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A huge concern I have for P3D V3


Mac_Maddog88

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So with ORBX planning on charging for installers for P3D V3, there's some serious questions I need to ask.


First off, say P3D V3 requires little more than changing the destination path for installers and a few code tweaks on ORBX's end. Will we still be charged for new installers?


And second, how much will these installers cost? I really have a limited amount of money, and while I can afford P3D V3, I cannot justify spending more money just to upgrade installers. It's like I'm being held hostage on V2 until I can pay up to upgrade my airports to V3. If the cost is anywhere near half of full price for an airport just to be upgraded, I'll most certainty stay on V2. I've spent a ton on ORBX addons and it feels ridiculous to me to spend more on the same airports I already own. I can't afford to just spend money like this, somebody would have to be incredibly dedicated to. 


 


Like I said, we'll have to see what changes V3 brings, but coming from a rather average customer who's spent more than his fair share on ORBX products, I'll be kind of disappointed if the price of upgrade is enough to keep my stuck forever on V2. For me, it'd be like making the jump over to X-Plane, something almost impossible given what I've spent on P3D addons.


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We are testing V3 at present and have yet to make any formal announcement about whether we'll charge for V3 installers. My original comments were made well before V3 went to beta and was mostly based on the new version being a major architectural change. It's not, being more like a v2.6 truth be told.

My position as CEO is that I'd rather not charge for them if the work to port products is minimal. We're having team discussions about it. We may drop support for P3Dv1 when v3 is released. That said, if an Orbx developer has to spend a lot of time to port a product then we may charge a nominal fee. It's still early days yet.

We're also testing a brand new installer which will detect what sims and versions you have installed and allow parallel FSX:Boxed and FSX:SE installs to name but one enhancement.

Stay tuned.

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We are testing V3 at present and have yet to make any formal announcement about whether we'll charge for V3 installers. My original comments were made well before V3 went to beta and was mostly based on the new version being a major architectural change. It's not, being more like a v2.6 truth be told.

My position as CEO is that I'd rather not charge for them if the work to port products is minimal. We're having team discussions about it. We'll may drop support for P3Dv1 when v3 is released. That said, if an Orbx developer has to spend a lot of time to port a product then we may charge a nominal fee. It's still early days yet.

We're also testing a brand new installer which will detect what sims and versions you have installed and allow parallel FSX:Boxed and FSX:SE installs to name but one enhancement.

Stay tuned.

Thanks a ton Mr Venema! Sorry if my original post came off as kind of harsh, really didn't intend it to be that way if it did. If the airport has to go through a major rework, I'd gladly pay. What I was just worried about before was getting charged just for the fact that it's P3D V3.

Could you comment at all on whether or not performance is improved in any ways in V3? I think that'll be the major deciding factor on if I transition over.

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Thanks John for the information. It is always of benefit to us to be aware of the situation, though I know that it opens you up to a slew of questions from eager supporters that you can't respond to with details . Living in a vacuum of information is dissatisfying.  We need to trust that you will inform us at the appropriate time with that detail.


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We're also testing a brand new installer which will detect what sims and versions you have installed and allow parallel FSX:Boxed and FSX:SE installs to name but one enhancement.

 

I'm really happy to hear about this part. I find that one of the things that is very time consuming when reinstalling my simulator, is running all the various installers. I you would also have a general look at minimizing the number of "clicks" needed per installer that would be greatly appreciated. I feel I have to answer the same legal disclaimer and choice of simulator far too many times when going through all my Orbx installers.

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Thanks John. I certainly can't afford a  "nominal fee"  for over 120 products.  If it's over a dollar a piece, I'm doomed.

 Hoping

 Sue

No doubt, it will be necessary to collect money for upgrades at some point in future, if not earlier than with the transition to 64 Bit. However, I am optimistic John will find a proper volume scheme for collectors like you and me owning the whole or a large part of the ORBX collection to continue to enjoy it.

 

Kind regards, Michael

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Hi


 


If I am correct, there have been 14 versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator, not counting Microsoft Flight and Prepar3d. Each one announcing that it is so much better than the previous one and why we should upgrade.


 


I have many, many DVD's of software for previous versions of Microsoft FS that are now of no use to me whatsoever so it comes to me as fantastic news that I am now buying software (Orbx) for my current Flight Simulator that, so far, has been upgraded to the latest FS free of charge.


 


Ok I know that at some point in the future I may have to pay something to upgrade to the latest FS but it is so much better than having to repurchase at full cost as I have done in the past.


 


Instead of making veiled threats of what we will do if we have to pay, why don't we thank Orbx for actually looking after their customers. Not like many, many of their competitors who look for the first excuse to make an additional charge.


 


Kind regards


 


Ian


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Hi

 

If I am correct, there have been 14 versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator, not counting Microsoft Flight and Prepar3d. Each one announcing that it is so much better than the previous one and why we should upgrade.

 

I have many, many DVD's of software for previous versions of Microsoft FS that are now of no use to me whatsoever so it comes to me as fantastic news that I am now buying software (Orbx) for my current Flight Simulator that, so far, has been upgraded to the latest FS free of charge.

 

Ok I know that at some point in the future I may have to pay something to upgrade to the latest FS but it is so much better than having to repurchase at full cost as I have done in the past.

 

Instead of making veiled threats of what we will do if we have to pay, why don't we thank Orbx for actually looking after their customers. Not like many, many of their competitors who look for the first excuse to make an additional charge.

 

Kind regards

 

Ian

My thought entirely. I may add that if paying a reasonable few bucks is a business incentive for OrbX to do a quicker updating to a new P3DV3 version of what I already own, all the more better.

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Everyone is different financially though. Some just can't justify spending that kind of money. If the shift over to P3D V3 is so dramatic that developers are forced to go through a ton of work to port over addons, such as FS2004 to FSX, I'd gladly pay. What I'm worried about is having to pay that same price for a new installer even if not a ton of work has to go into updating an airport from V2 to V3. 


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My biggest concern is LM is just calling it v3 and charging because they know they have all kinds of regular customers who will buy it up. They're not stupid, they know all these purchases of the academic licenses are 90% for entertainment.


 


Personally, I don't think I'll be upgrading until DX 12,  64 bit, and realistic helicopters which will hopefully come with 64 bit. I doubt that will come soon though, if ever. :/


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My biggest concern is LM is just calling it v3 and charging because they know they have all kinds of regular customers who will buy it up. They're not stupid, they know all these purchases of the academic licenses are 90% for entertainment.

 

Personally, I don't think I'll be upgrading until DX 12,  64 bit, and realistic helicopters which will hopefully come with 64 bit. I doubt that will come soon though, if ever. :

I don't think it's prudent to make assumptions about the true purpose people are using the academic license.  That opens up a huge argument over the EULA.  Other sim forums would ban you on the spot for that remark, but hey, I'm just the messenger.

 

In any case, as far as cost goes, I'll side with Outrage on this one.  For LM to market P3D v3 as such, then should fall under say 64-bit architecture or even a different rendering engine.  Anything less than that would be a procedural upgrade.  So we would have to pay regardless, but code changes that require massive amounts of time to port is understandable to charge a fee, and yes, many of us are in different financial classes.  I am sure we have all made significant investments to keep up with the times for this hobby so here's hoping that ORBX has some compassion and keeps the costs as low as they can.

 

-Jim

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Won't it be easier if just LM calls it 2.6, and that way all the installers stay the same if the architecturual stuff is same.


 


There really isn't any reason to create new installers if only thing different is directory & registry name change.


 


Time will tell I guess.


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One of the great things about OrbX, among others, was the fast response from the CEO himself. No BS, just a straight and honest answer.


 


I got depressed when I first read that OrbX would charge an undefined amount to port existing FSX/P3Dv2 sceneries to P3Dv3. Well, I got the same feeling in the past when MS launched FS9 and then FSX. The same happened to VHS/DVD/Blu-ray, or CC/CD/MP3, or Win3.1/Win95/Win98/WinXP/WinVista/Win7/… If you always want the best, then there's no running away from it.


 


IMHO, I think it's not unfair to charge for it given the amount of changes developers will have to do. Other developers do the same when they upgrade an existing product. Others charge separately for each platform. OrbX went beyond that, hence the triple installers. What other developers have done that?


 


Don't forget this is a business. This is not an open source project. OrbX developers dedicate months of their lives to give us astonishing products. And they have dedicated months to adapt their products to multiple platforms. Others have given us tons of Global Freeware airports.


 


I have hundreds of FSX products and now I'm reinstalling everything due to some major humongous large unthinkable stupidity I did. So, I'm reinstalling sceneries (only sceneries) from 52 different developers. Each one has, at least, 2 products. The most comprehensive, hassle free installs come from OrbX. And I can install them in which platform I choose.


 


I think that to get to this level of perfection there's a person up there that knows how to do things and how to run his business and keep it that way.

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One of the great things about OrbX, among others, was the fast response from the CEO himself. No BS, just a straight and honest answer.

 

I got depressed when I first read that OrbX would charge an undefined amount to port existing FSX/P3Dv2 sceneries to P3Dv3. Well, I got the same feeling in the past when MS launched FS9 and then FSX. The same happened to VHS/DVD/Blu-ray, or CC/CD/MP3, or Win3.1/Win95/Win98/WinXP/WinVista/Win7/… If you always want the best, then there's no running away from it.

 

IMHO, I think it's not unfair to charge for it given the amount of changes developers will have to do. Other developers do the same when they upgrade an existing product. Others charge separately for each platform. OrbX went beyond that, hence the triple installers. What other developers have done that?

 

Don't forget this is a business. This is not an open source project. OrbX developers dedicate months of their lives to give us astonishing products. And they have dedicated months to adapt their products to multiple platforms. Others have given us tons of Global Freeware airports.

 

I have hundreds of FSX products and now I'm reinstalling everything due to some major humongous large unthinkable stupidity I did. So, I'm reinstalling sceneries (only sceneries) from 52 different developers. Each one has, at least, 2 products. The most comprehensive, hassle free installs come from OrbX. And I can install them in which platform I choose.

 

I think that to get to this level of perfection there's a person up there that knows how to do things and how to run his business and keep it that way.

 

I agree 100%. Just look at how much work Jarrad had to do just to get Jackson Hole reworked for P3D. I would have certainly charged a small fee for that. None the less, ORBX do it the right way and one of the biggest reasons they are my go-to devs. 

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I don't think it's prudent to make assumptions about the true purpose people are using the academic license.  That opens up a huge argument over the EULA.  Other sim forums would ban you on the spot for that remark, but hey, I'm just the messenger.

Well, I have a legitimate academic license, and I know a bunch of other people do, but you know there are people who buy it to just play as a game.

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