How Xplane11 vs P3DV4 played out

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I was feeling a bit lonely last night, so I invited a friend of mine in my apartment complex to go to the store with me.  He was really jazzed for some reason, he wanted his girlfriend to see my flight simulator setup.  Although I have two good flight simulators, my sim desk is a bit messy, after all, it is a small apartment.  But I had my new Logitech Extreme 3D joystick for him to try.  First I fired up P3D.  I had already taught my friend to fly the sim well, except for takeoffs.  Once I got the Twinstar into the air over Ely Nevada, I turned the sim over to him.  Boy, he sure remembered a lot of my lessons.  He started doing barrel rolls.  He must have watched me do one and he just picked up on it.  You have to remember when you do a roll to give some reverse elevator as you invert.  He had a blast, so he turned P3D over to his girlfriend.  Women do love flight simulators, we always debate it here.  At least nerdy women do, and I love nerdy women who love flight simulators.  

Then I said, let me show you another sim.  I had ordered from Pizza Hut last night for all three of us, I like hosting Pizza Parties, reminds me of ET.  I fired up Xplane.  He said: "Why the heck didn't you show me this first?".  But it was my scenery he liked because I flew him over where we live.  Everyone wants to fly over their house, and I had used Ortho4XP twice.  First I used Bing as a source, but it was way too vibrant.  Ortho4XP defaults to Bing.  But I also did not like downloading a bunch of copyrighted images, so I started to delete them on purpose, without even thinking about it.  Then I switched sources to USA_2.  USA_2 is IMHO the best photoreal scenery because of the coloration, it is closer to real life.

As usual, I am indecisive when it comes to Xplane vs. P3D.  It's how we present both sims that sell them here.  The competitors to both sims have a very tough road ahead of them, but I believe they may make it if they try to explore different aspects of flying.  But if they simply try to copy Xplane and P3D, they won't have much luck.  I simply haven't found any better sims but to each his own.  But a caveat, my favorite "flying" sim is still No Limits 2, the coaster sim.  It's like....uh....what did we used to say?--flying on rails!

John

[Ident 198]

Glad your friends had a great time. Personally I see no vs anymore. Most P3D owners who pick up XP11 have a hard time letting go with P3D due to their addon collection. So there are those who are hardcore to one of the two sims and there is a growing membership of those who use both. Then there are those users like me who also enjoy a 3rd option. For me its AeroFly FS2 and looking forward to what becomes of it. For others it might be FSW.

But yeah there are enough feature differences between the two to see both as a great sim platform but not needing to pick one over the other. One might have to make that choice when buying an addon that can be found in both but needs to be purchased at full price for both.

[Penzoil3 480]

Or FSX-SE, P3D 3, and 4; Xplane 11, and X plane 10 with  FSW too. Sim addict, why yes, thank you. Xplane 10 and FSW are on my experimental Windows 10 computer. The rest are on my Windows 7, main sim computer. OrbX goes in the P3Ds, every one else's sceneries go in FSX-SE.

 LOL

 Sue

[Chock 17,769]

You'd have got the same reaction if you'd have cranked up AeroFly FS2, i.e. visually it makes other sims look poor so long as you're in one of the scenic areas it covers, and obviously when someone is visiting you and getting a quick look at things, they're certainly going to pick up on the visual aspect of something you show them before they pick up on anything else. I'm sure if you started going on about how one of your add-ons in a less visually stunning flight sim manages to simulate ice accretion on the elevator at 24,000 feet in cloud over a period of two hours flying at that altitude and makes you have to trim it a bit and turn on your anti-ice systems, they'd have been stuffing that pizza down fast and making their excuses lol.

This is exactly why it is fun to have a few flight sims, most of them have a party trick to offer which beats other ones: XPlane has cool night lighting and contoured runways, P3D has cool-looking weather in it when you add ASCA, FSX has AccuFeel when you add that, FS9 runs smoothly on lower end systems, FSW has trueSKY, DCS has the best military aeroplanes, Condor does great thermals, RFTO is great for kids etc. You can find merit in any one of them, but some of them wear it on their sleeve.

[jaydor 233]

I have spent thousands on FSX over the years and have loved it.  So I was a bit apprehensive to purchase X-Plane.  I was not willing to go down the P3D4 route as that was still FSX on steroids.  I have a lot invested in FSX so that stays on a separate HDD.  But I have been blown away with X-Plane.  Yes addons make a sim and I have been a avid REX supporter.  But take a look at these X-Plane shots.

They knocks spots off FSX, so I am hooked on X-Plane.  But will always have a love for FSX.

[W2DR 1,859]

Ford is better than Chevy, Ferrari is better than Lamborghini, and Sophia is better-looking than Gina.....

[jaydor 233]

3 minutes ago, W2DR said:

Ford is better than Chevy, Ferrari is better than Lamborghini, and Sophia is better-looking than Gina.....

But none of the will ever be a patch to, Ziva David of NCIS.....  

[knutt 4]

The same happend to me. I was showing a friend my Setup and fired up XP11, and flied over his hometown. Said it was so realistic and it was gorgeous at night. Then I said to him that I dont play the game so much because I played another simulator. Then I fired up P3Dv4, and he didn't get why I was playing that instead of XP11. I told him that I about the addons I have for the sim and all the money I spent on it, and so on. XP11 is clearly the best looking sim, and I hope for a switch one day. But there is simply not enough addons yet and I have a "relationship" with FSX and P3D. If PMDG make 737NG for XP11, I will switch. Then I am sold. :D

[G-RFRY 1,706]

Not another XPlane vrs Thead they pop up like clockwork.  

[Nightflier101BL 11]

46 minutes ago, rjfry said:

Not another XPlane vrs Thead they pop up like clockwork.  

If it bothers you, feel free to not comment.  This is "Hangar Chat" correct?  

OP, if you're interested in a more X-Plane friendly atmosphere, check out the /r/flightsim subreddit.  However, you'll find P3D haters there, as well.

I just tried XP11 and I'm sold.  I can list 20 things that platform handles better but it's been covered before.  I'm a real world CPL and I know what's realistic and what's not.  XP11 has got it in spades, with the default aircraft no less.

That's it.

 

[knutt 4]

1 hour ago, Nightflier101BL said:

 I'm a real world CPL and I know what's realistic and what's not. 

In XP11, the airplanes feels so much more lighter. Is XP11 more realistic or P3D when it comes to the weight balance versus the real life?

[Nightflier101BL 11]

1 hour ago, knutt said:

In XP11, the airplanes feels so much more lighter. Is XP11 more realistic or P3D when it comes to the weight balance versus the real life?

I think this is going to come down to individual controls and calibration.  However, I notice the effects of propwash, control effectiveness at various speeds, spins, slips are fairly accurate, much more so than in P3D, even with A2A counterparts.  I'm also coming from a light aircraft viewpoint.

I do notice the default 737 is very touchy on the controls.  I have not flown 737 in real life, only light twins and singles.  With the latest update, ground friction has gotten a little bit better but acceleration still seems a bit off.

[Poppet 703]

3 hours ago, Nightflier101BL said:

If it bothers you, feel free to not comment.  This is "Hangar Chat" correct?  

The Topic will stay open until it goes down the  "My Sim is best" road 

[knutt 4]

44 minutes ago, Nightflier101BL said:

I think this is going to come down to individual controls and calibration.  However, I notice the effects of propwash, control effectiveness at various speeds, spins, slips are fairly accurate, much more so than in P3D, even with A2A counterparts.  I'm also coming from a light aircraft viewpoint.

I do notice the default 737 is very touchy on the controls.  I have not flown 737 in real life, only light twins and singles.  With the latest update, ground friction has gotten a little bit better but acceleration still seems a bit off.

Yeah mabye it´s my calibration. Nice to know how the difference is :D

But the 737 in XP11 accelerate so quickly when ex taxiing, when you compare it to PMDG737 on P3D.  But that´s the programming behind the default XP11 aircraft and PMDG. 

[trisho0 23]

It seems X-Plane 11 sim is taking first place now. But, can we panning around, switching views, etc like in P3D and FSX?