Xplane 10 newbi - some questions

[JLSeagull 191]

This has probably been covered so many times before but - as an outsider looking in .... can I ask a very respectful and non-inflammatory question here?

 

Does the XP GUI have to be so complicated?  Like many other fsimmers before, I have tried the demo and have been baffled, vaguely bewildered and eventually thwarted, by the intricacies, nuances and downright complexity of that interface, as to be turned off by the whole experience.

 

There are a plethora of discussions, here on Avsim and on several other fora, about the benefits and limitations of 'simplicity of download, setup, use and play', et.al., of modern Simulators, that the average 'Wannabe Flight Simmer' [e.g. FSX:Steam, DTGFsc, DCS Users], are prepared to accept - but, XP seems (to me), to be an iconic Pioneer of this genre that still insists on defeating itself at the very first hurdle (and thus crippling its' own growth and popularity), with the GUI?

 

If I, as a 'long in the tooth', experienced fsimmer struggle with the XP GUI - then what chance the 'newbie' kid who, having mastered an F-16 in DCS, won WWII in IL-2 Sturmovik - and then wants to progress to a higher level of reality downloads XP  [or P3D for that matter] .... and fails?

 

Hmmm.....

  

[Flak Jacket on.... Incoming].

[jcomm 5,930]

But the "problem" is, David, that I actually think it's a LOT more complex in DCS.... and even in FSX.

 

I can set my controller and buttons in X-Plane in 1/5th the time in FSX, and even faster than in DCS...

[mmerelles 78]

This has probably been covered so many times before but - as an outsider looking in .... can I ask a very respectful and non-inflammatory question here?

 

Does the XP GUI have to be so complicated?  Like many other fsimmers before, I have tried the demo and have been baffled, vaguely bewildered and eventually thwarted, by the intricacies, nuances and downright complexity of that interface, as to be turned off by the whole experience.

 

There are a plethora of discussions, here on Avsim and on several other fora, about the benefits and limitations of 'simplicity of download, setup, use and play', et.al., of modern Simulators, that the average 'Wannabe Flight Simmer' [e.g. FSX:Steam, DTGFsc, DCS Users], are prepared to accept - but, XP seems (to me), to be an iconic Pioneer of this genre that still insists on defeating itself at the very first hurdle (and thus crippling its' own growth and popularity), with the GUI?

 

If I, as a 'long in the tooth', experienced fsimmer struggle with the XP GUI - then what chance the 'newbie' kid who, having mastered an F-16 in DCS, won WWII in IL-2 Sturmovik - and then wants to progress to a higher level of reality downloads XP  [or P3D for that matter] .... and fails?

 

Hmmm.....

  

[Flak Jacket on.... Incoming].

 

 

This thread is about a guy doing his first steps on xplane and asking for help to address his needs (re-read the subject, re-read his post) to not make this post to come into another nonsense xplane vs fsx/p3d war.

 

the same we have adidas, nike, we have bmw, mercedes, ford, we have samsung, apple, lg... use/enjoy what you like the most. PERIOD!

[JLSeagull 191]

This thread is about a guy doing his first steps on xplane and asking for help to address his needs (re-read the subject, re-read his post) to not make this post to come into another nonsense xplane vs fsx/p3d war.

 

the same we have adidas, nike, we have bmw, mercedes, ford, we have samsung, apple, lg... use/enjoy what you like the most. PERIOD!

OK. Fair Comment. My Bad. I withdraw my observations.

 

Apologies to the XPlane Community.

 

MODS please delete my comments.

[pryoski 84]

Then reality kicked back in after spending around 250 usd on xplane, ixeg 737, Xcamera, Skymaxx pro and more. People are calling the ixeg a "pmdg killer", and I cant help but laugh. They charge nearly 80 usd for the plane, and it is not even complete systemwise. The airports are none existant, and my country's major airport is basically a huge parking lot. Talk about immersion breaking! However, I did manage to "make my own airport" for ENCN, but I cant see myself doing that for every airport I want to fly.

 

Well .. there's *tone* right there. 

 

Why even go into this "PMDG killer" cods-wallop? 

 

PMDG are a respected and much loved developer for all current major sims out there ... I'm an X-Planer and I love that PMDG is doing what it does best for ALL flight simmers.

 

Thanks for listening. Good day!

[Longranger 148]

Thanks again for your input guys, and please do not take what I say as a negative. I'm well aware of the fact that I only tried it a few days. Hardly any time at all to see what it can and cannot do. Oh and thank you for finding ENCN for me, Manuel. I searched in scenery for ENCN, and the only thing I found was a 2d scenery - which I promtly downloaded. It had the runway and taxiway coordinates ok, but no buildings and trees where the terminal was supposed to be. I dont know how I could miss the scenery you are pointing at - I will check it out!

Well, you should really start with the basics. And this is the HUGE amount of freeware, like the HD and UHD meshes from Alpilotx http://www.alpilotx.net/ . This will improve the autogen to decent levels, if you have at least 8 (HD) or 16 (UHD) GB of RAM and a GPU with at least 4 GB.

 

Another important adress is simheaven.com The w2xp sceneries (which needs its world-models and the Europe library are more or less necessities in europe. And in fact the x-plane.org system. Follow http://www.simflight.de/2016/06/06/x-plane-kurznachrichten-nachtrag/ to the MisterX6 Boston Logan Scenery and the massachusets pro scenery (that needs additionalyy its own world-models library) .

 

The right mouse button? Who uses the right mouse button. I prefer to put fast pan and tilt commands on my joystick.

 

One of the basic misunderstandings of many X-Plane newbies: X-Plane was more or less tageted for GA-planes , They were slowly starting to get ihnto the airline world. In fact some of the missing features of the IXEG are more or less missing features of the whole environment: How do we program this, that it works everywhere?

[YukonPete 586]

3 must have plugins

 

1. X-Camera

2. X-Assign

3. Real Terra Haze

 

I also recommend Efass. Google each and you will find them easy

[Murmur 3,941]

OK. Fair Comment. My Bad. I withdraw my observations.

 

Apologies to the XPlane Community.

 

MODS please delete my comments.

 

No need to apologise, I don't think the tone of your post was that bad, after all, the criticism of X-Plane GUI is one of the most common.

 

Personally, as some other people said above, I find the present GUI very powerful and easy to use. However I reckon that many people (maybe the majority?) in the flightsim community have an opposite opinion, so yes, I think it's a good idea to revise the GUI.

 

Fortunately, a complete rewrite of GUI is planned for X-Plane 11. You can see previews on this video (from 39:40 to 44:40):

 

[x-plane 123 61]

Thanks again for your input guys, and please do not take what I say as a negative. I'm well aware of the fact that I only tried it a few days. Hardly any time at all to see what it can and cannot do. Oh and thank you for finding ENCN for me, Manuel. I searched in scenery for ENCN, and the only thing I found was a 2d scenery - which I promtly downloaded. It had the runway and taxiway coordinates ok, but no buildings and trees where the terminal was supposed to be. I dont know how I could miss the scenery you are pointing at - I will check it out!

 

Sounds like you're searching the airport gateway, which are just the default airports. I suggest you use this site to search for airports.

 

 

So onwards! I have a new question: How do I change the livery of an airplane at the startup screen. Again, with the 737 from Ixeg (it's the only addon airplane I currently have), I installed several liveries. I can find them when i go into the aircraft menu when inside xpx, but I'd like to be able to change to the correct livery from the startup screen. Is that possible?

Sadly, you can't currently change liveries from the startup screen, although the preview of the new UI at Flight Sim Con does have this ability +many more (you can see it in the video Murmur posted above).

 

 

My biggest complaint with XPlane is the rendering system.  No such thing has a shinny aluminum airplane I guess, and the best airports look cartoonish for the lack of surface treatments.  I'm sure this is going to improve with updates.

Again in the video Murmur posted above, Ben talks about PBR and shows some before and after screenshots. I think you will be very pleased. It starts around 45:25

[Andreas Stangenes 1,628]

Well .. there's *tone* right there. 

 

Why even go into this "PMDG killer" cods-wallop? 

 

PMDG are a respected and much loved developer for all current major sims out there ... I'm an X-Planer and I love that PMDG is doing what it does best for ALL flight simmers.

 

Thanks for listening. Good day!

 

Hi Pryoski, thanks for your input. I'm not quite sure what "tone" you are referring to. By the sound of your post it seems you are thinking that I belive PMDG did a bad job or something. If that's the case, then rest assured I hold PMDG quality close to my flightsimming heart My comment was directed at people praising the 737 classic as equal to PMDG standards, which I found not to be true. It might certainly be a matter of opinion, but certain bugs and missing features in the 737 ixeg product makes it pretty basic in regards to system simulation (just to support my claims with facts: the FMC has missing functions although it certainly works, and the auto throttle system sets TOGA power simply by arming it at the gate etc).

 

Xplane is something I WANT to love. I want to love it because:

a) It has the most beautiful night lighting I've ever seen in a sim

b) At certain times it has wonderful atmosphere

c) It's 64 bits!

 

I'm struggling a little bit with xplane because I've become so accustomed to all the whistles and bells that are there at my finger tips flying FSX and Prepar3d, and the quality of the tubeliners which I prefer to fly. In regards to the level of complexity of the GUI, I think I prefer Xplane's approach of giving the user so much controll. In FSX/Prepar3d you need to buy seperat addons to give you some of the control Xplanes gives you right out of the box. I just found it strange that certain basic functions were missing from the options when so many other lesser options where readily available.

I understand now that I will find the AP disengage option under plugins for the ixeg and not under xplanes own keybinding options. This is of course an easy mistake to do as a beginner, and probably supports those who think the GUI is too difficult to maneuver and grasp.

Sounds like you're searching the airport gateway, which are just the default airports in x-plane. I suggest this site to search for airports.

 

Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction, X-Plane123 I tried to download the ENCN scenery, but it didn't work for me. On closer inspection, the author specifies that it needs: OpensceneryX, ruScenery, R2_Library & FFLibrary.

 

I tried to search for some of it, but was taken to a russian speaking site in the process and gave up for the evening. Do you know where I can get those easily? Thanks again!

[jcomm 5,930]

 

I'm struggling a little bit with xplane because I've become so accustomed to all the whistles and bells that are there at my finger tips flying FSX and Prepar3d, and the quality of the tubeliners which I prefer to fly. In regards to the level of complexity of the GUI, I think I prefer Xplane's approach of giving the user so much controll. In FSX/Prepar3d you need to buy seperat addons to give you some of the control Xplanes gives you right out of the box. I just found it strange that certain basic functions were missing from the options when so many other lesser options where readily available.

I understand now that I will find the AP disengage option under plugins for the ixeg and not under xplanes own keybinding options. This is of course an easy mistake to do as a beginner, and probably supports those who think the GUI is too difficult to maneuver and grasp.

 

 

I understand your point, but at the same time my dismay with the best tubeliners for FSX started long ago with the first PMDG 737 for fs9... and because of a tiny little detail - asymmetric thrust and it's impact on roll and yaw moments...

 

Fail an engine at or above v2 in your NGX, or even in the 777, having made sure the TAC is OFF, and see the results.... Compare to X-Plane 10 ( even default tubeliners! ).

 

Or... think about how far any rotary wing modeling ( inclduding DODOSIM 206 ) is from the offers for X-plane ....

 

Then there are ridiculous aspects of modeling on both sims that continue to require tweaks by developers like the mixture bug in FSX / P3D... and the fact that on a reciprocating engine in X-plane you will not be able to "kill" it even if you bring the aircraft to... FL450....

 

There are irritating aspects on both sims. Problem is, no hope for an update in FSX, don't know about P3d regarding these core bugs, DTG is... I don't know what ... while X-Plane is actively under development also in the area of aircraft systems and flight dynamics ( where recently and thanks to Murmur's work, the torque bug was finally trapped...)

[mmerelles 78]

 

Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction, X-Plane123 I tried to download the ENCN scenery, but it didn't work for me. On closer inspection, the author specifies that it needs: OpensceneryX, ruScenery, R2_Library & FFLibrary.

 

I tried to search for some of it, but was taken to a russian speaking site in the process and gave up for the evening. Do you know where I can get those easily? Thanks again!

 

 

Free developers use free libraries. This is very good approach because there are 6 to 10 library packages that covers 99% of the free developers. Otherwise each developer will have required to develop their own repetitive objects and hard disk required will be huge having all libraries embedded for every airport separately.

 

So, yes once again you are learning xplane world. You will be very happy and extremely satisfied how easy is to install an airport, aircraft, etc. in the end.

 

So this package from TDG requires.

 

-OpensceneryX installer here http://www.opensceneryx.com

-ruScenery download here RuScenery.zip (unzip and move the folder into xplane10/custom scenery/

-R2_Library download here http://r2.xpl.cz (unzip and move the folder into xplane10/custom scenery/

-FFLibrary download here http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/12708-fflibrary/ (unzip and move again)

 

Any time you download a free scenery it will tell which library it requires, install those additional you may still be missing. As said there are 6 to 10 that covers most of the sceneries. Once you have them installed your workload will be minimal

[x-plane 123 61]

Hi Pryoski, thanks for your input. I'm not quite sure what "tone" you are referring to. By the sound of your post it seems you are thinking that I belive PMDG did a bad job or something. If that's the case, then rest assured I hold PMDG quality close to my flightsimming heart My comment was directed at people praising the 737 classic as equal to PMDG standards, which I found not to be true. It might certainly be a matter of opinion, but certain bugs and missing features in the 737 ixeg product makes it pretty basic in regards to system simulation (just to support my claims with facts: the FMC has missing functions although it certainly works, and the auto throttle system sets TOGA power simply by arming it at the gate etc).

 

Xplane is something I WANT to love. I want to love it because:

a) It has the most beautiful night lighting I've ever seen in a sim

B) At certain times it has wonderful atmosphere

c) It's 64 bits!

 

I'm struggling a little bit with xplane because I've become so accustomed to all the whistles and bells that are there at my finger tips flying FSX and Prepar3d, and the quality of the tubeliners which I prefer to fly. In regards to the level of complexity of the GUI, I think I prefer Xplane's approach of giving the user so much controll. In FSX/Prepar3d you need to buy seperat addons to give you some of the control Xplanes gives you right out of the box. I just found it strange that certain basic functions were missing from the options when so many other lesser options where readily available.

I understand now that I will find the AP disengage option under plugins for the ixeg and not under xplanes own keybinding options. This is of course an easy mistake to do as a beginner, and probably supports those who think the GUI is too difficult to maneuver and grasp.

Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction, X-Plane123 I tried to download the ENCN scenery, but it didn't work for me. On closer inspection, the author specifies that it needs: OpensceneryX, ruScenery, R2_Library & FFLibrary.

 

I tried to search for some of it, but was taken to a russian speaking site in the process and gave up for the evening. Do you know where I can get those easily? Thanks again!

 

This will cover most of the libraries you need, but every once and a while you may need one that is  not included in that. You can usually find it with a quick Google search.

[Longranger 148]

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/30252-x-plane-library-installer/ might be helpfull.

[mmerelles 78]

This will cover most of the libraries you need, but every once and a while you may need one that is  not included in that. You can usually find it with a quick Google search.

 

 

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/30252-x-plane-library-installer/ might be helpfull.

 

oh men how can someone say xplane is quite hard for beginners? people is too lazy :smile:  i wasn't even aware someone already put everything together AHAHAHAA