DHC-2 Beaver and P3dv5

[frans.kes]

Hi, I just purchased the Beaver and tried to install it. I noticed that the installer would not let me install the aircraft into Prepar3d v5, even though all other v4 planes that I have purchased (like Carenado) allowed me to select the Prepar3d v5 folder. Will MilViz be offering a v5 installer in the near future, or will I have to throw the Beaver away at $49US?
Frans Kes

[frans.kes]

I'm sorry for my first post. I went back into the installer and clicked the Prepar3D v4 button. The installer does eventually ask where to install the plane. Of course, I gave it the Prepar3d v5 folder, and it did install the four planes correctly. I still have to try flying it, but P3D did allow me to select one of them.

Again, sorry for jumping the gun.

Frans Kes

[doodlebug]

We will be offering a P3D v5 version. Unfortunately some of the systems and features will not work as is, and will need some effort on our part to make them v5 compatible. Regretfully, we will have to try and cover our costs by charging for this upgrade. To sweeten the deal we will be adding PBR textures throughout. There will be more details once LM finish their V5 HotFix cycle.

[JBS]

We are now over six months since the last post, a version change and three hotfixes since P3D v5 was released. The current 5.1 HF1 seems to be stable and is giving most people the results they were hoping for - at least with EA turned off. Meanwhile the great white elephant of MSFS2020, into which a huge amount of time and resource has been put by third-party developers, is still buggy, unstable and changing on a daily basis. Those developers are now chasing their tails trying to keep their rushed, cash-grab products working through the flurry of updates. That time should have been spent making sure the current products were meeting the expectations of existing customers, instead of greedily trying to snare new ones.

I keep hearing that updating existing products for existing customers generates no revenue. OK, well I currently own one Milviz aircraft - the Beaver, bought through OrbX about a week before P3D v5 unexpectedly appeared. Given that my purchase is now completely useless and has been for over six months, with no comment from the developer, I won't be buying any more Milviz aircraft. I have no confidence in the company and I feel I had my fingers burned. I have well over 100 aircraft in my 'hangar', and I would probably have bought three or four more from Milviz, so that's around £100 of lost revenue from this disappointed customer. I bet I'm not the only one.

That is a shame, because for the week or so that I used the Beaver in P3D v4.5, it was fabulous. Easily one of the best models in my collection. But I'm not going to go back from v5.1 just to fly the Beaver.

Please break radio silence and update your obsolete products. After the initial excitement of MSFS wears off (it already is), you might have lost more customers than you gained and the damage to your reputation will take time to recover. The rather awkward and unprofessional thread regarding payment for updates proves that - and for the record I would have paid a nominal fee for the update.

[Slayer]

I'm sorry you feel that way.

It was never sold with V5 in mind nor was V5 on the horizon during development. Because you bought a newer sim and moved ahead with it is also not our fault so I'm not sure why you are angry. We never sold the product as V5 ready.

It will make it do V5 in due time but we have a ton of projects in the pipeline that need to be done before reworking of older products can begin.

[jabjoker]

I support what is said
I now have two useless Milviz products (also the PC-6) and will not support you company again
Pointless buying a product that takes a year + to ne updated
Aerosoft, PMDG etc were quick to update their products

[Curtis-P]

I support what is said
I now have two useless Milviz products (also the PC-6) and will not support you company again
Pointless buying a product that takes a year + to ne updated
Aerosoft, PMDG etc were quick to update their products

I know how you feel Brother. I've been patiently waiting 6 months for a texture fix on one door for the 530 PBR which was put out for P3Dv4. It's not like it was for a different sim. I'm guessing that they need to get the new money makers out first then come back to the ones they have received money for already. Sorry guys but it's starting to irritate me. He's right about the time gone by. Many other publishers have updated there's and some even updated to PBR at no cost. Now I know the last part of that sentence is a sore spot with many and it's Milviz's prerogative to charge or not and it's the customer's choice to buy or not. I would really just like to get my favorite chopper up to par.

[JBS]

I'm sorry you feel that way.

It was never sold with V5 in mind nor was V5 on the horizon during development. Because you bought a newer sim and moved ahead with it is also not our fault so I'm not sure why you are angry. We never sold the product as V5 ready.

It will make it do V5 in due time but we have a ton of projects in the pipeline that need to be done before reworking of older products can begin.

You have completely missed my point, which is more or less exactly why I posted in the first place - you clearly don't understand your customers, or even care enough to read the post.

You say You're not sure why I'm angry. I wasn't, but now I've read your comment, which is the closest we have got to the 'official' line on the subject, I am quite angry indeed. So let me spell it out for you:

I didn't buy the Beaver expecting it to be P3Dv5 compatible. When I bought it, there was no such thing as P3Dv5.

Then, three weeks later, P3D v5 came out. I didn't know there was going to be a P3D v5. I'd only just bought v4. But I bought v5 anyway, because who is going to deliberately use obsolete software?

I didn't buy a 'newer simulator'. I bought the current version of the same simulator.

Anyone coming into flight simulation tomorrow will buy MSFS2020, not FSXSE. Or X-Plane 11, not X-Plane 10. Or P3Dv5. To them, v5 isn't a 'newer simulator'. It's just the simulator. Yes, if you look hard enough on LM's website, you can still buy v4 (and even v3), but it's pretty obvious that the right one to buy as a newbie is v5. And I'm pretty confident that nobody who is new to flight simulation is going to buy P3D v4 just so they can fly a 5-year-old add-on Beaver.

Almost everything in my 'hangar' worked right away (just over 100 aircraft, freeware and payware). In fact only ONE v4.5 compatible aircraft (the Just Flight VC10) failed to work in v5 (and even that mostly works until an as-yet unidentified object in the VC crashes the sim). FWIW, Just Flight contacted me and assured me that there would be a v5 compatible version once the developer had finished the BAe 146.

So, the Beaver possibly does work, but because I bought it via OrbX it's installed through Central and completely buried. I was a bit disappointed at the time, but I didn't 'expect' my Beaver to be v5 compatible, at least not right away. Nevertheless, at some point I did hope there might be an update, even if I had to pay for it. Just an update to the installer might have done the job, we will never know. Even if there wasn't an update, maybe I'd buy some new aircraft that WERE compatible with v5.

But no. NOT ONE aircraft has been updated to v5, unless you count the T-38, which I don't because it's a complete re-do, not a compatibility update.

So. Even if I wanted to buy some new aircraft, I couldn't.


I'll say it again. Based on how impressed I was with my first Milviz aircraft (the Beaver), I would definitely have bought the T-50 Bobcat. I would almost certainly have followed that with the PC-6 and PA-30.

But I can't buy those, because they are not compatible with the current version of the P3D, even though you publicly stated on Wed Jul 15, "It is now our intention to release (what we can) our products free of charge for v5. However, this will only involve doing a new installer. No PBR, Trueglass or Reallight added... nothing but a new build."

That hasn't happened, there is no timescale and there has been no statement suggesting whether or when it will or won't happen.

Won't. Existing MilViz aircraft WILL NOT ever be updated to work with v5. There. I'll make the statement.

That's over $100 of sales you lost, from me alone. But you don't actually care, do you? Because the real money isn't coming from little people like me, spending my pocket money on toy aeroplanes.

Please be honest with your customers. You have no intention of doing anything with the existing catalogue. Maybe MSFS2020 will provide a few bonus sales, but the real money is in the 'ton of projects in the pipeline' -the military contract work.

Just publicly state that you will not be updating the old products, and we can all move forward. I've accepted it anyway.

[Slayer]

The 350i was a top priority for V5 compatibility and was at no additional charge. Just getting that in to V5 alone was several months of testing and reworking things.

Almost all of the other products are not a simple port either. On top of that we have DoD contracts to fulfill and MSFS2020 came out.

As has been said they will get updated but if the 350i is any indication I can tell you as a tester it's going to take a long time.

Once the Avanti is complete for V4 and V5 work can start on other things. What products will get worked on is not my call.

Please be patient we know you want your updates....

[kevin_firth]

I would almost certainly have followed that with the PC-6.

The PC6 works just fine in v5, with very little jiggery pokery
It's a beautiful aircraft, buy it and enjoy, rather than whining 🥰

[MUSTERPILOT]

I have the Beaver Sabre Pilatus Porter Corsair and Comanchee all working perfect in P3Dv5 when you install them don't install TrueGlass or RealLight

First you need to have P3Dv4.5 installed

1 install your pc6 into P3Dv4.5

2 then copy it over to P3Dv5

3 in P3Dv4.5 main folder you will see a folder named Milviz copy that over to P3Dv5 this is your license for the PC6

4 copy any gauges for the pc6 in P3Dv4.5 into the P3Dv5 gauges folder also the effects folder

5 alternatively you can try to install straight into P3Dv5

6 two main points are when you start your install into P3Dv5 make sure you untick TrueGlass and RealLight do not install them otherwise it will not run

7 also in your PC6 panel open it and go to panel cfg scroll down until you find trueglass and reallight dissable these 2 also in the panel file if you see a file called winscreen or wx delete them

8 If you don't have P3Dv4.5 and just install into P3Dv5 but after your install just look in your documents folder and if you see any reference to your PC6 copy it over to your main P3Dv5 folder

[JBS]

I would almost certainly have followed that with the PC-6.

The PC6 works just fine in v5, with very little jiggery pokery
It's a beautiful aircraft, buy it and enjoy, rather than whining 🥰

If you don't have anything sensible to say, don't say anything at all. For a start, I'm not talking about the PC-6. I own the Beaver. The title of this thread is 'DHC-2 Beaver and P3dv5'. I might have bought the PC-6 if it was v5 compatible, but it's not.

If we were talking about a free download, or even a £5 aircraft in a sale, I'd risk it - and I have, many times. But it's not. It's forty dollars.

Why would I buy an expensive, obsolete and incompatible product in the hope that some, 'jiggery pokery' will let me install it into a simulator for which it was never designed? Whilst it might install correctly after that 'jiggery pokery', and even function 'just fine', you have no way of knowing if it's actually working correctly. Milviz aircraft are significantly more complex than most 3rd party aircraft, with many hidden and coded functions. Oisin Little's post (#3) to this thread confirms this. SteveM then clarifies this in his second post. His first one was a bit hasty and came across as rather dismissive, but he took the time to respond to a couple of other people who felt the same way as I do. It's not as simple as just moving the files over or redirecting the installer. There are functions of the aircraft that are NOT compatible with P3Dv5.

I have at least one payware v4 aircraft which seems to work 'just fine' in v5, until you look at one specific part of the Virtual Cockpit, when it completely crashes the simulator to the desktop. The developer of that aircraft has been made aware, and has replied that they are already working on it, and a free update will be available once their next aircraft is released.

Trolling with words like 'whining' just makes you look like a childish dick. Before you jump in with such inane drivel, try actually reading the thread.

[JBS]

I have the Beaver Sabre Pilatus Porter Corsair and Comanchee all working perfect in P3Dv5 when you install them don't install TrueGlass or RealLight

First you need to have P3Dv4.5 installed

1 install your pc6 into P3Dv4.5

2 then copy it over to P3Dv5

3 in P3Dv4.5 main folder you will see a folder named Milviz copy that over to P3Dv5 this is your license for the PC6

4 copy any gauges for the pc6 in P3Dv4.5 into the P3Dv5 gauges folder also the effects folder

5 alternatively you can try to install straight into P3Dv5

6 two main points are when you start your install into P3Dv5 make sure you untick TrueGlass and RealLight do not install them otherwise it will not run

7 also in your PC6 panel open it and go to panel cfg scroll down until you find trueglass and reallight dissable these 2 also in the panel file if you see a file called winscreen or wx delete them

8 If you don't have P3Dv4.5 and just install into P3Dv5 but after your install just look in your documents folder and if you see any reference to your PC6 copy it over to your main P3Dv5 folder

Thank you for some genuinely helpful information!

I still have v4.5 installed, and was toying with moving the files over just to see what happened, but I wasn't sure if the installer also embeds files into the sim. I can't remember if I installed it with or without TrueGlass and RealLight, so it might be safer to uninstall it and then reinstall fresh.

I prefer to install all my aircraft separately from the simulator, and link them using .xml files. I wasn't able to do that with the Beaver, because I bought the aircraft from OrbX. Ironically, I did that because I thought it would make installation and management easier in the future. Consequently I don't have an installer for the Beaver - it installed into v4 through the OrbX Central app, and buried itself all over the simulator directory. The files and folders are easy enough to find, but there are also some .dll files that I suspect are for DRM. I'll try it anyway - it costs nothing but a little time. If it works, I get a flying Beaver. If not, I'm exactly where I was - waiting for MilViz to update it.

I do think there are also going to be compatibility issues somewhere in the background. It might install and fly, but SteveM suggests that there are features which won't work. Oh well. Maybe they are features I don't need. I fly Warriors in real life, not a Beaver, so if it's not 100% accurate I can live with that.

[kevin_firth]

I would almost certainly have followed that with the PC-6.

The PC6 works just fine in v5, with very little jiggery pokery
It's a beautiful aircraft, buy it and enjoy, rather than whining 🥰

If you don't have anything sensible to say, don't say anything at all. For a start, I'm not talking about the PC-6. I own the Beaver. The title of this thread is 'DHC-2 Beaver and P3dv5'. I might have bought the PC-6 if it was v5 compatible, but it's not.

If we were talking about a free download, or even a £5 aircraft in a sale, I'd risk it - and I have, many times. But it's not. It's forty dollars.

Why would I buy an expensive, obsolete and incompatible product in the hope that some, 'jiggery pokery' will let me install it into a simulator for which it was never designed? Whilst it might install correctly after that 'jiggery pokery', and even function 'just fine', you have no way of knowing if it's actually working correctly. Milviz aircraft are significantly more complex than most 3rd party aircraft, with many hidden and coded functions. Oisin Little's post (#3) to this thread confirms this. SteveM then clarifies this in his second post. His first one was a bit hasty and came across as rather dismissive, but he took the time to respond to a couple of other people who felt the same way as I do. It's not as simple as just moving the files over or redirecting the installer. There are functions of the aircraft that are NOT compatible with P3Dv5.

I have at least one payware v4 aircraft which seems to work 'just fine' in v5, until you look at one specific part of the Virtual Cockpit, when it completely crashes the simulator to the desktop. The developer of that aircraft has been made aware, and has replied that they are already working on it, and a free update will be available once their next aircraft is released.

Trolling with words like 'whining' just makes you look like a childish dick. Before you jump in with such inane drivel, try actually reading the thread.

I quoted the PC6 because and only because of your specific reference. And you were whining as opposed to finding a constructive solution. Also, RL and TG versions after January work just fine with both the PC6 and KA, so I infer they will also work just fine with other MV aircraft. Chill dude, I couldn't resist having a little chuckle at your explosive reply

[MUSTERPILOT]

The information that I posted applies to all MILVIZ aircaft that were made for P3dv4 that you want to install into P3Dv5.1 sorry for the confusion I was only trying to help fellow simmers