Newbie looking for first steps

[nandrews 4]

I am new to X-Plane after spending many years with FSX and it's predecessors.

I have bought X-Plane 10 on Steam, but yet to install it.

So I am looking for guideance on how/where best to install.

I have a new PC with three drives

1 500Gb SSD with OS

1 520GB SSD empty

1 2TB hybrid drive slowly filling with apps etc.

I guess I should install X=Plane on the hybrid the same as Steam.

But can I get an advantage in using the SSD for scenery or aircraft that I may add later?

 

Perhaps there is a good noob guide that I should read?

If you can point me to some basic info that would most be welcome.

 

Thanks

Nigel

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[tonywob 4,768]

Hi Nigel

 

Welcome to X-Plane. There are couple of posts in this forum with similar questions from new users, so have a read through the posts and sticky topics on this forum. If you have any questions then I'm sure people will be happy to help out.

 

Tony

[Jude Bradley 659]

I started with X-Plane 10 at the start of the year.

Tip 1 Patience! Lots of it - give yourself plenty of time to adjust and don't be too hard on yourself - it took me about two weeks to get used to the new interface and I am still learning.

 

Tip 2 Lots of newer aircraft (Flight factor A350 Boeing 757 and 777 now have mouse-scrolling support for switches - this is new to X-Plane this helps with the transition more than anything else.

Older aircraft have this mouse button interface which looks like ( ) and takes some getting used to.

 

Tip 3 Fly at night, it's awesome (even cool)> 

 

Tip 4. There are some really good addon sceneries out there and some FS9 sceneries can be converted really well with World2Xplane

 

Tip 5 Enjoy!!!!

[tonywob 4,768]

 

 

Tip 4. There are some really good addon sceneries out there and some FS9 sceneries can be converted really well with World2Xplane

 

You mean FS2XPlane of course :-). 

[Smokeyr67 0]

Hi Nigel,

 

I'm fairly new to X-Plane myself, and my system has similar specs to yours - 128 GB SSD for OS/"serious" software, 2x256 GB SSD RAID 0 for games and a 1TB Hybrid for backup and other random stuff.

 

I have my sims installed on the RAIDed SSD's and there's very little stutter when loading scenery and weather, so obviously I recommend installing X-Plane on your 520GB SSD.

 

Shane

[Jude Bradley 659]

You mean FS2XPlane of course :-). 

Sorry Tony, Told you I'm still learning )))

[nandrews 4]

Thanks all.

Coming from FSX where I was told no point in installing the sim on an SSD, but if I could have got all the scenery there that would have been good.

But FSX needs the scenery on the same drive as itself.

Hence my query if I can benefit X-Plane by having it on the SSD.

I suspect my scenery content will increase over time and use most of the 2TB so that will be where it has to go.

So long as I can install X-Plane on a diifferent drive and there might be some benefit, I will likely put that on the 'empty' SSD.

 

Nigel

[Jude Bradley 659]

Hello Nigel, 

I have my X-Plane on an SSD, but the loading times of X-Plane will not be significant and the more scenery you install the longer the loadup time as it reads from the scenery.ini file. 

Having said that, I have no direct comparison between SSD and HDD. At the moment, I have FSX/P3D and X-Plane on a single SSD of 500GB and I have about 150GB free. 

I do not have REX installed, but I do have some ORBX and Flytampa stuff installed,along with NGX and 777 from PMDG on both sims.

[saed45 38]

Thanks all.

Coming from FSX where I was told no point in installing the sim on an SSD, but if I could have got all the scenery there that would have been good.

But FSX needs the scenery on the same drive as itself.

Hence my query if I can benefit X-Plane by having it on the SSD.

I suspect my scenery content will increase over time and use most of the 2TB so that will be where it has to go.

So long as I can install X-Plane on a diifferent drive and there might be some benefit, I will likely put that on the 'empty' SSD.

 

Nigel

 

 

the best thing about xplane is that you can move the xplane folder to any of your drives and it would still work. so put it on your HDD first. if the frame rates are good keep it there. if you like more frame rates just move the xplane folder on the ssd and you should be good to go

[nandrews 4]

Jude,

 

Thanks for that.

Yes I see the advantage. It would be great to have everything on SSD.

But I would be worried in your situation if I wanted to add much more scenery. Then having to shift or reinstall everything on a larger drive.

I am currently part way thru' a world trip and will likely be adding more scenery as I go. So there is a big risk I could be in the same boat.

It looks like it's all going to have to go on the large hybrid drive. Maybe I won't find a use for the second SSD!

Thanks again

Nigel

saed45,

Well if it's as easy as you suggest I may do the opposite

But I'm realising the key question I still need an answer to is, can I install the add-on sceneries (Mesh etc), and aircaft to a different drive from the Xplane program?

If it is OK then I may go at least for the program on SSD - if only because it will be wasted otherwise.

Then maybe if I need to move things around I can do it easily.

 

I was told, and tried, to move FSX around but it didn't work well after that. So I had to remove and reinstall it.

 

Nigel

[Desaix 235]

 

But I'm realising the key question I still need an answer to is, can I install the add-on sceneries (Mesh etc), and aircaft to a different drive from the Xplane program?

If it is OK then I may go at least for the program on SSD - if only because it will be wasted otherwise.

Nigel

Yes you can. Just put a link to your scenery, which can be anywhere, in the scenery directory under main Xplain folder. I have all my meshes in D: for example and airport scenery in C:

[nandrews 4]

Thanks Desaix,

I am so new to X-Plane I've not even installed it on my new PC yet!

But I'm sure that will all make sense soon.

 

Nigel

[nandrews 4]

OK so now I have installed it after 10 hours downloading on Steam and I am rather dumbstruck!

The initial 'demo' flight had me carreering off through the buildings and no idea how to control it (or even stop the flight)!

Then when I restarted and set a "quick flight" in a Cessa 172, I was presented with my nose against the glaresheild, an engine sounding like a helicopter starting up!

Then a DC10 overtook me and taxied across the grass lurchign and setpping as it went. The visuals generally look like a cheap game on a PC from about 20 years ago!

 

Fortunately I have seen the YouTube videos and know what this can do but where do I start to get it looking and behaving like that?

 

I have a i7 proc witha 980 card and a 4k monitor - so this should look great (at least as good as FSX does!)

I am guess I am looking for a guide to how to start using X-plane and how to tune the major settings.

Help please!

 

Nigel

P.S. I did get the 172 off the ground and flew a sort of circuit to land again. But I was not impressed.

[Longranger 148]

OK so now I have installed it after 10 hours downloading on Steam and I am rather dumbstruck!

The initial 'demo' flight had me carreering off through the buildings and no idea how to control it (or even stop the flight)!

Well, this is easy. X-Plane deepends on the rudder control, at least as long as you are on the ground.

X-Plane behaves differently. They aren't as stable. If you want to see similar behaviour in FSX you wtill have to look at the A2A planes, although even a Carenado CT210 with an Reality Expansion Pack can't quite match an A2A Comanche in atmosphere.

 

If you look at the sounds: The default X-Plane has a very limited sound engine (due to its multi system approach). That's one of the reasons why most payware planes bring their own sound engine withg them and there are tools like SoundMaxx that replace and enhance most of the system sounds, but this is payware,too.

 

Then your scenery is limited since it only depends on the original default DSF files.

This can be replaced by the HD Mesh ( http://www.alpilotx.net/downloads/x-plane-10-hd-mesh-scenery-v3/ ). Contrary to FSX this doesn't only influence your terrain, but also the landclasses and the AutoGen.

 

Furthermpre, since you use steam this is only the "old" 10.36 release. Among other things (faster loadfing, long disrtance view and so on) this means that the system doesn't have several default options, but only the lowest settings, if you haven't changed your display settings extensively you only look at the lowest settings X-Plane has. It switched to a more leveled approach just recently with the 10.40 betas.

 

But If I look at your computing power: Since you have a 4K monitor your system is limited. Even the best systems today can't handle X-Plane with everything turned to extreme, especially with OSM or World2XPlane buildings and some od the huge number of freeware airports, that normally use additional libraries too.

Even my 770 sometimes runs out of VRAM, since it only has 4 GB.

The raw computing power is only one of the critical factors, often enough VRAM or the system bandwith are the real issue.