Sim forums have been ripe with speculation that Lockheed Martin is working on a 64-bit version of Prepar3D for many months now, but in recent weeks the intensity has increased to the point of suggesting a new version is already in beta. It may be, and I hope so, as a 64-bit sim based on the FSX code is about 10 years overdue. I’ve chosen not to link to the post from which most of this speculation has grown, as to me the original Facebook thread does not read as authentic. But you can judge that for yourself.
More interesting to me than 64-bit capability, though, is the extent to which the underlying code will get a thorough rewrite. Much of my frustration with P3D was not actually tied to out of memory errors. Instead, it was its overall speed of use, stability, and the constant tweaking I needed to do to get it to preform well and look great. Beyond this, having used X-Plane 11 for a few months now, in my view the P3D flight models, UI, and lighting engine also need to come up to current technical standards. Candidly, I’m doubtful that LM will go this far, and if P3D 64-bit is nothing more than a marginally improved Preapar3D under the hood with greater memory access, I’ll keep doing most of my simming on X-Plane. But if they DO give P3D the rewrite it needs? That would be fantastic. Nothing could be better for the hobby than to have multiple platforms competing to lead the technology forward. So let’s keep watching and hope for the best.
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