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ark4diusz

P3D user wants to try X-Plane

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Hello, 

 

After years of using FS9, FSX and now P3D, I would like to try a X-Plane. I would like to ask a few questions, basically about addons. 

 

I will list addons I am using in P3D, and could you please write down if there is good equivalent in X-Plane? :) 

 

  1. Aircrafts: I use mainly 3 addons here: 
  • Aerosoft A320
  • PMDG 737
  • Majestic Dash Q400

I heard that Jar Design A320 is a good option? What about other jet/turboprop airplanes?

 

      2. Sceneries: 

  • ORBX FTX Global base, Global Vector, OpenLC
  • FS Global Mesh

Are there any addons silmilar to those I listed above? I don't include airports, cause I will find out on my own

 

      3. Other tools:

  • FSUIPC - I guess XPLANE don't need sth like this? 
  • Active Sky Next - is there any alternative?
  • Rex Tecture Direct&Soft clouds - alternative?
  • FSDT GSX (ground traffic) - equivalent
  • PFPX (flight planning tool) - I suppose I can use it for Xplane and Xplane addons aswell, yes? 
  • EZDOK - any alternative? 
  • PRO ATC (Air Controll) - any alternative for X-Plane?
  • My Traffic 6 (Air Traffic) - as above?

Additionaly, are there any must have addons for X-Plane I didn't wrote above? (I mean categories) 

 

Thank you very much for help :) I am very excited about X-Plane :)

 

Arek

 

 

 

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Hi Arek and welcome to X-Plane

 

I'm not a fan of flying the heavies, so I'm sure someone else will comment or add recommendations here (I like helicopters and GA).

 

Scenery-wise, this depends where you want to fly (I'm guessing you're Polish from your name, so for Europe there is a lot available). For mesh, there is AlpilotX's HD Mesh v3 which is free/donationware, this covers a large part of the world with a high-quality mesh. He also does a Ultra-HD mesh for parts of Norway, the alps and some areas in the US. I also recommend you visit Simheaven to grab World2XPlane/OSM scenery which will add buildings and roads for most cities and towns in Europe. It's also possible to generate your own photoscenery or download ready-made, but this depends on your preferences and what you prefer. If you have any questions or need further info then please do ask, we'll be happy to help. There is also a mass of free scenery and airports over at x-plane.org, so have a browse through the files there. 

 

FSUIPC, there is an equivalent for X-Plane for XPUIPC, but I don't think you'll need it. For sky and clouds, there is the payware Skymaxx Pro, although many users are happy with the default clouds (Check the other threads here about how to tweak the clouds and lighting). You shouldn't need EZDOK as X-Plane already has a powerful camera system with presettable views, PFPX can be used with X-Plane as well. As for ATC, well that's a sore point for X-Plane at the moment :-)

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Hi!

 

JARDesign, as you stated, is in my opinion on par with the Aerosoft A318/319/320/321-series. However, if you plan to only get on Airbus, go for the JarDesign A330 with the sound-addon from Blue Sky Simulations. Best Airbus out there.

 

I think the IXEG 737 Classic will be even better than the PMDG, but thats an opinion based on videos I've seen of the IXEG on youtube - check them out. Seems to raise the bar for virtual flying:-)

 

Flighfactor also have some really nice jets, the 757 and T7.

 

As for the Q400, take a look at the LES Saab 340A. Systemwise and sounds are on par with Q400, but the VC is a littlebit behind in my opinion. Great plane.

 

As for scenaries, you have the W2XP freeware/donationware packages for the entire world. Compared to Orbx regions its not quit there, but it does its job wondefully:-) HD Mesh Scenery v3 covers the mesh world wide and is also freeware/donationware.

 

I haven't felt the need for an FSUIPC equivalent, but I think there is a plugin called XPUIPC that might do the same as FSUIPC, but I have not personally tried it.

 

REX Textures can be compared with Skymaxx Pro, but when it comes to ASN there is no real alternative in X-plane other than the NOAA plugin, wich is free. Its nowhere close to ASN, but its something until something better comes along. I think FS Global Real Weather is under develpoment.

 

X-plane has something better than EZDOK, X-camera, and its free:-)

 

As of ATC and AI traffic, this is where X-plane has its biggest shortcomings. I have something called World Traffic, but its no way near MyTraffic6 or UT2. Hopefully, there will be some addons developed to adress these two.

 

There are several musthave addons, RealTerraHaze, multiple freewarescenaries, freeware airports, AC's and much much more:-)

 

Edit: I say freeware alot, but in the world of X-plane, donationware is a better term and if you like what you get, please consider donating a few bucks to keep the community alive:-)


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Hello!

I can't answer many of your questions as I'm quite new to the whole simming, but I will ditto Bionor saying that Saab 340A addon from Leading Edge Simulations is extremely well done and worth the money :)

It flies beautifuly!

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I also have the Saab 340 and I'll third the recommendation for it. However, just be aware that although this is study-level aircraft, it doesn't have an FMC (as the real plane it's modelled on doesn't) which makes it more challenging :-)

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Hello again,

 

Thank you very much for your help! :) Wow, I didn't expect such help :)

 

I think I have now a basic overwiew abiut the addons, thank you very much once again. 

 

I have a question about X-Plane configuration. I heard that the UI of X-Plane is a bit confusing and it is quite difficult to configure that. Is there any guide, which explain side by side every setting? How it look like in X-Plane, compared to FSX for example? Are there many tweaks, etc? How to configure X-Plane correctly, especially on graphic side? 

 

Thank you :) 

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Not so much difficult as it is really complex.

You definitely get more options to play with and even setting up all the key configuration can take a bit, but it's rather a positive thing - you can fully customize it to your liking.

As for "guide", I can't really recommend anything other than this youtube video:

It helped me to understand which option has impact on what and how I should set the game up so everything runs smoothly and looks nice. 

 

Have a blast! :)

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Have you downloaded the demo and had a go with it "Out of the box"?

 

I fly X-Plane almost exclusively now over P3D/FSX. My main go to aircraft are the LES Saab 340, FlyJSim 732 and 727 and the FF 757. I own the the JAR A320 and I don't like it. The FMC has got some funny quirks that I just don't get on with.

 

As for addons, I generally don't use them. I own SkyMaxx but don't use it. 10.40's clouds with some tweaks are better imho(http://www.avsim.com/topic/474978-still-experimenting-with-clouds/?view=getnewpost). SkyMaxx Pro 3 is rumoured to be better.

 

I don't use Real Terra Haze as I don't like some of the effects it implements. I use the DataRef Editor plugin for that and write my own lua script (very easy!). You'll find a link for that in the link above.

 

The built in weather engine in X-Plane isn't too bad. It doesn't do smooth transitions between weather updates so you get the "Old Weather - No Weather - New Weather" dance every time it updates. It's an annoyance but one I've come to live with. It also seems to be a bit behind online METAr reports. This can cause some minor issues if you use SkyVector or something like that to check your arrival airport weather. I'm trying the NOAA weather plugin at present, it gives slightly better weather depiction and it's more up to date than the built in real weather. It's almost a requirement when flying above FL150 anywhere but 'murica cause x-plane doesn't get winds aloft for anywhere but there.

 

You won't need an external camera app as that's all baked into X-Plane. Same for FSUPIC. X-Plane does a much better job and handling controllers. There is an XPUIPC but it's more there for external applications to connect to the sim.

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FF 757 is as close to the PMDG  birds that you will get in X-Plane. 


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Be sure to check out my aged cockpits for the A2A B-377, B-17 and Connie at Flightsim.com and Avsim library

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X-plane 10 is nice and has its advantages for sure but lately I have found myself missing the immersion of Prepar3d/FSX in terms of number of quaility paid addons. To me the scenery in Xplane 10 just isn't as detailed overall for large areas as it is in Prepar3D with addons. Whilst Prepar3D is far from perfect, it has more feeling of immersion at the moment than Xplane 10 especially in terms of air traffic, atc, grounds ops (i.e. GSX) and weather and variation of textures (comparing to Prepar3d with addons). I own Sky Max Pro and in my own opinion, I prefer REX clouds even if they are not volumetric. Perhaps the next version of Sky Max Pro will change my opinion but for the moment I still think REX looks more realistic in terms of cloud formations.

 

Don't get me wrong, I like both sims and use both but I am a little disappointed that certain aspects of the sim are unlikely to be addressed in V10 which take away from the immersion factor.

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I just recently went to X-plane.  Still have P3D, but frankly it just doesn't fit the bill anymore.  There are primarily two reasons why I like X-plane.

 

1) it feels like your flying, not on rails.  This is the biggie, and it's 80% the reason why X-plane is like a breath of fresh air when you pull back on the stick. 

 

2) Photoscenery actually has trees and buildings on top of it.  I am a huge PS fan and cannot get into anything except real terrain below me.  So I've been doing much of my own PS (check my post history) and adding autogen and trees in P3D.  This is very tedious work in P3D because of how the layer structure is.  So I can have huge PS areas without autogen or I can go to X-Plane and easily create PS with autogen on top of it with the help of addons like HD Mesh and World2Xplane.  Far far easier.  And it actually looks better than P3D in this regard.

 

So those are the two reasons I'm here.  I still have P3D installed cause I have massive amounts of PS for it (150GB of Switzerland scenery alone).  But I will be moving that stuff into X-plane.

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Not so much difficult as it is really complex.

You definitely get more options to play with and even setting up all the key configuration can take a bit, but it's rather a positive thing - you can fully customize it to your liking.

As for "guide", I can't really recommend anything other than this youtube video:

It helped me to understand which option has impact on what and how I should set the game up so everything runs smoothly and looks nice. 

 

Have a blast! :)

 

what a great video! just helped me get the smoothest best looking sim I have  had ever!

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I also have been dabbling in X-plane and visually it looks very good, especially during morning and evening hours. So, you won't be disappointed with the visuals. The only issues that has kept me from using X-plane more is 1) it takes forever to load, and 2) the constant OOM's. And I use pretty modest settings, too, which is a head scratcher.

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I also have been dabbling in X-plane and visually it looks very good, especially during morning and evening hours. So, you won't be disappointed with the visuals. The only issues that has kept me from using X-plane more is 1) it takes forever to load, and 2) the constant OOM's. And I use pretty modest settings, too, which is a head scratcher.

 

OOM's? With x-plane? Never heard of it. Whats your system spec? And are you using the 64bit edition? 

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