Seeking Advice on P3D Versions

[Daniel Jaffe]

I'm new to P3D (I have XP 11 and MSFS 2020).  I purchased 5.1 about 8 days ago followed shortly by adding the FSLabs A320 -- the main reason I chose P3D.  My impression is that 5.1 works well enough.  However, it seems like far to many add-ons have v.5 issues, limitations or require major updates.  I'm thinking about getting version 4.5 as well (or possibly a refund for 5.1 and just have v.4).  Thoughts?

 

[Norman Blackburn]

Personally I have both installed but use everything in v5.  My *personal* recommendation is if your hardware is up to it is to stick with 5.x

[Daniel Jaffe]

6 minutes ago, Norman Blackburn said:

Personally I have both installed but use everything in v5.  My *personal* recommendation is if your hardware is up to it is to stick with 5.x

Luckily hardware is not a problem.  I will hold with v5, and see how it goes.  Not to drag this out, but could I ask about add-ons then.  I'm trying to keep things simple as I learn the sim, and so I have: Active Sky, GSX 1 and2, Chaseplane and a few airports.  Anything on the must have list, particularly with v5?

[Norman Blackburn]

You already have the main add on as we can see in your profile  The ones you listed are what I have installed too although my definition of a few airports is what others would call overkill  

[Daniel Jaffe]

12 minutes ago, Norman Blackburn said:

You already have the main add on as we can see in your profile  The ones you listed are what I have installed too although my definition of a few airports is what others would call overkill  

Overkill is always good.  I've got four airports so far.  

Anyway, thanks for the help.  I'm sure I'll be back with more, but this is what I needed for now.

[Markus Burkhard]

I'm curious @Daniel Jaffe, which add-ons did you come across with major issues and limitations for v5 which would NOT have the same issues in v4? My take on this is that all add-ons worth having that were up-to-date in v4, do come with a proper v5 installer as well. 

In any case, I urge you to stick with v5 as it runs so much better and more smooth than v4. And the more time passes, the more developers will optimise their stuff mainly for v5, and will deliver new v4 content just as something that "works OK too".

[Daniel Jaffe]

I noticed that ORBX still has a lot of titles that it designates as needing an update. There were various airports in that group as well. It also seemed like 5.1 may have exacerbated the issues because of Truesky/EA. Even GSX needs a bit of an update for company-specific texture rendering. Also, I was having an issue with a Justsim airport, but I don’t know for sure if it was a 5.1 thing or a GSX issue. 

Overall, I’ve got the A320 - so I’m good! 

[Daniel Jaffe]

Norman. There is a very informative post about fsdreamteam’s challenges with P3d v5 updates here: http://www.fsdreamteam.com/forum/index.php/topic,24697.0.html. Look at post 8. 

I imagine you will have a better sense of the veracity of their claims. 

[Luka Albreht]

If I may just add a suggestion, I saw you bought Active sky. One thing I consider as essential are Realturb packs, it works with Active Sky, there is no influence on performance and it makes an airplane feel alive, especially our favourite buses. I don’t know about v5 support because I’m still on v4 but as I’ve seen on simmarket v5 is also included. And it is on sale currently.

Regards,

Luka

[Daniel Jaffe]

I'm not familiar with Realturb, but I'll take a look.  Is it similar to Accu-feel?

[Luka Albreht]

Basically it analyses terrain and adds wind shifts, turbulences etc. accordingly. Some people say  they don’t feel any difference, however I love it. Africa pack is free i think so you can try it without any cost and then add others if you like it.

[Daniel Jaffe]

Thank you.  I'll check it out.  Looks very popular here.

[Markus Burkhard]

14 hours ago, Daniel Jaffe said:

Thank you.  I'll check it out.  Looks very popular here.

The main thing about RealTurb is this: With default P3D weather OR with ActiveSky weather, wind will simply blow "through" terrain, meaning terrain cannot influence wind flow in any way. This is of course highly unrealistic as terrain is a large contributor for turbulence near the ground to form and windshear to occur. 

I therefore consider RealTurb to be an essential add-on to P3D. Keep in mind though that RealTurb won't change anything if you're flying in flat terrain, like Denmark or the Netherlands. It needs mountains, ridges and valleys to do its magic.

[Daniel Jaffe]

1 hour ago, Markus Burkhard said:

The main thing about RealTurb is this: With default P3D weather OR with ActiveSky weather, wind will simply blow "through" terrain, meaning terrain cannot influence wind flow in any way. This is of course highly unrealistic as terrain is a large contributor for turbulence near the ground to form and windshear to occur. 

I therefore consider RealTurb to be an essential add-on to P3D. Keep in mind though that RealTurb won't change anything if you're flying in flat terrain, like Denmark or the Netherlands. It needs mountains, ridges and valleys to do its magic.

Thanks.  That makes sense.  My main concern at the moment is not to load up too quickly on add-ons.  I fell victim to that with XP 11 and found myself with add-ons that I either didn't like all that much or were hitting performance for not much benefit (I'm looking at you SkyMaxx Pro).  However, this program seems lightweight and in other threads here, it definitely gets the thumbs up.  For the price, I think I'll give it a try.

At this point, I have Active Sky, Chaseplane, GSX and a few airports.  I think I can safely add RealTurb.  

So as long were talking add-ons: shader? The default world is overly saturated.  

[Dave Taylor]

On 4/22/2021 at 1:19 PM, Norman Blackburn said:

Personally I have both installed but use everything in v5.  My *personal* recommendation is if your hardware is up to it is to stick with 5.x

Wise words indeed. My v5 has revitalised my FSLabs A320 family. I'm glad I followed Norm's advice.

[Kendall S Mann]

I use them both, but I'm going to migrate to V5 permanently after the next update.

 

Scott

[klaus legrand]

On 5/10/2021 at 6:25 AM, Kendall S Mann said:

I use them both, but I'm going to migrate to V5 permanently after the next update.

 

Scott

Indeed...i've got V5 in January to "test"...i've been testing so much that at this point i don't remember when was last time i used V4.

V5 is smoother than V4 runs Dynamic lights much better, but is also using more CPU/GPu than v4.

Overall v5 all day long.