Getting started with X-plane... Worth it?

[deetee 164]

Talking of SMP2 - I went back to the vanilla XP clouds as the former was causing regular 1-2 sec pauses every 30 secs on my system.

Mind you I had the draw distance maxed out, but that's the only way to go with airliners.

[tonywob 4,769]

 

 

Reason is simple Fsx was developed by a billion dollar company with heavy resources, hence you have lots of stuff , same with P3d which is the engine of Fsx.

 

I don't think this is LR's goal. XP10 is such a powerful platform that I'm shocked it isn't developed more heavily and with more backing behind it. Features that would entice over FSX/P3D users aren't high on the priority list for LR, and this is such a pity as I'm sure another simulator is going to come along and steal away the gaping hole that is currently open to LR at the moment to conquer. 

 

Also, the version of X-Plane 10 I bought (I think 2 years ago) is a very different beast to v10.30 that we have today, and for that I'm thankful. Work is continuing (slowly), and there have been some great updates, that others companies would have charged for.

[Humpty 751]

I don't think this is LR's goal. XP10 is such a powerful platform that I'm shocked it isn't developed more heavily and with more backing behind it. Features that would entice over FSX/P3D users aren't high on the priority list for LR, and this is such a pity as I'm sure another simulator is going to come along and steal away the gaping hole that is currently open to LR at the moment to conquer. 

 

Also, the version of X-Plane 10 I bought (I think 2 years ago) is a very different beast to v10.30 that we have today, and for that I'm thankful. Work is continuing (slowly), and there have been some great updates, that others companies would have charged for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nah , I did not mean to say that's it LR's goal. But it should be.

 

 The problem is most of us simmers are so hooked on to the FS band wagon that we start missing some of it in XPX.

 

XPX yes a powerful engine and showing its potential. The problem could be LR internal , they may not have those resources or LR just does not want to make a product which would please us from all the angles, nor do I think that any sim is capable of doing that. IMO LR has reached a stage where probably over many versions they would / could  give you a full fledged product. They should start looking at the market demand.

 

 There is a gap yes but in my opinion nor P3d or even Aerofly  / FG can fill it. 

 

 The way I see it .   W2XP and HD Mesh V2 has changed it.

 

 

 

P.S. 

 

 I just tried W2xp (simheaven 5.1 SD Berlin) looked so freaking great but crash. The system can not handle the load :(.

[tonywob 4,769]

 

 

LR just does not want to make a product which would please us from all the angles

 

My point exactly, and it's hard to please everyone :smile:. Problem is we were told about better ATC/AI when the XP10 betas started, and it hasn't changed much since. I'm a scenery guy myself and I put more on the visuals and feel of the aircraft than system simulation, but I know the such simulation is important to a lot of people.

 

 

 

I just tried W2xp (simheaven 5.1 SD Berlin) looked so freaking great but crash. The system can not handle the load .

 

Get out of the cities. Try well mapped rural areas. You'll get great performance and the scenery looks better.

[Mountain Man 142]

If you're on Linux or OSX then X-Plane 10 is literally the only game in town.  Well, there's FlightGear, too, which is still a bit clunky even after decades of development, but it does have the advantage of being free.

[learn-by-flying 37]

What I simply do not understand is why the weather engine and data points changed/were removed. XP10 if it could compete on the weather level to the same degree to what ASN can do I believe a lot more simmers would make the switch.

 

On a side note, ESP based sims rely on DirectX and not OpenGL; for those of us that refuse to upgrade their OS when directx updates come rolling and only get pushed to windows 8+, XP will look like a really good option.

[tonywob 4,769]

 

 

What I simply do not understand is why the weather engine and data points changed/were removed. XP10 if it could compete on the weather level to the same degree to what ASN can do I believe a lot more simmers would make the switch.

 

I'd have to disagree. FSX/P3D users simply have too much invested in their platform and see installing XP10 as the sudden end of all their big investment (Which isn't true). The weather depiction seems decent enough, although yes, I agree it certainly needs some work. The lack of ATC/AI is also another factor. I believe even if we had AI/ATC and better weather, people still wouldn't try it because there is no PMDG, ORBX, etc (This is just the impression I get from reading the posts that often popup here)

 

Now that it's on steam, it's pretty easy to go and buy it (although I'd rather buy it on DVD, as I dislike Steam and other gaming distributors). Again, when you install X-Plane, you don't need to go ahead and uninstall all FSX/P3D and all your addons, and hopefully more sales on X-Plane means more development.

[Longranger 148]

What I simply do not understand is why the weather engine and data points changed/were removed.

Simply because these options didn't went into the direction that they needed. A direct interaction with Active Sky Next would certainly be something, that most would want (including Laminar) but if they find a road block they have to find a way to get around it. It wouldn't help if they< would allow acess to hal ffinished systems.

[jcomm 5,936]

I am using an external weather injector based on weather modeling for the whole Earth, including jetstream patterns and non-ISA atmosphere.

 

This is a unique weather engine, IMO well ahead of what we presently have for any other sim. So far the weather generated by this external engine is injected through a plugin, but since there is a very strict / limited area around the present aircraft position where the weather datarefs in X-plane 10 are active, the end result is really not as good as it could be, and there are sudden jumps, like those that, after all, we get when we download RWW in X-Plane 10.

 

I think this has to do with the way weather was programmed in XP10, and I fear we will not have anything significantly different before XP11 comes out :-/

 

This is an area where users coming from MSFS will feel necessarily disappointed.

[learn-by-flying 37]

I'd have to disagree. FSX/P3D users simply have too much invested in their platform and see installing XP10 as the sudden end of all their big investment (Which isn't true). The weather depiction seems decent enough, although yes, I agree it certainly needs some work. The lack of ATC/AI is also another factor. I believe even if we had AI/ATC and better weather, people still wouldn't try it because there is no PMDG, ORBX, etc (This is just the impression I get from reading the posts that often popup here)

 

Now that it's on steam, it's pretty easy to go and buy it (although I'd rather buy it on DVD, as I dislike Steam and other gaming distributors). Again, when you install X-Plane, you don't need to go ahead and uninstall all FSX/P3D and all your addons, and hopefully more sales on X-Plane means more development.

 

P3D users had to dump some of their higher end simulations, PMDG for example locked their latest product our of P3D. Except for seasons, I like the XP default scenery much better than anything that LM has to offer; XP has the gift of a lot of freeware scenery provided for it which makes it look truly more immersive. I've got no experience with ATC programs as I've always flown on VATSIM which xp has a client for, maybe this is a huge sticking point in the community.

 

Unfortunately people do not like change and on the ESP side, REX is the standard for textures and they have a very good weather engine. If REX could develop a product for XP10 like they did XP9 I believe many will follow.

[uwespeed 497]

If REX could develop a product for XP10 like they did XP9 I believe many will follow.

 

Actually, I have read such things quite often, like "if there was a nice Cessna Caravan, I think, I would convert to XP", "if there was a nice ..." etc. etc.

 

 

Unfortunately people do not like change ...

 

That's the bigger problem in my opinion. The XP community is growing and growing, though. But it simply takes time, until people change their habit.

Nevertheless, I for myself  enjoy XP since 8 years .