No default airport scenery - x-plane NOT KEWL

[Tim Murphy]

Hi Folks. I have FS9 and I love it. I thought that I would buy X-Plane 9 and give it a try, because it is said to be the most realistic flight sim.

 

Here is my problem - there is no default airport scenery for any airport! What the ? Seriously... I have spent more than 5 hours trying to figure this out, downloading and installing add-on scenery. Nothing compares to FS9.

 

Can someone please take a minute and help me figure out how I can get scenery for airports to work? I am in Canada and would prefer major airports here or USA. Not even YYZ has any taxi way signs or runway numbers? Why did X-Plane focus all their attention away from airport creation?

 

Thanks,

Tim

[Tony Koch]

There's a Google scenery map at http://bit.ly/cz1hPZ. It's not complete, though. You can find more scenery at www.x-plane.org at Forums>Downloads. Search for the city designator. There is scenery for CYYZ and CYUL, at least.

[Wade Williams 877539]

Why did X-Plane focus all their attention away from airport creation?

 

It's been said X-plane is an airplane simulator and Microsoft is an airport simulator. There's some truth to that.

 

Make sure you're running the latest version of X-plane, obtained via the updater. A lot of airports now have default scenery.

 

As others have said, there's tons of free scenery available for installation. You just have to look.

[Jordan Krushen 1135174]

Why did X-Plane focus all their attention away from airport creation?

'Cause they focus on flight modelling instead? X-Plane is written by very few people, as opposed to a giant corporation like its competition, so they have to pick their battles. X-Plane is at least still being worked on, however.

 

It's been said X-plane is an airplane simulator and Microsoft is an airport simulator. There's some truth to that.

That applies for the addons as well. Lots of work goes into the planes, not as much into the scenery. Having said that, there are some nice payware sceneries, like http://www.xplanefreeware.net/tom/InsideP[Mod - Happy Thoughts]age/Home.html, which covers much of BC, where I usually fly.

 

Each sim has its advantages. If you focus primarily on scenery, where MSFS excels, then yeah, you'll be disappointed looking at other sims. Personally, I got X-Plane for its helicopter simulation, where it is ostensibly more accurate. There are some rather nice helos to play with out there. I also don't have to reboot into Windows to run X-Plane, which is a plus.

 

One of MSFS' big advantages is its age and consequently the size of its community. X-Plane seems to be picking up speed and community size, but it's a more recent player, so it'll take it some time to catch up.

[Chris Kawchuk 1129097]

Hi Tim,

 

Yes, by default X-Plane's airport are limited, however, as mentioned, there's a TON of add-on free scenery at http://www.x-plane.org/

 

The trick of X-Plane, is that it's the world renderer + aircraft modeler. It's left up to the end user to populate their world how they see fit.

 

Also ensure you've ran the X-Plane updader to 9.50. It will pulll all the new data (runways, ILS, markers, taxiways etc..) which have been worked on for free and contributed by the community over the past 2 years. X-Plane is community driven; it's the users that add all the content, and not the makers of the sim. (i.e. Fight the urge to go and spend additional money on anything payware with X-Plane for the initial while - and see what the community itself has made).

 

I have found full CYYZ, CYUL, CYYC, CYVR, etc that are all freeware. Jacques Brault has done up every single airport in Quebec. (free). There's the overlays using "Open Street Maps" (OSM project) that puts every single street and road in Canada on the map (accurately, i.e. 2009 data). If you want, I could zip up my entire custom scenery and send 'er over. =)

 

One thing I will mention - X-Plane EXCELS at VFR Flying and VFR Scenery. Whip over to CYBW and start flying west through the rockies. It's awesome. Ensure you have your forest level up and rendering distance to default (infinity). (X-Plane allows *much* customization of rendering options)

 

- Chris.

[Tim Murphy]

Hi Chris. It would be great to chat a little bit - are you available to join me on ts, or other IM program?

 

Thanks,

Tim

[Chris Kawchuk 1129097]

Just PM'ed you with some details

[Sebastien Bartosz]

Wade, is there a list I can find of airports that include default scenery from the updates?

[Chris Kawchuk 1129097]

Here's the CHANGELOG from data.x-plane.com.

 

http://data.x-plane.com/log.html

 

It shows *all* changes/additions from the default data (and the list goes on and on) in subsequent updates, and when they were merged/added to the master database (which gets downloaded when you run the X-Plane updater).

 

It currently has over 3000+ airport updates in it, going back to Jan 2009.

 

- Chris.

[Wade Williams 877539]

Chris,

 

Keep in mind those airport updates are primarily taxiways and signs. They don't include buildings, luggage carts or any of the things a MSFS flyer would expect at a fully developed airport.

 

Don't get me wrong - all those things are available for download and I love X-plane. But MSFS flyers considering switching need to understand the situation.

[Chris Kawchuk 1129097]

Hi Wade,

 

Agreed. Jordan's question was where the list-o-updates was held. Agreed that this does not include airport buildings (which one has to find and download one's self); just taxiways, runways, ILS/GS, FIX updates and so forth.

 

I am currently .zipping up my entire custom scenery directory (minus the default data and my payware scenery, such as Inside p[Mod - Happy Thoughts]age and Canadian Rockies), for Tim's benefit. Likewise, some of the good aircraft Ive found (XPFW stuff, x737, some of my own custom Aircraft Ive built etc...); and will post it on a nice server of a large internet connection I happen to own (on a 100Mbit/sec connection). I'll post links here for those who want to just do a "2 Gbyte download and install", rather than grabbing stuff one-by-one from the .org, etc..

 

- Chris.

[Chris Kawchuk 1129097]

As discussed, here's some .zip files of some of the Freeware scenery I've collected. It's by no means exhaustive. (and theres a LOT more at x-plane.org)

 

http://66.38.149.134/XPLANE/CustomScenery.zip

 

Here's some aircraft I like to fly/tinker with. Put "Chris' planes" into your "Aircraft" directory (A bunch of good aircraft I play with, some I don't play with.. The CF18 I put together from other aircraft parts/skins via PlaneMaker, etc...- good mish-mash of stuff):

 

http://66.38.149.134/XPLANE/Aircraft.zip

 

- CK.

[Jordan Krushen 1135174]

As discussed, here's some .zip files of some of the Freeware scenery I've collected.

Here's some aircraft I like to fly/tinker with.

Thanks!

 

One last nudge, then I'll leave you alone.. Any chance you could share your XSB CSLs, too? A repository of those is more needed than a collection of aircraft, I think.

 

Done bugging you Chris, I swear

[Grover Penley 1031775]

If it's free scenery you're after, have a look here:

 

http://www.opensceneryx.com/blog/scenery-packages-using-opensceneryx/

 

and here:

 

http://web.me.com/theosdavis/xpfiles/downloads.html

 

 

OpenX requires you to download the OpenSceneryX library then the scenery will work. Believe me. Some of this stuff is really good.

The free Hong Kong scenery in OpenX is better than the payware Kai Tak scenery of Fly Tampa. I've had both. Bad thing about XPlane is the really quality planes you have to pay for. However you can come across a gem or two if you look around a bit. Hope this helps.

[Keith Smith]

It sounds like XP10 is going to ship with decent TERMINAL scenery (not just layouts and signage) for a bunch of airports. This has been a sticking point with users that consider moving to xplane for many years now. Good stuff!

[Grant Bonsant 1163630]

I've also found that the FS2FX ( I think thats what it's called, i'm at work right now) scenery converter works REAL well for converting Microsoft scenery to x-plane. Yesterday I had no scenery for Winnipeg and only had ramps and buildings for Quebec, now I have 2 full airports with gates and terminals for those 2 airports. Tonight I'm gonna try and add some more of the FSX scenery

[Wycliffe Barrett]

Hi

 

I downloaded xplane just to see what the fuss was about, I'm sorry it's awful. Ok the distant haze might be nice but that is it.

 

The default aircraft and some of the others that I have seen look terrible, the panels are flat and look ugly. There is no way I will be investing any time or money into this.

 

I love my FSX it looks good flies good and I have distant haze that is comparable to Xplane.

 

Nuff said.

 

Wycliffe

[Wade Williams 877539]

Hi

 

I downloaded xplane just to see what the fuss was about, I'm sorry it's awful. Ok the distant haze might be nice but that is it.

 

The default aircraft and some of the others that I have seen look terrible, the panels are flat and look ugly. There is no way I will be investing any time or money into this.

 

I love my FSX it looks good flies good and I have distant haze that is comparable to Xplane.

 

Nuff said.

 

Wycliffe

 

Thanks for letting us know. Enjoy FSX.

[Grant Bonsant 1163630]

And I , on the other hand think the opposite. I used MSFS right up to the X version and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then someone suggested X-plane to me so I downloaded the demo. I was hooked from that point on. The way the aircraft handle in x-plane has a more real "feel" to it. I agree that the scenery is lacking(considering that you get 6 DVD's of scenery in the box) but there's a lot of freeware scenery available out there. But to each their own, I'm sticking with x-plane.

 

An

[Charan Kumar]

And I like both and fly both. When I want heavy systems simulation, push heavy tin, CTP or anything, I use FSX, but for the slow and low GA, I prefer XPlane. I took most of my ZLA tests in XPlane. Just like you spend time tuning your FSX you have to work on XPlane too, although the XPlane engine is way smarter. I have spent a lot of money on add-ons for FSX, and for XPlane, I only paid for the s/w, yet I have so much scenery and add-on planes. Even flew the CTP once on the XPlane Concorde. With the right time invested, each have their merits and their uses.

[Brendan Lynch 1167842]

Hi

 

I downloaded xplane just to see what the fuss was about, I'm sorry it's awful. Ok the distant haze might be nice but that is it.

 

The default aircraft and some of the others that I have seen look terrible, the panels are flat and look ugly. There is no way I will be investing any time or money into this.

 

I love my FSX it looks good flies good and I have distant haze that is comparable to Xplane.

 

Nuff said.

 

Wycliffe

 

Thanks for letting us know. Enjoy FSX.

I have to disagree, the demo is much worse than the Actual. I know you said you wouldn't pay a cent for it, but I'd wait for v10 to come out and get it then. There is a total scenery overhaul for v10, its going to be great.