Soon to be X-Plane Newbie!

[efraindavila 0]

Greetings X-Plane community;

 

I was a long time FSX user and been on P3D for the past couple of years running now the most current version of it. I've invested a whole lot of money on add ons (Sceneries and pretty much all of their top third-party aircrafts), weather tools, and eye-candy tweaks. Yet I've still was never able to be completely satisfied with this really old platform (We all know P3D is basically still FSX). 

 

 

For quite some time now I've been keeping a very close eye on X-Plane's maturity and been somewhat eager to make the jump. After constantly following it's development via many very helpful YouTube channels, forums, looking at photos and watching the FlightSimCon2016 presentation online, I am more than convinced and I'm just about ready to make the dive and have an alternate sim. 

 

 

My question to you guys is, should I buy now, or wait for 10.50's final release? I purchased a new SSD today that will be dedicated solely to X-plane and I'm pretty much set. 

 

 

Also, I would like to know what are the top "must-have" 3rd party add ons I should consider getting for X-Plane as well since I'll will obviously be a "newbie".

 

Thanx in advance everyone!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Boomer 1,619]

May as well buy now as 10.5 would be a free update.

 

I did.

 

However, with respect to immersion with things like ai traffic and atc, it's still on the level of fsx.

[bk2000 0]

I've had FSX 10 years longer than I've had X Plane. Fsx just seems BOULDER and BRIGHTER. and then there's that thing about the atc and no ground rain reflections. I'd wait to buy until at least after 10.5 has been released.

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

X-Plane 10 is being updated to version 10-50 and 10-51 is on the horizon to add additional airports. There is no reason to wait as you will be brought up to the latest version as long as it is in the X-Plane 10 run.  X-Plane 11 will be a new purchase and will probably be about 1.5 to 2 years from now, so there is no advantage in waiting.  

 

As a flight simulator flyer since the very primitive days of the old Commodore computer era, I will say that X-Plane has provided more realism than any previous offering.  I never flew winter conditions in FSX except for some of the missions and maybe that's why I don't miss that and, while some give accolades to the ATC systems in FSX and P3D, I found them to be awkward and, while they provided some degree of realism, there was never a feeling of realism there. Microsoft came close to pulling it off when they came out with "Flight" a few years ago.  Scenery was excellent, dynamics were great, but they tried to turn it into a "game" as opposed to a simulator and lost their momentum. They started selling aircraft without cockpits and other "gamish" things. I lost all that as it was all downloads without the ability to save it to discs (at least none that I found).  Money wasted.  If FSX and P3D were not supported by third party developers, they would have been dead long ago. X-Plane is in constant development and that must be frustrating to developers, but there is a future.

 

As far as boldness and brightness, I find both to be realistic in X-Plane and looking back at FSX, I find it to be almost cartoonish in comparison.  Brightness is controlled through the gamma settings in the display settings section, but I find them to be about right in the default.  I guess it depends on the hardware you are using. And, above all, X-Plane 10 is 64 bit - no memory problems.

 

No simulator is perfect but, considering the fact that you can keep FSX/P3D (basically the same) on your computer where you can go back and get your fix, there is no reason not to move to X-Plane 10.  If you are like me (except probably not as old), you will find yourself going back less and less.

 

In case you haven't figured it out by now, I recommend X-Plane 10 highly.

 

John

[avgaskoolaid 292]

I've had FSX 10 years longer than I've had X Plane. Fsx just seems BOULDER and BRIGHTER. and then there's that thing about the atc and no ground rain reflections. I'd wait to buy until at least after 10.5 has been released.

The dull look of XPlane can be fixed with RealTerraHaze (free) and BluFX (free but hard to find) or its payware equivalent MaxxFX. Also, I don't think 10.50 will fix atc or rain reflections. 

 

OP, you're definitely making the right call! I got XP10 last December and I'm constantly amazed by the sim, especially the night lighting. Here are some addons I'd recommend:

 

Dreamfoil's AeroBoero AB-115- exceptional freeware (formerly payware) little Cub-like plane. Available on x-plane.org

 

FlightFactor 767- the best payware heavy jet. store.x-plane.org

 

LES Saab 340- A turboprop that I honestly prefer to the Majestic Q400- .x-aviation.com

 

SkymaxxPro- weather addon that helps with weather depiction: x-aviation.com

 

Real World Weather- another weather addon that helps with cloud placement: x-aviation.com

 

NOAA GFS Weather- freeware plugin that gives you real-world weather and a METAR query box: x-plane.org

 

Real Terra Haze (as I mentioned above)- a freeware plugin that lets you play around with atmospheric and light settings: x-plane.org

 

Any of the freeware airports by MisterX6 (x-plane.org). You'll be blown away by how detailed they are. 

 

Finally, check out Osamah Abdullah's YouTube page. He provides great guides, tutorials, and reviews as well as full flight videos in both XPlane and P3D: https://www.youtube.com/user/oalabdullah1/videos

 

Even though many people love XP10, it might not be for everyone. I'd suggest that you download the demo (it's time limited to 15 minutes and only has the Seattle area). Take some time to get familiar with it and play around with various freeware airplanes and scenery/atmosphere addons before you pick it up. 

[efraindavila 0]

First of all, I want to thank you guys for the very helpful replies especially Old_As_Dirt and hamoody for the details of add ons I should consider. I will be reviewing as many add ons as I can. But in the mean time, I am convinced and will begin the preliminary purchases as of today. Once again, thanks gentlemen. Any additional recommendations by others is also welcomed as I am ready to build my X-plane world a step at a time.

 

Regards,

 

Efrain D.

 

 

[Jude Bradley 659]

Welcome on board the X-Plane

[efraindavila 0]

Welcome on board the X-Plane

 

Thank you Jude!

[Cjr60611 31]

Just Do It!  And, don't look back - you won't be disappointed.  I'd bet most of the X-Planers out there followed the same path you did spending hundreds (and even thousands) along the way.  But, like you, have decided to stop contributing to money pit known as FSX.  Prepar3D is not as bad but, how many people move over because it's compatibility with FSX?  

 

Settling in X-Planeville is a smart choice given the other options.  Not a perfect community but a helpful and extremely giving one - you won't believe how many users share their developed add-ons for free (donate when you can).  Some of these complimentary add-ons are better than stuff you paid top $$$ in FSX and P3D (check out Mister X's KBOS).  

 

Indeed, there is a learning curve but it's short and before you know it you'll be messing around in WED customizing your own FS world!  AND - 10.50 hasn't even been released yet!  I don't know how you can go wrong with XP 

[efraindavila 0]

Thank you Cjr60611. I just digitally purchased and now downloading X-plane as we speak, all while watching now a bunch of YouTube clips on how to set up controls, views, etc. So far not as daunting as I thought it would be. I guess what may kick my butt a bit is looking for the best rendering setups for my machine. I do have a pretty powerful rig I build less than a year ago (GeForce GTX Titan X, 34gig DDR4 Memory, Intel i7 6700K liquid cooled, and more). 

 

I am excited for this change. Over all, I've been using Flight Simulator since FS98' so this is definitely a big change for me.

 

By no means am I planning to completely abandon FS as of right away (Unless X-plane completely sucks me in deep and makes me forget everything else). Thus why I will be having both sims and their respective files on separate SSD's. 

 

Regards,

[LAdamson 240]

 

 

By no means am I planning to completely abandon FS as of right away (Unless X-plane completely sucks me in deep and makes me forget everything else). Thus why I will be having both sims and their respective files on separate SSD's. 

 

That's a good thought.  I maintain both sims. That was my intention when I set up a system a year and a half ago. But then I've known X-Plane since it came about, in the mid 90's. Own versions 8 through 10. Had most of the demos before that. 

There are some very excellent freeware (donation ware)  airports for X-Plane as previously mentioned, and Mr. X is top line.  IMO, X-Plane is like MSFS 15 years ago, in regards to freeware. Lot's of freeware back then, but we can't expect the best talent to keep creating 

great material forever. I do donate, myself. 

[captain420 3,099]

I keep going back n forth between X-Plane and P3D... I like P3D more because of the add-ons. But I certainly don't miss the 32bit and having OOMs.

 

Some thing I enjoy most about X-Plane is the night lighting, although not perfect, but it looks amazing. Just wish the night lighting extended into the horizon, hope they fix that.

 

And I don't like the quality of their tubeliners when compared to Aerosoft Airbus or PMDG. The interior cockpit just isn't on the same level and the systems as well. I really can't stand those ugly menus that hover on the side of the screen. Why can't they implement that into the CDU like on PMDG and Aerosoft Airbus. It's a much more intuitive approach. I also wish that there were native flight plan files that PFPX can export to for X-Plane that I can load directly into Flight Factor's 777 or JarDesign's Airbus. No GTN support, no AI add-on that I can just install and go. Although World Traffic is nice, I just don't like how you have to fiddle with WED and make taxi routes and all that just to get it to work. Once those things are resolved and improved, I will switch back. But for now I'm enjoying P3D a lot.

 

Enjoy X-Plane, it has great potential though.

[Colonel X 1,428]

Can't help but notice that people have been FLOCKING to X-Plane recently   !!!

[Sethos 4,298]

Can't help but notice that people have been FLOCKING to X-Plane recently   !!!

 

It's a good time to be an X-Planer! Now I just hope and wish they would do an overhaul of the game's weather, then I would ditch P3D completely. 

[Colonel X 1,428]

I don't think it's that bad?

 

http://www.avsim.com/topic/492029-real-weather-depiction-in-x-plane-1050smprwc/?hl=%2Bdepiction#entry3456567