On The Fence... STILL

[Kuragiman 227]

So I have watched a bunch of XP11 videos with add-ons like X-Plane Life and xEnviro.   It is impressive.   The sim still lacks the aircraft I want to fly but they are coming sooner or later.

 

I am still on the fence though because there is a problem with all the videos I have watched... EVERY single one of them that go in depth.. is in Europe.  X-Plane has ALWAYS catered more to Europe flyers than United States in my opinion.   Are there any good videos of US areas BESIDES New York?   It just feels like all the effort to make X-Plane look its best via payware or freeware mods are all based in the European theater.   I have only seen New York and parts of Seattle in the US shown in screen caps and videos.  Maybe that's all that is out there in the Beta?

 

Some questions for you X-Plane 11 fanatics

===================================

 

Is there good OSM data for the USA/Canda so I can have a semi-completed road network displayed below me.

Are the major cities represented in a decent fashion in the USA/Canada?

How many good payware/freeware airports are there for major hubs in the USA/Canada? (That KDFW is looking sexy!)

How much Photoreal scenery is available already for USA/Canada?  I don't have time to sit there in Ortho4XP and all that jazz.

 

 

Some screen caps in this thread with all the bells and whistles running from you guys that have them installed would be nice.    I have about $3000-$4000 invested in Prepar3D and I am not willing to make the switch unless XP11 meets my needs at least 90% of the way.  The often spoken solution of "Just use both" is not something I am interested in.   I want a one stop shop for my simulation needs.   X-Plane 11 is shaping up beautifully and after running the Demo it has an impressive frame rate and smoothness in the tests I did.  (though setting up my joystick, throttle and rudder is still a bit wonky for some reason).

 

I think I have done enough research.   Let's see what you guys answer to the questions below.

 

1.  Best ATC add-on?

2.  Best weather engine?

3.  Best environment engine?

4.  Best AI-Traffic add-on?

 

Thanks for your input.

[tonywob 4,768]

Is there good OSM data for the USA/Canda so I can have a semi-completed road network displayed below me.

- Yes, the OSM road data for the US and Canada is actually very good. Far more accurate than what you'd see in FSX/P3D, and it's easy to update.

 

Are the major cities represented in a decent fashion in the USA/Canada?

- In my opinion, yes. The default scenery depicts American cities quite well, and there are plenty of free or payware addons which add more realistic cities or landmarks.

 

How many good payware/freeware airports are there for major hubs in the USA/Canada? (That KDFW is looking sexy!)

- The only ones that come to mind are MisterX`s fantastic KBOS, KLAX and San Francisco. I'm sure there are more but I don't generally fly in the US.

 

How much Photoreal scenery is available already for USA/Canada?  I don't have time to sit there in Ortho4XP and all that jazz.

- Not much at all if you don't want to make it yourself. There is some payware over at x-aviation, but it's pretty much out-of-date and washed out. I'm sure somebody at some point will share their USGS photoscenery, but at the moment you're out of luck if you want an easy solution. 

 

I don't think anyone here can convince you to switch, you need to do this yourself. What is nice for one person is awful for another. You can pick up XP11 and use it with only freeware for a bit and if you don't like it, it's not a huge amount of money and maybe come back again in a year or two and XP11 will still work and almost certainly there will be more addons. 

[ohsirus 241]

I don't understand why you are on the fence if you are satisfied with what you have now. That's what drove me from FSX/P3D to X-plane. I just hated how dated visually  FSX/P3D seems even fully loaded, it's just so cartoony looking. The looks and performance is what pushed me over the fence. I even hit a milestone as this is the first PMDG release (747) that I will not be buying :( as no way I can go back now.

[tonywob 4,768]

 

 

I don't understand why you are on the fence if you are satisfied with what you have now.

 

Very good point. If you are already satisfied and happy with P3D and your addons, then it's going to take a lot of patience to get to the same level in XP11. 

[Spam3d 54]

KPHX

 

 

KLAX

 

 

Portland

 

 

KSAN

 

 

San Fransisco Area

 

[richie894 45]

Why not get the best of both worlds and use both sims, you do not have to be restricted to one or the other. Like you I have $$$ invested in P3D. I still use it while I am tweaking XP11. Also remember XP has a huge community providing quality freeware and also you can create your own photo scenery. I have downloaded a bunch of stuff, including the MisterX airports and the EADT 737NG and only invested $60 in the sim. Although I just picked up the SSG 747-8 earlier this week. My first payware aircraft.

 

Also you can convert your P3D airport scenery to work in XP. Thomas Rasmussen has tutorials on youtube. The Flytampa airports like Dubai actually look a lot better in XP than P3D. The textures are really crisp.

[FLAPS15 8]

Wow, are those pictures default?...I am only on the Beta so nothing outside Ksea....but that sort of scenery will get me into the club.

 

Just hope the UK looks like this too...default.... I fly a lot in Europe. All airline, so that would be nice along with some good airports and a updated Bus from Jar.

 

Getting more converted by the day!

 

Cheers

[Mountain Man 142]

 

 

X-Plane has ALWAYS catered more to Europe flyers than United States in my opinion.

 

Really?  I always thought it was just the opposite.  At least I know that a lot of people from Europe complain about the auto-gen scenery looking more American than European.

[Janov 2,383]

Wow, are those pictures default?...I am only on the Beta so nothing outside Ksea....but that sort of scenery will get me into the club.

 

Just hope the UK looks like this too...default.... I fly a lot in Europe. All airline, so that would be nice along with some good airports and a updated Bus from Jar.

 

Getting more converted by the day!

 

Cheers

 

No, those are not default - but with readily available freeware (MrX6´s airports, if I am not mistaken). So, yeah - while they look really nice, they are not really represenative of the way XP11 looks in the US (which is what the OP wanted to know), so posting these isn´t helpful, actually quite the opposite. If someone buys XP11, thinking that this is the way it will look - disappointment guaranteed. It´s like someone asking how FSX looks, and then to post some ORBX images...

 

So to get back to the OP´s question: I personally think that X-Plane has always been very U.S. centric until XP11. A common gripe was that all cities worldwide looked like the US, and this has only recently changed. More regional variety will certainly follow, it will just take some time.

 

Landclass and elevation mesh are great for the US, too - I can´t post screenshots because its a huge hassle on avsim.

 

Cheers, Jan

[Desaix 235]

Really?  I always thought it was just the opposite.  At least I know that a lot of people from Europe complain about the auto-gen scenery looking more American than European.

Indeed, I keep repeating how lucky are US pilots to have top quality free airports and freeware orthophotos to share. In Europe you won't find key hub yet like Frankfurt, Munich, Charles de gaulle, Rome, Milano, Madrid, Budapest... done at high quality no matter if freeware or payware.

 

For UK just download Tony's UK Pro scenery and slowly create your photoreal tiles for new places you visit. After that you will look at Orbx LC with a laugh on your face and your credit card without an added line.

[Spam3d 54]

No its not default, but you can get all them packages off the org in about 10 minutes...for free. The surrounding scenery is the default though

[Paraffin 2,197]

Really?  I always thought it was just the opposite.  At least I know that a lot of people from Europe complain about the auto-gen scenery looking more American than European.

 

I think it's a mixed situation. Until the new European (German) building autogen was added in XP11, there were complaints about how every area outside the USA still used that style of buildings. However, OSM data for buildings is apparently still better in Europe/UK than in the USA, so the accuracy of building placement is still iffy in many parts of the USA (and Canada) compared to Europe. For example, my home town is on the outskirts of the Seattle area, and it doesn't look very good because the OSM data just isn't there yet. The roads in the USA however, are very accurate.

 

FWIW, I do a lot of flying in Western Canada, BC and the coast. You won't find airports at every single location, but all the major ones are there, and many of the smaller ones in places like Vancouver Island are there because it's a popular flying area, People have submitted airports to the Gateway so they appear in the default scenery. This area also has two of the very best small GA payware airports for X-Plane: CZST - Stewart and CYBD - Bella Coola: http://beti-x.com/sceneries.html

 

One final note to the OP: You mentioned wanting orthophotos, but I'd suggest giving X-Plane's default look of landclass + autogen buildings and roads a chance. I know some people are wedded to orhtophotos, but I've never liked the squashed and blurry appearance at low altitude, or the lighting effect at dusk, dawn, and night. X-Plane is improving all the time in this area. Give it a chance, and you might end up preferring the look without orthophotos. Especially in areas like Canada or other parts of the world where there just aren't many good data sources to begin with.

[Kuragiman 227]

I probably would if there was a good 700/800 737 to fly.    I am not interested in an outdated 300 model which appears to be the best 737 sim available at the moment.    I fly heavy iron 99% of the time and have little interest in GA aircraft.    I like to simulate airline ops and I don't think XP is quite there yet.   I want that performance and access to all 32 gigs of memory I have installed for horizon level Autogen.  With that level of Autogen you don't really need ortho as long as the OSM data is accurate and the autogen is placed logically (commerical/residential/inudstrial where they should be).

 

I guess I should just toss the cash at them because it encourages more 3rd party devs to look seriously at supporting the platform.    

 

 

I do like P3D a lot but even with all its updates and 3k worth of add-ons it is still lacking the performance I expect out of my hardware and that's just because the ESP engine is beaten to death.   It is not a efficient engine and it just can't take advantage of today's hardware as well as a newer coded platform can.

 

Is anyone here using X-Life Deluxe?   Does it do a good job of populating most major hubs with air traffic?

[Desaix 235]

99% liners cannot be but disappointed in current offer of XP addons.

 

No serious ATC utility unless you port one from FSX like Pilot2ATC.

No serious AI unless you're ready to cope with custom settings and low coverage of airports.

Small heavy tubes study sim offer.

 

I don't put weather in as with Xenviro I'm pretty much happy, but being release 1.0 of course is not yet complete as a multi suite weather addon like AS16+this+that can offer in PR3D

 

So I think you have to cope with bad performance of PR3D and come back to XP11 in 9 months or more to check the improvements: WT3 is coming, XENviro and SMP will improve, maybe REX will come, ther could be new liners of high quality from PMDG and eventually LR could have improved ATC to FSX standard (with is not that much either).

 

In my case I'm in a hybrid situation: I was used to fly liners with UT2 lively airport + ATC but in XP I moved to casual GA flying and scenery creation. As written maybe in a yer or so I will again move to high altitude if the liner environemnt improves.

[LAdamson 240]

I know you didn't want to hear it again, but if I had thousands invested in P3D, then I'd simply run both sims. Personally, I think total switches is silly!  I often see complaints of " I miss this & that, but I'm willing to do without, hoping that whatever, comes soon".   Just run both. Less heartache.