MarkOz - What are your thoughts and experience of P3D?

On first inspection it appears they have tidied up a lot of stuff and look like they are encouraging addons and development but their primary focus at the moment is the aerospace training industry which is understandable given it is after all Lockheed Martin.

Given that MS has now effectively bowed out of the Flight Sim business (Lots of people have trouble even getting recent purchases activated and are told by MS for instance it is no longer supported - buzz off) we are reliant on P3D for the future. For other simmers  I guess I should explain what I mean.

First, FSX is pretty good and WIN 7 is good for at least another few years and P3D (FSX) can only getter better with software and hardware development over time but and it is always in the back of my mind, the way MS have a habit of resdesigning their operating system virtually tri-annually it is not going to be long before FSX as it currently stands became non compatible with the latest operating system from MS (Seen it happen with dozens of really good programs now quaintly refered to as legacy programs - Remember Lotus?) So if they don't support the current FSX after only a few short years we are all in strife in a few years time. I guess my thinking is with Lockheed using the commercial training and aviation world as a primary market base then providing it is profitable and taken up (which it will be as my experience in the industry was that simulation and computerised aircraft and systems was where it is all going from here -hence no real general aviation industry any more). I did military flight training as a pre-retirement gig and we used MS 2004 plus other computer training systems extensively (plus real time flying) and even more was planned for the future. This was where SubLogic originally was aiming so the wheel has turned full circle.

I think the big barrier for recreational simmers, like myself, its fun and a hobby now, is the price tag for licenses which at the moment are calculated per month. I have written to them to see if a recreational license for the simmers out there is to be offered or could be offered and we shall see what they have to say.

I noted they offered a work around program to help you install FSX stuff that required the FSX directory structure and was built into the automated install script programs and the access to development tools etc is refreshing from a large congolmerate business.

Anyway as I see it is P3D or nothing from here on, just need to get them to offer it at a reasonable price and on a CD/DVD for folks like me who have internet and download limit issues.