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Joined XP11 - my initial impressions

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Hi all,

I yesterday suddenly decided to give it a go. Had fallen in love with the IXEG 737 Classic for a long time and so bought XP11, IXEG 737, xEnviro and X-Camera. My main sim is P3D v3.4 with airliners that I consider the most realistic, so felt that I was missing this great simulation by staying away. I want to write my initial views on my new venture in XP11.

XP11 (XP11.00pb15)
I have only good things to say for XP11 as a simulator engine. It works beautifully well. I love how fast and responsive everything is. The time it takes to enter the settings change something and return to the flight is crazy fast compared to P3D, where you lose more seconds waiting for menus and loading times. On this especially important is that you don't have to exit full screen mode. I find this system so convenient and intuitive. Feels more robust and reliable too though I don't have crashes in P3D either. The menu system in XP11 is certainly faster. Also, much less graphics options make life easier. Another comment about XP11 is its texture 'feeling'. I don't know how to define it but the textures in XP look different than in P3D. I think they are more clean-homogenous. There is something in the shaders/rendering that makes the textures look different. I don't know if P3D is more realistic in that respect. My initial response is that they are different. What is certainly better from P3D is the responsiveness of the sim. Panning around and clicking things on the aircraft is happening as real time as it gets. Controlling responsiveness is paramount in a simulator. Of course night lighting, and in general the lighting system is amazing.

xEnviro
It was too expensive in my opinion but seemed like there was no other close to it according to what I read in forums (can easily be wrong on that considering my inexperience). Coming from P3D and AS16/ASCA/ENVTEX I was worried by its small install size. There is no historical time or flight plan insertion. A little worried about this considering its price. But I believe/hope the people working on it will have a good profit and so a reason to continue development given of its popularity.

X-Camera
Actually a freeware (donation required) that does exactly what I needed and so feel very grateful for the developer and the many options he has included.

IXEG 737 Classic
I am simply ecstatic for the IXEG 737. My motive to join XP. My philosophy is to only buy add-on airplanes that are coded as close to a professional graded sim as possible. On the same time I want the best eye candy if possible and IXEG has it all. That's what justified the cost to me and I am very eager to complement my P3D flights in XP11. Not many airlines use the classic anymore, but there are a few (like Jet2) that I want to simulate.

Other A/C add-ons comments
For now I will focus on IXEG, but would like to investigate the other add-ons that are in XP and missing from P3D. Particularly the 757, 767, MD80 and ATR. I want to do my research first, as I am not interested in nice visual models but poor systems simulation. For example looking at the JAR Design Airbus, I fail to see a detailed system description on their website and I assume it's just a good FBW and good visuals. In that case there is not comparison with my FSL A320 in P3D. The MD80 (by Rotate) seems much more advanced for example, though sometimes I am skeptical when I see the usual "real pilots contribution" in the features list. While I accept that a real pilot can testify the quality of the flight model, I'm not sure if a pilot is just enough to simulate the complex systems of an aircraft. So, its not the only selling point for me, though their systems simulation seems to be pretty extended.

Add-on airports?
As a newbie in XP, I have some questions that I'd be glad if you guys that have spent much more time in XP could answer. One is add-on airports availability. Obviously the number of quality airports available for FSX/P3D is not here. In P3D I have never done a flight in a default airport since the days of FS2000. My initial search showed around a dozen of payware airports in Europe (where I mostly fly) in XP. Not bad but I want to fly to much more my IXEG 737, as I prefer following real airline company routes. In that case, what is the common sense in the XP community? Do most people fly default airports? I accept its not the best. I found freeware ones that are certainly not even close to their payware counterparts in FSX/P3D. I suppose that is the fact I have to accept.
My second question is about frame rate - Vsync display settings. In P3D I have settled in locking my monitor refresh rate at 30Hz and using unlimited frames inside P3D, but restricting to 30.5fps in NVidia inspector. What is the general consciousness in XP11? I didn't had stutters so far on the default settings so should I keep it like that? I applied the suggested two NVidia option settings: power management (Maximum performance) and threaded optimization (Off).

Thank you for your time to read my message. Your suggestions would be very much appreciated. :)

  • Upvote 4

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I will refrain from offering any opinion, as it just leads to unnecessary arguments and infighting among those who are for or against certain add-ons.

For factual information, and really the only point I can comment on, airports are evolving by leaps and bounds, both in payware and free/donationware.  I was never much for freeware airports in FSX or P3D, but when I moved to X-Plane, I found so many free/donationware airports that were near payware quality, that I started to load up rather quickly.  I have preferences for where I like to fly, so finding a decent amount of airports in those areas was rather quick.  Peruse the org, and do a search within the org download by ICAO and you can turn up results.  There are a few well-known indie devs there that put together very worthy airports, so check out the reviews or just dive in and download...you have nothing to lose by it.

The payware side is slowly gaining traction, with quite a few airports out there, but keep in mind that they aren't all confined to one site.  The org, X-Aviation, just to name a couple off the bat, provide good stores for airports.

For essentials, with regards to airports, MisterX6 put together a great "REX type" airports HD package that cleans up a lot of the default texturing for taxiways and runways, and this is also free.  Tony's GBPro, AIPilot's HD Mesh, World2XP, the list goes on to what you can add.

Lastly, please keep in mind that XP11 is still in Beta.  So far, there has been an uptick in performance and fixes, with a healthy update to the default weather, as well.  I foresee only great things happening with XP, so welcome aboard and enjoy your flight.

  • Upvote 1

Engage, research, inform and make your posts count! -Jim Morvay

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Welcome to the Beta and just enjoy the ride. Too early for any in-depth feelings.

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Also, if you had ORBx for your P3D build, look into Ortho4XP for your XP build.  Its freeware and will compliment the Alpilot's HD Mesh, though it may take a few runs through the Youtube tutorials to get it right.

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Another tiring thread about XP vs P3D. Enjoy both!.

Cheers, Ed


Cheers, Ed

MSFS Steam - Win10 Home x64 // Rig: Corsair Graphite 760T Full Tower - ASUS MBoard Maximus XII Hero Z490 - CPU Intel i9-10900K - 64GB RAM - MSI RTX2080 Super 8GB - [1xNVMe M.2 1TB + 1xNVMe M.2 2TB (Samsung)] + [1xSSD 1TB + 1xSSD 2TB (Crucial)] + [1xSSD 1TB (Samsung)] + 1 HDD Seagate 2TB + 1 HDD Seagate External 4TB - Monitor LG 29UC97C UWHD Curved - PSU Corsair RM1000x - VR Oculus Rift // MSFS Steam - Win 10 Home x64 - Gaming Laptop CUK ASUS Strix - CPU Intel i7-8750H - 32GB RAM - RTX2070 8GB - SSD 2TB + HDD 2TB // Thrustmaster FCS & MS XBOX Controllers

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Hello guys,
Thank you for your replies! Jim you really helped, I found some good freeware sceneries in .org. :)

Jonathon, thank you for the suggestions. Ortho4XP was one of my favorite aspects in XP for a long time and I will certainly try it and look at the tutorials you suggested :)
 

18 minutes ago, edpatino said:

Another tiring thread about XP vs P3D. Enjoy both!.

Cheers, Ed

Hello Ed, in my first sentence I say that my main sim is P3D v3.4. I joined XP exclusively for the IXEG 737 (at least for now). I don't know where you saw XP vs P3D. I wrote my positive impressions of XP11 coming from P3D. I certainly like both sims, as they serve my different needs for advanced aircraft simulations. The purpose was to express my impressions and ask for some help in airport sceneries.

  • Upvote 5

Simulators: Prepar3D v5 Academic | X-Plane 1111.50+ | DCS  World  Open Beta MSFS 2020 Premium Deluxe | 
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4 minutes ago, Daedalus said:

Jim you really helped, I found some good freeware sceneries in .org. :)

You are very welcome.  Anything I can do to help that is appreciated, makes me feel I have accomplished a job well done.

 

5 minutes ago, Daedalus said:

Another tiring thread about XP vs P3D.

Now you see why I started my reply the way I did (I need a crystal ball)...I should have included the word simulators too. :biggrin:

  • Upvote 2

Engage, research, inform and make your posts count! -Jim Morvay

Origin EON-17SLX - Under the hood: Intel Core i7 7700K at 4.2GHz (Base) 4.6GHz (overclock), nVidia GeForce GTX-1080 Pascal w/8gb vram, 32gb (2x16) Crucial 2400mhz RAM, 3840 x 2160 17.3" IPS w/G-SYNC, Samsung 950 EVO 256GB PCIe m.2 SSD (Primary), Samsung 850 EVO 500gb M.2 (Sim Drive), MS Windows 10 Professional 64-Bit

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2 minutes ago, Jimm said:

Now you see why I started my reply the way I did (I need a crystal ball)...I should have included the word simulators too. :biggrin:

No, you should have used *games* :wink:

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why do people have to be such trolls, if you dont want to read posts comparing xp to p3d then just dont read them.  Its like some people live on these forums.  Thanks to the op for offering usefull info that may help me decide to give xp a second try.  I tried xp 10 with the ixeg 737 but didnt like that there was so much missing from their simulation, its no pmdg.  However what they did include was very immersive and well done.  Has anybody tried the rotate md80 v1.3?  I wonder if its worth considering after the new patch.

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27 minutes ago, Pilot53 said:

why do people have to be such trolls, if you dont want to read posts comparing xp to p3d then just dont read them.  Its like some people live on these forums.  Thanks to the op for offering usefull info that may help me decide to give xp a second try.  I tried xp 10 with the ixeg 737 but didnt like that there was so much missing from their simulation, its no pmdg.  However what they did include was very immersive and well done.  Has anybody tried the rotate md80 v1.3?  I wonder if its worth considering after the new patch.

I don't know why anyone would compare X-plane to P3D. Totally different products intended for different markets.


Jim Shield

Cybersecurity Specialist

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1 hour ago, edpatino said:

Another tiring thread about XP vs P3D. Enjoy both!.

Cheers, Ed

That is exactly what I do somethings are so overrated on both sides lol that's almost funny ;-)

 

As for the OP I would take some time to invest in Ortho4XP search also the org for some great stuff, and have a look at WED
(flat and sloped runways per airport and conversions big step-up from XP10)

I personally like also GHN and Xlife deluxe...

Be prepared (;-)) for some weird stuff or performance issues in XP11 (still beta)

Cheers,


 

André
 

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4 hours ago, Daedalus said:

 

xEnviro
It was too expensive in my opinion but seemed like there was no other close to it according to what I read in forums (can easily be wrong on that considering my inexperience). Coming from P3D and AS16/ASCA/ENVTEX I was worried by its small install size. There is no historical time or flight plan insertion. A little worried about this considering its price. But I believe/hope the people working on it will have a good profit and so a reason to continue development given of its popularity.

 

Welcome to xp and If you got Xenviro try these new 4k textures http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/36688-xenviro-experimental-clouds-for-payware-xenviro/ and watch out their next update 

And this website lists the best freeware quality airports for EU and NA  http://flyingxplane.apps-1and1.net/tourist/


X-Plane11

GTX1070 8GB Vram - i7 4770K cpu @3.5GHz Quad core - 16GB RAM

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you will love the  Saab 340 from leading edge, it is used as training tool by real companies operating the plane. its xp10 atm but free xp11 update with basic compability is announced and an extensive paid upgrade with new textures visuals etc will come aswell. think of it as a majestic dash 8 without an fmc.

 

the fly-j-sim 737-200 and 727-1 and 200 are also absolute perfect fully modeled planes of the steam guage era.  They are also pending updates for xp11. the 732 is currently being updated and will be the first one to get the xp11 treatment. the 727 will follow.

if you dont own the rotate md80 you can wait for the a.t.s super md80 that is on the finish line and just compare which one is more suited for your liking.

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5 hours ago, alpha12125 said:

you will love the  Saab 340 from leading edge, it is used as training tool by real companies operating the plane. its xp10 atm but free xp11 update with basic compability is announced and an extensive paid upgrade with new textures visuals etc will come aswell. think of it as a majestic dash 8 without an fmc.

 

the fly-j-sim 737-200 and 727-1 and 200 are also absolute perfect fully modeled planes of the steam guage era.  They are also pending updates for xp11. the 732 is currently being updated and will be the first one to get the xp11 treatment. the 727 will follow.

if you dont own the rotate md80 you can wait for the a.t.s super md80 that is on the finish line and just compare which one is more suited for your liking.

The SAAB is why I came over to xp11, because there wasnt one in FSX/P3d. Then I quickly realized how great xp really is, bought the ixeg, ff and jars and I havnt gone back since!!


7900x3d , 64gb 6200mhz 30CL Ram, RTX 3080

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1 hour ago, wiler said:

The SAAB is why I came over to xp11, because there wasnt one in FSX/P3d. Then I quickly realized how great xp really is, bought the ixeg, ff and jars and I havnt gone back since!!

This was my first time passing on a PMDG release. So I hit a milestone, as much as I was waiting on the queen years prior I slowly lost interest in the platform.

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