Hi guys!

Just when feshly released or updated products for FSX and/or P3D brought me back to those sims (Aerosoft´s very good A318/319, the superb PMDG T7, etc.), I went through my XPX screenshot folder, and I had to realise, that nothing comes close to the sheer beauty of X-Plane 10.

Please have a look at a "best of XPX screenies" from the last months.

All screenshots come straight out of the sim without any editing!

I hope you like them:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have to say they are impressive screenshots.I could never get to grips with this sim having tried the demo 3 or 4 times...

Amazing Michael. Thanks for posting this..

When X-Plane makes it easier to implement photoreal ground textures, then I'll move over.  Until then, it all looks rather dull and monotonous. 

 

And I've tried doing photoreal custom textures with my Swiss scenery.  It is just too hard and tedious.  X-plane needs some better tools.

Great screen shots.   You didn't edit the photos but I can see addons running.      I was shocked to see an airport with actual BUILDINGS in one of screen shots.   That right there is a huge turn off for me.  Most airports are baron wastelands and all the good airports with buildings all cater to European flyers.  United States and other countries are completely forgotten about.

 

With the right addons, X-Plane 10 does in fact look insanely beautiful.  Out of the box it has it same ugly problems that other simulators have.   Still, I've said this before, I'll say it again.. no simulation on the market, not even with addons, can match the awesomeness of X-Plane 10's night lighting;  Not Vector, Not FTX Global, Not UTX.    The fact that it comes that way out of the box and you don't have to drop a ton of money just to get pretty night lighting is a huge plus it's just the other major drags stopping me from flying XPX more often.

The screenshots are pretty.  But XPlane is fatally flawed in many ways.  One is shown in your images - several show houses/buildings/etc all with the same generic red roof.  Realistic?  Nope.

 

I've been simming since Microsoft Flight Simulator was a crude representation on an ancient monochrome green/black screen IBM PC - no sound whatsoever.  We used to worry a lot about setting IRQs and such in those days - early 80s, as I recall.  Simming's come a long way since then. 

 

I gave XPlane a shot in the 90s, and used it a while.  I bought into the hype about Austin Meyer's "superior flight models".  I started focusing on MS FSX, and didn't use XPlane for a while, so I bought the current version a year ago to see what had transpired.  To my shock and horror, in spite of all the hoopla about how much it had improved, I quickly discovered trees in the middle of a runway at a major US airport, in New York or Chicago, I think it was - don't remember. 

 

I complained on an XPlane forum, and one of the local XPlane cheerleaders tried to dismiss it as an "open source scenery issue" - some hacker just hadn't got around to fixing it yet.  What?  But life's too short for that nonsense in 21st century flight simming.  I uninstalled it and haven't looked at it again.

 

And the generic red roofs?  I've got that handled, by way of Megasceneryearth photo-realistic Colorado, New Mexico, and all the Gulf Coast states, Texas to Florida, running on P3D.  No more red roofs. 

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!!!!

@racklefraz

 

I used to play Test Drive on those monochromes what an amazing game that was. Oh yes those IRQ's .

 

Hmm all sims are flawed, 

 

 One sim gives you something and one doesn't , it's a personal preference. 

 

 The photo sceney + HD mesh are available from simheaven and alpilotx and you can see the difference.  

 

 Problem with X plane is that it's depended more on the community. But with OSM data they have given you amazing cities. Not ALL but quite a few. Some places are barren I agree, but most of Europe is excellent.   In fact the airports are the worst ah and lets not forget the AI ouch that's a mess.

 

 I think those red roofs or the buildings could be W2XP based scenery , trust me use it.  I would not call it a flaw. 

 

I am not trying to put X plane in a brighter manner or trying to start a flame war between FSX  / P3d or XPX.  Use whatever you feel is realistic.  

 

 Yep there are trees on certain airports and roads. That could be either Openstreetmap data or I don't know.  If it's openstreetmap data than it's a mapping error from a user / editor / community.   

 

 

 

HD Mesh V2 - alpilotx

 

 Photo Scenery  - simheaven (All are not that good at least what I downloaded) 

 

 W2XP

 

 If you are looking for more freeware than X plane . org.

 

 As a personal choice X plane 10 is an open sandbox thing. Almost drove to my house in a car from the Airport  B)  but ya fell mid way into the Ocean.

 

@Mik75

 

Those shots are cool.

Very nice shots!

Wonderful shots!

 

PS: There is of AI Traffic in XPX ?

Amazing shots!!! WOW!!!

Great shots! Shows what a great sim X-Plane can be...*sigh*...if only that level of detail was available in more of the world.

Super shots!

Thanks a lot for the nice comments.

XPX's lighting and shadowing is simply breathtakingly beautiful. Combined with OSM scenery and the wonderful HD mesh v2 (alpilotx), it can't get much better. And these additions are freeware. Just spend a bit of money and get yourself SkyMAXX Pro, UrbanMAXX 3D and MaxxFX and you can take XPX's visual appearance even a step higher.

And once more, I can only say, that screenshots can't show how wonderful all that looks in motion and live while flying in the sim. And even with that crazy amount of autogen, the sim is so smooth!

As always Michael, fantastic shots showing off just how realistic x-plane can be with add-ons applied. I especially find myself flying x-plane at night with world2xplane, its simply mind blowing.