General x-plane thought

[N1G 88]

Woh Nellie

[EGLD 439]

I'm a recent convert and for me the decision to move to a platform where I had invested nothing in addons was simple just because XP11 is a truly next-gen Flightsim.

The FSX/Prepar3d engine simply cannot compete with the realism that is offered by X-Plane, be it the lighting effects (take some external screenshots of the default 737 and it's hard to tell if it's a photo or not) and the scenery offered by OSM autogen overlayed over VFR photos.

What X-Plane needs now is more people to buy into the product which should mean more addon developers concentrate on this superior platform - both scenery and aircraft.

I don't have the very latest card and yet I can run with lower FPS at full detail because the engine is just more efficient.

I also know I can invest money in hardware to get better results - I don't think it's possible to say the same about P3d, i.e. that investing in new GFX or CPU will yield better performance results that match the financial investment.

[jcomm 5,939]

X-Plane has ALWAYS had the potential, has always delivered features most would long like to find mplemented that way in MSFS and it's recent derivates, but, at the same time, it has always lacked focus from Austin first when he was the single developer and LR latter.

The graphics are very good, but weather rendering, so important for flight simulation IMHO, has always lagged to MSFS + add-ons. World modelling, starting with the World projections used in older versions that I believe were fixed with XP9 and newer versions, and presently the lack of precise ( like we get for instance in MSFS but not only ) daylight simulation according to date, Moon phase and position, etc... aren't on pair with what MSFS has long offered. Can 90% users skip that and still have a great time playing X-Plane ? Of course !  

Flight dynamics are yet another aspect that is a mix of powerful, good, not so good and somehow bad features compared to other platforms. The idea behind X-Plane's flight dynamics modelling is great, but in order to create  a good reproduction of a given aircraft, from a simple trike to a complex FBW machine, the author is rather limited after all in what can be used to fine tune the various aspects. Either the model fits great in X-Plane's default approach or it doesn't, and we can find aircraft built only through Plane-Maker that are good reproductions of their RW counterparts, and other that fail miserably to do so... Problem is that contrarily to the tweaks used in MSFS to fine tune aircraft models in X-Plane that kind of tweaking ( actually some sort of Magic! ) isn't possible. This is good, because it shows that the model cannot be made using components and their impact on the flight dynamics that aren't in accordance with the core FDM, but at the same time straightens the available ways author's might have to escape that very same FDM limitations.

Austin / LR have been tweaking, correcting, enhancing some aspects along the XP Series, but XP11 having born in times of some more interesting competition than XP9 and XP10, can probably end up benefiting from that and forcing Austin and LR to take some long time user requests more seriously.

I, you all know :-), have a long time deep Passion for XP, but at the same time, probably because it's after all the sim I wanted to get closer to fulfil my expectations and the one I demand more from compared to other sims I use(d), it is also the one I sometimes write / express the most negative comments about. But... and comparing only to non-combat Aviation simulation platforms, for instance when recently I decided to buy monthly licenses of P3Dv3 to be able to run FSLabs A320, and while I find it an interesting Airbus model ( within the MSFS framework ) I easily feel disappointed when comparing the way the aircraft reproduces various aspects of flight when compared, for instance, with the QPAC A320 which can't compare to it in terms of deeps systems modelling, but it's way more realistic in the feel of flying an Airbus - and yes, I have had the chance to use Full Flight Simulators ( A319/20/21/30 ) to have some really close idea of what it may feel to fly such an airliner, not to mention the 7 rides in the cockpits of airbuses during the last 10 yrs, 4 of which were full flights, from departure to gate.

Rotary wing, special types of aircraft / space ships, and even land vehicles, are yet other areas where X-Plane shines against MSFS and derivates.

There is at least another simulator which recently got a considerable update - MicroFlight - that somehow gives us the kind of modelling / feel of the various aspects of flying In the Real World I would really like to see implemented that way also in X-Plane 11, and Aerofly FS 2 ( this is another very promising platform IMO, although still far from providing the level of details already available in X-Plane or MSFS... ). Curiously, if you check the flight dynamics model used in MicroFlight you'll be surprised that it uses an even simpler approach to the modelling of flight than MSFS ! Yet, in some aspects, it reproduces the sensation of flight, and the sensation of interacting with a very nicely modelled atmosphere, that surpasses the experiences of both MSFS and X-plane !

I keep trying to find the Perfect Sim...

[ryanbatc 12,859]

18 hours ago, N1G said:

Woh Nellie

Yeah.,...  I think with more and more social media, and all the bad things happening today, that it makes everyone on edge.  Also bad things have been happening since time began but there wasn't the ability to have "News" at your fingertips.

[N1G 88]

6 hours ago, ryanbatcund said:

Yeah.,...  I think with more and more social media, and all the bad things happening today, that it makes everyone on edge.  Also bad things have been happening since time began but there wasn't the ability to have "News" at your fingertips.

Ryan, you must have came from the "Woh Nellie" generation LOL 

I was thinking that there would not be too may who had heard that phrase.

Bob

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

The ABC sports announcer  Keith Jackson  used to say that all the time and he only retired in 2006.

[wb5okj 26]

3 hours ago, N1G said:

Ryan, you must have came from the "Woh Nellie" generation LOL 

I was thinking that there would not be too may who had heard that phrase.

Bob

There is also, "Go into the roundhouse Nellie, he can't corner you there". 

[N1G 88]

57 minutes ago, wb5okj said:

There is also, "Go into the roundhouse Nellie, he can't corner you there". 

That was a play or a song I think, can't remember.  

[Janov 2,383]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whoa,_Nelly!

 

[Hubinwa 27]

On 4/15/2017 at 11:58 AM, N1G said:

Woh Nellie

"The phrase was popularized on TV via The Roy Rogers Show (1951–1957)."

That's the one I remember.

[N1G 88]

8 hours ago, Janov said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whoa,_Nelly!

 

Woh Nellie, that is way to much Information 

[N1G 88]

6 hours ago, Hubinsc said:

"The phrase was popularized on TV via The Roy Rogers Show (1951–1957)."

That's the one I remember.

Good Ole Roy. My Dad took us boys to see his Ranch. We lived in Van Nuys so I guess it was not too far.

Bob

[N1G 88]

17 hours ago, jabloomf1230 said:

The ABC sports announcer  Keith Jackson  used to say that all the time and he only retired in 2006.

I would not have thought anyone was still using it. One day it will die out like everything else.