VRS TacPack & SuperBug now available for P3dv4

jmig said:
I have downloaded the product and bought the Flaming Cliffs and Nevada Red Flag packages. I will have to do some reading, however.
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Just FYI, I believe Eagle Dynamics (DCS) are close to merging version 1.5 and version 2 in to a new version called version 2.5. It sounds like you are just starting with version 2 (as that is the only version with the Nevada terrain) so it shouldn't be an issue. I would suggest checking out their forums for heaps of info and news. If you sign up to the newsletter they will send it out around once a week. There are also constant upgrades to the sim, but that is handled automatically. There also ways to upgrade manually, if you don't want to upgrade a certain time you open the sim for example. All good info regarding this and more about the sim and all the modules can be found on the ED forum.

https://forums.eagle.ru/?langid=1

Cheers,
 
Great post Naruto-kun.
Having spoken with other devs, I know that what you say is absolutely true.
Flight simming is a niche market anyway....and the military part of it is even more so.
 
I have played around with DCS (LOVE the A-10C) and I'm pretty sure it can work with simpits....but I haven't paid too much attention to it, since I'm not in a position to build a pit myself.

DCS has so many great features..... but the "world" you can fly in is limited. If it offered the whole world, I would ditch P3D and never look back.

jmig said:
To all the DCS users out there. Will DCS allow you to operate the sim via external controls and switches in a simpit? Does, it have a version of FSUIPC or something like it? I have never tried DCS. But, I have hear a lot of good things about the program.
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awstub said:
Great post Naruto-kun.
Having spoken with other devs, I know that what you say is absolutely true.
Flight simming is a niche market anyway....and the military part of it is even more so.
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I fully agree.

There is a DCS forum right here at SOH, and Phantom88 does a great job of keeping us informed. He even shares Facebook information.
 
just got the p3dv4 version from the fsx version. well worth the asking price and glad to support the guys at vrs. i look at it this way: for the price of few screen shot queens (looking at you carenado), i get an accurate rendition of one of the most advanced strike fighters on my desktop.

the ability to fly anywhere in the world in real time wx and the tacpack enabled avionics/sensors is just precious.
 
Yes, I will probably pick up the pair at some point too. I miss the Superbug, and I would like to see how Dino's Eurofighter
performs in v4 with Tacpack added. But like others here, I was hoping there would be a bigger discount for previous users.

When I picked up the Superbug and Tacpack for FSX, I was working and the Canadian dollar was much stronger
against other currencies. Now I'm retired, with only a fraction of the income, and the Canadian dollar is pretty weak.
The cost, even buying each separately, is going to take a big chunk out of currently available income.

Oh well, maybe next spring once bills are out of the way, or as was said earlier, maybe there will be a sale with
an additional discount.

Merry Christmas! - Rob

ps: but where's the little breaky lightbulbs? :adoration:
 
Pay for hours spent working on creating an iteration of a product to improve and/or add new features is not wrong. And if that amount of work basically equals creation of brand new product, the pay should equal it as well. I'm paying for a military simulation because I've had a passion and profession for military history and aviation since I was 17. I want the best, and VRS is the standard, in fact their works in this arena are the first I remember but I could be wrong. No doubt there other quality developers in the military arena, but VRS is still with us producing more excellent products and since I see their products that way, I'll be updating my p3d v4 after gladly paying the price they ask.
 
docjohnson said:
Pay for hours spent working on creating an iteration of a product to improve and/or add new features is not wrong. And if that amount of work basically equals creation of brand new product, the pay should equal it as well. I'm paying for a military simulation because I've had a passion and profession for military history and aviation since I was 17. I want the best, and VRS is the standard, in fact their works in this arena are the first I remember but I could be wrong. No doubt there other quality developers in the military arena, but VRS is still with us producing more excellent products and since I see their products that way, I'll be updating my p3d v4 after gladly paying the price they ask.
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Amen Brother, .. proud supporter of VRS products from day 1 and beta tester of the 1st Hornet way back in 04.we finally have a hornet with a stinger,😁
 
I'm a TacPack newbie, but as a simmer since FS2 and a modder since FS4 I can at least state so much:
TacPack works its way deep into the simulation engine, so a switch to 64bit probably requires a lot of recoding, depending on what libraries they used. Other developers have to recode one or two dlls, or just have to alter the installer.
Also consider that TacPack is a niche within a niche. Their sales numbers are probably nowhere near anything to brag about. As Naruto-kun already expanded on it is a difference whether you have one selling point or twenty.
If you begrudge them their shirt on the back then - for God's sake - leave an FSX or P3D3 version on your disk, so you can throw stuff without paying again for a 32bit code you bought years ago.

With 64bit we are at a crossroad we were all longing for. I happily pay the price for the next generation sim platform, be it VRS or A2A. IMHO with P3Dv4 and it's surprising backward compability we tend to be a little spoiled. At least I am.:victorious:

Just my 2 pence.
Merry Christmas, y'all :star:
 
In my opinion both the Tacpack and Superbug are worth every penny of the price. I for one go in for working systems. I.E. everything in VC working, not just modeled. The Superbug is the most functional detailed military aircraft that I have ever seen for Flightsim and that includes the DCS models which are only partial functional.
 
edakridge said:
In my opinion both the Tacpack and Superbug are worth every penny of the price. I for one go in for working systems. I.E. everything in VC working, not just modeled. The Superbug is the most functional detailed military aircraft that I have ever seen for Flightsim and that includes the DCS models which are only partial functional.
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I agree. Just be aware that they charge a yearly maintenance fee. Think of it as part of the price. The products, IMO, are worth it however.
 
jmig said:
I agree. Just be aware that they charge a yearly maintenance fee. Think of it as part of the price. The products, IMO, are worth it however.
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Do they stop working after a year? Seems to be some disagreement on the maintenance.
 
odourboy said:
Do they stop working after a year? Seems to be some disagreement on the maintenance.
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No, the program keeps working. I got upset with VRS over the fee. I did not and still, in some ways, do not understand it or its ramifications. You will need to buy it to upgrade at the upgrade price. If you buy the package, F-18 & TP together, it will add the $7.99 to the final price.

My personal opinion is that this fee is hurting them. Whether it is hurting them more than not charging the fee...???? It left a sour taste in my mouth. I am over that now.

I think the plane and TP are worth the money, regardless the added expense of the fee or not.
 
If you back up your downloads somewhere safe, you really don't need to pay the maintenance fee in my opinion.

Storage devices are relatively cheap and easy to set up and use these days.

I make it a point to back up my payware downloads in two places....one of which is a 10TB in a RAID5 configuration.

So, hopefully, I should be good unless some sort of disaster befalls me.

But I have to say that I do see jmig's point about the fee being added when you buy/upgrade to a new product with them.
 
In truth, the maintenance fee is only coming to light now because of the upgrade procedure. In the past, when they released updates (as in service updates, not FSX-to-P3D updates), you could get them for free straight from the forums, bypassing the usual client portal.
 
One more question on the superbug... Is it working properly with Dynamic Lighting ? I.e. no illuminated cockpit when you turn on landing lights at night, runway suitably illuminated ?
 
Naruto-kun said:
2c here to those comparing VRS to Milviz and other devs and complaining about the upgrade price (P.S. I don't work for VRS but having spent 7 years in this industry working for Milviz I do have the perspective of just what sort of sacrifices are often made to make these products).

1: The "maintenance" charge is a legit fee to cover server costs. VRS largely bypasses this though by releasing installers in their support forums when they do upgrades. Milviz can largely get away with lower profit margins due to not charging clients for this service because of the shear number of prodcuts we have available. We have 29. VRS has 1 aircraft, 1 utility (add 1 to each of the preceding if you count the separate P3D/FSX versions), and 3 scenery packages. That's only 5 products. These things don't sell like hotcakes. For a military addon, 1000 sales is a blockbuster release.

2: With the previous in mind, Jon Blum has hired new developers for upcoming products who have to be paid as well. But otherwise the core VRS team consists of 2 people. Jon Blum and Chris Tracy. Chris has a fulltime job to take care of and is the key guy behind the difficult programming that makes VRS products so good. And believe me, creating an aircraft to the level VRS has achieved is not your run-of-the-mill task that some of the other mil aircraft devs have. It is replicating almost single-handedly a feat of engineering that took a whole team of engineers years to complete. Yes it is a lot easier since it is virtual, not real, and we have the luxury of working backwards from the finished product, but the amount of things to design and keep track of is far greater than most of you can appreciate. Jon is full time VRS with a family to support. By comparison, Milviz is over 20 people, many of them part time or able to get income from other lines, with a few full timers and of course Colin has more than one source of income.

If you still think it is less than fair of VRS to expect an upgrade fee (P.S. I have observed a very active and helpful support in their forums contrary to the experience described by some here, which also takes of Jon and Chris's time), that's your choice. I will leave this post here however, to give you all an objective insight into the behind-the-scenes life of developers which I believe many of you take for granted.
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THANK you for this explanation :)
I've bought last month VRS Tacpack, and I had to pay 12,95 $ to have 2 years of maintenance/ download extension for the Superbug bought some years ago in order to have it TP compatibile. Personally I'm not very keen on firing guns or dropping bombs , this is for me a secondary aspect of my virtual flightsimulation, but I do like to have very sophisticated products
like the Superbug and sometime I like to study how those complex
weapons management systems work. I really appreciate the complexity and the hard work behind a product like this :)

Oooops , sorry, I'm speaking about FSX, I don't have P3D, but
the main concept expressed above can be valid for both platforms...
 
TacPack does many things besides simulate weapons.

It:
1) can place carriers, air defense systems (that can kill you), and AI traffic
2) has GLOC simulation that can be applied to any aircraft
3) has an NVG effect that can be applied to any aircraft (currently limited to DX9 though)
4) can simulate aerial refueling including aircraft TACAN capability

Paired with the fantastic and free FSX@War, you can create missions, deploy enemy assets and spawn on carriers.
 
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