P3d v5 or v6?

[PilotCharlie2009]

Hello. I am interested in purchasing p3d to fly airliners. I want to fly the 717, 777, 737 max and possibly the 747 and A330. I have experience flying the PMDG and Zibo 737, FENIX and Toliss A320 family, Aerosoft CRJ family, Flight Factor 757, and Rotate MD-11 in other sims such as X-Plane and MSFS, so I know what I’m doing when it comes to flying high fidelity airliners. I am debating between P3d v5 and v6. I don’t know if addons like Orbx global, active sky, or gsx would be available for v6 since it is still a new sim. I would want to make sure I have a good ground service addon since I am so used to it in MSFS. Most importantly, are the aircraft I listed earlier (717,777, 737 max,747, and A330) available yet for v6? What are the differences in default clouds, ground textures, lighting, and other graphics parameters. Also, I would assume purchasing the academic/personal license would be the best option?

Thank you,
Charlie

[bullfox]

I have nearly all the Orbx scenery available for P3d5. I ported all that scenery over to P3D6 with not too much difficulty, and it works fine except that the rain on runways effect does not work. However, Orbx claims to be working on its scenery for P3D6. I have a lot of scenery from other developers that was made for or updated to P3D5, and I easily moved it over to P3d6. Some of that scenery has the water on runways effect. I would add that to move P3D5 items to P3D6 it helps to be moderately computer literate. But if you fly a lot of complicated airliners you should also be able to handle the necessary port overs.

P3D6 looks a whole lot better than P3D5. It has better lighting and better, more detailed scenery. It also has more settings that can be used to enhance the look to the users satisfaction. All of this puts a bit more of a load on the video card. With my system in heavily built up areas my frame rates go to the low 30s but the sim still runs smoothly and is remarkably stable.

Regarding aircraft. I fly mostly A2A and Carenado airplanes, so don't have much experience with airliners. I have seen comments to the effect that PMDG has not updated their aircraft to P3D6 and does not offer support for their products in P3D6. However, I have also seen comments from people who are using PMDG aircraft in P3D6 with no problem.

Basically, as far as I can tell nearly everything that works in P3D5 also works fine in P3D6. P3D6 is really a big improvement over P3D5, and it is definitely worth the effort to get it set up with what's available from P3D5.

[PilotCharlie2009]

Thank you so much. That’s very helpful.

[bullfox]

There is a problem you will encounter however with porting over things to P3D6. Some installers of P3d5 products will look for a P3D5 installation before they will run. Orbx won't install directly into P3D6 for the time being. Orbx Central, which is their installer, will look for a P3D5 or earlier P3D installation before it will download. Once installed in P3D5 Orbx products can be moved to P3D6 with not too much difficulty..

The Orbx issues with P3D6 have have been discussed a lot on the Orbx forum so that might be helpful to explore. Look for anything having to do with P3D6 installation.

[JorgenSA]

Charlie,

From the above, I believe your best choice at the moment would be v. 5 - less trouble installing 3rd party stuff.

Jorgen

[PilotCharlie2009]

Thank you. If I wanted to buy p3d v6 eventually, would I have to pay to buy all my addons and addon aircraft again, like how I had to with x plane 11 to x plane 12, or could I just redownload them or simply move them to the new sim files with the same product key?

[bullfox]

I have two A2A aircraft in P3D6. I had the Comanche in FSX but not the 182. I had to pay to download the Comanche and C182 and installed them both in P3D5 some time ago. I have not moved the 182 to P3D6. I was able to move the Comanche to P3D6 with no problem and no extra cost. I had the T6 in FSX and never downloaded the P3D5 version. However, I liked P3D6 so much I went ahead and paid for the P3D5 version of the T6 and moved it to P3D6. A2A has said it is not upgrading any of its aircraft to P3D6. I have been able to redownload and install in P3D6 all the Carenado aircraft I had in P3D5 at no additional cost. As for the Orbx scenery there was no additional cost to move it to P3D6. Most of the non Orbx scenery I have is listed for P3d5 but works in P3d6 except for the runway rain effect for scenery that did not have that effect to begin with. Some non Orbx scenery is now being listed as works in P3D6. Orbx seems to be doing something with P3D6, but they haven't said exactly what.

As these things go P3D6 is rather new and as you can see the current situation is rather fluid. I hate to admit it because I really like P3D6, but I think Jorgen is probably right, if you want to start right away with P3D it would be simpler to start with P3D5 and just keep your eye on P3D6 developments

[JorgenSA]

The thing is, the v. 5 sceneries I have tried have all been compatible with v. 6 - again, those I have tried.

I have not tried any v. 5 add-on aircraft in v. 6 yet, but from what I have read on here that is where the problems can be.

Jorgen