I am away for the week on the road and I finally bought XPX global. My wife said there was a package me from Laminar Research, so like any one of us would do, I down played it and said to just leave it on my desk and ill see it when I get home.

 

Ok so I've bought XPX I am not sure if I'm going to like it or not but I felt I needed to at least support LR and any one that is keeping this hobby going. Now to be clear I am not about to start a FSX vs XPX vs P3D vs whatever. I believe in this product now and that is why I've dumped $80 and risking being in the dog house for the foreseeable future with the mrs.

 

Questions I have for XP flyers are

1. How is the ATC compare to te default FSX?

 

2. Will there ever be seasonal textures you know, winter spring summer fall?

 

3. Will the default airports ever have buildings?

 

4. Is there a AI traffic program like My Traffic or whatever?

 

5. I've heard that XPX uses real aerodynamics, if so if I made a toilet with a landing gear it wouldn't fly? Or if it did it would fly crappy ( no pun intended)

 

6. I have Track IR and the only view that worked in the demo was I believe Shift 9. Is there a setting or program like EZDOK camera for XPX? Also can you create different views that would use Track IR?

 

7. Is there still development ongoing after version 10.21

 

8. Are there plans to make the city's look more like they should? I've seen a YouTube video of Las Vegas and it looked like Nebraska. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DfJcZD918wU

 

9. Does anybody know a good hotel to stay just incase she opens the package befor I get home?

I can answer a few questions for you:

 

1. Both are terrible - about the same IMO and I use neither  

4. Yes, It's called World Traffic

6. Yes, It's called pilotview (free) - and XPX has much more you can do wth the camera for saved views etc...pilotview has its own trackir profile do make sure you are tweaking the setting for that in TIR software...

7. Yes, 10.30 on the distant horizon

8. Yes - check out http://www.truscenery.com/ they have some free Finland OSM and mesh and a lighting file. Their stuff is top notch.

In general XPX stock is lightyears ahead of stock FSX....BUT the payware is still lacking that little extra bit of "polish" that you see compared to say a PMDG airplane. Keep in mind most of these aircraft developers are waaaay smaller than FSX devs and they do pretty good work for the size of their teams. That will be fixed with the first PMDG release( could be a while) There are some things that will make you pause in XPX and say "wow" , stuff that you just can't do in FSX I'll leave that to you to find them for yourself.

 

That being said my aircraft favorites: the 777, the JR Jetstream 32 and CRJ 200,dden Challenger 300 Captain Edition and Carenado for your GA stuff. If you are into choppers there is a Eurocopter that is amazing as well. ( just my personal favs don't jump me if I missed 1)

 

EDIT: The 757 that will be released soon is looking VERY good and professional. A definate must buy as well.

I believe in this product now and that is why I've dumped $80 and risking being in the dog house for the foreseeable future with the mrs.

9. Does anybody know a good hotel to stay just incase she opens the package befor I get home?

 

You don't need Windows anymore, X-Plane runs great on a free GNU/Linux distribution. So in the future, you'll never need to pay a penny more to Microsoft.

 

You'll save the price of an operating system license for your next PC, and your PC will be easier to use. This can help for the WAF. :wink:

5. I've heard that XPX uses real aerodynamics, if so if I made a toilet with a landing gear it wouldn't fly? Or if it did it would fly crappy ( no pun intended)

 

Well, toilets can fly, provided you equip them with wings and an engine!  There are also toilet gliders, where the engine is really not required :-)

 

To honestly answer your question, yes and not exactly... Yes because XPX's FDM does take into account not the form of some particular components of your aircraft cell but rather the aerodynamic effects/properties they can have, and contrarily to MSFS, decomposes an aircraft into it's components that can generated lift and drag, and calculates the effects of each component by itself. The final outcome is the "sum" of all lift and drag forces, weights, thrusts.

 

Yet, this approach not being exaustive still requires fine tunning, and that can be done easily, if you learn how to, through the excellent Plane Maker app that comes with X-Plane.

 

Even better, if you don't want to mess around with that, buy the best aircraft add-ons :-)

 

- Asymmetric thrust effects are much better in XPX than in any MSFS aircraft.

- Prop physics, as well as turbine and jet engine characteristics can be much better designed in XPX

- Rexiprocatins prop engines, injected engines, etc don't suffer from the standard bugs of MSFS (leaning bug + prop vs mp bug, i.e.)

- There is simply no way to compare rotary wing / helicopters in XPX to what we get in MSFS. I can say that the best helicopter add-ons for XPX are on pair with my two DCS World helicopter modules. They're simply light-years ahead of the best you can have for MSFS!

- etc...

 

P.S.: There is the risk of your wife having oppened the pack and already installed XPX... It'll take you a lot of PC flying time in the future... Women can also become sim-addicts (can't they girls ????), and the visuals of XPS, with great (mostly freeware) sceneries you can install are trully tempting for even someone not really fan of flight simulators...

Hi, welcome to the world of x plane. About your questions.

 

1. How is the ATC compare to te default FSX?

 

Truthfully, its not good and in need of a bit of an ovehaul. Fsx nudges XPX on this on at the moment.

 

2. Will there ever be seasonal textures you know, winter spring summer fall?

Yes, their being worked on not just by LR but a few 3rd parties to

 

3. Will the default airports ever have buildings?

Yes and no. In truth, only a few default airports have buildings right now. But by the end of the year that may change. Users will have the option to make thier own airports using World Editor or WED. When they've finished, they can submit the airport to LR and once its approved, it will be packaged up with the next update and sent to every XPX user. If this works, we could see XPX's scenery grow massively and that would be brilliant.

 

4. Is there a AI traffic program like My Traffic or whatever?

 

At the moment we have a program called World traffic. It's a bit basic at the moment but it'll get better as the developer is working on it.

 

5. I've heard that XPX uses real aerodynamics, if so if I made a toilet with a landing gear it wouldn't fly? Or if it did it would fly crappy ( no pun intended)

 

Like jcomm says, it's better and not. In truth the best way to describe XPX FDM is that its different. It's better in some areas but not it. Others. Thy it and see how you feel. If your expecting 'as real as it gets' then you'll be dissapointed. No sim, even those nice big motion platform ones are a substitute for the real thing.

 

6. I have Track IR and the only view that worked in the demo was I believe Shift 9. Is there a setting or program like EZDOK camera for XPX? Also can you create different views that would use Track IR?

 

There's a plugin called pilotview I think. It's tricky to set up, but it works like EZDOK. I'm sure others will correct me if I'm wrong here.

 

7. Is there still development ongoing after version 10.21

 

Oh yes. Updates have slowed down since the launch, but that's a good thing. Currently the next big update 10.30 promises to bring new, more regional autogen. LR is constantly tweaking and fixing issues so expect big updates at least every 6 months.

 

8. Are there plans to make the city's look more like they should? I've seen a YouTube video of Las Vegas and it looked like Nebraska. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DfJcZD918wU

 

It's possible that the new autogen will help,but I'm sure there'll be plenty of 3rd parties working on sceneries to help.

 

9. Does anybody know a good hotel to stay just incase she opens the package befor I get home?

 

I like the Hilton, Tokyo Bay. It's a little far but perfect to unwind in, plus your right next to Tokyo Disney.

I hope my answers help.

 

Best wishes,

Jess B

 

EDIT: The 757 that will be released soon is looking VERY good and professional. A definate must buy as well.

 

is there any news on when the B757 will be released?

 

Thanks, Bruce.

 

 

is there any news on when the B757 will be released?

 

Thanks, Bruce.

Planned release is for this month, barring any delays.

Thanks-

I am away for the week on the road and I finally bought XPX global. My wife said there was a package me from Laminar Research, so like any one of us would do, I down played it and said to just leave it on my desk and ill see it when I get home.

 

Ok so I've bought XPX I am not sure if I'm going to like it or not but I felt I needed to at least support LR and any one that is keeping this hobby going. Now to be clear I am not about to start a FSX vs XPX vs P3D vs whatever. I believe in this product now and that is why I've dumped $80 and risking being in the dog house for the foreseeable future with the mrs.

 

Questions I have for XP flyers are

1. How is the ATC compare to te default FSX?

 

2. Will there ever be seasonal textures you know, winter spring summer fall?

 

3. Will the default airports ever have buildings?

 

4. Is there a AI traffic program like My Traffic or whatever?

 

5. I've heard that XPX uses real aerodynamics, if so if I made a toilet with a landing gear it wouldn't fly? Or if it did it would fly crappy ( no pun intended)

 

6. I have Track IR and the only view that worked in the demo was I believe Shift 9. Is there a setting or program like EZDOK camera for XPX? Also can you create different views that would use Track IR?

 

7. Is there still development ongoing after version 10.21

 

8. Are there plans to make the city's look more like they should? I've seen a YouTube video of Las Vegas and it looked like Nebraska. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DfJcZD918wU

 

9. Does anybody know a good hotel to stay just incase she opens the package befor I get home?

Hello,

 

You will find that you, yourself will answer most of your newbie XPX questions.  Give yourself time. I have had it a month, and am still learning, doing, finding great features within.

 

Mitch