Should I try X-Plane

[Bob Zambenini 818786]

I am a long time user of FS but downloaded the trial of X-plane today.

 

Not sure what I gain with xplane.

 

Can someone give me a general comparison of why to switch?

 

Like realism factors, plane handling, graphics quality, etc. I do see easy access to flight charts but have all that mastered with myairplane.com stuff.

 

I am always open minded to a better or more advanced system.

 

Bob

[Graham Sanders 892576]

Hi,

 

If you are interested in the way the thing flies, than by all accounts x-plane is more closer to real life. Here is a quote from x-plane.com:

 

"Fidelity Flight Simulation has obtained FAA approval (docomeented here) to train pilots towards their COMMERCIAL CERTIFICATE, INSTRUMENT RATING, and AIRLINE TRANSPORT PILOT CERTIFICATE. This training is done in a full-motion simulator, using X-Plane as the simulator software!"

 

Now, what I don't like is that the airport senery is basically not there, however, on a Mac I am glad to have a flight sim! Checkout the demo on the website (www.x-plane.com

 

Graham

[Doug Parker 926491]

X-Plane is very nice, I bought it and love it (although I currently am too dangerous behind the controls of any plane)

 

There are tons of addons you can get for it just as there is for MSFS, on a learning scale however, MSFS is easier. It is definately worth a try and can be enjoyable if your able to get things setup right. But for me, im sticking with MSFS 2004 until I can actually land somewhere without missing the runway lol.

[Christopher Serio 823884]

Hi,

 

If you are interested in the way the thing flies, than by all accounts x-plane is more closer to real life. Here is a quote from x-plane.com:

 

"Fidelity Flight Simulation has obtained FAA approval (docomeented here) to train pilots towards their COMMERCIAL CERTIFICATE, INSTRUMENT RATING, and AIRLINE TRANSPORT PILOT CERTIFICATE. This training is done in a full-motion simulator, using X-Plane as the simulator software!"

 

Now, what I don't like is that the airport senery is basically not there, however, on a Mac I am glad to have a flight sim! Checkout the demo on the website (www.x-plane.com

 

Graham

 

Wait until XPlane 8 scenery is done. You may not feel the same way. The scenery right now is defintly not as good as Microsoft's but that's about to change. Want a tidbit?

 

http://www.xsquawkbox.net/scenery/gallery.php

 

Those screenshots are from a few months ago. Many are missing textures etc but it'll give you a rough idea of the amount of detail they are putting into the new system.

[Christopher Serio 823884]

here's another

 

http://www.x-plane.com/v8shots.html

[Russell Creel 835096]

That's newws .. I thought they had released V8 Scenery with X-Plane 8 ..

 

What's left to be done (okay .. both sims are always developing .. I mean what is part of the 8.x originaly stated plan that's left to be done)?

[Doug Parker 926491]

That's newws .. I thought they had released V8 Scenery with X-Plane 8 ..

 

What's left to be done (okay .. both sims are always developing .. I mean what is part of the 8.x originaly stated plan that's left to be done)?

 

They did, on the retail cd release at least, however, if you downloaded the new v.8.10 demo, the high resolution content is not in that package, you have to move the high res maps for US as well as earth nav data from the origional install into the new folder of the updated pack. The Resources folder after updating the origional v8 cd install will be somewhere around 8.03GB in size 8.25 if you include all the rest of the game install. So the biggest part that you dont get to experience in the demo is the detail of the scenery. But they are adding much more content as far as scenery and nav data ect go, they will be releasing it as updates on the site for download to addin to the game you have already.

 

some of the areas lack, but they are working hard to resolve that, they are doing much artwork and modeling to get the scenery up to speed with the rest of the game, I look forward to it.

 

As someone said though, the game is definately very realistic as far as flying goes...

 

Hope that answers your question "whats left to be done" basically tons and tons of texturing, modeling for scenery and I would imagine many other areas of the game.

[Russell Creel 835096]

Very articulate, thanks.

[Christopher Serio 823884]

Well actually the scenery you get with XP8 is the same as XP7 scenery. No major changes have been made but they're working on the new scenery and the new scenery engine. That will be released in the near future.

[Ethan Stein 890841]

I don't think its the world scenery that needs work, its the airport scenery. The airports are my only disappointment with X-Plane

[Mario Pozzetti 892293]

You are absolutely right! The problem is not the aircraft nor the scenery itslef, it's the airports. No taxi lines, no parkings, no fingers, except a few of them that artists around the community are working on. It's gonna take an awful lot of work but I'm confident one day we will have at least the major airports. The problem is that when they're ready, Austin will probably have a new version out which makes them incompatible. Such is X-Plane's world

[Bernie Fritts 899936]

X-Plane helped me with my Private Pilot license and has helped with my instrument training.

 

My instructor asked me after my last lesson. "Are you going to let me teach you anything?"

 

I owe it to the realistic flight modeling in X-Plane and to VATSIM for the IFR work. It has made a difference.

 

There are alot of good airports done for X-Plane already with more on the horizon. I have personally done KMRY and CYYZ (http://www.masterfritts.com/x-plane)

 

Cheers,

[Mario Pozzetti 892293]

The topic was about airports. I have been using X-Plane since day one and nobody is a bigger fan than me, so you really don't have to tell me how good it is. On the other hand it is only fair to point out some obvious shortcomings, it's all in the interest of the simulator, if I may add.

And yes it's Monday and I'm having a bad day at the office

[Bernie Fritts 899936]

I am a long time user of FS but downloaded the trial of X-plane today.

 

Not sure what I gain with xplane.

 

Can someone give me a general comparison of why to switch?

 

Like realism factors, plane handling, graphics quality, etc. I do see easy access to flight charts but have all that mastered with myairplane.com stuff.

 

Actually the topic was about realism factors, etc.

[Ben Supnik]

The problem is that when they're ready, Austin will probably have a new version out which makes them incompatible. Such is X-Plane's world

 

We're pretty serious about maintaining scenery compatibility to the greatest extent possible. The scenery format's been pretty stable since version 6.25.

 

Regarding what's been released:

- V8 ships with preliminary version 8 US scenery, as well as the global scenery from V7.

- We will have a complete V8 overhaul of the world soon.

 

Airport detail is high on our priority list (but will not be part of the global scenery release; it will probably be part of some kind of smaller free upgrade).

 

But you don't have to wait! If you have a PC, check this out:

 

http://www.fsimp.com/

 

Padraic wrote a plugin for x-plane that displays MSFS airport scenery inside X-Plane. You can have X-Plane's realistic flight model, super-smooth multiplayer in XSquawkBox, etc. and still have SimFlyers-type airports.

 

*Cheers*

Ben

[Mario Pozzetti 892293]

I'm well aware of this plugin and albeit an excellent effort I still think FS sceneries are too cartoon-like. This is why I'd rather wait for X-Plane native ones. I already have the Alps which are pretty good and I'm sure that in the future we will have more. As I said, and this is a very personal point of view, I'm not really interested in hyper realistic landscapes, what I really wish for is very accurate airports (with taxi ways, runways and all the real signing). If and when major cities are implemented I'll take that as a bonus nothing else. What I mean is that if I had to decide I'd have my priorities set like this: flight model, instrument accuracy, avionics, air navs, airports, world geo elevation accuracy and then if and maybe all the rest, full stop.

[Martin Tait 908838]

maby im just getting ir wrong or have been told wrong but i though MSFS was for windows and X-Plane was for another operating system

 

does X-Plane work on windows XP???

 

sorry for my stupidity

[Ben Supnik]

does X-Plane work on windows XP???

 

Y E S ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

 

X-Plane runs for:

• Windows
  Macintosh
  Linux

 

XSquawkBox runs on all 3 too.

 

*Cheers*

Ben

[Mario Pozzetti 892293]

X-Plane works under Windows, Mac and Linux. In the genesis there was a need to produce a flight simulator that would be Mac compatible because as everybody knows FS does not run on Mac but then, due to the success of the software Win and Linux versions were made. Ironically Windows is still the OS under which X-Plane works better (or so I've been told by Mac users).

[Martin Tait 908838]

downloading the demo now!!!

[Ben Supnik]

X-Plane works under Windows, Mac and Linux. In the genesis there was a need to produce a flight simulator that would be Mac compatible because as everybody knows FS does not run on Mac but then, due to the success of the software Win and Linux versions were made. Ironically Windows is still the OS under which X-Plane works better (or so I've been told by Mac users).

 

Hi Mario,

 

In my experience X-Plane works equally well on equivalent platforms, but when are two machines ever equivalent? In particular, Mac users who have an old 800 mhz G4 with Radeon 9200 will say it works better on the other guy's 3 ghz Windows box with Radeon 9700. There are Macs that run X-Plane very well, but they are not cheap. Video drivers are also an issue, especially on Linux, where you can only get hardware acceleration for nVidia hardware, not ATI.

 

Generally Intel HW will give you more performance for your $ than Mac, that's just an Apple pricing thing...PCs are made by many vendors - they're cheap.

 

For those who haven't tried nad have broadband, downloading and trying the demo is an excellent way to see how the sim will run on your machine...the demo is the fully functioning sim with limited flight time, so the framerate will be instructive.

 

*Cheers*

Ben

[Mario Pozzetti 892293]

Gallons of ink have been used to compare FS vs X-Plane, this is not the time or the place and anyway not only it would take too long but it would be an exercise in futility since both have pros and cons. But I will say just a few things so that if you haven't tried it these facts will, at least, draw your attention:

1. X-Plane is a multi platform software

2. It uses OpenGl as graphic engine which is far smoother than DirectX

3. It does not write one byte into the registry

4. It can be installed and uninstalled in the blink of an eye

5. It comes with Plane-Maker and World-Maker with which you can create/modify both aircraft and scenery

6. It’s main [Mod - Happy Thoughts]et is the accuracy of the flight model and aircraft performance

7. It’s constantly updated and all the community serves as beta testers

8. There are literally thousands of people that develop aircraft, sceneries and plugins which enhance its versatility

9. It has a comparatively low cost and updates can always be downloaded from selected sites

10. The interface with online ATC is as simple as it can be, all you have to do is install XSB plugin and off you go.

And if this is not enough to catch your attention I don’t know what is

[Ethan Stein 890841]

I'm a new X-Plane user, I haven't used it with VATSIM yet (still learning how to use it) but was wondering how well it connects with VATSIM. Do the MSFS planes look different?

[Mario Pozzetti 892293]

Connecting X-Plane to VATSIM could not be easier. All you have to do is install XSquawkBox - http://www.xsquawkbox.net/xsb/ and then connect to the network next time you run X-Plane. No other software is needed. It's 100% self supporting and all is included. The downside is that (until now) you can't see most of the aircraft in their true colors and shapes, they usually default to the standard United-747 but this too will change. Have a go!

[Russell Creel 835096]

You forget #11 ..

 

11. On very rare occasions the developer of X-Plane posts all the x-plane source code on his webserver.