There's more than a grain of truth in the blog linked by the OP.

 

Laminar essentially had the desktop flight sim market handed to them on a plate when Aces were shut down. Yet here we are in 2014 and X-Plane is still lacking key features such as seasonal textures, proper AI traffic, half-decent ATC, a decent weather injector and regional autogen. It took an age to get Laminar to even admit the torque bug was in fact a bug and not how propeller driven aircraft really fly!

 

The glacial pace at which things move in Laminar's development is pretty indicative in my mind at least that they simply aren't interested in becoming the market leader or desktop flight sim of choice, and are essentially working in a bubble isolated from the wider flight sim hobby. X-Plane has been for many years a cult flight sim, followed by a relatively small number of very devoted advocates, and it looks like Laminar are happy for it to continue this way.

 

This is all extremely frustrating because right now X-Plane 10.25 is the most technically advanced and future proof desktop flight sim available.... and yes I include P3Dv2 in that assessment. The potential in XP10 right now is incredible and if Laminar actually pulled their finger out and gave XP10 the development resources it deserves they could surge ahead of every other flight sim platform currently available. XP addon developers are achieving some really remarkable stuff, yet Laminar have been incredibly slow to implement key features which will be needed to generate the interest in X-Plane required for the XP addon market to flourish like the FSX one has.

 

There's still a good window of opportunity for XP to become the sim of choice for most, and that would require them to implement the features people have been asking for before P3D goes 64bit. If Laminar fails to do this then X-Plane will continue to be the "also ran" of desktop flight sims.

Of course a larger team could do more work and sometimes I'm mad at Laminar for not fixing little annoying things. On the other hand I think we all greatly underestimate the difficulties LR is facing with XP10. They have to develop for 3 OS (32 bit and 64 bit version for each) and a wide range of hardware, they have to take existing plugins and addon into consideration, they try to keep the rendering engine up to date, move the process of airport submission forward, work on the documentation on tools, add features to a complex sim, deal with community and 3PDs demands and a lot more. The X-plane universe is very complex and active and every step has to take all of that into account. And still every new step will create a lot of new problems.

 

I think they are not interested to be the flightsim market leader. XP10 will always be a laboratory and never a finished product. It's called Laminar RESEARCH and we all are part of an ongoing process of try and error, pushing limits, high flying plans, and testing patience. We have to deal with it.

 

Flo

As flight simulation geeks, so many of us see the potential in X-Plane but we just can't find the time to put any effort into it because our other platforms give us all we need and then some. As geeks, we want to see X-Plane succeed, and it just disappoints us to see it move so slowly.

 

For those of us feeling that way, we're simply getting tired of dealing with the possibilities and potentials with regards to X-Plane, and want to start seeing more results. I think it's only natural, considering for months on end we've heard "just wait for 10.10, wait for 10.20/64-bit, wait for 10.21, wait for 10.25... wait for 10.30"

 

As I mentioned in a thread found on the PMDG forums.....

 

"When Laminar Research and 3rd party developers bring more "can", "does", and "will" to X-Plane's table instead of "could", "might" and "hoped", I think you'll see things start to change a bit more."

 

I can't help but agree (sometimes strongly) with many points made in that blog. To see so many of the issues that us want-to-be-converts raised from XP10's birth be only partially addressed, completely untouched, or get shunted towards the community to fix does not inspire much confidence in having things done within the lifespan of XP10.... which brings up the age old saying...

 

Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, shame on me.

 

-Greg

Interesting rant on xsimreview. I even agree with him on a few points.

Yet, the really fun part is when he says:

 

"Results? Predictable. Languishing sim. Fading interest."

 

:LMAO: :LMAO: :LMAO:

 

Sure. Just look at the activity at this forum and at the general screenshot forum.

Interesting rant on xsimreview. I even agree with him on a few points.

Yet, the really fun part is when he says:

 

 

 

:LMAO: :LMAO: :LMAO:

 

Sure. Just look at the activity at this forum and at the general screenshot forum.

Yeah, but a lot of the new interest has honestly been generated by SkyMaxx. (And the hd mesh) Interest that could have been generated a long time ago by developments from laminar itself. That's been the story of the sim.

 

The closing of Aces was a huge gift, but the response of Laminar seemed to be to sail along pretty much as if not a thing had changed; as if the FSX market would just naturally fall into their laps with minimal effort on their part. Totally wasted opportunity.

 

Now P3Dv2 has had a bad stumble out of the starting gate and also will probably not be going 64bit anytime soon. Yet another free gift to Laminar, but will they proactively seize the opportunity? Previous experience says probably not.

 

I would not be the least bit startled to find in two years when P3D is going 64bit, we will be embroiled in X-Plane 11 with yet another series of hints that all the unfulfilled hints in X-plane 10 will finally be fulfilled. All that's needed is yet a bit more time and patience......

 

Maybe they will even get it.

For me there is only one serious competitor - Aerowinx PSX - but that is strictly b747 ...

Well, and some rumours of what ELITE v9 could be :-)

 

Yet, none of these covers the wide range of aircraft types that can be simulated in X-Plane...

HiFlyer, infact I didn't even argued those points, my post was just aimed at the ridicoulousness of his statement:

 

"Results? Predictable. Languishing sim. Fading interest."

 

Which is clearly not true.

@Murmur. My reply was to the remark about activity here and in the screen shot forum.

 

 

Yeah, but a lot of the new interest has honestly been generated by SkyMaxx. (And the hd mesh) Interest that could have been generated a long time ago by developments from laminar itself. That's been the story of the sim.

 

I completely agree, there has been a lot more interest in X-Plane 10 over the last few months here because of products like SkyMaxx Pro, HD Mesh v2 and Simheaven's scenery. I think we'll see another surge of interest when the ixeg 737 classic comes out (if it ever does). The interest could also be because some people after trying P3D v2, were left a bit disappointed.

 

Crazily enough, ximreviews hasn't even looked at either Skymaxx Pro and HD Mesh v2. Both being IMO game changers for X-Plane. So, I think that says a lot about how the writers of the blog now feel about X-Plane. 

There is a business side of things in this topic that is being ignored, and that is that a rapid business expansion can be quite risky.

 

I've dealt with many a small company that had a good thing going, only to try to get too big, too fast and end up in bankruptcy.

 

Laminar Research is not a big corporation, it is a privately owned business. Austin is a smart guy and I don't believe he's looking to be a billionaire. He plays things safe and smart, he should as it's his livelihood.

 

Trying to be #1 can very easily and quickly be a ruin.

I completely agree, there has been a lot more interest in X-Plane 10 over the last few months here because of products like SkyMaxx Pro, HD Mesh v2 and Simheaven's scenery. I think we'll see another surge of interest when the ixeg 737 classic comes out (if it ever does).

Exactly, but I think this is exactly what Laminar wants. In the beginning of X-Plane 10 everything looked more or less the dame as usual X-Plane versions. But I think then something happened. They had the possibility to speak with 3rd party developers that were not used to x-plane and what these people are capable of.

 

They can deliver much more and faster than everything they could hope to do by themselves. And they realized that they could be a solution. But what these developers need are stable plattforms and clear interfaces. So they tried to get a better structure into their development process, while user features were more or less pushed aside.

 

They are a very small company. They were never able to grab the FSX market directly. They are unable to integrate more than one or two new developers into their team at the same time and it can take up to a year to integrate a new developer into their team. And every new team member decreases the productivity of a single member.

 

There is a reason why Microsoft shut down Aces. While their products made the break even, from a financial standpoint  they were never really successful. For this kind of market they were simply too big.

 

Now we have only 3 different projects: X-Plane, P3D and flightgear.

 

flightgear obviously isw in no position to really attack X-Plane. Prepare3D on the other hand is a part of a huge company but the members that are really working full time for Prepare3D are probably no more than  the number of developers Laminar can use. While Prepare has the advantage that it inherited everything FSX had, they are also less flexible than Laminar. It was impotant that Laminar made the big jump to 64 bit (which broke the compatibility for every plug-in with 10.20, since they now have everything in 64 bit space..And if you look around there are many developers who simply no longer bother with 32 bit support. So they have only 2 or 3 different platforms to support..

While the Mac was originally the lead platform this has already changedf or the graphics interface since there are much better debugging tools under windows.

 

And if you look around you see that the number of peoples that are X-Plane aware increases. That's all that it takes.

FSX would have never replaced FS9 without the help of add-ons. And X-Plane won't replace FSX or P3D directly.

Laminar has already made the foundation for add-on developers. They can simply improve their systems without any general compatibility changes. Everything that an add-on developer now makes should still work with the last version of X-Plane 10 and probably even under X-Plane 11!.

Morale among XP users seems to go in waves. When I first bought it people were looking forward to or enjoying the recent release of 10.21, the Saab, HD mesh 1 etc. then things went quiet for a month or two and people started to grumble (me included). Then it was 10.25, FF 757, SkyMaxx, HD Mesh 2, Stewart airport, Carenado King Air and everything was rosy again.

 

At the moment there doesn't seem to be many concrete 'next big things' to look forward to, just a few screenshots and unclear release timetables for John's winter textures, the never-coming IXEG 737, and whatever 10.30 is whenever it's eventually released.

 

A few screenshots of future projects and we'll probably all be lauding XP's potential again. In the meantime I'm still exploring and thoroughly enjoying the many nooks and crannies of HD2 mesh in slow vfr trips. I still haven't made it out of Alaska / Canada there's so much to see..

 

 

I still haven't made it out of Alaska / Canada there's so much to see..

 

It's a pretty hard place to leave whether it be flight simming or real life

Morale among XP users seems to go in waves. When I first bought it people were looking forward to or enjoying the recent release of 10.21, the Saab, HD mesh 1 etc. then things went quiet for a month or two and people started to grumble (me included). Then it was 10.25, FF 757, SkyMaxx, HD Mesh 2, Stewart airport, Carenado King Air and everything was rosy again.

 

At the moment there doesn't seem to be many concrete 'next big things' to look forward to, just a few screenshots and unclear release timetables for John's winter textures, the never-coming IXEG 737, and whatever 10.30 is whenever it's eventually released.

 

A few screenshots of future projects and we'll probably all be lauding XP's potential again. In the meantime I'm still exploring and thoroughly enjoying the many nooks and crannies of HD2 mesh in slow vfr trips. I still haven't made it out of Alaska / Canada there's so much to see..

 

I don't think that's a cycle entirely exclusive of X-plane, though in the other sim the enthusiasm cycles are more steered by 3rd party advances...

 

The difference is (as we are constantly reminded) that XPX is a "Living" sim backed by current development. The frustration is that the development has been ongoing through several iterations of the sim, with many things now considered to be basic still outstanding for future consideration.

 

At some point it has to become acceptable to ask exactly when these things are coming, and to look askance at the repeated pleas to consider the size of the company, give them just a bit more time, etc.

 

If XPX has a feeling of momentum, its due to third parties who believe in it struggling to push the boundaries, poking LR to get access to the things that allow them to significantly advance the sim. Its not a confidence inspiring situation at this point, because the rest of the world isn't standing still and times-a-wasting.

 

Its harder and harder to believe that LR is playing to win, and more and more apparent that distant second is probably fine with them.

 

Well, I use several sims. I actually like XPX, and right now it has my attention, but there can really only be one primary sim where the majority of my money for add-ons goes. If you were a developer, who would you go with? The number one sim? Or the one puttering along seemingly oblivious and doing its own little thing at iteration 10?

 

And if the large developers are all elsewhere and show little sign of coming to the party, where does that practically demand consumers go, if not now, then eventually?

I am still a complete newbie to XP.

And although i have it at home it also just recently got my attention again due to great add-ons such as SkyMaxx and others.

 

And just as so many others too, i for now also sit on the fence and wait and see where the journey goes before i decide whether to further join in or not.

 

But i wonder if one of the people in charge at Laminar sometimes reads through any of these threads at the XP-forums here.

In my opinion, Scotchegg, or HiFlyer (and many others!) describe perfectly (above in #27 and #29), in what state/situation XP currently is and why - if the momentum is not being used properly by Laminar now - XP will again fall back into the shadows of other flightsims eventually.

 

I really hope the best for XP and will certainly give it a serious try again if (whenever?) version 10.30 will be available.

And i thoroughly wish that - finall ?! - some of the people in charge at Laminar will take note of all the many various and quite constructive input and feedback which is provided here by so many XP enthusiasts and potential future XP users.

Cheers, Christoph