August 29, 201213 yr After about 1 week with x-plane10, my fears of dissatisfaction are definitely gone! I have seen other users coming in, some times rather enthusiastically, and then quit after a while, and I was really worried this could end up happening to me... Quite the opposite as a mater of fact... While I grow conscious of the things I would really like to see fixed or added to the sim, I also acknowledge why it stands above the competition in many aspects. Yesterday I met stuttering for the first time while approaching Berlin Tempelhof with a Berlin town full of buildings populated with OSM2XP. Yes my fps dropped to 11-12, but even low fps in x-plane10 is so different from stuttering in FSX that I can perfectly continue to "fly" my airplane, with fluid instruments, and even a very acceptable outside world view experience. I also acknowledge the much richer feeling of flying a small/medium GA (I do not yet have any airliners worth the comparison...) as compared to other simulators, including FSX, and I even accept the sometimes weird way Real World weather translates to x-palne's weather just because I finally have turbulence like I could never reproduce in other sims. My list of priorities in terms of new features/bug corrections is: ENVIRONMENT: ============= - Fix the way variable winds are translated into x-plane's weather. They are not the same as shear! And... make it possible to have variable winds of more than 180º in direction... - Add dew-point to the weather model, and if possible, use it for calculations of effects dependent on relative humidity... - Allow users to read the METAR string that was downloaded as RW Weather - Make twitlight credible, so that we can still have good daylight after the Sun has just set or before it rises, like in RL - Fix the stars reflections in the seas (probably just an HDR issue, but I turned that off) - Fix the Moon Phases FLIGHT MODEL/ENGINE/SYSTEMs: ============================= - Adjust the prop torque effect on prop aircraft: They make sense, but are too intense IMO... - Add spiraling slipstream effects for prop aircraft so that we can finally get that yaw due to slipstream... - Add some form of stability coef allowing one to tune the way an aircraft enters stall and tends to lower one wing... Some aircraft have that tendency always to the same side, other to both, while other simply tend to stay wings level.... - Correct the way free-running turbines are modelled, and make FF stay fixed when Prop RPM is varied... - Correct the effects of RPM reduction/increase on MP specially on CS Props, that tend to bring MP back to it's initial value without any manual adjustment after the initial variation (up/down) when prop RPM is adjusted... - Fix wheel drag coefficients (or whatever is causing it) without us having to edit the airfile and use some rather irrealistic values... A Cessna 172 shouldn't really weathervane on a 5 knot crosswind when the parking brakes are released.... UI: ==== - On Map views, please display the meridians and parallels instead of just the internal coordinate system for the areas, and if possible include a bigger area around the aircraft instead of just a square, with the rest around it not being visible.... Flying gliders since 1980 Flightsimming since 1992 AMD Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, GPU Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB, 1 TB and 500 GB nvme2 SSD drives, HP 27" 60Hz LED monitor @ 1920x1080, T16000, Hotas from old X52 Pro, Saitek Combat Rudder Pro (2010 model)
August 29, 201213 yr "I also acknowledge the much richer feeling of flying a small/medium GA (I do not yet have any airliners worth the comparison...) as compared to other simulators, including FSX, and I even accept the sometimes weird way Real World weather translates to x-palne's weather just because I finally have turbulence like I could never reproduce in other sims". I read this and wondered have you tried in fsx EZdok camera and A2A real environment, together? I think you would be hard pressed to find a more realistic turbulence effect unless you were in a cherokee at 2500' off the coast somewhere for real. I look forward to trying and seeing these effects I am contemplating getting X-Plane 10 having just said goodbye finally to FS9, Thanks for the heads up. Nicely written too.
August 29, 201213 yr Author I read this and wondered have you tried in fsx EZdok camera and A2A real environment, together? I didn't, but very recently, when after FLIGHT's dismiss I was "pushed" to try FSX Gold (had been 5-6 years since I last used FSX) someone at the FSX forum pointed me to EZdok, and I believe the effects should really feel great. A2A is a reference for me too, so, both together, for someone who has invested a lot of $$$ in FSX will certainly keep her/him busy. In my case it was easier - I just had a couple of RealAirs and Flight1s, so, I could easily jump to X-Plane10, not before having tested the demo for more than a month... I am happy with my choice, and I also think that in terms of future X-Plane is still the platform giving me more hopes, with it's rather active dev team and a growing number of 3pd joining the boat :-) It's not a big boat, so, crossing the seas we may sometimes feel seasick, but that's usual, and we soon recover, until a stable sea is entered (talking about the successive betas...)... The Pros vs Cons in X-Plane win hands down IMO. Flying gliders since 1980 Flightsimming since 1992 AMD Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, GPU Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB, 1 TB and 500 GB nvme2 SSD drives, HP 27" 60Hz LED monitor @ 1920x1080, T16000, Hotas from old X52 Pro, Saitek Combat Rudder Pro (2010 model)
August 30, 201213 yr ... I shall certainly take it for a test flight then! - on your recommendation :mellow:
August 30, 201213 yr Author I shall certainly take it for a test flight then! - on your recommendation Please make sure: 1) You use the demo version. Give it a try, with no limited number of starts, and just that 10' and scenery area restriction... 2) Make sure you take the time to adapt the settings to your hardware. It makes the whole difference, and sometimes users give up because they find the aircraft controls too sensible without trying to adapt to their hardware, specially when we come from the super-damped (irrealistic) world of MSFS/P3D... 3) Don't forget that the default aircraft aren't masterpieces, althought I rather prefer the default Baron58 to the MSFS/P3D one and the C90 to the Kingair in MSFS/P3D... Flying gliders since 1980 Flightsimming since 1992 AMD Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, GPU Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB, 1 TB and 500 GB nvme2 SSD drives, HP 27" 60Hz LED monitor @ 1920x1080, T16000, Hotas from old X52 Pro, Saitek Combat Rudder Pro (2010 model)
August 30, 201213 yr I really wish Laminar would offer a second demo location from which to fly. Say, for example, KSEA to tickle big iron fancies, and then some remote mountain strip somewhere to whet bush flyers' appetites. I've said it before and I'll continue to say it-- mountain/bush flying in X-Plane is an experience unto itself. And it's not limited to the PNW region, either. I've been spending some time in South America lately, and the Andes mesh is great. There's just something about the way the X-Plane engine renders the mesh that makes it uncanny. I'm pretty sure it's not a higher resolution than that available in FSX or even 3PD's, but it just looks and feels better in X-Plane imo. I'm very seriously considering getting the LES DC-3 and recreating some '30's and '40's era cross-continent flights from Brazil to Chile and other locations. "No matter how eloquent you are or how solidly and firm you've built your case, you will never win in an argument with an idiot, for he is too stupid to recognize his own defeat." ~Anonymous.
August 30, 201213 yr Author I'm pretty sure it's not a higher resolution than that available in FSX or even 3PD's, but it just looks and feels better in X-Plane imo Definitely YES! Yesterday I registered the monthly subscription of P3D, and installed it (I no longer have FSX installed) because I heard v1.4 is really smooth. I can confirm P3D, with no tweaks at all, beats FSX Gold hands down in terms of smoothness, although I am not using any scenery add-ons with it. I have my sliders full right! Also the landclass/autogen looks a LOT better, at least here in Portugal, than the default FSX. Not even with the best landclass add-ons I bought in the past I got such rewarding effects like in P3D default scenery for my country! This being said, it is really a completely different taste in terms of the sensation of flight... The time I have spent with x-plane is more than sufficient for me to acknowledge the huge/remarkable differences, even if using only the default Baron58 and C90, a lot better than the default Baron and Kingar350 in FSX / P3D... Then, and although in P3D there are very nice renditions of emblematic buildings in portuguese towns, and the bridges are also very well done, although not mapping directly to their rw counerparts, OSM2XP-created towns in x-plane look a LOT more realistic. In X-Plane10 I can, just like in RL, find it difficult to glimpse rw 03 at LPPT when approaching, day or night, in the middle of all of those city lights/buildings/structures. X-Plane exactly replicates this. In P3D/ FSX even reducing the size of the rw lights, the airports are - sorry - a joke. I believe expensive add-ons can do it a lot better, but even better will it be when we talk about excellent scenery add-ons for x-plane.... If only Austin corrected that irrealstic absence of twilight near sunset/sunrise, whith pitch black skies when it is still "day" in RL (and in FSX / P3D too). And the turbulence, which in both sims is flawed in the extremes, even if opposite - FSX / P3D ha too less, X-Plane too much effects.... X-Plane10 is definitely MY SIM :-) Flying gliders since 1980 Flightsimming since 1992 AMD Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, GPU Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB, 1 TB and 500 GB nvme2 SSD drives, HP 27" 60Hz LED monitor @ 1920x1080, T16000, Hotas from old X52 Pro, Saitek Combat Rudder Pro (2010 model)
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