State of the Union Concerning X-Plane?

[bonchie 2,305]

It's just a different experience that really has to be tried to understand.

P3D has its strong points, but until you've tried XP11, you may not realize just how much more advanced graphically it is.

Weather is the last major hurdle for it to clear and some addons are already getting really close. Seasons are nice, but I'm not going to stay with P3D when XP11 is doing nearly everything better just over seasons.

[LAdamson 240]

I will give X-Plane this much, the runway contours are amazing! Something that FSX/P3D cannot emulate.

FSX/P3D can have runway contours, as demonstrated with certain Orbx products, but it won't be universal.  Way back around FS2004, runways were discussed during the beta process. There were around 20,000 airports included with the program at the time.  As can be seen with X-Plane, some runways look great, while many others are disasters, and a lot in between. More than not, many X-Plane runways are exaggerated. Some are litterly unusable.

 

Imagine the complaints having 20,000 airports, that would need thousands of hours of additional work by hand.  In reality, there is just too much spacing between elevation points, to have totally accurate runway elevations. Let alone the fill at numerous airports to somewhat level out the runway surface. It's just a compromise that can be accepted by X-Plane users. I like it............sometimes. 

[Kyle94 0]

Hope theres a discount for P3D version owners  :wink:

Hahaha, that's a joke right?

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Hahaha, that's a joke right?

 

Absolutely  

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Gents,

 

I always love when folks come through with sweeping generalizations about some new product or new widget that "has been given a warm reception by the majority of simmers."

 

In nearly 25 years in this community, the only thing I've ever seen it do warmly is a flame war over some esoteric detail that nobody knows anything about, but the OP said it was important so everyone else jumped on the bandwagon assuming it MUST be important, even though they had never heard of it 30 seconds earlier- but cannot believe that the developer doesn't understand how freaking important this esoteric, previously unheard-of detail revealed by the OP really is.....  [deeep inhale]

 

Perhaps i"m jaded... 

 

As with all of our projects- the things we would LIKE to do are often overcome by the reality of what we CAN do inside the limited space of a single day.

 

We are well aware that Xplane11 is nearing completion- and we will evaluate it's fitness for handling our airliner conversions once we have some resources freed up from converting the DC-6 to FSX/P3D, and the 747-400 out the hangar door as a finished release...

 

Until then I'd either be making stuff up or wildly guessing without valid data... and i don't like to do either of those.

[mtrainer 136]

Hello,

 

I had some extra time on Saturday and gave the free trial download of X-Plane a try.  Although it recognized my Saitek X36F joystick and X35T throttle in the setup screen and even showed all the proper axis movements, none of the axis registered at all in the sim and I gave up on it after lots of fiddling and Internet research.  And although this PC is beginning to run out of steam the framerates left a LOT to be desired over Prepar3D.  Hopefully there are some optimizations that will speed things up.

 

I purchase X-Plane every few years, including their very early versions, but always put it back on the shelf.  It's getting there but has a long way to go.

 

One thing I did like in an interview w/ Austin Meyers (founder of x-plane) was his long-term strategy of rendering clouds as real 3-D objects with their own unique properties, and the idea of a real-time seasonal morph with algorithms that mimic changing leaf colors and dropping of leaves over time, snow pile up over time, etc.   He's got a really good long-term view of how things should work.  He's got his coding efforts cut out for him though.  As I've said in other threads, the Ultimate Flight Simulator would be a World Simulator with an aircraft you can fly through it.   He seems to feel the same way.

 

I'm all for PDMG being able to support cross-platforms and if it gives X-Plane a boost, that is good for all as healthy competition drives the market.  I'd love to read a couple of interviews with the PDMG developers on some of the pros and cons of writing code for each of the platforms.

 

One easy-peasy thing Prepar3D could do, in my opinion, is change the default starting aircraft and default airport starting location.  It's lame.  Starting Airport:  If the MSFS franchise used Meigs Field for 20 years, which was super cool by the way (until Mayor Daley wrecked it in the middle of the night), then one would think they would at least pick an airport as interesting if not more so.  When you have all the world to choose....why an average runway in the flat lands of South Georgia?   And as for starting Aircraft: Given that Prepar3D is for academic purposes not sure of the value in a default aircraft being a poorly modeled F-22....no one starts their pilot career in one of these!  You'd think they were picking an aircraft for an Arcade Shooter.

 

I'll close by saying that it appears Prepar3D still has the longer legs over X-Plane, mostly because of the larger size of the Prepar3D Lockheed-Martin development group.  That company has deep pockets!

 

Mark Trainer

[sizziano 172]

I am still not sold on XP11, it is definitely getting better with each version, but I still feel that ORBX does a better job with textures, there is still no seasons in XP (to my knowledge). I am really happy with P3D at the moment, not knocking out XP at all, just saying, I am not sure there would be a mass exodus Rich

 

Also, FSL indicated no plans to support XP, but yes, I believe PMDG porting their product to XP will bring in more people to the XP world.

 

Are you actually comparing a paid addon to a default solution? Please stop being so disingenuous.

 

 

Highly unlikely there will be a mass exodus ... IXEG 737 didn't trigger one, PMDG DC-6 didn't trigger one ... heck still plenty of people hanging onto FS9.  XP11 is definitely a big improvement and I'd expect to see a larger user base in the future, but from experience "mass exodus" just never happens in the flight sim world.

 

With that said, I'd love to see a PMDG 777 in XP11 and whatever future product comes out of LM/P3D.  Don't really need another 737.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

I don't see the equivalency between those releases and the NGX for XP. Do you really believe it's comparable? An aging tubeliner in limited use by airlines from a new developer and a prop liner from the golden age of aviation?

 

 

Felipe Vicini

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Gents,

 

Yup.  Like I said...  "The only thing I've seen this community do warmly..."

 

Seriously, gents.  Be nice to one another.  We are all simmers.  That means at the core we are computer geeks and airplane geeks.

 

Who gives a damn what platform you like? 

 

I certainly don't.

[Adrian123 1,015]

Exactly Just enjoy we are still alive and able to comprehend.

[mtrainer 136]

Agreed!  Alive and Comprehending is a good combo!

 

I started with SubLogic Flight Simulator II for the Commodore 64 and have flown all the major PC sims since.  Right now - well it's never been a better time for the hobby, period.  Try landing an airplane with a FPS of......2.  I'll be building an all new cutting edge rig next spring and I must say I'm seriously stoked.

 

Mark Trainer

[Slayer 190]

Why not stop being bull headed and fly the best representation on the best platform available for it? Heck most simulator platforms cost less than the associated add ons for them and most cost less than a dinner date. It's not like a marriage where you MUST be mutually exclusive. To me the learning part of the aircraft whatever the platform , is the best part..Harddrive space is cheap nowadays guys, expand your horizons....

[anubhavs 66]

As the OP, I don't intend to start a P3D vs. XP discussion. To each their own and I'm not saying XP is better than P3D or vice verse

 

My statement that XP11 has had a warm reception is purely anecdotal and not fact based obviously. Not meant to be implying or propagating anything there except reflecting chatter I hear and my own experiences with the platform.

 

Just wanted to know PMDG's plans regarding XP - which we've heard from Robert above.

 

Nothing more to say!

[Guest-475 81]

Why not stop being bull headed and fly the best representation on the best platform available for it? Heck most simulator platforms cost less than the associated add ons for them and most cost less than a dinner date. It's not like a marriage where you MUST be mutually exclusive. To me the learning part of the aircraft whatever the platform , is the best part..Harddrive space is cheap nowadays guys, expand your horizons....

If you are just using the sim as-is, this is a valid point. But many simmers nowadays also want good addon airports, weather addons, texture addons, GPS addons, camera addons, ATC addons, mesh, scenery etc.

 

Then you'll need to get all this twice because the majority of the stuff doesn't work cross platform. Of course there is good freeware, especially for X-Plane but also still for FSX/P3D. But then again it takes double the time to find the stuff, download and install it and to maintain it.

 

Sure, it can be done, and I would love to have the best of both worlds, but managing all this for one sim is more than enough "work" for me.

[ferrariman15 13]

 I can just imagine if either the NGX or the 777 showed up in X-Plane, it would be a mass exodus.  Austin would have to buy more servers. lol

I highly doubt that. I have the NGX and 777 for P3D and will be buying the 747 for P3D. I have loads and loads of addons for P3D and my simulator looks damn good. No OOM problems ever. I'm waiting for a certain Airbus to be released for P3D. I'm certainly not going to jump to Xplane 11 any time soon. Sorry to disappoint.

As the OP, I don't intend to start a P3D vs. XP discussion. To each their own and I'm not saying XP is better than P3D or vice verse

My statement that XP11 has had a warm reception is purely anecdotal and not fact based obviously. Not meant to be implying or propagating anything there except reflecting chatter I hear and my own experiences with the platform.

Just wanted to know PMDG's plans regarding XP - which we've heard from Robert above.

Nothing more to say!

This is what frustrates me about the Xplane community though. It seems absolutely desperate for there to be a mass exodus to the platform from FSX/P3D. If it's your chosen platform and you enjoy it then good for you. If and when Xplane 11 is a very good sim and the available addons are as good or better than P3D the transition to Xplane will happen naturally. Trying to force it won't.

[Raphael_Chacon 42]

IMO new computer development, graphics card and processors, 2017 programming methods and almost getting to know new OSs again  . OMG -->This has become the "Hunger games" after the best graphic/realism flightsim platform 

 

Serious flightsimmers(i would say) will look for new things, not exactly "64bits updates" of the same thing =@             ... i see this 2017 will be very very interesting and i would love to have PMDGs on different platforms and test them all BTW     :wink:   

 

Happy new year!