Problem is my old add-ons are on my crashed PC and I can't recover them there.  I no longer have links to my Carenado, RealAir and Alabeo downloads.  Anyway I stick only to the Mirage for most flying, the Citation or Premier I might add later for high speed flying.  Maybe the Cardinal or the Diamond for low speed flying.  I don't mind repurchasing those add-ons, in due time.  Most important is finding out why Megascenery does not seem to work so I can extend my photoreal coverage outside of my Colorado scenery.  I put a post in the photoreal scenery forum in hopes someone who might have had the same experience in P3dv4 can chime in and help me there.

What amazes me is that I downloaded an app that I used to install from CD.  That was a great convenience and made the product very accessible.  If I choose to install XP11 I can do the same there.  Although really I am just a "one sim" pilot, easier to remember the keystrokes.  As for the trim, I did have repeat selected, assigned my trim to buttons 3 and 4.  It seems like the trim "Snaps back" to neutral once I release the buttons whereas the keyboard trim does not have that behavior.  I can trim my aircraft nicely with that trim and it stays as I selected it.

I don't have an interest in FSW, looked at it and it looked much like P3D, not enough options to spin photoreal scenery with that sim.  I watched a 45 minute, pretty well balanced review on Youtube of the sim and chose P3D instead, much better roots and again compatibility with my old FSDS2 trike and custom gauges and sound.

John

One thing I like about P3dv4 are the horizons.  I had to create "Soft Horizons" for FS2004 and FSX to get realistic looking Horizons.  P3D has soft horizons from the start, very realistic compared to FSX and FS9 default.  Clouds seem better too.  So far I have found no faults with the product.  However I tried to install Carenado's C550 and I got transparent textures on the inside fuse.  Carenado says they haven't updated it yet, but they should have posted a warning so I would not have to buy the product only to find out it does not work.  Carenado's Mirage does work, perfectly in the sim.

For now I will just use the Mirage and the default aircraft, but mainly I choose the Mirage since it gets to most short to mid distance places fairly quickly, like PHX to SNA for instance, or SFO to Reno.

John

22 hours ago, Cactus521 said:

  It seems like the trim "Snaps back" to neutral once I release the buttons whereas the keyboard trim does not have that behavior. 

There is an assignment for "reset elevator trim" (it's not called exactly that). Perhaps that has been assigned to one of the buttons accidentally?    The only other time I've seen trim moving back to where it was after adjusting it, was when I accidentally had the AP engaged!  :)

Thanks,

I purchased the Carenado 525 and it installed and works great in P3Dv4.  I will wait for the patch for the Citation 550.  I don't think they have a refund system in place, or I don't know how to use it.

John

I am installing the demo of XP-11 today to see how it performs on my system.  So far my I7-7700 has stayed within normal operating temps, even though my rig is quiet and I can't hear the fans running.  I had P3dV4 running for some hours yesterday and it remained stable and let me change various aircraft and settings without issue.  My rig is an MSI Vortex which I purchased at Frys Electronics near my home.  I thought about building a rig but preferred buying a prebuilt unit, less hassle and setup time.  No apps have crashed on me so far, several days after purchase.

John

30 minutes ago, Cactus521 said:

I am installing the demo of XP-11 today to see how it performs on my system.  So far my I7-7700 has stayed within normal operating temps, even though my rig is quiet and I can't hear the fans running.  I had P3dV4 running for some hours yesterday and it remained stable and let me change various aircraft and settings without issue.  My rig is an MSI Vortex which I purchased at Frys Electronics near my home.  I thought about building a rig but preferred buying a prebuilt unit, less hassle and setup time.  No apps have crashed on me so far, several days after purchase.

John

Tip:   Don't start with the first slider ("Visual Effects") too far to the right  -  this is the slider that affects performance the most in my experience, and a lot of people try out XP11, with this slider furthest to the right, and then comment "performance is terrible!" ... well, it can be with that slider too far to the right.   A few notches down and the visual difference is often not that great but FPS increase vastly.

I tried the demo with the defaults and I was very pleased.  I flew the Cirrus up and thru the clouds, I loved the look of the default ground textures, and the sky and horizon was good.  AI was there by default but it did not seem to influence fluidity at all.  It seemed a very smooth experience, very natural in feeling, a better experience compared to previous versions of X-Plane.  I'd say it is at least the equal of P3dV4 in many respects, although I prefer P3D's user interface a little bit more as well as the ease of incorporating my FSEarthtiles scenery into it.  I will probably get the full version based on my brief experience in the demo, two sims that can cater to what I prefer to do.

John

Just to add, I threw caution to the wind in the demo and moved everything full right in the graphics menu.  I did not see an impact on smoothness, maybe slightly when I panned around.  Only the water looked markedly different.  I like the autogen in Xp-11 much better than P3d.  It seems better to scale and more urban in the outlying areas with single family homes and so on.  As I noted, AI flying around doesn't impact performance.  I researched reviews on the gpu bundled with my system and most are favorable for our types of sims.  Thus my experience so far.

Edited August 30, 20178 yr by John_Cillis

1 hour ago, Cactus521 said:

I'd say it is at least the equal of P3dV4 in many respects, although I prefer P3D's user interface a little bit more as well as the ease of incorporating my FSEarthtiles scenery into it.

Adding photoscenery in X-Plane is actually very easy using the tool Ortho4XP available here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cjjwu92mausoh04/AACt-QzgMRwKDL392K_Ux3cPa?dl=0

 

Being faithful to the hobby and having tried, the Xp-11 demo, I purchased the full version to stand side by side with Prepare3D.  It will give me two pathways to use, much entertainment, and the demo met my expectations per running on my system. It feels like MSI engineered my system to meet the needs of the casual hobbyist.  Can't say enough about how my rig is performing, it is much more than expected.  It was time to replace my old Vista based PC, I hammered it for eight years.  I am good with my computers, I manage them well and they last a long time.  Solid State circuity can last forever if you keep it cool, only hard drives and fans tend to fail.

John

I use P3D and XP11 as well. If you can afford it, it is the best choice! Both sims are better at something and they complement each other beautifully. They should marry and have a baby.

1 hour ago, tgcbraun said:

They should marry and have a baby.

Please, no! That will only lead to heated discussions about if the baby looks like the mother or the father. (And also about who is the mother and who is the father in this case...!)

So far I am very impressed with XP-11's rendering of mesh.  Went to the Swiss Alps (which I just visited in June) and the mountains there were rendered faithfully as compared to the real scenery, I could easily discern Pilatus from the Stanserhorn for instance.  Then I went to Canaima in Venezuela and found the Tepui rendered there very faithfully, you could see the flap topped mountains clearly just after takeoff from Canaima.  And the Napa Valley where I used to live looks real to life, Mount ST. Helena, Mount Tam and Mount Diablo are all recognizable from real life.  Also, the Autogen matches the location, in Europe European style homes prevail, in the US US style homes prevail.

One thing I'd like to change is the amount of yaw on takeoff roll, but I can't find a place in settings to change that.  It is very strong and hard to control the aircraft vs. real life.  In real life I don't have to apply much rudder to offset torque or a tailwind, just mild input.  In the sim I really have to crank it on.  Any suggestions on where to go to turn this off or crank it down?

John

26 minutes ago, Cactus521 said:

One thing I'd like to change is the amount of yaw on takeoff roll, but I can't find a place in settings to change that.  It is very strong and hard to control the aircraft vs. real life.  In real life I don't have to apply much rudder to offset torque or a tailwind, just mild input.  In the sim I really have to crank it on.  Any suggestions on where to go to turn this off or crank it down?

As previously said, most aircraft in X-Plane weathervane too much compared to real life. You could try increasing the "stability augmentation" settings, there's a tab on the bottom in the joystick configuration screen.

Hi,

I did not find stability augmentation in the joystick settings.  I find the C172 controllable once in the air, on the ground I have to apply rudder, a lot of it, to control the torque.  Oddly the SR-71, which is a blast to fly, doesn't have any torque.   I loved how the sky darkens to a deep blue when hitting FL500, could not get the SR-71 much past that flight level though.   The C90 exhibits a lot of torque in the air, banks to the right, have to fight with a lot of aileron.  I might try the Carenado Mirage at some point to see how it handles compared to P3D, where it handles very well.

So far XP-11 ranks high in texture rendering, autogen and mesh.  P3D ranks high in aircraft and I prefer the flight dynamics slightly.  In both sims I've been able to max out the graphics, although in P3D I can have higher AA than Xp-11, not that I can discern much difference between either.  AA in Xp-11 is a must, without it there was shimmering, it was not enabled by default but easily adjusted.

In Xp-9 and Xp-10 on my old system I would get out of memory errors after a few minutes of flight, not the case on my new system.

I've been neglecting P3D, will have to go back to it for a while LOL.

John

 

Went back to P3d to fly from Gaithersburg to Washington DC.  I like the way DC is rendered in the sim, all the landmarks are there.  Smooth handling of the aircraft.  Still have to find a way to add photoreal scenery, either with FSEarthtiles or MSE.  If I can get the MSE demo to ever work I would go that route, less work, let the money go to those who work to develop such scenery if I can.

I like the economics of this hobby, that I am able to support and keep alive good payware developers who bring good products to our hobby.  When you compare the cost of going to a concert, they really give good entertainment value for what they produce, long lasting, and hard work.

John