Some advice for those considering installing X-Plane

[toby23 136]

Yesterday I bought and installed X-Plane.After spending all night researching online and trying various add-ons, I've decided that X-Plane is still not ready for me.I have been flying in FSX, LockOn and DCS Black Shark for ages and was looking to see if I could get out X-Plane, what I miss in the other sims.I am prepared to spend a lot of time and money to get what I want out of a sim but I don't feel that I can justify this yet with X-Plane.It would be really great to see a sim that combines the 3rd party developer market of FSX with some of the flight dynamics of X-Plane.What I love about X-Plane1. flight dynamics on landing and taking off2. the smoothness of the sim with slider set to max detail3. hi-res terrain textures look great on distant mountains4. the weather engine5. the waterWhat I don't like1. the weird FOV sloping effect in 3d cockpits that happens when you increase the FOV so that you are not sitting with your nose pressed up against the dashboard! (i only fly 3d cockpit), it feels like Lock On cockpits and not like a true 3d cockpit2. the fact that most aircraft don't have 3d cockpits3. the cockpit textures on every aircraft i tried remind me of early FS2004 textures, I have not seen one 3d cockpit that feels realistic even though I saw some great work from some people, nothing bowled me over.4. why is there no glass in any of the windows of the x-plane planes?5. the weird and ugly broken shiny pieces of texture laid on top of the ground textures, what is that?6. low res terrain mesh7. no buildings at airports (I know that I can add these but I would rather pay for a global scenery than do this myself)8. no native 6DOF Trackir support. I had to use a 3rd party add on which i had to activate every time i started a flight which gave me 5DOF.In a few years, I will buy X-Plane again and see how far it has come.I hope that Version X will be a milestone for X-Plane.Until then, here is a link to some screenshots that i have made in FSX with all my add-ons.This is the kind of level of detail that I would like to see in X-Plane in the future.Good luck and happy flying,Toby

[MatthewS 761]

What I don't like1. the weird FOV sloping effect in 3d cockpits that happens when you increase the FOV so that you are not sitting with your nose pressed up against the dashboard! (i only fly 3d cockpit), it feels like Lock On cockpits and not like a true 3d cockpit2. the fact that most aircraft don't have 3d cockpits3. the cockpit textures on every aircraft i tried remind me of early FS2004 textures, I have not seen one 3d cockpit that feels realistic even though I saw some great work from some people, nothing bowled me over.4. why is there no glass in any of the windows of the x-plane planes?5. the weird and ugly broken shiny pieces of texture laid on top of the ground textures, what is that?6. low res terrain mesh7. no buildings at airports (I know that I can add these but I would rather pay for a global scenery than do this myself)8. no native 6DOF Trackir support. I had to use a 3rd party add on which i had to activate every time i started a flight which gave me 5DOF.

1) Planes without true 3D cockpits have their 2D panel displayed in 3D cockpit, so it will look 2D still. Pretty sure you can move the seat position around in xplane without needing to change the FOV.2) True, but the Cirrus Jet, C172, Piaggio Avanti and StinsonL5 (9.4 beta) do. There are plenty of 3rd party that do.3) Try some 3rd party addons like the Hurricane or MU2.4) No reflection, probably right never noticed.5) Not sure... driver issue?6) Depends where you fly7) True... try FS2XP to convert FS9/FSX scenery to XP8) Dont know, my TrackIR broke years ago, I just use the mouse now to look around.

[Guest AVN8tr]

Also check out OpenSceneryX and you'll see some amazing airports!! Sure most of them are in Europe but you're free to use any Objects to build you own airports or you can use Ted's Scenery! which will give you that non-empty airport feeling around america. He's also producing OpenSceneryX updates all the time.One of my favorite planes is the x737 give that a go/search... I think it's one of the better freeware projects out there with full 3D cockpit!!!

[Guest mac271]

1) Planes without true 3D cockpits have their 2D panel displayed in 3D cockpit, so it will look 2D still. Pretty sure you can move the seat position around in xplane without needing to change the FOV.2) True, but the Cirrus Jet, C172, Piaggio Avanti and StinsonL5 (9.4 beta) do. There are plenty of 3rd party that do.3) Try some 3rd party addons like the Hurricane or MU2.4) No reflection, probably right never noticed.5) Not sure... driver issue?6) Depends where you fly7) True... try FS2XP to convert FS9/FSX scenery to XP8) Dont know, my TrackIR broke years ago, I just use the mouse now to look around.

I would give my right arm to get hold of a Hurricane but have been unable to find one (preferably freeware but!!). Please tell me where?

[totalrain 0]

I would give my right arm to get hold of a Hurricane but have been unable to find one (preferably freeware but!!). Please tell me where?

It's payware US$20.00 at the mo. Find it at the X-Plane.org store.

[Guest mac271]

Got it - Millions of thanks - it's fantastic.

[dcal 0]

Toby, I don't disagree. :( I returned to the sim hobby after a decade long hiatus. I was an MSFS user back in the day, but I had read that the ACES team got sacked and heard good things about XP. So I bought XP at version 9.1. I was impressed and definitely felt I made the right choice. Then two things got to me after flying it for a few months. I got tired of the default C-172 (which rolls like a fighter jet for some reason) and I thought I'd explore some payware. I bought some pipers and a couple Cessnas, to my surprise the payware offerings were down right mickey mouse when compared to what FSX offered. Their flight models appeared accurate enough to me, but the 3D cockpits and exterior modeling were downright laughable when compared to even FSX's default aircraft, let alone the FSX payware offerings. Most of the A/C don't have 3D cockpits and the ones that did were light years behind any FSX offering.All I kept hearing about was XP's amazing flight model, but when a novice XP user would post a question like why does my 172 roll like a F16, the response: well the flight model is awesome, but that's only as good as the plane model you're flying in. And seeing as there are so few great plane models out there it seems XP is all dressed up with nowhere to go.Then I was reading about xpjets releasing the new defacto C-172 which took true advantage of the 3D cockpit and exterior model features and I was excited. Then it got delayed because they wanted to wait for 9.3, then it got delayed because getting it 9.3 "certified" is a big process. Now 9.4b5 is out so I'd imagine there will be another delay. It is, as of today, still not available. I should note: The Mitsubishi MU2 was done right, and looks to be the only v9 A/C worth buying at the moment.The second reason I became disenchanted with XP is the default scenery. After I realized there are virtually no third party scenery developers (save one excellent one) and much of the free stuff was mainly scenery from Europe, I started editing the airports I liked, posted them on the "Community Site," and was even nominated into a "best of" competition for some of my work. But after a while I realized I was spending more time overlaying airports than I was flying the damn sim.The final nail in the coffin was a blog article written by a x-plane.org community member which can be found here. He hit the final nail so squarely on the head that I, almost immediately, went to the store and picked up a copy of FSX for $35 or something like that. I cranked the settings, added REX, GEX, UTX, and a few Carenado addons, and guess what? I'm actually flying the sim not just constantly tweaking it in an effort to make it more fun to fly.Is X-Plane a solid flight sim for the fantastic price of $29 plus S&H? You're damn skippy it is. Is it the end all, be all of flight sim experiences as touted by many? Not really. I'll fly x-plane 9 again and I'll probably buy XP10, because the product has potential. But for now FSX is definitely the better choice for me. Better looking, good flight model, more available stuff out there to see and fly.Anyway, sorry for the long winded response, but I wish this kind of feedback was available when I was researching the FSX vs XP decision.