Yet another FSX A320 package, AFS Design. Does anyone know anything about this? I already purchased Aerosoft AirbusX and I've had Wilco's for awhile. Maybe someone will do a comprehensive comparison review. It certainly would be interesting.Lee

This is a well known phenomenon with buses.Wait for ages and then along come 3 all at once.

http://www.afs-design.de/d_a320.htm

LOL

It doesn't look more advanced than Airbus X.

It doesn't look more advanced than Airbus X.

Well, at least the FMC's specs look like...If their Airbus follows their Concorde's quality, I suppose we'll have a great add-on.

It doesn't look more advanced than Airbus X.

Costs only 50% (20 against 40 Euros) and offers more variants. Detail optics will surely be the Aerosoft's advantage. And speaking of "advanced" and Aerosoft Airbus together in one sentence :rolleyes:Gentlemen, like the Just Flight release some days ago, this product shows the correct price point for a flight sim aircraft with less detailed systems. The Aerosoft plane overcame this point by 100% then and draws far more attention. I wonder why.

I wondered about the AFS version. What we need is a review comprising of all three products - anyone game enough to purchase all three and do a comparison? How about it Editor?As for myself, budgetry restraint et al, I will only purchase one A320, and only if it meets these criteria;Good flight characteristicsFME better than the FSX defaultExcellent Graphical representationvery low FPS impactI have discovered that I prefer "Lite" versions of aircraft to fly. I do have a couple of complex aircraft and have noted that I don't fly them very much and they tend to be heavy on the FPS. I don't mind a bit of work to get things running, but I do not want to spend fifteen or so minutes at a gate programming, take off, and then after a three hour flight find that on approach the system starts to chug, and then the inevitable crash on final approach. (This has happened so many times thru various computer systems and various amounts of Ram so it is not even a debate anymore for me).I was considering the Just Flight "Lite version" but the AFS has just muddied the water especially from a price entry point of viewRay Hughesi5 750 overclocked to 3.4 ghz'4 Gigs DDR3 ram3 Gigs HD spaceGigabyte P55 USB3 motherboardNvidia GT260 OC with 800Mb Ram

I just bought the AFS Airbus package and am very disappointed. It is far inferior to the old Wilco Airbus which I've had for years.The exteriors aren't bad although perhaps less detailed than some and there is certainly a good range of liveries.There is no 2D cockpit and the VC looks quite good although th Eicas buttons are inoperative and instead there are switches to change between two Eicas views and the GPS. The engine start switches on the pedestal are missing although they are modelled in the pedestal pop-up panel.The real problems however lie in the functionality or rather the lack of it You can't program the FMC butit will accept a flightplan from the FS Flight Planner and it reads weights and fuel from FS and calculates v-speeds based on this. However the FMC does not function with the APU running and you have to start the engines before you can use it.The Autopilot and Flight Dicrector buttons dont work and as soon as you dial a value into the speed selector window the engines spool up and the the aircraft sets off.It was at this point that I decided to write off my 20 euros and not waste any more time with it.Oh and as for the "friendly co-pilot" well I've been out with some rough-looking birds in my time, but I never expected to break the record in an Airbus.Not recommended.Bob

Funny to read, britbeef but sad to hear about the waste of money in your eyes. The copilot does indeed look somehow strange on the pictures. The strange behavior with the APU not supplying power and that AT which immediately goes to takeoff sound like severe problems. Maybe something else is missing or this thing wasn't tested before going RTM.ray hughes, which aircraft currently match your mentioned points if I might ask out of interest?

Good flight characteristicsFME better than the FSX defaultExcellent Graphical representationvery low FPS impact

Do you have a price limit there too? Is freeware an option too?

which aircraft currently match your mentioned points if I might ask out of interest?I have the payware Airbus collection from that Japanese company (Overland)which I bought for Fs2004,and which overland updated to run under FSX, so while it is now long in the tooth and not up to current standards, it was and is, still ok for the price. I also have the freeware Project airbus A320, 319 and 318. The Project airbus is easily better than the Overland model, but a bit of fiddling about is necessary to get the 3D cockpits working ok. I also have Intergrated Simvionics Gauges in the project airbus which helps a lot. And of course the Thomas Ruth airbus collection. While these are ok, I have yet to see a good texturing job done on any of them - they all look a little plastic from the outside if Thomas Ruth will forgive my observations (These are freeware after all and gratefully accepted).Do you have a pricing option too?As for pricing, when you translate a Euro into NZ dollars it is double the price (ie; so anything around $30 Euros is NZ$60 dollars or about and when you leap to Euro 39.95 well... you get the picture. Even at US dollar pricing I still pay a third more on top of the US price. So enough of the pricing commentary - I would like to spend for a lite product between $15 to $20 dollars US or thereabouts. I have noticed a trend for all payware aircraft, scenery, airports to conintue to climb in price. My take on this is developers are saying - hey this has taken me months/year/years to programme and I want a good return so justifying the price. My observation is the higher the price the more limited the market - so for me I am getting to the stage of no longer considering expensive models for purchase simply because of my earlier post reasons, - and I have noticed that I only really take these expensive aircraft out half as often as LITE models. One aircraft I have purchased recently is the CLS MD80,which I do enjoy. (Waiting for the first Patch.) .. and before that the SkySim DC9 - the former is Lite, but the latter,(the SkySim DC9) requires a bit more attention as it is more complex, but in a steam gauge sort of way. - and the 3d cockpit could do with a better standard - but it is very nice to fly.

Outside of your price point, the Aerosoft Airbus X sounds like it might be a "perfect" Airbus add-on for you. Therein lies the problem. If the Airbus X was, say, $29.99 USD or even $34.99 USD it would have a much better following I would guess. Although the model is excellent (yes, I still want wingflex...I am one of those people), it's price point is just way to high. It might be ok in the higher price range if they had included the A318 and A319 as well, but they didn't.

Thanks for your explanations, guys. Much appreciated. Did one of you test the Just Flight Airbus offer or do you have it in mind?Of course those freeware alternatives are really nice ones too, especially the mentioned Project Airbus releases are work of art in my eyes. That A380 e. g. looks great.