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


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Posted

Hello!

 

I'm user who have extensively used simulators FS9 and FSX as they are the simulator of preference as they have wide userbase, great amount of freeware airports, the Tu-134s and Tu-154s which are high quality VCs... However, aircraft with VC I'm seriously lacking in FSX is the An-24! And Felis has a payware one, I have bought it many years ago when I tried to get started with X-Plane 9 but quickly gave up due FS9 somehow had the "feel".

 

However, now I want to retry using X-Plane 9 as secondary simulator. I know where to get decent quality airports for CIS areas, but is there recomendations on set ups, configuration, tips? Will it affect the way I fly in FSX?

 

Also the complaining of dreadful ground terrain, is it really that bad and is there anything you can do to make the terrain look better? What about weather?

 

I only have XP9 and don't feel like buying expensive XP10 not to mention the performance of XP10 is too horrid for my machine (specifications on profile).

 

Any insight or help is welcome!

  • Commercial Member
Posted

 

 


I only have XP9 and don't feel like buying expensive XP10 not to mention the performance of XP10 is too horrid for my machine (specifications on profile).

 

The problem is that most of the good payware aircraft and new scenery will not run with XP 9.

 

I run X-Plane 10 on a i5-2320 with 3 GHz, a NVidia GT530 (2 GB) and 8 GB RAM. With SkyMaxx Pro (for better cloud performance), I get in HDR (without AA and shadow) about 20 FPS, in non-HDR I get 25 to 40 FPS.

 

As your computer seems faster than mine, I think you can at least try the demo of XP 10. ;)

Mario Donick .:. vFlyteAir

Posted

Felis An-24 has been updated to XP10 and is a must have!

 

You can download from:

 

 SimHeaven.com

 Flightsim.com

 XPFR.com

 

many free sceneries, OSM or satellite, aircraft, etc...

 

Also check here

Main Simulation Rig:

Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, 1 TB & 500 GB M.2 nvme drives, Win11.

Lenovo TB310FU 9,5" Tablet for Navigraph and some available external FMCs or AVITABs

Posted

The problem is that most of the good payware aircraft and new scenery will not run with XP 9.

 

I run X-Plane 10 on a i5-2320 with 3 GHz, a NVidia GT530 (2 GB) and 8 GB RAM. With SkyMaxx Pro (for better cloud performance), I get in HDR (without AA and shadow) about 20 FPS, in non-HDR I get 25 to 40 FPS.

 

As your computer seems faster than mine, I think you can at least try the demo of XP 10. ;)

I'm aware of that fact and it's a real bummer for XP9. Also apparently everyone have moved on and I'm the only one left on the old platform.

 

However we do have quite similar systems so it's possible to get X-Plane running. I'm downloading the demo right now but you know it's a huge file so it'll take a while...

Felis An-24 has been updated to XP10 and is a must have!

 

You can download from:

 

 SimHeaven.com

 Flightsim.com

 XPFR.com

 

many free sceneries, OSM or satellite, aircraft, etc...

 

Also check here

Thanks for the link, it will surely be useful.

 

For me personally I get most sceneries and freeware aircraft from avsim.su

 

The An-24 has got updates, but unfortunately only work on XP10 so I'm left with the older version. However I do not think it's too bad.

Posted

I know, X-Pane 10 is expensive, but it is a huge improvement over X-Plane 9, and as said by mariodonick X-Plane 10 should work with your computer.

 

I often fly the AN24 with a crew of 2 (using smartcopilot) on the Ivao network. It’s a fantastic experience.

 

I hope you can find good settigs and fly with the demo .

 

Claude.

Posted

I had downloaded the demo, tweaked it's settings and got a reasonable 40-50 fps without clouds in complex aircraft. However, if clouds are there frames do town to the 10-20 fps... Is there anyway to solve this cloud problem as it severely takes away enjoyment? In X-plane 9 clouds do not cause this.

 

This is the only concern before buying X-plane 10 (It will have to wait a few weeks though due to real life priorities monetarily)

Posted

You can get good cloud visuals lowering the cloud detail ( percentage of puffs as they call it ) to 20% or even 15%

 

There is an add-on - Sky Maxx Pro v2 - which further enhances performance too, and has different rendering of the skies, but clouds do have quite an impact in XP10 presently, and I would really like to see this, together with that distance blur limitation, updated in future updates of version 10.

Main Simulation Rig:

Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, 1 TB & 500 GB M.2 nvme drives, Win11.

Lenovo TB310FU 9,5" Tablet for Navigraph and some available external FMCs or AVITABs

Posted

Oh man i have to answer this.

 

YOU SHALL REGRET THE PURCHASE    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 sleepless nights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 But a few minus points which LR does not seem to bother about. But other than that its a sim to experience. 

Ryzen 5 1600x - 16GB DDR4 - RTX 3050 8GB - MSI Gaming Plus

Posted

I know, X-Pane 10 is expensive, but it is a huge improvement over X-Plane 9, and as said by mariodonick X-Plane 10 should work with your computer.

 

I often fly the AN24 with a crew of 2 (using smartcopilot) on the Ivao network. It’s a fantastic experience.

 

I hope you can find good settigs and fly with the demo .

 

Claude.

Out of curiosity, does the smartcopilot and KLN90 GPS support X-Plane 9.70? I love X-Plane 10 except for the fact it's clouds are a fps rat! Everything else, is perfect.

 

I want to use An-24RV with X-Plane 9 also flying with crew of 2-3. But maybe it won't connect with users running XP10.30?

Posted

1- KLN 90B, every switch, light, button, palyoad and CG,failures, etc are synch. Perfect job.

 

2- If commands, datarefs, custom datarefs, strings, encrypted SASL code of the KLN are the same for in each release, it could work.

 

3- Ask somewhere to Felis (he is not very present on the .org).

 

4- Ask to Rhard: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?showtopic=66320&page=18

 

5- Test it. Without license, you have 20 minutes of connection to test it. If you do the test, read the Rhard’s thread, and post here if you have any problem.

 

6- Crew of 2 only.

 

Claude.

Posted

I'm thinking the same with the recent 64bit migration,and with more and more addons coming up, esp PMDG and Aerosoft...

Trouble is that I've spent way too much on FS9 and when FSX came out I swore I wouldn't migrate because It would be like starting over from scratch again, and now look, P3D comes out.

Jude Bradley
Beech Baron: Uh, Tower, verify you want me to taxi in front of the 747?
ATC: Yeah, it's OK. He's not hungry.

X-Plane 12 and MSFS2020  🙂

System specs: Windows 11  Pro 64-bit, Ubuntu Linux 20.04 i7-13700KF  Gigabyte Z790 RTX-4060-Ti , 32GB RAM  1X 2TB M2 for X-Plane 12,  1x256GB SSD for OS. 1TB drive MSFS2020

Posted

Is it worth it?  I hope so. My primary platform is P3D.  I found a North America regional version of X Plane 10 at a local store. After hearing a lot of the folks over at PilotEdge tout the virtues of XP, I decided it was worth $30 to give it a real shot. Glad I did! There are a lot of things that XP does REALLY well. The lighting effects are gorgeous. First flight on PilotEdge using XP was an ILS approach to KSNA with a 300' ceiling. Breaking out and seeing those realistic approach lights was jaw dropping.

 

It really is a great platform that excels where FSX and P3D fall short. But, FSX/P3D have their own set of strengths not the least of which is scenery coverage. The couple of custom airports I have downloaded XP are also incredibly impressive. I know very talented and dedicated people are working on populating scenery in XP, but it seems like such a Herculean task to provide the coverage that FS/P3D users are used to out of the box, much less with years and years of 3rd party support. And the stock clouds are may be "volumetric"...but they look pretty goofy compared to some of the other high quality visuals the rendering engine appears to be capable of. Oh If only you could combine the strengths of both platforms :Praying:  Anyway for now, it is not an either/or decision, but unfortunately that does leave a bit of a conundrum when if comes to choosing where to spend add-on dollars.

Chris

Posted

DO  NOT INTEND TO START A FLAME WAR. 

 

I really would not compare Fsx / P3d against XPX or vice versa .  

 

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.

 

XPX is on the verge of evolving and  it is happening at an excellent rate of quality IMO.  

 

YES PLEASE GO AND GET IT. 

Ryzen 5 1600x - 16GB DDR4 - RTX 3050 8GB - MSI Gaming Plus

Posted

TBH the demo doesn't show it in the best light. You can buy the global edition plus an addon plane and SMP clouds for the price of a couple of good nights out. Spend a couple of hours downloading and installing things like free HD mesh, RTH plugin for art changes etc. and your sim will look like the gorgeous screenshots in the screenshots forum.

 

And although people (legitimately) bemoan the lack of this or that, I haven't seen anyone who took a little time to set the sim up saying they wished they hadn't taken the punt on it.

 

Development is slow, but it really is picking up pace recently and the sim is evolving into something quite special.

i910900k, RTX 3090, 32GB DDR4 RAM, AW3423DW, Ruddy girt big mug of Yorkshire Tea

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