such. But what is funny to me, even training is entertainment, for me anyway.

lnuss
02-01-2017, 07:22 AM
I expect (don't know for certain) that's related to LM's license agreement with Microsoft. But since you can use it for training you're good.