Few opinions on X-Plane 11, and PMDG products for XP11

[captain_alligator 10]

One factor might be that all the good aircraft for X-Plane are either quite old or very old in the real world - as well as the DC-6 we have good 737 classic, 757, 727, 737 twinjet; maybe the 767 and MD-80 as well. Although some are still flying, most are now out of production and the one that remains (the 767) is now a different beast from the old one you can fly in X-Plane.

The more modern aircraft in X-Plane, by comparison, range from disappointing to, frankly speaking, terrible. I would still take the good old JRollon CRJ-200 over any of the crop of Embraer E-jets currently on sale for X-Plane. The selection of Airbuses is lamentable and the modern glass-cockpit Boeings are virtually non existant.

I think some developer needs to address this if X-Plane is going to really attract people. This is what I really hoped for with PMDG coming to X-Plane - the NGX, the go-to aircraft that you pick up and fly on VATSIM when you've got a couple of hours to kill on a Thursday evening. I can do that in the 737 Classic but it's always a case of using it on a route and airline that would normally operate a -700 or -800. I love it, but I do understand that people want to pilot the actual aircraft that they flew on in real life, or the ones that they see flying in and out of their local airport every day.

I'd really like someone to build a really good A320 or 737NG, and do it within the lifetime of X-Plane 11. Too much to hope for?

Do you know what? I wouldn't put it past Laminar to develop their new default 737-800 into a mid-range payware level aircraft. I am genuinely astonished at the complexity of the FMC in the X-Plane 11 default aircraft - it is already superior to the custom FMCs in some quite expensive payware birds. If they can do that, it is really only a question of time, manpower and priorities as to whether they take the rest of the aircraft all the way to payware level.

[Datalink 26]

Maybe they could redo some of the legacy aircraft; Beechcraft 1900 or BAE 4100 that are not as complex as the heavy jets but are hands on and fun aircraft that may peek people's interest because of PMDG's name. Just need to see hi-fi/REX/orbx etc come along too to boost development of XP

[thomazz123 11]

I currently own the FF 767. It is by far the best study level bird X-Plane 11 has now. I'll tell you this, If PMDG brought some of their birds to X-plane I'd say X-Plane would be the sim to go. We will se what the future brings but as of now even in Beta It looks awesome.

[sultanofswing 57]

55 minutes ago, thomazz123 said:

I currently own the FF 767. It is by far the best study level bird X-Plane 11 has now. I'll tell you this, If PMDG brought some of their birds to X-plane I'd say X-Plane would be the sim to go. We will se what the future brings but as of now even in Beta It looks awesome.

Sorry the IXEG 733 is way better than the 767 from FF.  

[yidahoo 365]

12 minutes ago, sultanofswing said:

Sorry the IXEG 733 is way better than the 767 from FF.  

+1

[geedub 15]

Once I got X-Plane 11 set up optimally on my rig I could not go back to P3D. The amount of money I invested in PMDG or P3D products doesn't come into the equation.

If you have flown for any length of time in the real world you, especially, know what I am saying. Soon, I couldn't wait to purchase the IXEG 737 and what a discovery. All in all, and notwithstanding X-Plane's admitted limitations in various areas (scenically, ATC, etc) I am finding, even flying just the Classic and the Skyhawk, that I have at last found the immersive, visceral experience of real flying that I have been wanting in flightsim ever since the eighties. No offense here. I can only follow my instincts and for me it's a case of 'Game changed'.   

Regards

Gareth

[anden145 2,285]

Interesting views here... I own X-Plane 11 and it's really great. But I ended up installing P3D again, since I really miss the PMDG and FSLabs planes and ActiveSky 2016 weather. I'm solely a tubeflyer and simulate the role of commercial flying.

Now... I have never developed anything for either platform and have no idea what either SDK can and cannot do. But, given that X-Plane is SO far ahead on many aspects of the simulation (NOT weather, though), why developers haven't flogged to X-Plane?! 

[slavik35ua 12]

They're exporting the cloudmaster from X-Plane into P3D/FSX, so doing vice versa shouldn't be a problem 

 

[downscc 1,327]

8 hours ago, slavik35ua said:

They're exporting the cloudmaster from X-Plane into P3D/FSX, so doing vice versa shouldn't be a problem 

 

It is not an "export" in any meaning of that word.  Much redesign is required to the code and graphics.  It is not a problem if you are willing to spend the time and money and are assured a large enough market to recoup the investment.  "Shouldn't be a problem,"  goodness.

[adit_aviator 0]

X-Plane 11 is a game changer. It is a modern simulator with cutting edge technology just as Carenado press release states....

 

Official Carenado Statement about the recently released X-Plane 11
April 17th, 2017

"Many people have been asking about the compatibility between our X-Plane 10 (XP10) fleet and the new X-Plane 11 (XP11).

After many weeks of research, we have realized that the new X-Plane platform has many changes compared to the old one, the new visual engine is very powerful and it was developed using cutting edge technology. Therefore, in order to take advantage of this new platform we will create native aircraft for X-Plane 11, meaning we will add all the necessary elements to our aircraft to reach a new level of products."

 

Hence, it will take considerable amount of time for cross platform porting should an existing organization choose to enter X-Plane 11 market. Especially when it comes to complex airliner simulation. I own all 3 simulators (FSX, P3D and X-plane). A PMDG customer in both FSX and P3D platforms. I have to say lately its all X-plane 11 running on my PC. End of the day it could be a personal preference and what mileage one requires.

[slavik35ua 12]

On ‎23‎.‎04‎.‎2017 at 6:12 PM, downscc said:

It is not an "export" in any meaning of that word.  Much redesign is required to the code and graphics.  It is not a problem if you are willing to spend the time and money and are assured a large enough market to recoup the investment.  "Shouldn't be a problem,"  goodness.

I know it's not just a double click in "XPtoFS", it's a big amount of work to do to make this thing work in P3D/FSX, but the fact is, that all the 3D models are same, just in different format, and as I heard, making aircraft systems in X-Plane is way easier and more comfortable, because LR gives a pretty good SDK kit for developers, so... 

[downscc 1,327]

3 hours ago, slavik35ua said:

I know it's not just a double click in "XPtoFS", it's a big amount of work to do to make this thing work in P3D/FSX, but the fact is, that all the 3D models are same, just in different format, and as I heard, making aircraft systems in X-Plane is way easier and more comfortable, because LR gives a pretty good SDK kit for developers, so... 

You are very wrong if you think most the work for a PMDG product is in developing the 3D objects or models.  That might be true if you are building an airplane for the SDK to use the simulator's default flight dynamics, engines, autopilot and navigation but then it would not be a PMDG product.

[slavik35ua 12]

5 hours ago, downscc said:

You are very wrong if you think most the work for a PMDG product is in developing the 3D objects or models.  That might be true if you are building an airplane for the SDK to use the simulator's default flight dynamics, engines, autopilot and navigation but then it would not be a PMDG product.

Why'd u decide so? Most of the work is concentrated on systems, not the 3D visuals, also i'd like to add, that default XP11 SDK(dynamics, engines, A/P) is amazingly good, it renders everything pretty well, maybe you've never tried the XP11 if you're saying such words... Wing flex, reflections, etc, all of these is built in in the default XP11 SDK, and does not require any additional animations as the P3D/FSX does, it's way better

[kevinh 409]

On 2017-2-21 at 7:56 PM, qzpmtfgh said:

The flight sim market has been moving extremely slow compare to other genre of games, it doesn't have a large community first of all(which is a big factor for sure), but I think we can learn a thing or two from driving sim community(Im really into driving sims), It was a very small community few years ago as well (with games like GTR2 and R-Factor that has ###### graphics but decent physics, like current day P3D ), but with some excellent/revolutionary products like Assetto Corsa, Project Cars, Dirt Rally and Forza Horizon 3  poping up. Now if you look at the driving sim community, its really booming, even the hardware companies benefited from it, Logitech stated few years ago it will stop making any Driving sim related products, but now they are forced to come back(Logitech G29 racing wheel), because it is a booming industry, and it was dominating by Thrustmaster(T300RS etc). With games like Forza Horizon 7, GT Sports, GTR3, Project Cars 2, Dirt 4 and lot more to come in the future. Okay I am a bit out of topic maybe. But I just want to make my point saying, It is also 3rd party plug-in dev's responsibilities to push the Flight Sim industry forward more faster, If we just refuse to move on and stick with FSX or P3D (assume nothing big happens with P3D V4), Im confident to say that X-Plane is the future of Flight Sim. It's not hard to notice on the XP forum, there are lots of new captains getting into flight sim, I wish 3rd party products devs like PMDG can lead the industry to make that baby step towards a competitive and healthy flight sim community.

The flight sim industry has always been slow because to develop a new simulation environment is an enormous amount of work, there's a whole world to simulate. Driving game developers can very quickly create a few game locations or race tracks that don't even have to bear much resemblance to reality. Flight sims have to look extremely accurate and the less visible parts, such as the navigation ground stations, still need to be accurately located. They need to dynamically model weather and atmosphere in a realistic way. The physics involved in accurately simulating aircraft (and their systems) to the standards we are all accustomed to is orders of magnitude harder than creating a vehicle physics model and customising that to replicate the limited number of cars the developer provides with their game.

You are assuming a lot in saying X-Plane is the future. It still has only a fraction of the users of FSX/P3D and that won't change simply by PMDG providing more X-Plane products. There are already several good airliner sims available in X-Plane and it hasn't made much difference. I have XP10 but I haven't yet used it for VA flying because the X-Plane ecosystem is so sterile and it isn't well supported for online flying. It has taken a couple of decades for MSFS and now P3D to get where it is. It could take many years for X-Plane to catch up to that level.

The other thing that needs to be said is that if you get XP11 there is no need to uninstall P3D (or FSX). There is no law against using more than one sim and you don't need to decide to be in either one or the other camp. I have FSX, XP10 and FS9 installed and used for various purposes.

[slavik35ua 12]

13 minutes ago, kevinh said:

The flight sim industry has always been slow because to develop a new simulation environment is an enormous amount of work, there's a whole world to simulate. Driving game developers can very quickly create a few game locations or race tracks that don't even have to bear much resemblance to reality. Flight sims have to look extremely accurate and the less visible parts, such as the navigation ground stations, still need to be accurately located. They need to dynamically model weather and atmosphere in a realistic way. The physics involved in accurately simulating aircraft (and their systems) to the standards we are all accustomed to is orders of magnitude harder than creating a vehicle physics model and customising that to replicate the limited number of cars the developer provides with their game.

You are assuming a lot in saying X-Plane is the future. It still has only a fraction of the users of FSX/P3D and that won't change simply by PMDG providing more X-Plane products. There are already several good airliner sims available in X-Plane and it hasn't made much difference. I have XP10 but I haven't yet used it for VA flying because the X-Plane ecosystem is so sterile and it isn't well supported for online flying. It has taken a couple of decades for MSFS and now P3D to get where it is. It could take many years for X-Plane to catch up to that level.

The other thing that needs to be said is that if you get XP11 there is no need to uninstall P3D (or FSX). There is no law against using more than one sim and you don't need to decide to be in either one or the other camp. I have FSX, XP10 and FS9 installed and used for various purposes.

I do agree with what you've said, however, I have both sims on my PC, but after flying in XP11 and getting used to so called "close-to-reality physics" I almost can't fly normally in P3D, our loved PMDG 737 fells to me like a flying piece of wood, but just 1 month before I could fly it with my eyes closed, so, in this case, we can't sit on two chairs simultaneously.