FSX - in 2013 is it worth the energy/time/money when I have Xplane 10?

[Tyler Smith 0]

Hello everyone,

 

I know people get tired of hearing the questions and before going back and forth between the two slims.

 

I have been trying for the last year to choose a proper flight sim that has what I want. I went with xplane last fall as it promised vast improvements with the x64 version, and improved autogen. I only have North America and still have to buy the rest of the world. The updates were completed a bit later than expected and performance increase did come with the updates to x64; however it still dives off a cliff if I add any types of shadows, or too much autogen.

 

A year later with xplane I have one plane bought (x64), the same old pay ware scenery the inside passage and the Rockies.  A ton of freeware that ranges from decent to odd building placement; however simheaven and some plugins have added much needed detail to the world.

 

Calgary is a flat waste land of a few buildings, not the city of 1.2 million that I live in today. Its missing tons of features such as nose hill (a giant national park in the heart of the north west of the city), major roads such as the deer foot/2A (Queen Elizabeth) are in shambles. The airports in Calgary and Vancouver are in better detail thanks to the pay ware, however the cities such as Vancouver has tons of autogen buildings in the water (it drives me nuts). Beyond that it’s a mess all the airports are either a building or two, or nothing at all in Canada. The rest of North American can get better depending on how much you dig through the freeware.

 

Now I keep hearing about FSX, no matter what circle I am in I hear about FSX. I see the amazing detail Twin Otter from Aero soft (to me that thing is years ahead most pay ware for xplane outside of CJR). I see all the wonderful pay ware from FTX Orbx. I already have a few pay wares such as the amazing REX, and NA Orbx from early last year.

If we ever see anything close to REX running in xplane is still a remaining question, as it has too many performance issues as it stands.

 

Back to the add-ons, in the year since I went xplane Orbx has not stopped but increased the release of such amazing content. I can barely keep my credit card away from ordering that add-on, and this weekend I saw all those amazing screenshots of Orbx global. I don’t care what people say the osm data from simheaven for xplane will not compared to the detail of that Orbx product.

 

I also enjoy the flight model in FSX a lot more, I like the community, freeware, and everything it has.

 

I was able to get FSX up and running with the limited pay ware that I have, and running with the DirectX ten fixes.  It sure looks decent, got most of the config file setup correctly however here are my concerns:

1. Stability in FSX is still an issue, I have added the menu fix but it still crashes when accessing menus
2. Vsync does not work in full screen
3. It may be fixed since I switched to the usepools=1, however before that it was crashing after less than 20 minutes of flight time from Vancouver
4. Cost of add-ons, I know you don’t need them all however to get closer to what xplane has and more it does cost
5. Windows 8 explorer crashes when not even using FSX, since it’s installing and REX my explorer crashes all the time and having a very difficult time determining the fix.

I understand that pay ware/freeware add-ons are not everything. I have seen the plus of xplane as it still being worked on, however it may never be fixed as there is so much work to be done.

FSX is a dead product if I invest money into this product anymore, is it really worth the money/time? Are developers leaving FSX by the hordes? What happens if I spend all this money and the mythical P3D 2.0 comes out next month and changes the entire playing field?

 

Should I just stick with my broken down xplane and enjoy the areas that I have, and hope one day I can enjoy the features that FSX has now, as FSX will never improve beyond what it is today without add-ons?

[JSkorna 137]

FSX may be dead by Microsoft, but there will be plenty of support by the MAJOR FS developers for YEARS to come. This includes pay and free ware.

 

No, FSX developers are not leaving FSX. They may be branching out to other sims, but they are not leaving.

 

The mythical PD3 is not entertainment software and will change very little for developers.

 

FSX will continue to improve and grow what it is today.

[ryanbatc 12,774]

Do what you think is best.

 

Since you're asking in the FSX forum you'll get biased answers, naturally.

 

Ironically the first xplane addon I bought, the Carenado A36, doesn't even work in XP10 64 (32 is worthless to me as I get OOMs in no time). Once they have that fixed I may get into XP some more.

[Lawyer+Pilot 126]

Hello everyone,

 

I know people get tired of hearing the questions and before going back and forth between the two slims.

 

I have been trying for the last year to choose a proper flight sim that has what I want. I went with xplane last fall as it promised vast improvements with the x64 version, and improved autogen. I only have North America and still have to buy the rest of the world. The updates were completed a bit later than expected and performance increase did come with the updates to x64; however it still dives off a cliff if I add any types of shadows, or too much autogen.

 

A year later with xplane I have one plane bought (x64), the same old pay ware scenery the inside passage and the Rockies.  A ton of freeware that ranges from decent to odd building placement; however simheaven and some plugins have added much needed detail to the world.

 

Calgary is a flat waste land of a few buildings, not the city of 1.2 million that I live in today. Its missing tons of features such as nose hill (a giant national park in the heart of the north west of the city), major roads such as the deer foot/2A (Queen Elizabeth) are in shambles. The airports in Calgary and Vancouver are in better detail thanks to the pay ware, however the cities such as Vancouver has tons of autogen buildings in the water (it drives me nuts). Beyond that it’s a mess all the airports are either a building or two, or nothing at all in Canada. The rest of North American can get better depending on how much you dig through the freeware.

 

Now I keep hearing about FSX, no matter what circle I am in I hear about FSX. I see the amazing detail Twin Otter from Aero soft (to me that thing is years ahead most pay ware for xplane outside of CJR). I see all the wonderful pay ware from FTX Orbx. I already have a few pay wares such as the amazing REX, and NA Orbx from early last year.

If we ever see anything close to REX running in xplane is still a remaining question, as it has too many performance issues as it stands.

 

Back to the add-ons, in the year since I went xplane Orbx has not stopped but increased the release of such amazing content. I can barely keep my credit card away from ordering that add-on, and this weekend I saw all those amazing screenshots of Orbx global. I don’t care what people say the osm data from simheaven for xplane will not compared to the detail of that Orbx product.

 

I also enjoy the flight model in FSX a lot more, I like the community, freeware, and everything it has.

 

I was able to get FSX up and running with the limited pay ware that I have, and running with the DirectX ten fixes.  It sure looks decent, got most of the config file setup correctly however here are my concerns:

 

• Stability in FSX is still an issue, I have added the menu fix but it still crashes when accessing menus
• Vsync does not work in full screen
• It may be fixed since I switched to the usepools=1, however before that it was crashing after less than 20 minutes of flight time from Vancouver
• Cost of add-ons, I know you don’t need them all however to get closer to what xplane has and more it does cost
• Windows 8 explorer crashes when not even using FSX, since it’s installing and REX my explorer crashes all the time and having a very difficult time determining the fix.

I understand that pay ware/freeware add-ons are not everything. I have seen the plus of xplane as it still being worked on, however it may never be fixed as there is so much work to be done.

FSX is a dead product if I invest money into this product anymore, is it really worth the money/time? Are developers leaving FSX by the hordes? What happens if I spend all this money and the mythical P3D 2.0 comes out next month and changes the entire playing field?

 

Should I just stick with my broken down xplane and enjoy the areas that I have, and hope one day I can enjoy the features that FSX has now, as FSX will never improve beyond what it is today without add-ons?

For me X-Plane is worthless. As long as the likes of PMDG and Majestic are developing planes for FSX, X-Plane simply can't compete. If you want high fidelity aircraft, you don't really have a choice.

 

As far as configuring FSX is concerned, the way you described your setup, it sounds like you have made the all too common mistake of hodgepodge tweaking. Don't pollute your FSX.cfg with every tweak available on the internet. Many people make suggestions with absolutely no basis in fact. Balance is key. Find a guide--ONE guide--and follow it to the letter, from fresh install until the end. I'd suggest Word Not Allowed's FSX/P3D Hardware and Software Guide. There are others (NickN, the "Official" Avsim guide, etc.).

[Tyler Smith 0]

I didn't want to write a book, however I am using Word Not Allowed guide, and the only other edit was the usepools=1

[PingPong 60]

I have both, and use both.  I love XPX 10 for GA flying, haven't done too much with the heavies.

 

I just did a lean reinstall of FSX, with respect to keeping the VAS from overflowing, and it's running great and stable.  There are some quality addons in FSX that have yet to materialize in XPX.  I love Realair, Fly Tampa Airports, etc.  and I would miss not using them if I were exclusively using XPX.

[Tyler Smith 0]

I am thinking I am in a bitter mood, as I been having a lot of issues with xplane lately. Seeing the twin otter, and ftx global made be reconsider that FSX is a much better choice for what I want to do..

[alexcolka 183]

I was in that dilemma a couple of years ago, now I enjoy both sims and ended the conflict in my mind. Enjoy both sims if you can.

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

 

[xplanery 250]

For tweaking you could try also this automatic tool, take a backup of your fsx.cfg before using it:

 

http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html

 

It might work or might not. For some people its tweaking gives no advantage or might even give worse performance than before, then for some like me it seems to work well, after I ran my fsx.cfg through it I have gotten quite good and stable performance, good enough to make me not bother go through any tweaking guide.

 

If it doesn't work for you all you have to do is restore your old fsx.cfg to get rid of the changes made by that tool.

 

I will definitely stay with FSX and continue developing for it, lately I've started to experiment more with 3D modeling, I think I will get my first airport scenery product out within 6 months ( a couple of small airports in Greece) though it's the final year in college for me so studying eats a lot of potential development time...

[Tyler Smith 0]

Nice I have seen that FSX tweak site before, that is the one that gave me odd results the last time I tried to use it.

 

Next up is either Shade or an ENB, I love eye candy!

[Boomer 1,619]

IMHO XPX is not ready for the full flight sim experience, good as a training tool sure. FSX is still a superior full simulator with tons of qulaity add-ons. XPX is largely a barren world landacape. Plus (I hear, correct me if Im wrong), Austin could be a little better at listening and responding to what his customers want to see added or improved on in XPX.

 

BTW I have both sims andso speak from first hand experience.

[Tyler Smith 0]

Well I do agree on that Austin has been difficult, and has not really listened that the airports and autogens need to be fixed.

 

Instead we get more lighting and other odd fixes.

[Tyler Smith 0]

I think I'm going to buy a few payware that I have my eyes on for FSX. Once I get running stable and time to move on from Xplane. I just don't see much of a reason to waste any more money/time on xplane..

[tonywob 4,768]

Well I use both sims, and there is probably no reason why you shouldn't use both if you have the hard-drive space. That way, you can jump between the sims , and keep up-to-date with X-Plane as the continuing updates are pushed out. 

 

With X-Plane I have several Carenado planes, but I don't have any commercial scenery. I use the scenery from simheaven.com and alpilotx, and this gives me some great scenery, and this is for free (although I did donate). I have most of the UK covered with photoscenery and autogen, and whilst some parts look patchy, others look very convincing, and it's easily possible to use real VFR charts and do flights with it. Therefore, If I want to do simple VFR flights, X-Plane beats FSX for me, this is using free scenery. However, I can't stand a few things in X-Plane like adjusting frequencies (why can't they let me use the mousewheel) or the GPS, which is why I keep it mostly limited to simple VFR flights or tracking VORs. The demo area also is pretty convincing, and is really well done.

 

FSX excels for me for IFR flights, just because of the sheer number of high-quality addons available, such as PMDG, RealityXP, Majestic, OpusFSX, ProATCx, etc. I have a huge collection of scenery, mostly ORBX and FranceVFR, but generally spend most of my time in the sim high up and above the clouds. I occasionally do low-and-slow in FSX, but I find the scenery pretty lifeless, especially compared to the traffic and lighting in X-Plane. If I could get these addons into X-Plane, I'd dump FSX in a heartbeat, but unfortunately I can't, so I simply use both. 

 

X-Plane being 64-bit, isn't plagued by the crash-to-desktops, and things like being able to change the time of day and the ability to run a Mac OS X and Linux are huge advantages also. I'm eagerly awaiting P3D 2.0 and what this will bring. 

 

But honestly, no sim can really outweight the other for me, and I just use both depending on what mood I'm in, where I want to fly and which aircraft I want to use

[lodestar 186]

FSX - in 2013 is it worth the energy/time/money when I have Xplane 10?

 

Yes, absolutely! 

 

BTW, if you are using Word Not Allowed's guide, leave pools like there(Usepools=0) - becouse his guide is based on that. If you change this, you will not get the performance