XPlane VFR

[Alan Mallows]

Hi folks,

 

I am a regular VFR flyer with the VATPAC Group in Australia, so I use FSX, FSInn, FSCopilot and Saitek yoke, pedals and throttle cluster. In addition, I have the excellent Orbx, OSX and Ants scenery for Australia.

 

If I were to consider a switch to XPlane, right now in 2011, what would I experience regarding the multiplayer experience, the scenery and the hardware?

 

I expect that it won't be a one step process, but would it all work as it does in FSX?

 

 

Why ask such a question? I run exclusively iMac computers for everything we do, except FSX and its [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ociated bits and pieces. I switch to Xp for my flying and it is often the most annoying period of my week, as it crashes, runs slowly and fails to load things. So switching to Xplane in OSX could be an attractive option.

 

 

I will be interested in the answers I get.

 

VH-DUX

[Keith Smith]

X-Plane will only 'run slowly' if you have a dodgy video driver, or if the rendering settings are beyond what your machine is capable of handling. Configured properly for your machine, it will deliver a very smooth experience.

 

X-Plane 10 (due out by Christmas, with the public beta before that) is worth waiting for. It will use multiple cores with greater efficiency and will have world cl[Mod - Happy Thoughts] autogen scenery. Couple that with the hi-res terrain data that X-Plane has always had, and you're in fairly good shape for a VFR experience.

 

The goal in V10 is to have a 'plausible' world (as Austin calls it) whether you are 5ft off the ground, or up in the flight levels. This means no orthophotos, no flat buildings, roads or cars (all the usual suspects when you deal with satellite imagery). Instead, it will use 'bare' textures and draw EVERYTHING in 3d on top of it.

 

I've had the pleasure of flying this for a while now, and the difference is quite astounding. For VFR flying, it's going to be quite a treat.

 

XP9 actually does a great job in rural and desert areas, but the urban textures suffer from the problems I've described above.

 

That, and the object rendering path is now roughly 7x as efficient in V10 (when using the newly authored autogen objects), so on a given piece of hardware you'll be able to display many more objects at the same frame rate.

 

Between the dynamic lighting engine (every cars' headlight, taillight and the street lights are all REAL lights that illuminate the surrounding area), the new weather engine (multiple weather systems instead of one global weather pattern) and the new scenery engine, it's going to be quite a step up.

[Wycliffe Barrett]

Hi there I was flying in Xplane 9 on the weekend. i haven't got it myself but it was being run on a i7 PC of a friend. A very different experience indeed. The weather that was being depicted was not low vis procedural weather but it still gave me a few shocks. Using a Saitek yoke sytem with throttles and pedals meant that I was really having to fly the plane and whilst I managed a circuit at EGFF I'm afraid the landing was one big bounce.

 

What one has to remmeber is that xplane was a university thesis for an engineering model and so the BLADE theory in which it is built around features heavily. Some say that it is as close to flying the real thing as you can get. In xplane9 default setup you will be lucky to see any scenery at all, in fact landing at Cardiff I think there was only the main runway depicted, no taxiways and certainly no buildings.

 

One thing in its favour is bumpy and lumpy runways which is astounding, all your hardware will work with it but even so you will have a m[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ive outlay because none of the payware aircraft that work in FSX will work in xplane. 9 or 10. Finally the interface (the bit where you fiddle with settings) you could spend hours in without even having taken off. It isnt intuitive.

 

So there you are, I'm not knocking it, its a very good simulator but there are some things I dont like. The best thing for you to do is download the demo version of xplane 9 befor you spend any money and have a look at it.

 

 

Wycliffe

Edited November 23, 2011 at 08:49 AM by Guest

[Alan Mallows]

Thanks guys,

 

 

I think that you've indicated to me that:

 

• * It will go well on my dual core iMac, providing I've got sufficient RAM
  * it will allow me to use my Saitek controls
  * it will not use my existing payware scenery
  * It will not use any add on planes I have

 

 

Now all I need to know is how to obtain the facilities provided by FSInn & Copilot. ie connection to VATSIM for ATC, weather and tracking other planes around me, not to mention lodging a flight plan, radar and the VVL radio tuning. Isn't it amazing how much we take for granted, until we have to write a list?

 

VH-DUX

[Charan Kumar]

Hi Alan,

 

like sqkbox, there is a xsqkbox, which does everything that you need FSInn to do. No VVL, all is one big blackbox, does a fine job. Comes with quiet a good set of models (CSLs), and there are ways to expand that, all of which can be found in xplane forums around the WWW, I usually go to http://forums.x-plane.org. When XSB is running, it creates a menu under XSB which will provide for Flight planning etc. Weather only works from Xplanes's weather engine, but REX is also available for XPlane, so that could be an option.

 

Freeware planes can also be found in the above forum. Look for Ted's Xplane scenery which has detailed textures and airports for many areas around the world. http://www.eadt.eu/ has an excellent freeware 737. http://data.x-plane.com/ provides nav data updates regularly. And the list goes on.

 

Oh, about the radar, no, it doesn't have a radar like FSInn, the most you can get is the TCAS, if I am not mistaken.

 

Yes, it is amazing how much you can take for granted until you have to go looking for something. But don't worry, you are taking a traveled path, and one that is well traveled on, so there are others who can guide you along as long as you do your part.

 

Good luck with X-simming!!