X-Plane10: What's missing for you?

[tom79 6]

Hi all!

 

In the recent weeks I have seen a lot of criticism towards X-Plane 10 coming mostly from people who use FSX and find that XP10 lacks some features they have grown used to.

 

Therefore I think it would be good to compile a list of features that you think should be implemented in the future. If you have something you would like to see in XP10, then please write here.

 

Rules for posting:

1. Be polite and constructive.
   
2. Keep in mind that X-Plane is not FSX and it's not supposed to be a copy of it. So if you lack a feature in XP that FSX has, be creative and think how you could extend that feature to make it even better than in FSX.
   
3. Be reasonable. Think before posting if the feature you think of should be really part of the X-Plane core or if it would be better something for a third-party addon.
   
4. Keep it short and simple.
   

And of course: long-time X-Planers are also invited to write their suggestions here.

[tom79 6]

So here's one from me:

 

Support 8-way hat switches to change the POV. Currently there are only commands for up, down, left, right. Please add up-left, up-right, down-left and down-right view commands.

[Murmur 3,941]

In rough order of importance:

 

1) Buildings for most airports, especially national/international ones (even if obtained via crowdsourcing, that would be fine for me)

 

2) Better quality of the plausible world for the whole globe (urban areas, autogen, etc.)

 

3) A more capable implementation of the AI traffic that would allow 3rd parties to make add-ons like Ultimate Traffic, etc.

 

4) Seasonal textures

 

5) Various improvements and refinements in the weather engine.

[Glynn 405]

Hello

 

1: Better ATC

2: Better Ai, i.e not limited to 20 planes.

3: Airport buildings, procedurally generated if necessary.

4: Seasons

4: Regional water classes instead of this inky black stuff we have at present.

 

If it had all of those sorted the third party developers will turn up, most of them are simmers , if the base product was complete they will build stuff for themselves

[DMullert 216]

Hello Team!

 

In my case I would like to see the following implemented ASAP:

 

1) A better/more complete AI engine that would allow 3rd parties to make add-ons like Ultimate Traffic, Traffic X, Project AI, etc... and not be limited to 20 airplanes.

2) Seasonal textures. Snow in the ground when it's snowing.

3) Better/tweaked flight dynamics on the C90 - it flies horrible as it is now.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Dennis

[greggerm 312]

More incomplete than missing... my well documented opinions on the state of affairs with the base scenery is what has kept me from the purchase so far. :)

• Overall fit and finish of urban environments. (acknowledged as a lack of art elements)
  
• No seasonal textures - summer only. (acknowledged as a lack of art elements)
  
• Highway/road viaducts in unexpected or incorrect locations, both urban and backcountry. (acknowledged as a known bug with OSM importing or translation process)
  
• No updates to the OpenStreetMap data to include base map improvements over the past year such as improved water and road data. (acknowledged but so far no visible progress)
  
• The power line tower crews have built an exceptionally robust network of transmission lines with towers placed terribly close (seemingly acknowledged as an OSM importing process bug)
  

 

Each of these elements have been acknowledged as existing in some way, shape, or form by Laminar Research, but very little progress has been made, at least publicly. I'm hoping they have at least some of these elements up their sleeves for the next update, which seems to be taking quite a while.

 

Each of these scenery issues can cause globally sweeping improvements as they get completed which would benefit X-Plane pilots across the world. They'd also get me to spend my money, which should be enough in and of itself!! :)

 

-Greg

 

(I'll stand down on my criticism of airport buildings for now - WED1.2 appears to be starting to make a more stable appearance, and it would seem that the crowdsourcing project is being actively worked on)

[tom79 6]

I would like to be able to filter airports by country, state/province and possibly be city. Also, the current airport database distinguishes between heliports, floatplane bases and "normal" runways I think, but there's no way to filter the list by these types (other than typing e.g. "[H]" in the search field which is not very intuitive).

 

Since airport data is crowd-sourced, I would like to see additional metadata for airports based on which the selection can be filtered:

• big international airports
  
• bush strips
  
• military bases
  
• high-altitude airports
  
• challenging approaches
  
• beautiful scenery
  

It would also be nice if airports could include some short text description. That could also contain links to RW procedures (whether these come from VATSIM, IVAO or some government entities).

 

Being able to create a list of favorite airports would also be nice.

 

I'd also like to be able to pick airports from a map.

[JonRD463 146]

1. Regional autogen. European style for Europe, Asian style for Asia, etc.

2. Some sort of mipmapping or other graphical representation of the concrete jungle while at cruising altitude to prevent the "green wasteland" effect over major urban centers

3. Iconic landmarks. (Eiffel tower, St. Basil's Cathedral, famous skyscrapers, etc.)

4. Searchable database of all airports and their navaid/radio info, rather than just those in your immediate vicinity.

5. Airport buildings.

6. Taxi pathing cleaned up. I'm assuming the arrow path you get following taxi instructions follow the same paths as AI, and they're all over the place. I'd like to see some sort of AFCAD-like tool to clean those up and make them more logical. This may already exist in WED or the other scenery utilities, and is just a matter of time before we start seeing improvements become available for download.

 

I'm already flying X-Plane 10, so none of these are dealbreakers for me. Just wishes for improvements.

[Blaze 102]

A better more robust sound/ audio enviroment

A hardware control interface similar to FSUIPC.

Airport buildings scenery

The ability for 3rd party AI programs to create AI packages like UT2

Lack of seasons

Lack of water texture editor

Increased visibility under real world weather conditions when applicable (I like the volumetric fog effect but dont force a set range)

[carrotroot 77]

Airport selection really needs to be overhauled, because right now there are currently three completely different ways you can select an airport (local map, global map, and Airport map) ... and they all seem to miss the mark in terms of user friendliness, and usability.

 

The 3d global map should be eliminated, and the 2d local map really needs the ability to zoom out globally. And the airport search/selection screen should be made accessible from the 2d map screen.

 

As for the airport search, I like the mini preview I just have no idea where on the planet the airport is located. Some sort of dialog which lets users drill down to the country/province/state/city would be immensely useful.

[anthony_d 32]

Here's my wish list.

 

- Being able to see terrain details further than 25 miles away. At the moment all we see after 25miles is low resolution terrain bump mapping and the low resolution global textures.

- Ability to program fixed AI routes and timetables.

- "Stratified" visibility changes with altitude: When I fly high I often see a sharp line on the horizon and can see clouds a hundred miles in all directions. But when I look down, I can see the haze layer below and can see the sharp demarkation between clear and hazy air. I want to see the haze before I fly into it.

- Regional autogen buildings.

- "Zoned" autogen: High Rise, Low density residential, Heavy Industrial, Light Industrial, Business Parks and so on...

- Seasonal textures.

- Better Urban Textures when seen from far away.

- "Local Map" able to load details up anywhere in the world, not just for the scenery tiles that you're with.

[themose 11]

1) EZDOK 'style' camera add-on/functionality.

 

This transformed FSX to FS10.5 in my opinion.

XPlane needs this.

 

2) ACCU FEEL 'style' sound effects/functionality

[tom79 6]

A better more robust sound/ audio enviroment

 

I was thinking of the same.

 

At least I'd like to be able to select a different sound card for ATC chatter, since having that on the headset adds a lot of immersion.

 

But this could be extended further to provide different output channels for all radios (up to three?) and maybe also one for cabin announcements. Might be a nice feature for home cockpit builders.

[gizmosellsbunnys 106]

As others mentioned easier way of selecting airports and betters sounds, and different water textures. Just want smoother vectoring of roads, and terrains reduce some of those roller-coasters shot to sky. Landmarks would be nice, but more realistic think improvements on algorithms of auto-generation of scenery. More terrain texture improvements to terrain. Bring back da trains love following them.

[teofilo 11]

Hey guys,

 

Some features I would like to see:

 

1. Full 360, up down spot view of the aircraft. Currently the views are very limited for the external model, etc. Also wing views, etc.

 

2. More scenery detail (autogen), more detailed airports besides seattle. I mean having actual buildings in airports around the world. They don't have to be the exact replica but not an empty tarmac either.

 

3. Switch views like FSX (not to compare but it's helpful to have a key like the S in FSX to switch from cockpit to spot, to tower, and so on.)

 

Hope this helps,

 

Teo