Question for PMDG users of X-Plane

[mcbellette 145]

I got an e-mail today from an online flight sim store stating that X-Plane 11 beta is available for purchase and I was wondering what those of you who have PMDG products on X-Plane think of it. Does it offer anything more than FSX? Are the frame rates any better/worse? Are the physics any better/worse? I ask, as I am considering changing to X-Plane as it looks good in the videos I've seen and is supported by the people who made it, unlike FSX, which is not. My other concern is that I've heard that there's a lack of airports and realistic scenery for X-Plane compared to FSX, which atleast models the entire world fairly accurately.

[staffguy12 0]

for me yes xplane may lack default airports but look up misterx or other people they make freeware scenery full airports as in fsdreamteam quality full detail but free i get about 50 frames in 10 and about 25 in 11 but to be fair 11 is still in beta so its not optimized yet if you want to try xplane and get a real feel for it i would start in 10 where you would get a better understanding of the sytems 

[Lairyliam 17]

 Hi. firstly beware its a beta... the latsest two updates have slowed many systems down, and for those that use it to just fly, and not actually help the beta test process are all up in arms over it.

Having said that XP11 is stunning, the first thing that got me (as a total noob to xplane) was that the runways were not flat, they are sloped, undualting very much like what the runways of the real world are.

​to answer your questions. 

 ​Physics, im not a pilot, just 20 years of microsoft/p3d dyanamics to go by, it feels different, and i feel like i can controll things a little better, but at the same time as writing this, the ground friction is funny, and i dont need any power to taxi (its a beta so will get fixed) - tho I think I have had better landings in XP lately.

​Frame rates. 11.3 saw me in roughly the same place as P3D. in PMDG plane. as mentioned above .4 and .5 somethings a miss, and that will change soon enough, I suspect .6 will follow quickly such is the discussion over at .org. 

Lack of airports and scenery? seriously the stock scenery is just stunning, I have Aerosoft EDDF for P3D, and I taxi'ed around in XP11 and the similarities were huge,

​They even modelled my local airport EGNS with its covered walkway, so I wouldn't worry about scenery at this stage.

​oh, and they used some sort of open map thing in the scenery, so you can actually find the road that you live on.

​The weather needs work (rumoured to happen before final release) but I wouldn't let that stop you. 

The beta is free, but you are restricted to a small area I believe, try it. its the licence for the whole package that you would need to buy.

​good luck,

​Liam

[downscc 1,327]

 

 

freeware scenery full airports as in fsdreamteam quality full detail but free

 

That is an opinion.  In my opinion, XPL still has a ways to go with rendering realistic sceneries and shinny airplanes.  I tried the free stuff and the surfaces and textures appeared as if created for the Sunday funnies. Very flat and unrealistic. I even tried some payware from Aerosoft and it was no better, I believe due to the limitations of the rendering engine.  I'm sure they are making improvements, but they have a long ways to go to get to DX11 quality.

[Cann0nF0dd3r 21]

Yes, the X-Plane 11 beta is available, you can even download the demo for free if you want to try it out first but its time limited. The only PMDG plane available for X-Plane is the DC-6 but I haven't tried it in XP11 yet but others have.

[Raven9000 272]

1) XP Is completely different

 

2)You can download a trial and test it for yourself

 

3) there are no pmdg productS, just singular, product, the dc-10

 

4) The above works in XP 10 as well, which is not beta

[Bob Scott 7,704]

 

 

3) there are no pmdg productS, just singular, product, the dc-10

 

DC-6, not DC-10

[Guest]

I got an e-mail today from an online flight sim store stating that X-Plane 11 beta is available for purchase and I was wondering what those of you who have PMDG products on X-Plane think of it. Does it offer anything more than FSX? Are the frame rates any better/worse? Are the physics any better/worse? I ask, as I am considering changing to X-Plane as it looks good in the videos I've seen andis supported by the people who made it, unlike FSX, which is not. My other concern is that I've heard that there's a lack of airports and realistic scenery for X-Plane compared to FSX, which atleast models the entire world fairly accurately.

 

I love X-Plane, I think it offers more than FSX in many ways, firstly, X-Plane (especially X-Plane 11) brings major eyecandy upgrades and I think that stock X-Plane looks worlds better than stock FSX.  You get a lot more visual effects and lighting effects than FSX offers - just look at pictures...  I also find that installing and uninstalling stuff in XP is much, much easier - for most add-on aircraft and most add-on scenery, just drag the folder into "Aircraft" or "Custom scenery respectively.  Its also a much cleaner installation and to remove X-Plane is as simple as dragging the folder to the Trash I mean, Recycling Bin...  If you want to reinstall X-Plane onto a new computer, then simply copy the X-Plane 10 folder on the desktop  to a external HD and paste it onto the desktop of the new computer!  Thats it! (This might not be correct but I does work perfectly fine) (and then reactivate all your products but thats beside the point). You also have the ability to change the time of day, aircraft livery, and manipulate the camera (in a way that is similar to EzDok) without *having* to go select a time from menu, restart/select a different aircraft, or use an external add-on respectively!  I'm not an expert on this but X-Plane's physics are meant to be much better than that of FSX's. (and you have runway slopes I think). Also, XP doesn't include airport scenery out of the box - so when you first get XP, (most airports excluding those from Aerosoft and some others that also include scenery out of the box - but that is limited). But head over to the plane org website and you will find plenty of freeware that is really good.  The Frame rate will probably be a bit less than FSX but its up to you to tweak the rendering options to get the optimum in eye candy vs performance.  Updates in XP are also really nice to do and are easy set and forget procedures.

 

​I am not an expert on XP nor FSX - I am just going off my knowledge - feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!

[Tbur 2]

I started using and learning X-Plane (now 10.51, 64bit) as the PMDG DC-6 was rolled out. After using XP until now but  revitalising my P3D installation right now there  arised some pro's and con's after using XP for 9 months:

 

Pro's:

-stunning stock sceneries

-very easy to use and to configure camera system (9 num keys for position saving, smooth visual augmented adjustment in the 3D space). That's a real lack in P3D/FSX !

-feeling of very realistic flight behaviour. This is a subjective feeling. I'm not a pilot !

-smooth ground handling

-good and smooth graphics capability (rare stutter).

-Possibility to make minor adjustments by your own at sceneries with the WED tool.

-stunning night illumination

 

Con's:

-no season adjustment for sceneries. Always summer ! There is some rumor that XP 11 will have a solution.

-all available airliner models (IXEG, JAR, FlightFactor etc.) have partially severe bugs (e.g. IXEG some times leaving unexpectedly a valid FMC route !) or are prone to crash XP completely - I'm sorry ! Simulation depth has always a potential to be improved. The only exception is PMDG DC-6 !

-poor standard in terms of documentation and tutorials (exception PMDG). Sometimes there is a POH available which is a copy of the original. But this is mostly useless because a lot of functionality and logic is not (yet) implemented in the add ons.

-The general support standard has some potential to be improved !

-unclear release policy of XP: Now XP 11 beta....how long?

-when the count of installed add ons is rising the risk of some cumbersome interferences between general plugins, gizmo, plugins  brought by add ons and sceneries (why??) is rising also which takes days to chase after and to find the problem. I miss some proven guidelines for the programming folks to be followed that this frustrating and time consuming trouble shooting can be avoided. This topic is commonly called "Quality Management"!

 

Thomas Burchard

[laserit 93]

The PMDG DC-6 is awesome. I cant wait fro they're next X-Plane roll out.

 

I spend equal time with P3D and X-Plane, love them both. Left FSX behind about 3 years ago. One of the things I like about X-Plane the most is that I can visually see altitude and distance a lot better than I can with P3D/FSX. I feel more immersed in X-Plane.

 

Try the X-Plane 11 demo, you'll love it and if you decide to purchase you'll also get X-Plane 10 for free if you purchase directly from Laminar.

[kevinh 409]

 

 

stunning stock sceneries

Really? I have XP10 and the stock scenery is awful. Not as good as stock FSX scenery. You can download freeware scenery to supplement it which is OK in places but quality is patchy.

 

Back on topic, I have the PMDG DC-6 in XP-10 and it's great. There are an increasing number of good quality payware addons becoming available too. Some are complex and deep simulations. XP out of the box is still rather an empty world to fly in though.

[738Captain 4]

Playing around with X-Plane 11 Beta 5(No add-ons or plugins). It looks much better when you see it on your monitor.