While I agree that there are many great addons out there - and I used all of those mentioned here at some point - I am down to standard X-Plane + HD Mesh/Scenery v3 + Airports/Planes again.

 

I had Skymaxx v2, v3 with and without RWC, Real Terra Haze, photoreal scenery generated with Ortho4XP and G2XP, NOAA plugin, FSGRW etc...

But at some point I remembered one of the main reasons why I changed to X-Plane in the first place: Being able to have a great looking and smoothly running sim WITHOUT the need to use many plugins/addons or to tweak CFGs.

 

That being said, I may give Active Sky next a try when they keep their promise to release an X-Plane addon. :rolleyes:

Funny because one of XPs greatest strengths is its ability to be modded. To each his own.

Absolutely! It's nice having the abiltiy to extend the sim in all those ways.

Soundmaxx ($19.95) is excellent too - adds really immersive ambient sounds to airports, so they feel much more 'alive' than anything in FSX/P3D   (I love and use all 3 platforms BTW).

 

I personally think XP10s default clouds can look amazing if configured well.  There's much more of a sensation of flying through the clouds, than in FSX/P3D, where even in heavy clouds, they always seem set back from your aircraft.

 

X-Camera (free) is a must, especially if you use TrackIR.  There are some fantastic free airports, mesh, textures, etc for Alaska at the .org site, which is where I'll be flying the PMDG DC-6, when I pick it up. 

Default clouds look good but they kill performance. I get better performance, with more clouds, using SkyMaxx Pro.

Default clouds look good but they kill performance. I get better performance, with more clouds, using SkyMaxx Pro.

That was true for older X-Plane versions. I. The latest releases you can crank the default clouds much more up than before without fps impact

Just be wary of Sky Max Pro. Without Real Weather Connector you may suffer poor weather blending between wx stations (as you will with default). SMPro is also a beast of a machine hog. I have spent many frustrating hours trying to get it right.

 

I've seen videos of Ultra Weather which may not look as good but seems to offer better representation of clouds in different areas.

 

I have to give a shout out for G2XP. This is donation-ware and grants you the ability to download photoscenery for the area you are flying over. I use it for areas on final and climbout. Coupled with OSM (Open Street Map) and W2XPlane (for building models), I get an often jaw dropping scenery experience (think ORBX on the fly).