Ordered x-plane 10 but perhaps regretting it

[GoranM 3,762]

I know you want Xplane to be successful .... but the bolded statement is simply not true.

"jcomm" has explored and discovered things in X Plane that you, and probably most others, most likely have not.

Remember, you are talking to someone who was singing FLIGHT's praises for quite a while and he was just as hesitant as the next guy when it came to trying out X Plane.

He respectfully asked questions, I helped to answer a few of them, even in private and I pointed him in the right direction to fix a known issue (eliminating torque roll), and now, after that, and trying out a range of default and payware add ons, it seems as though he can't get enough of XP10. What he has discovered so far is quite literally, the tip of the iceberg.

 

All it takes is a little direction, exploration and having an open mind.

[MdMax 233]

All it takes is a little direction, exploration and having an open mind.

 

+1

[peterdrowan 1]

I orginally asked a question about trim indicators. Is there any such thing. Also is there a way to store a view of an instrument and make it larger or store a set of keys that home in that way e.g a macro. The GPs in the king air is very small and difficult to see.

 

Peter Rowan

[GoranM 3,762]

I orginally asked a question about trim indicators. Is there any such thing.

 

Yes, for all 3 axes.

 

Also is there a way to store a view of an instrument and make it larger or store a set of keys that home in that way e.g a macro. The GPs in the king air is very small and difficult to see.

 

Peter Rowan

 

 

XP10 comes with preset views. Press shift 9, right mouse click to pan around. To stop panning, let go of the mouse button. To zoom in and out on an instrument, use the mouse wheel. W returns you to the forward 2D view.

You may find this useful.

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/384791-xplane-10-keyboard-map/

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

As I said I am beginning to regret the purchase because of the above but understand the complexity of a flight simulator.

 

As Uwespeed points out, X-plane.org has nothing to do with Laminar Research and in fact, was set up by a former AVSIM staff member. Don't let the lack of response there influence your use of X-Plane.

[adamjedgar 1]

hi guys,

couldnt help putting in my 20 cents worth on this topic...

 

if someone had of asked me last nite and for most of today what i thought of X-Plane...they would have got an absolute ear bashing about how bad it is!

 

The truth is, out of the box it is a bit of a nightmare...and i found almost none of the aircraft flyable on the default out of the box settings. The scenery was sh$%^house and i would have throttled Austin Myers with my bare hands if i could have at that point in time.

 

After spending a couple of hours reading and experimenting...mostly experimenting as the reading isnt so easy if you dont know what you should be searching for (the terminology is somewhat different to that of fsx in some important areas that i was having problems with, so searches were proving somewhat useless)!

 

Anyway, i managed to stumble on a couple of settings, and a very important framerates philosophy which have made a world of difference. Ill start with the settings bit...

 

Joystick settings...(oh i love that i can fly xplane in simultaneously real time whilst im typing in this forum...its like eating ice-cream for the first time im all goey about it), anyway...

 

1. Menu> joystick and equipment>nullzone...set everything in top half to 50% and nullzone in bottom half to at least 5% unless you have really top quality flight yoke (ie no poorly functioning or sloppy bushes and bearings in it).

 

2. Render options...forget the fsx philosophy of protecting framerates (X-Plane is incredibly framerate friendly compared with FSX...you can set a lot of stuff rather high and get real smooth flight rendering)i have set my rendering options to the following and its as "smooth as a babies butt"

run fullscreen at this resolution - on

texture resolution - extreme

number of trees - populated

number of objects- tons

world detail distance-high

airport detail-extreme

shadow detail-global high

water reflection-default

3d bump maps-on

gritty detail textures-on

screen antialiasing-4x hardcore

anisotropic filter level - 4x hardcore

cloud detail- 10%not many

lateral field of view-120.00 degrees

 

left everything else as was in default instillation.

 

i will say that im dissapointed with the default aircraft textures...most do not have 3d cockpits...i guess they figure you get what you pay for in a simulator...low cost = crap textures and animations. Those things aside however, this sim is definitely worth spending the money on to bring up to scratch!

 

i am really looking forward to purchasing, and even developing, some 3d aircraft and scenery of my own for X-Plane.

 

oops forgot to add my system information in

 

Win 7x64 bit - Xplane doesnt seem to install properly on windows 8, in fact even the x-plane.org forum doesnt work properly in you are trying to access it from a windows 8 machine (enter key and right mouse button dont function in the typing window of a post!!!)

CPU I7 2700K

M/B P67A UD 5

RAM 4 gig

GPU ati radeon 6970

[jcomm 5,878]

i am really looking forward to purchasing, and even developing, some 3d aircraft and scenery of my own for X-Plane.

 

And I look forward to profit from it :-) Please make them available when you find the time build your projects ;-)

 

I know nothing about 3d modelling / software - a big handycap I know :-(

[GoranM 3,762]

hi guys,

couldnt help putting in my 20 cents worth on this topic...

 

(edited the quote to save space)

Nice post.

Could you post your system specs?

[TonyK53 0]

Going to have to try those settings. But watch out. A "staff member" is moving threads they "think" belong elsewhere. Not sure exactly why as the "text" provided is not really helpful. I did an introduction thread after joining and it got moved. Just as soon as someone starts talking about resolutions or settings things get moved to Tips and Tricks.

 

But your post is appreciated and I will take a look to see if I can improve my fps on my Mac Pro 3,1 Quad 2.8 (that's 8 cores) with 12GB ram and a brand new ATI 5770. I really should be getting better and any help provided is appreciated, except changing from Apple back to Windows.

 

Anyway, i managed to stumble on a couple of settings, and a very important framerates philosophy which have made a world of difference. Ill start with the settings bit...

[peterdrowan11 0]

My problems with x-plane.org were mainly newbie stupidity. It does say that you have to post against 2 messages before you can raise a new post and I should have read that. I have never seen such a requirement on a forum before so I wasn't expecting it so my bad, but why 2 admins and a moderator didn't reply to my notes after 4 days even to say RTFM is not impressive.

 

But again same question - is there any way to add a trim indicator and how do I increase ground friction so that propeller effect doesn't have such a strong effect. I really need foot pedals as then it wouldn't be such a problem.

 

 

Also another question not answered was the best default plane from a model point of view ( I have downloaded some carenado planes - I think the v-35 - this btw has at least a light that lights when trim is used.

 

In a real GA plane you can feel trim through the stick but here there is no feedback so I can't even tell if Its repeating when you hold down and getting the plane in trim is talking too much effort.

 

 

Peter Rowan

[keithb77 305]

Best is very subjective. Do you mean graphical model or flight model?

 

So far I like to fly the Baron, and the Robin D/L'd from XPFR.

I don't like airliners much, except for the older piston iron, so haven't tried them.

There is a demo of the payware Catalina which is quite nice, but not up to FSX payware standards.

Didn't like the jets much. Think the advantages with Xplane are most pronounced on smaller lighter aircraft, but others will disagree....

 

Foot pedals are much more of a neccesity with XP than FSX...

 

Cheers

Keith

[GoranM 3,762]

My problems with x-plane.org were mainly newbie stupidity. It does say that you have to post against 2 messages before you can raise a new post and I should have read that. I have never seen such a requirement on a forum before so I wasn't expecting it so my bad, but why 2 admins and a moderator didn't reply to my notes after 4 days even to say RTFM is not impressive.

 

But again same question - is there any way to add a trim indicator

 

 

http://forum.avsim.n...t/#entry2466948

But only if it's a 2D panel. 3D VC's need extra modelling.

 

and how do I increase ground friction so that propeller effect doesn't have such a strong effect. I really need foot pedals as then it wouldn't be such a problem.

 

Increasing ground friction will not fix this. Set a key press or button to adjust your aileron trim. I would suggest to go through the flight model in Planemaker, but seeing as you are relatively new, I am thinking you should avoid that option as you may make things much worse.

[peterdrowan11 0]

You have just given me a good excuse to buy foot pedals :rolleyes:.

 

 

Peter Rowan

[wb5okj 26]

It has been said around the forums, the B58 is pretty good, It has a 3D panel that is obvious. Most of the default planes do have 3D panels. Personally I think the C172 is pretty good, I have several hundred hours in a C172 and it is a bit optimistic in its climb ability but it seems to me to be pretty good. The trim indicator is exactly where it is in a real life C172 just under the panel and on the left side of the pedestal.

 

The Carenado F33A has the trim indicator under the yoke, (click the yoke click spot to get it out of the way and you will se it), and I assume the F35 probably has the same.

 

If you want to try some freeware planes I recommend MortonM's Piper Archer III it doesn't have a 3D panel as of yet, but the quality is good enough to use it. here is the link: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=8870

 

Anything thing, freeware or payware from XPFR is good. They have an Ercoupe that is really fun. And there Robbin D400 is excellent, payware quality on both of these at a freeware price. I leave it to you to search XPFR at the .org.

 

I will agree trimming is a bit difficult as there is no tactile feedback, I found that true in FSX also. It seems to me to be the easiest to trim using a rocker switch if you have one, or a hat switch works if you have multiple hat switches.

[urthgental 181]

or get a force feedback joystick. my good old ms sidewinder pro 2 is still excellent after all the years. there you trim the force out of the stick, just like in a real ga plane.