Is anyone actually saying that? It's about the quantity of free scenery available now. And if we're going to compare to Orbx, let's at least compare payware.

 

I was specifically referring to a quote by ianrivaldosmith where it was stated that XPlane freeware "leaves Orbx in the dust." That's what made me curious to see screenshots of said freeware. Otherwise I would never compare freeware to payware. Especially Orbx payware. It would be ridiculous to do so.

Each sim has it's strengths, and weaknesses.

 

One strong point in favor of XP10 is the in-sim Nav data - VORs, NDBs, airways, waypoints, localizers etc. These are defined independently of the underlying terrain and airports, in simple text files, which are easily updated. In fact, both Navigraph and Aerosoft now offer monthly updates of the XP10 navigation data as part of their subscription AIRAC service. Result: XP Nav data typically mirrors the current state of the real world navaids and airways.

 

FSX built-in Nav data by contrast, is stuck in 2006, when the sim was released. Not so much a problem for modern FMS-equipped add-ons, which typically do not rely on FSX internal Nav data for things like waypoints and airways, but a major problem for all users when it comes to things like airport ILS facilities. These are not easily changed en masse, because by design, airport navigation aids are "baked into" the actual bgl files that define airports, and modifying the data requires a tedious multiple-step process using scenery design tools like AFD... and the navaid data for all of FSX's 20,000+ airports is scattered across thousands of individual bgl files.

 

XP airport navaids are all contained in ONE single file called "airport.dat" which can much more easily be updated. score one for XP.

 

The identical situation, (but in reverse), exists for scenery textures. Here, Microsoft long ago made the wise choice of separating ground textures from the underlying terrain bgl files, making it possible to instantly change textures throughout the sim world to match the season, just by changing the in-game date.

 

By contrast in XP's scenery, the textures are (in a sense) "baked into" the underlying terrain, just MS did with its navigation data - a design choice that might have made sense many years ago when XP was new, but which now presents a problem in implementing rapid texture changes from one season to another. The textures in XP CAN be changed en masse- but not instantly by just changing the in-sim date and doing a scenery refresh as you can in FSX - score one for Microsoft.

 

One thing definitely in favor of XP in the long run is that the sim is continually evolving and growing, and definitely is optimized for modern hardware far better than FSX, with full multiple-core, or even multiple-processor support, 64-bit memory model, etc.

 

It remains to be seen what DTG will do with FSX in terms of updating the core sim.

 

For me, it's not a choice of one sim or the other. I have both installed, though I am using XP quite a bit these days, especially now that some excellent third-party pro-quality add-on planes have come along in the last couple of years, I definitely will continue to use FSX for a long time to come. In fact, I plan to purchase the new ORBX Europe OpenLC tonight, and will be anxiously awaiting the arrival of the PMDG T7 update, which looks to be going live within the next few days.

Here are some great freeware makers, there are a ton of truly high quality airport and regions for free. http://fred-e.net/

 

Thank you.

I was specifically referring to a quote by ianrivaldosmith where it was stated that XPlane freeware "leaves Orbx in the dust." That's what made me curious to see screenshots of said freeware. Otherwise I would never compare freeware to payware. Especially Orbx payware. It would be ridiculous to do so.

 

Not ridiculous at all imo. I use high definition (higher than I've ever seen in FSX/P3d) photoscenery I was able to generate myself with OSM trees, buildings etc. laid on their proper footprint. All free. Orbx simply can't compete with that with their cartoony pretend scenery as far as I'm concerned.

Its free that's the best part. and the second best part HD Mesh v2 is great.  There are so many free add ons and they are absolutely fantastic.