I downloaded the X Plane 10 Demo today and wanted to share my quick thoughts, coming from an FS-X and FS-9 background (and having purchased X-Plane 9).

 

My initial thoughts, very positive! After performing some basic setup and fiddling with the tons of graphics options, I have X-Plane 10 performing just as good as FS-X, with slightly more detail. I am of the opinion (and I've formed it from looking at many of the screenshots posted in the screenshots forum) that X Plane 10 at its default install looks more beautiful than FS-X.

 

The default X-Plane 10 aircraft now far exceed FS-X's aircraft in terms of detail, especially interior detail. As far as Flight dynamics, it's hard to discern whether they are as good as or better than FSX. But I feel they've improved since X-Plane 9.

 

X-Plane 10 still seems cpu bound for some options. I've recently purchased Wings of Prey, which saturates the ground with trees and autogen around its cities. I don't get any fps hit there. As I ramp up the autogen in X-Plane 10, my fps slows down. But I can still run autogen at its defaults and X-Plane 10 stays very smooth.

 

If I purchase X-Plane 10, I would love to try out the 64 bit version to see if there's an improvement in performance.

 

Eye candy graphics--reflections, shadows, etc has no negative impact on my performance. Such graphics seems to fully utilize my gpu. If I have shadows on aircraft enabled in FSX, it hobbles my performance (although I haven't tried that since installing my new video card).

 

To sum up, I liked the demo a lot. What a beautiful flight environment and tons of aircraft. The fifteen minute demo time really allows one to get a good impression of the sim, and allows for plenty of time to experiment with the settings for the best experience. Hats off to the X-Plane 10 team for a job well done on this latest version. People have complained there's no future in Flight Simming. There is one--the future lies with X-Plane.

 

Regards,

 

John

Hi John,

 

64 bit is included in the demo. Just run X-Plane.exe.

 

Bruce H (Oz)

If I have shadows on aircraft enabled in FSX, it hobbles my performance (although I haven't tried that since installing my new video card).

 

It likely won't make a difference since FSX is CPU bound.

 

As for why Wings of Prey gives you better performance, probably because it's an arcade game that's restricted to a much smaller land area and "cheats" on ground detail to keep performance up. But that's just a guess.

As I ramp up the autogen in X-Plane 10, my fps slows down.

 

Welcome John,

 

If I may suggest, try keeping "Number of Roads" to default and also disable "Water reflections" these two are killers.

 

With my current hardware (check my pc specs) I can crank up Objects to extreme, Trees to populated, Traffic to Chicago Suburbs, Texture Resolution to very high, Word Detail to very high, Clouds to 80%, Screen AA to 8x and Anisotropic Filter to 16x. No HDR, on my system this is a killer too.

 

In 64-bit, I have yet to see my fps drop below 30 with these settings

 

Also, make sure you update you Demo by clicking the "Beta" option.

Although the areas covered by Wings of Prey are very small, what's there is pretty well detailed. Exception would be the airfields--those are pretty anemic in detail as compared to an airport in X-Plane or FSX. But flying over open country shows more detail than what I see in FSX or X-Plane other than X-Plane's roads and moving vehicles. I benchmarked Wings of Prey and showed a solid 60 fps, which is synced to my monitor's 60Hz refresh rate. I tried to benchmark X-Plane using Fraps, which I used for Wings of Prey, but Fraps had a huge performance hit on X-Plane.

 

X-Plane runs smooth with my settings as I have them now. However I don't think I'm in 64 bit mode. A beta option is mentioned--where is that found?

 

Regards,

 

John

A beta option is mentioned--where is that found?

 

Download the current installer from here:

http://www.x-plane.c...taller-updater/

 

Save it in XP's root directory (replace old), execute and click "beta" option, once you update, XP will lauch in 64bit by default.

Download the current installer from here:

http://www.x-plane.c...taller-updater/

 

Save it in XP's root directory (replace old), execute and click "beta" option, once you update, XP will lauch in 64bit by default.

 

Thanks,

 

I'm running the updater tonight. If it finishes early I'll give X-Plane another whirl.

 

John

I'll give X-Plane another whirl.

 

Don't forget me ;-)

I downloaded and installed the 10.20 update and verified I'm running in 64 bit mode. Can't say I noticed any change in performance. I'll keep looking at the demo and if I continue to like it then I'll probably purchase the full version--just not right away since I tend to budget my entertainment expenses so I'm not buying more than one product in any one calendar month. It's called "wife scrutiny"--husbands will understand.....

 

John

Thanks for sharing your experiences, John. Hope you don't mind a fellow evaluater tacking on to your thread. I've also DL'ed and installed the demo (in my case the 64-bit beta), but I remain on the fence, a bit less positive than you.

 

On the plus side, I had no particular problems with initial configuration of basic flight controls (my yoke, dual quadrants, rudder pedals and toe brakes) and was up and flying pretty quickly. Still have a few control and view setup things to work out, but the basics were simple enough. Before getting too serious I'd need to get my Saitek radios and mult-panel working, but I understand there's stuff available to support them, so that's simply a detail.

 

I'm still struggling a bit with graphics settings, however. Aliasing artifacts are a bit disturbing, so suggestions on settings (card in profile) are certainly welcome.

 

In FSX (my current default) I don't fly anything but well-regarded payware aircraft so I don't want to judge overly much by default aircraft in the demo, but I think I may have to get at least one quality aftermarket plane in order to really know if the platform is for me. As a GA guy who enjoys light piston twins I'm thinking the Duchess might be a good choice for further eval.

 

I have to admit to being a bit put off by the non-flat runways. I expected this to be a huge positive over FSX' flat defaults, but taking off from KSEA I found myself literally launched into the air by the bumps. I don't know how other fields are, but at KSEA it sure seems like XP has taken uneveness to the opposite extreme.

 

Beyond this, it's hard for me to say at this point. It's good to have the demo and all, but in my case I think I'm going to have to commit to the platform a bit more than I'd hoped in order to really know if I want to go "all in". I already know there'd be a lot I'd need to add to be happy, but I was hoping the demo would give me a bit more confidence in a yes/no decision before committing too much time or money. Not a gripe, guys, so please don't misunderstand - just an observation.

 

Thanks for listening,

 

Scott

Yeah the AA if using HDR isn't great. I get a ton of jaggies. Anything higher than 4x and fps drop too much.

 

So if you aren't using HDR try 8x both AA and for AF. Still some shimmering noticeable but better.

Thanks, Ryan. Will try things without HDR and with 8x.

 

Scott

Then you'll have the dilemma like me - at night you really want HDR but is the fps drop worth it lol?

 

My tradeoff is at night I turn down the AA with HDR. I don't see nearly as much shimmering at night.

 

Oh if you buy on amazon you can get the regional pack for about 30 bucks. It's been worth it to me just to get out of the demo area and no time limits.

Oh if you buy on amazon you can get the regional pack for about 30 bucks. It's been worth it to me just to get out of the demo area and no time limits.

 

Yeah, I've pretty much decided the regional pack is the logical next step. My flying is pretty much NA only anyway, and the price makes it easy. Thanks for the Amazon tip, though. Didn't realize I could get it there.

 

Scott