"Full pimped FSX" simmer goes the XP way again...

[MSFS Ralf 149]

As the header states, I did what I never thought I would do again, I have the newest (non-demo) version of XP installed on my PC. After the first few hours I like to share my thoughts:

 

The first time was spend to find balanced settings and get my joystick running. I have installed the payware MU-2 that I owned from my XP9 episode. Next installation was the Canadian Rockies payware. Went to that great landscape and found out that UTX/REX and ORBX have given me high expectations, the XP CAN Rockies did not even come close. Had a look at the "default" plausible world. Better than XP9 but still horror.

 

But I did not had the intention to install and test it to say "how bad is this," I never used the "F" sim for flying in Europe (no add ons), so I thought I better go there to stop comparing. I dowloaded some Zones Photo sceneries and generated buildings, forests and objects using the newest OSM data.

 

And I liked these results, very much. Photo scenery with some kind of "autogen" is nice to have, looks great from high and low altitudes. If you use photo scenery, you don't miss seasons anyway, lol. Flying over that nice scenery "felt right", XPX runs very well on my PC, I enjoyed the few European flights very much. The new Aerosoft "F" Airbus was on my shopping list, I will have a look for a nice small to medium payware jet at the "X" side of simming now.

 

For GA use, the MU-2 is a very nice plane. I had problems with trimming so I cheated a little bit, my plane has counter-rotating props now.;-)

I flew with real weather, liked the clouds, the winds and some light turbulence here and there. I updated to the latest beta and had no problems with ground handling, great.

 

Well, to make a short summary, well done XPX! Thank you all for posting your screenshots and stories here. Without them I would not have tried it again.

[FloB 34]

Hi Ralf,

 

interesting read, especially since open minded people are not very common when it comes to XP / FSX. I was a long time MSFS user myself when I decided to switch to XP10 late 2011 (actually it was Ben's blog - XP developers blog that won me over in the first place).

 

Am I happy with it? Sometimes, sometimes not. My perfect flightsim still has to be born but for now I'll stick to XP10 and hope Laminar or 3PDs will deal with the main shortcomings of XP sooner or later. Progress is very slow but steady.

On the other hand I realize that the big money was and still is with FSX and therefore XP really lacks manpower to fully take advantage of it's possibilities.

 

Cheers

Flo

[JonRD463 146]

Hi Ralf. Welcome to the dark side. If you like Buses, there are two available that are pretty nice. First is the QPAC freeware A320, whose strength lies in the flight modeling of the Airbus' FBW system. As I can only go by what I've read about Airbus, take what I say with a grain of salt, but it appears to me the best implementation of FBW I've come across. Point the nose in a particular attitude and it stays there. Laws are as you would expect, with bank and pitch limiting. For payware with decent systems that the author claims will be improved on, and decent interior eye candy, the JARDesign A320NEO is a really nice bird at a good price for what it offers.