Should I update v5.0 to v5.4?

[cymrych79]

For the last few years, due to a protracted residential move process, my P3D usage was consistent but fairly low-level. I flew, but with only a few of my normal peripherals; no yoke and rudder pedals, just an easily-packable stick and maybe a 3-lever throttle quadrant. I didn't really fly anything complex, and wasn't flying with others online. Now that the move is complete and I'm able to rebuild my sim station, I'm looking forward to rejoining my previous online community flying WWII warbirds and finally finishing that custom B-17 throttle quadrant I started building ca 2014 (it got misplaced for most of those 10 years, and was recently relocated).

So my first step in this direction was to update everything that needed it, and I immediately ran into a dilemma. Until I (recently) discovered that LM had come out with v6, I never really thought to upgrade my v5.0.31 Academic install. And I was kind of surprised that v5 had progressed all the way to 5.4.9, and I had overlooked all of it. I do know that my primary aircraft of choice is currently only supported on v5, so I won't be going to v6 anytime soon.

A couple quick questions before I begin. First, should I even bother? My sim seems pretty stable as it is, and my old FS2004 and FSX-mind tells me not to fix what isn't broken. Is there an appreciable difference to be had between 5.0 and 5.4 that makes the upgrade a no-brainer?

Second, can I update directly from v5.0 to v5.4, or do I need to work my way through the intervening versions 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3? I'm thinking with the client install process (still researching this process, so I could be totally off in my comprehension of the task), those intervening versions would effectively get deleted immediately anyway, so I just go straight from 5.0 to 5.4, right?

Thanks in advance.

[JorgenSA]

In one word:

YES.

Jorgen

[Martyson]

Hello cymrych79,

You mentioned:
“Is there an appreciable difference to be had between 5.0 and 5.4 that makes the upgrade a no-brainer?“

Look in your main P3D5 folder for the Learning Center.chm file.
Left mouse double click it to show its contents.

Then click on the (+) next to What is New to expand that folder (screenshot below in this post).

Next click on the What’s New in PrePar3D v5.0 to show the Release Notes for v5.0.
Read all the notes by scrolling down that list.

Next click on the What’s New in PrePar3D v5.1 and review it.
Followed further by reading v5.2, v5.3 and finally v5.4.

[mpni]

Hi Vaughan
Do you think it is possible to see "What is new for 5.1 to 5.4" in the main P3D5 folder if only the 5.0 is installed?
Regards
Michel

[Martyson]

Michel,

You are correct.

cymrych79,
Alternately give this a look:
https://www.prepar3d.com/SDKv6/LearningCenter.php

[cymrych79]

I'm at work and not near my gaming PC, so I cannot check if the What's New notes for versions above my v5.0 install are available there. I'm sure I can find the update notes elsewhere, however. (EDIT: Looks like Vaughan beat me to it!)

I guess my question was rather subjective, which was essentially, given what you know now being on 5.4, if you had to do it again would you bother with the upgrades to get there. I was less concerned about specific updated item/features, and more focused on the value vs effort/risk associated with the updates. As I said, my brain still defaults to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", a bad habit from the FSX-days. I've gotten several affirmatives, from here and elsewhere, so I'll be charging ahead after work.

It's a few years old now, but is Nick Cooper's updating tutorial over on the ORBX forum still the a valid tutorial? https://forum.orbxdirect.com/topic/1924 ... correctly/

Any "gotchas" that I should be aware of, coming from several updates back to 5.4.9? I've kept a pretty clean sim, just a few ORBX add-ons, a few ancient sceneries, ActiveSky, LittleNavMap, and of course whatever magic A2A does outside the core P3D programming to make their planes function.

Thanks