Upgrade advice needed!

[Bill Surratt]

Hey everyone,

I've been gone from the forums for a long time (Sep 2019) as I was content to have my special needs son who loves his P3Dv4.5 with A319-X A320-X flying the sim as I had updated it to and configured at that time.  I'm a retired AA Airbus pilot and have loaded around 8-10 of the hub-to-hub scenarios with complete FMGS programming, panel states and flight plans I used to fly.

Well, he's always wanted his Airbus’ to be sharklet-equipped to match the new AA Airbus fleet…and since it’s Christmas and he's difficult to buy for, I am considering purchasing the 321-X and 320SL and 321SL for his sim that I am going to be reprogramming…

So, along with the new 321-X and 320/321SL, and looking at our current add-ons and system configuration—I'm hoping some of you experienced folks can advise what additional updates/upgrades I should add so I can do this <painful to me> process at one time, and also the best way to go about it.

Current P3D and add-ons (PC configuration listed in footer)
P3D ver 4.5.12.30293
FSL A319-X, A320-X, Spotlights
A319X and 320X user submitted Livery repaints for AA and AA heritage aircraft
User submitted Safety PA/cabin announcements/boarding/deplaning sounds
Flightbeam KPHX, KSFOHD
FSDream Team KCLT, KDFW, KLAXv2, PHKO, PHNL, PHLI, PHOG, PHTO
UTLive
Orbx: BASE Pack, Trees HD, Vector, OpenLC North America, Central Rockies, Northern California, Southern California, NZ South Island, cityscape Honolulu, Jackson Hole Airport, Milford Sound Airport NZ, Queenstown Airport NZ, Libraries, BOB 1st Person Mode, Object Flow, SODE,
KSAT (3rd Party shareware)
Milviz T-38A
RAFB FSX

Please feel free to share your thoughts—I want to do it right and make update, upgrade and purchase decisions that will give great results.  Thanks in advance!

Bill

[Cesar gutierrez]

7 hours ago, Bill Surratt said:

Hey everyone,

I've been gone from the forums for a long time (Sep 2019) as I was content to have my special needs son who loves his P3Dv4.5 with A319-X A320-X flying the sim as I had updated it to and configured at that time.  I'm a retired AA Airbus pilot and have loaded around 8-10 of the hub-to-hub scenarios with complete FMGS programming, panel states and flight plans I used to fly.

Well, he's always wanted his Airbus’ to be sharklet-equipped to match the new AA Airbus fleet…and since it’s Christmas and he's difficult to buy for, I am considering purchasing the 321-X and 320SL and 321SL for his sim that I am going to be reprogramming…

So, along with the new 321-X and 320/321SL, and looking at our current add-ons and system configuration—I'm hoping some of you experienced folks can advise what additional updates/upgrades I should add so I can do this <painful to me> process at one time, and also the best way to go about it.

Current P3D and add-ons (PC configuration listed in footer)
P3D ver 4.5.12.30293
FSL A319-X, A320-X, Spotlights
A319X and 320X user submitted Livery repaints for AA and AA heritage aircraft
User submitted Safety PA/cabin announcements/boarding/deplaning sounds
Flightbeam KPHX, KSFOHD
FSDream Team KCLT, KDFW, KLAXv2, PHKO, PHNL, PHLI, PHOG, PHTO
UTLive
Orbx: BASE Pack, Trees HD, Vector, OpenLC North America, Central Rockies, Northern California, Southern California, NZ South Island, cityscape Honolulu, Jackson Hole Airport, Milford Sound Airport NZ, Queenstown Airport NZ, Libraries, BOB 1st Person Mode, Object Flow, SODE,
KSAT (3rd Party shareware)
Milviz T-38A
RAFB FSX

Please feel free to share your thoughts—I want to do it right and make update, upgrade and purchase decisions that will give great results.  Thanks in advance!

Bill

Do you have already Active Saky as weather engine?

Just now, Cesar gutierrez said:

Do you have already Active Saky as weather engine?

ACTIVE SKY HIFI 

[Bill Surratt]

Thanks Cesar, I'll keep that in mind, but wx features are not high priority for my son…he likes visual conditions for departures and arrivals.  Nice scenery, really accurate and realistic airport environment, dynamic generated airline, civ, and other traffic rank higher.

[Cesar gutierrez]

ok , so if your son loves Visual maybe MFS2020 its a nice EYE cAndy , even do . CANCUN scenario from FSIMSTUDIOS its very ACCURATE

[Bill Surratt]

I'm focused on just enhancing his P3D with an upgrade from 4.5 to 5.3, upgrading and enhancing his FSL Airbuses.
I would like to see if there is a better AI traffic program and better and more realistic major US airports (that I used to fly into).  That seems to be most important to my son.

He does have X-Plane 11 and fiddles around with the airplanes and airports there, but seems to like P3D the best.  We had the old MSFS programs back in the day, but really didn't want to get into another platform.

I do appreciate your inputs.  Thank you.

[Marvin Toepfer]

Hi Bill,

it seems you nearly already have everything  maybe this is also interesting for you or your son: 

It’s looking nice

Active Sky is something you should consider nevertheless. I also can recommend ENVshade for nice shaders - your son can play around with it for best visuals. 
 

The SL series is of course a must have  
 

 

[Bill Surratt]

Thanks Marvin…that Hawaii scenery was awesome.  I’ll put that in the bucket as well as look into Active Sky and ENVshade.  I'm somewhat concerned with any extra drag on system resources that may slow frame rate.  My system was leading edge 2.5 years ago, but time has marched on and I haven’t…lol.

[Markus Burkhard]

7 hours ago, Bill Surratt said:

Thanks Marvin…that Hawaii scenery was awesome.  I’ll put that in the bucket as well as look into Active Sky and ENVshade.  I'm somewhat concerned with any extra drag on system resources that may slow frame rate.  My system was leading edge 2.5 years ago, but time has marched on and I haven’t…lol.

Upgrading from P3Dv4 to v5 will give you a noticeable boost in performance, so the system should be able to handle ActiveSky just fine.

As for major US airports, make sure to look into FlyTampa offerings for KBOS and KLAS, some of the best add-on airports you can buy.

The best AI traffic software is AIG. It's not live traffic, but they use extremely accurate flight plans instead, meaning things will look and feel very realistic in sim.

[Måt41å5 Çÿråñ]

Hi Bill,

adding to what the others have already mentioned, I suggest you have a look at Salt Lake City Intl and Cleveland-Hopkins Intl by PACSIM, Orlando Intl by Taxi2Gate and Chicago O’Hare V2 by fsdreamteam.

As for your son’s trips into and out of Queenstown Flightbeam’s Auckland & Wellington, plus Christchurch by Godzone would make a great fit.

For current and easy to access navdata & charts you should look into what Navigraph has to offer.

I also recommend “SODE VDGS PACK” by 12BPilot. It’s a great addition for those sceneries that support it. Not every scenery does but most of the current and recent airport scenery offerings do.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Mathias

Edit: allmost forgot to mention Miami V5 by LATINVFR.

[Walter Meier]

5 hours ago, Markus Burkhard said:

The best AI traffic software is AIG. It's not live traffic, but they use extremely accurate flight plans instead, meaning things will look and feel very realistic in sim.

And they have beautiful models, too! Highly recommended.

[Bill Surratt]

Great suggestions all—thank you.  
I've never done this—but is it possible to have P3Dv4.5 as I have configured with all the current addons (yes I do have SODE by 12bpilot) and install P3Dv5.3 on my same PC with all the current and future suggested addons? And run either one or the other until I get 5.3 configured the way I want (all trips loaded into the FMGS, cockpit configured and panel states saved with engines running and ready for pushback)?

 

[Norman Blackburn]

That sounds pretty much as I have running here Bill.

[Bill Surratt]

1 minute ago, Norman Blackburn said:

That sounds pretty much as I have running here Bill.

Excellent…great to know…thank you Norman, I was hoping you’d stop by 

[Bill Surratt]

I've started seriously looking into AIG (both AI manager and traffic controller).  Looks fantastic, but unless I'm misunderstanding something, it does NOT start up and shut down automatically with P3D initiation and termination.  That may be a problem for my special-needs son.  UT Live at least is autonomous other than the initial programming.

Am I understanding AIG operation correctly? 

[Markus Burkhard]

15 hours ago, Bill Surratt said:

I've started seriously looking into AIG (both AI manager and traffic controller).  Looks fantastic, but unless I'm misunderstanding something, it does NOT start up and shut down automatically with P3D initiation and termination.  That may be a problem for my special-needs son.  UT Live at least is autonomous other than the initial programming.

Am I understanding AIG operation correctly? 

It is my understanding that AIG Traffic Controller is optional, I have never installed it and their aircraft show up just fine. Traffic installed using AIG AI Manager does not need any tool to be started with P3D. You install the airlines you want using their One Click Installer tool. Once that is done, there is no more action needed to have things running. 

[Bill Surratt]

14 minutes ago, Markus Burkhard said:

It is my understanding that AIG Traffic Controller is optional, I have never installed it and their aircraft show up just fine. Traffic installed using AIG AI Manager does not need any tool to be started with P3D. You install the airlines you want using their One Click Installer tool. Once that is done, there is no more action needed to have things running. 

Thanks Markus…that is good news.

[Steven Williams]

Hey it's really great news!!