Pros & Cons of X Plane

[tf51d 284]

 

 

- Helicopters. Perhaps the platform isn't quite as tops as DCS is, but it's pretty much the best available for regular / non-military helicopters. It helps that some of what's available is nearly on a study-sim level, and oh-so-sweet to look at. It also helps that, as mentioned above, the sim is silky smooth at it's best, which lends itself remarkably well to flying rotary wing.

 

I've always had to question this assertion, because Hovercontrol which is a site dedicated to realistic Helicopter Flight Simulations, many of it's members being real helicopter pilots still predominantly develop and use FSX for it's simulations! If X-Plane 10 is that much better then FSX in Helicopter simulation, I would think they would have moved on to it more aggressively by now.

 

http://www.hovercontrol.com/

[hs118 707]

I've always had to question this assertion, because Hovercontrol which is a site dedicated to realistic Helicopter Flight Simulations, many of it's members being real helicopter pilots still predominantly develop and use FSX for it's simulations! If X-Plane 10 is that much better then FSX in Helicopter simulation, I would think they would have moved on to it more aggressively by now.

 

http://www.hovercontrol.com/

The reasons why X-Plane is not as popular as FSX at HoverControl are probably the same reasons that X-Plane is not popular at Avsim. Mostly unwillingness to invest the time and money, a dose of low curiosity, and a dash of confirmation bias.

 

No matter how much real world experience, comparing the 2 sims requires USING both sims.

[airlinejets 709]

The reasons why X-Plane is not as popular as FSX at HoverControl are probably the same reasons that X-Plane is not popular at Avsim. Mostly unwillingness to invest the time and money, a dose of low curiosity, and a dash of confirmation bias.

 

No matter how much real world experience, comparing the 2 sims requires USING both sims.

Henry, this is by far the best and most accurate reply I've read on this forum. As the saying goes, "where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." :wink:

[jcomm 5,889]

X-Plane is a very fluid sim, in terms of rendering, and if you have a PC up to the settings you're willing to use.

 

It has features inherent to it's implementation that are unique and not available in FSX or P3D - period - but this doesn't mean it is better, at least in terms of the possibility of getting an aircraft model "flying" as close as possible to a comparable RW counterpart.

 

It is probably the easiest to set spending the least possible amount of $$$  in terms of World Scenery coverage. Yes, it doesn't have seasonal textures, and that's a PITA for those who really would like to have it, but, for me the lack of coordination between daylight and geographical location * date is even more annoying. I hated starting a situation in XP10, using RW weather and date, and see the pitch dark night from the windshield of my cockpit while IRL there is still a good amount of daylight :-( and this was yet another picky, maybe, show stopper for me... And the Moon - if they represent that object, than they should do it in a realistic way, in as far as phases and position are concerned...

 

Finally, while weather can be graphically enhanced by products like SMP, truth is it is still way beyond what I have in P3D, specially coupled with yet another product I simply do not have for X-Plane - ASN.

 

But!  All of this has long been debated, and for me it turned out to be a question of the item, so well identified and summarized by Andy Goldstein in the following post at the .ORG becoming addressed by the dev team ( I guess Austin only in this particular case... ):

 

 

Roll Stability in X-Plane (or, the "Veering Left" problem)

 

Due to this limitation, particularly irritating for me, I completely gave up on X-Plane 10 long ago, although I kept using it for a while as a scenery generator. From time to time my attention is drawn back into this sim, because it has a LOT of potential, but unfortunately I am still waiting to see the light at the end of the tunnel regarding the issues mentioned above.

[hs118 707]

But!  All of this has long been debated, and for me it turned out to be a question of the item, so well identified and summarized by Andy Goldstein in the following post at the .ORG becoming addressed by the dev team ( I guess Austin only in this particular case... ):

 

 

Roll Stability in X-Plane (or, the "Veering Left" problem)

 

Jose,

 

This is an issue that I am surprised has not been more thoroughly addressed by Laminar. Compensating with large amounts of aileron trim seems very unnatural and inaccurate to me.I preset trim before takeoff if in an aircraft affected by the this characteristic. Mostly I fly MIL jets so it doesn't bother me on most flights.

 

A point well taken by you but for me similar to the way the default aircraft in FSX will not spin properly in terms of my patience.

 

(PS I credit you directly for getting me to try X-Plane and DCS. Thanks!)

[Bobsk8 12,494]

Jose,

 

This is an issue that I am surprised has not been more thoroughly addressed by Laminar. Compensating with large amounts of aileron trim seems very unnatural and inaccurate to me.I preset trim before takeoff if in an aircraft affected by the this characteristic. Mostly I fly MIL jets so it doesn't bother me on most flights.

 

A point well taken by you but for me similar to the way the default aircraft in FSX will not spin properly in terms of my patience.

 

(PS I credit you directly for getting me to try X-Plane and DCS. Thanks!)

 

A friend of mine has X plane and I spent an entire afternoon at his house flying around with it. I have many hours flying C-172's in real life, and I have never flown a 172 that handled like the one in X plane that I tried. It would spin at the drop of a hat, and real 172's don't behave that way. In addition, the program crashed twice during the 3 hours I spent there. I have yet to have P3D crash on me and I fly it for hours almost every day.  Wasn't impressed.  

[RichUK 474]

Amazing quality free scenery (thank you freeware developers). Amazing free UHD mesh scenery. Amazing night lighting. Add the LES Saab and you have an amazing sim with XP. Also, it never hardly crashes, certainly nowhere near as much as P3D. FSX has nothing on XP. P3D is a little nicer than FSX for eye candy , but is too OOMy.

 

The weather engine and AI are my negatives as some folks have said. I'm sure that is only a matter of time though.

 

Rich.

[ryanbatc 12,775]

@Bobsk8

Yeah but that's default XP C172 lol.... thing is a POS.

 

Do you even fly the stock FSX c172?  I sure don't.  You'd fly A2A though.

 

Well same idea goes for XP... you need addons to get the full experience out of it.  It takes time to learn, time to tweak, just time like you spent on P3D and FSX to get it working exactly how you like it.

 

Trust me, I play all three sims.

[hs118 707]

Well same idea goes for XP... you need addons to get the full experience out of it.  It takes time to learn, time to tweak, just time like you spent on P3D and FSX to get it working exactly how you like it.

 

 

The comparison of a fully loaded and realized FSX experience with a default X-Plane experience is a frequent justification for the syndrome I noted earlier in the thread.

 

An excellent point.

[strider1 575]

A friend of mine has X plane and I spent an entire afternoon at his house flying around with it. I have many hours flying C-172's in real life, and I have never flown a 172 that handled like the one in X plane that I tried. It would spin at the drop of a hat, and real 172's don't behave that way. In addition, the program crashed twice during the 3 hours I spent there. I have yet to have P3D crash on me and I fly it for hours almost every day.  Wasn't impressed.  

 

What do you mean by spin ? The default 172 is pretty stable. I don't remember it ever spining at the drop of a hat ! Are you trolling ? The default planes do suck, kind of like FSX/PD3 ! You friend needs a few good ADD-ONs !

[strider1 575]

X-Plane is a very fluid sim, in terms of rendering, and if you have a PC up to the settings you're willing to use.

 

It has features inherent to it's implementation that are unique and not available in FSX or P3D - period - but this doesn't mean it is better, at least in terms of the possibility of getting an aircraft model "flying" as close as possible to a comparable RW counterpart.

 

It is probably the easiest to set spending the least possible amount of $$$  in terms of World Scenery coverage. Yes, it doesn't have seasonal textures, and that's a PITA for those who really would like to have it, but, for me the lack of coordination between daylight and geographical location * date is even more annoying. I hated starting a situation in XP10, using RW weather and date, and see the pitch dark night from the windshield of my cockpit while IRL there is still a good amount of daylight :-( and this was yet another picky, maybe, show stopper for me... And the Moon - if they represent that object, than they should do it in a realistic way, in as far as phases and position are concerned...

 

Finally, while weather can be graphically enhanced by products like SMP, truth is it is still way beyond what I have in P3D, specially coupled with yet another product I simply do not have for X-Plane - ASN.

 

But!  All of this has long been debated, and for me it turned out to be a question of the item, so well identified and summarized by Andy Goldstein in the following post at the .ORG becoming addressed by the dev team ( I guess Austin only in this particular case... ):

 

 

Roll Stability in X-Plane (or, the "Veering Left" problem)

 

Due to this limitation, particularly irritating for me, I completely gave up on X-Plane 10 long ago, although I kept using it for a while as a scenery generator. From time to time my attention is drawn back into this sim, because it has a LOT of potential, but unfortunately I am still waiting to see the light at the end of the tunnel regarding the issues mentioned above.

 

I emailed Austin and aked him if he was ever going to fix the broken spiraling slip stream model, he said he is going to look at it for 10. We wil see....

 

So whats the alternative ? PD3/FSX ? The default scenery is horrific ! So you start buying scenery ADD-ONs ! $30per airport, $40 bucks per region, $100 for a base pack, $75 for a vector, $40 openLC ! How much did that simulator cost you? And the more ADD-ONs you install the more unstable it seems to get. On top of the OOM errors and stuttering. Plus all the tweaking ! I won't be installing that headache of a money pit again.

 

DCS is cool ! But the geography is limited.

[jcomm 5,889]

I also email him from time to time... :-)

[Zikous82 5]

Hi. I'm new to X-Plane. I've been in FSX till now and spent lots of money on addons. Till now I can only compare visuals. X-Plane on steroids is much better then FSX. And also it's much cheaper. I fly mainly in Europe and you can make scenerey gorgeous.

 

Base mesh:

XP10 - HD Mesh Scenery v3 - free

FSX - FS Global 2010 FTX - 100$

 

Ground textures>

XP10 - photo scenery - free

FSX - FTX Global Base Pack - 100$

 

Vector data:

XP10 - already included in sim

FSX - FTX Vector - 60$ (not as accurate as in XP10)

 

Landclass:

XP10 - World2XPlane sceneries - free

FSX - FTX OpenLC Europe - 40$

 

This is 300$ difference and results in FSX aren't so stunning as in X-Plane. For 300$ you can by other addons like Skymaxx, couple of aircafts, ...

 

For clouds FSX has REX, XP10 has Skymaxx for the same price. XP10 is still missing Active Sky Next and I also don't know about good AI traffic addon (I'm missing Ultimate traffic 2 on FSX).

 

 

Zikous

[alpha12125 213]

Hi. I'm new to X-Plane. I've been in FSX till now and spent lots of money on addons. Till now I can only compare visuals. X-Plane on steroids is much better then FSX. And also it's much cheaper. I fly mainly in Europe and you can make scenerey gorgeous.

 

Base mesh:

XP10 - HD Mesh Scenery v3 - free

FSX - FS Global 2010 FTX - 100$

 

Ground textures>

XP10 - photo scenery - free

FSX - FTX Global Base Pack - 100$

 

Vector data:

XP10 - already included in sim

FSX - FTX Vector - 60$ (not as accurate as in XP10)

 

Landclass:

XP10 - World2XPlane sceneries - free

FSX - FTX OpenLC Europe - 40$

 

This is 300$ difference and results in FSX aren't so stunning as in X-Plane. For 300$ you can by other addons like Skymaxx, couple of aircafts, ...

 

For clouds FSX has REX, XP10 has Skymaxx for the same price. XP10 is still missing Active Sky Next and I also don't know about good AI traffic addon (I'm missing Ultimate traffic 2 on FSX).

 

 

Zikous

I am not directly adressing you, but in general please think of freeware as donationware. If you would spend 300$ on FSX consider donating 100$ to the developers. If you dont have that much, donate less, if you have more donate more. This helps everybody and keeps the community alive and not only the planemakers get the money Also it hopefully keeps some great donation/freeware projects from going payware.

[Zikous82 5]

I'm now very carefull on spending my money than before - loan for my new house, new child in the family, but I agree, those guys deserve every penny for what they do. I was just curious what is X-Plane capable of and I'm very impressed. But for now I locked the budget until new Dovetail sim arrives next year.