Need help deciding...

[Tom Clayton]

Long time no see!!!

I got out of virtual flying a few years ago when real life got in the way. Now that those issues are no longer issues, I'm looking to get back in. I have a new gaming rig that's just about ready out of the box, though I want to upgrade the RAM from 8 to 32. So that now leaves me to one last quandary - which Sim do I buy?

P3D is pricey compared to X-Plane, but seems to have better scenery. I've seen screenshots of my home base of KGSO, but I don't know if they were done with stock scenery. If someone could get me some aerial shots with stock scenery, that would help. The shots I saw include the airport hotel and the HondaJet plant - both missing from X-Plane.

My other main concern is the weather engine. I like to fly in real time with real weather. In FS9, I had the option to download and run a real weather snapshot and go flying. Is this a stock option with P3D?

Thanks for the help!

 

[paiken]

TOM!!! Welcome back. Nice to see you again. I'm not currently at my flight sim computer, but I can tell you that P3D v5 is pretty nice. There are, as usual, some issues to work out with CTD's and whatnot, but the team at LM is working on hotfix #2. As far as the weather is concerned, you will need a 3rd party program to get live weather. You could spend $60 on the Academic license now and pick up Active Sky P3D and be pretty happy flying. Now for the kicker...
Microsoft is back in the game with their new Microsoft Flight Simulator. A complete re-work of the platform by Asobo Studios. Visit flightsimulator.com and check out the videos and screenies. You're definitely going to need that 32 gigs of memory, plus a very good video card with at least 8 gigs of memory on that. It won't be out until probably the 4th quarter of this year, but most people are chomping at the bit to get it.
Again, great to see you back here Tom. Happy flying!

 

[Tom Clayton]

I'm aware of the upcoming MS release. I have a few of the long-timers from here on my Facebook list, so I've been getting updates. I'm anxious to see what their sales model looks like. If it's a monthly subscription to fly, I'm out. If there's a small subscription to access their streaming scenery system, I may still consider it. It would be nice to fly inbound to GSO 5R and fly over my favorite bar. It's in the attached pic, right next-door to Arby's!