Looking to jump from the FSX ship

[voodoo101 21]

So I've been using FSX for many years moving from FS9, but after many addons later I moved to triple screen gaming. Now even though I have tweaked and tweaked my i7 processor is beginning to creak and my display looks like somebodys flicking pages in a book, instead of the nice smooth flight it should be. I am a bit loathed to shell out more money to buy a new machine that will run FSX smooth and be over the top for everything else. Now that there is finally a 64 bit flight sim I am thinking of spending the money it would cost on a new computer on this and addons.

 

My problem is this. After these years of flying in high quality addon aircraft over photo real scenery and recognising local areas, landing in airports that look like the real thing and being surrounded by aircraft that should be realistically be there, I don't want to go back to feeling like FSX with no addons flying default aircraft with basic texture and only half the buttons working.

 

So my question is how much of addon scenery, airports, aircraft, ai and weather are there and are they the quality of the likes of Aerosoft, OrbX, PMDG and the like?

[FIVE-BY-FIVE 453]

visit the .org for all your xp10 goodies or x-aviation

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

There is nothing to keep you from flying both (yes, on the same machine) until you can see for yourself.  X-Plane 10 even has a free trial version.

 

John

[alexcolka 183]

Yes that's right I ended the FS vs XP conflict long ago by enjoying both sims on one PC and you know what? It is great!

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

[XPX64man 130]

I also have both sims on one machine.

FSX looks good, but I have to keep from using anything that is demanding on it, or I'll get OOMs.  I can use a complex aircraft, but no AI traffic or other enhancements. 

X-Plane 10-64 is looking very good and never an OOM, no matter what my settings are.

As addons are released for XP10-64, I will eventually use it most of the time and mostly with large airliners, and keep FSX for flying VFR with my MegaScenery v.2 photoscenery.

Hopefully MegaScenery will start making photoscenery for X-Plane also.

[voodoo101 21]

OK, so I downloaded the XPlane demo but I have to say it has along way to go before I jump ship.

 

After waiting for it all to download and install, I pressed play waiting for then next gen of flight sim. I set up my yoke, thrust, etc and pressed full screen, only to be met with one screen of Xplane. I checked the menus with no joy, so I minimized and then stretched the now windowed mode to fit the three screens. Problem solved I thought but then I could not see the dials, I found the zoom buttons and started to adjust, moving backwards, forwards whilst zooming in and out but no luck.

 

OK, so I thought that maybe that was just me not finding the right settings so thrust up to check how it flew, straight into the air with hardly any power, nice and smooth. The I thought I would look at the quality of the scenery. This is when I found out why the frame rates was so good, no clouds, no AI, no land just an airport in the middle of an airport.

 

I will keep a check on XPlane as I believe it is the future flight sim once the addon developers get fed up with FSX, unless Microsoft take another look at Flight and make it what FSX should have been.

[Janov 2,383]

This is when I found out why the frame rates was so good, no clouds, no AI, no land just an airport in the middle of an airport.

Hi Craig,

 

Yes, there is no terrain or weather at all in X-Plane, we believe that flying over an endless ocean is more soothing and the developer is a huge fan of Kevin Costner in "Waterworld"!

 

Hehe, just joking - what probably happened is that you left the "demo area", which is centered around Seattle, Washington, USA. There should have been a warning, though...

You will find, however, that most default airports are just runways, taxiways and aprons. No buildings. The AI is also rudimentary, at best. There is also no " photo real scenery and recognising local areas" in default X-Plane, as you mentionend you were looking for in your flight-sim. Did I mention the missing seasons?

 

Some of these shortcomings can be overcome with downloading certain pay- or freeware and other plugins. This takes time and effort, though.

 

I honestly believe that X-Plane is probably not what you expect from a flight-simulator at this point in time. But I encourage you to come back checking on it from time to time, it keeps evolving and getting better!

 

Then again, Microsoft will probably pick up "Flight" again and make it what it should have been, before that happens ;-)

 

All the best, Jan

[uwespeed 497]

Well, of course I don't know what you are expecting from a flight simulator. I only can tell you what I am expecting and what the purpose of X-Plane is. It has a different approach to flight simming. It was made from a real pilot, and thus there are some features included which are REALLY important for flying (as I've read somewhere, X-Plane is like "think aviation").

 

In contrast to FSX there are working anti ice switches, otherwise you will fall from the sky. A real plane is able to slip (like in X-Plane, but not FSX), it may fall from the sky when entering the turbulences behind a 747 (like in X-Plane, but not FSX), it may fall from the sky when colliding with a swarm of birds (like in X-Plane, but not FSX) etc, etc.

 

Be patient, take the time. No one had FSX pimped to the max within 1 day, same applies to X-Plane. Many things in the configuration are much easier than in FSX, it is only a matter of getting used to it. Although I knew FSX configuration quite well some time ago, when I am starting FSX again just for "reference", I am "shocked" how complicated many things are (e.g. - but not only, when you have multiple control hardware). REALLY !!

[Nathan3219 113]

OK, so I downloaded the XPlane demo but I have to say it has along way to go before I jump ship.

 

I will keep a check on XPlane as I believe it is the future flight sim once the addon developers get fed up with FSX, unless Microsoft take another look at Flight and make it what FSX should have been.

 

+1

 

Have to give kudos for landscape textures though (at least on my modest system). And it looks like you have some very nice aircraft available for it.

 

Maybe X-plane 11 will be worth the migration. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it.

[Mountain Man 142]

The I thought I would look at the quality of the scenery. This is when I found out why the frame rates was so good, no clouds, no AI, no land just an airport in the middle of an airport.

 

This comment makes me strongly suspect you are trolling.  Did you seriously not check the rendering settings and make sure you had things like buildings, roads, and trees enabled?

[LAdamson 240]

Well, of course I don't know what you are expecting from a flight simulator. I only can tell you what I am expecting and what the purpose of X-Plane is. It has a different approach to flight simming. It was made from a real pilot, and thus there are some features included which are REALLY important for flying (as I've read somewhere, X-Plane is like "think aviation").

 

In contrast to FSX there are working anti ice switches, otherwise you will fall from the sky. A real plane is able to slip (like in X-Plane, but not FSX), it may fall from the sky when entering the turbulences behind a 747 (like in X-Plane, but not FSX), it may fall from the sky when colliding with a swarm of birds (like in X-Plane, but not FSX) etc, etc.

 

Be patient, take the time. No one had FSX pimped to the max within 1 day, same applies to X-Plane. Many things in the configuration are much easier than in FSX, it is only a matter of getting used to it. Although I knew FSX configuration quite well some time ago, when I am starting FSX again just for "reference", I am "shocked" how complicated many things are (e.g. - but not only, when you have multiple control hardware). REALLY !!

As far as I'm concerned, the approach to either sim "is" for realistic flightsim purposes. XP is designed by a pilot, and MSFS used many of us pilots for it's beta process. Actual pilots were also working for MSFS in the design & programming of it's flight simulations. It's the reason that MSFS was the first to use real life Jeppeson data-bases.....years ago. As to "slips", RealAir simulations (10 years or more,ago & for MSFS) became well known for their aircraft slipping ability, much before X-Plane could even roll or loop inverted & not totally loose it. From what I've heard, X-Plane doesn't model wake vortices (turbulence) beyond the model itself. Will it really knock a following airplane out of the sky. I've seen a video of a X-Plane Cessna 172 towing a 747 around the sky. Perhaps that's what you're thinking of...

 

Anyway, I'm a pilot, that will be using these sims for most future flights. It's not by choice. I'm just happy that these sims can recreate acceptable & believable flight, and have the scenery too. I don't have a problem with X-Plane (I know it's not pefect). It's just when the notion is scattered about......that trie's to portray X-Plane as the "pilots" sim, while a creation such as Microsoft is just for gamers & scenery viewers. In reality, MSFS & certainly many addons are created by pilots too.....

 

L.Adamson

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

I've been running three 23 inch monitors off one ATI Radeon 5830 for about 4 years with terrific results. I run a first generation i7-960 processor, though to be honest I had better results with an i7-930 processor (it was just a better processor from the batch, no story there really).

 

I also provide online tech support for FSX, and have tweaked countless computers. What I will tell you is that every single system is different, and there is no one tweak fits all fix.

 

Once you move to 3 screens, everything changes and you must become more knowledgeable about the inner working of FSX in order to get the most out of your sim. There is no other way I'm afraid. The reason is the demand that three monitors places on your rig.

 

Look to BufferPools, FiberFrame, Affinity Mask, and LOD at 4.5, and there are a few more that MAY be worth looking at. If you run an ATI card, use the FSL Texture FIx (Google that and it will come up), it's the best I know of for an ATI Card. Also, you'll have to run an i7 or equivalent, and you'll have to figure out what the best settings are for your graphics card (I recommend you start Application Controlled for AA and AF if you're running an ATI Card). Finally, adjust your FSX graphic settings.

 

All the info is out there, but you'll have to do your own home work and trial and error. Bottom line, you'll have to do it.

 

The only alternative is to beef up your computer to a second generation i7 processor and possible over clock it so that it will run non-tweaked FSX.

 

Finally, be VERY careful about what you read and who's advice you take.

 

It's worth it for three monitors. Several of the lads I fly with run three monitors, and none of use would ever consider going back to three monitors.

 

 

Good Luck!

 

 

Dave

[airlinejets 709]

 

I've seen a video of a X-Plane Cessna 172 towing a 747 around the sky

 

We know, it's like the twenty-umptieth time you mention it. I once saw a guy pulling a bus fully loaded with passengers...with a rope tied to his hair...

[Anxu00 176]

 

Problem solved I thought but then I could not see the dials, I found the zoom buttons and started to adjust, moving backwards, forwards whilst zooming in and out but no luck.

 

You need this plug-in to adjust your field of view for your three monitors setup:

 

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=4455

 

Just unzip the package in to the plugin folder and it will show up in your plugin menu.  XP-10 is just a teenage at the moment, but I suspect by 10.99 version it will be pretty good.  The many add-ons that make FSX looks good is now killing it with OOM and CTD.  I just had two BEX crashes yesterday with FS2Crew MD-11 and LVD767, and they were fine last week, so now I uninstalled both.  I don't have much time to spare, so now I just un-install FSX add-ons that I paid money for if it cause troubles and be done with it.

[carrotroot 77]

 

You need this plug-in to adjust your field of view for your three monitors setup:
 
http://forums.x-plan...s&showfile=4455

 

Actually, you can set the Field of View settings on the Rendering options screen. Just look for the section that says Special Viewing Options, here you can adjust the Lateral Field of View from 15.00 to 170.00 degrees. You can also set the visual offsets if you are slaving your visuals across a network.   

 

Also if you have a 3 screen setup running off of 1 computer, you should Check-mark the Matrox Triple-Head-2-Go option located on the Joysticks & Equipment Screen (you will find it under the Equipment Tab).