Hello fellow flight simmers:

I say , to each his own...we are lucky to have choices. Choices drives competition and innovation.

In my opinion, a lot of the add-on developers decisions are driven by economics. They are not charities, they are are trying to make money and pay their employees. I don't think the margins are very high, given the 1000s of development and years of support hours.

Here are some comments, questions I have based on my opinions/observations:

- What is the current market share of FSX, P3D and XP?

- If XP's market share is still smaller, does it make sense for developers to invest in the platform (maybe time will tell)?

- For all those that claim the aerodynamics, ground friction, etc... if far superior in XP than the other platforms, my question to you is, how may 100s of hours do you have as a real pilot, in the same aicraft type that you fly in XP? I am not a professional pilot, so I cannot claim to be able detect all these nuances

- Why did PMDG develop the DC-6 for XP, and then for FSX and P3D? Economics?

- I am not a flight simlulator developer, but is it tougher to develop for XP than FSX or P3D, or vice versa?

- What APIs are exposed by XP vs FSX/P3D for developers to tap in? The same?

- Compare the add-on "eco system" between XP and FSX or P3D? Why hasn't PMDG and other excellent aicraft developers go full-in to XP?

- Going full in into a new flight sim platform such as XP requires, "re-tooling," developer re-training, etc...does it make economic sense for a company such as PMDG? 

These are my personal opinions and observations.

I have upgraded to P3D and I am happy with what I have...I have no compelling reason to migrate to another flight sim platform at the moment. However, I will continue to evaluate the platforms and corresponding add-ons and make a switch, if it makes sense.

Thanks and regards to all.

Happy Flying!

Fabio

Simmer since FS98 here. 

Reasons I'm not even considering trying X-Plane 11 (currently upgrading from FSX to P3D V4):

1. Reduced FPS lead to reduced flight progress, making it next to unusable for proper on-line flights such as with IVAO in frames-heavy environments.

2. No season changes.

3. Weather simulation inferior to ActiveSky.

4. Daylight graphics, especially clouds look appalling in comparison with P3D V4 +ActiveSky+CloudArt/REX (yet most people tend to compare mountainous areas and night city environment between P3D and X-Plane, but actually count how much an average simmer spends in those two environments...).

5. Limited tweaking functionality - no Fsuipc equivalent.

6. Less airport sceneries and less quality payware airport sceneries.

7. Not largely supported by serious vendors such as PMDG, but dominated by amateurish developing teams.

Highly subjective and arguable, my perception: 8 - mostly preferred by eye-candy type of simmers claiming that it is "realism and physics" that they are after, while actually not caring about airmanship and procedural stuff too much (again, subjective, but my observation over many years, and yeah, I know that real-life pilots also use X-Plane sometimes.).

 

Nice to havs:

1. Sloped runways (Developers of P3D say it's on their list already)

2. Runway friction model and icing effects (achievable in P3D with external mods/software, I've been using FSPS SimPhysics for years in FSX)

3. Slightly better FPS performance & optimization (get a new PC)

4. Night environment (achievable with tweaks and mods in P3D)

 

The principal claim about "realistic physics" and it's superiority over FSX/P3D is next to anecdotal.

 

Honestly don't see how claims about "million light years ahead of P3D" can be justified, it is equal, at most in terms of visuals, but falls behind in other areas.

Edited February 27, 20188 yr by NZWW

I don't experience any FPS drops and I fly on VATSIM all the time.

Maybe You should try XP11 for 100 hours and then you can tell if still wish to go back to P3D?

 

PS.: Copy of XP11 + freeware Zibo 738 + freeware HD mesh V4 + freeware Enhanced Europe + freeware airports of your choice is 60USD in total - less then one plane for P3D :)

 

Edited February 27, 20188 yr by Wojciech Wolny

21 minutes ago, Wojciech Wolny said:

I don't experience any FPS drops and I fly on VATSIM all the time.

No offense, but ask ivao/vatsim controllers how they distinguish x-plane flights from the rest and how much headache this brings. 

 

Quote

 

PS.: Copy of XP11 + freeware Zibo 738 + freeware HD mesh V4 + freeware Enhanced Europe + freeware airports of your choice is 60USD in total - less then one plane for P3D :)

 

 

I wouldn't take that for free. Freeware 738. LOL

Edited February 27, 20188 yr by NZWW

1 hour ago, NZWW said:

I wouldn't take that for free. Freeware 738. LOL

I also logged 300h in PMDG 737 and I love it :)
All I'm saying is: give XP11 a try.

Guy below is real 737 pilot doing mostly PMDG movies. This is his first in XP11. I think you might find his comments interesting. No pressure, just invitation to try something different then you already know.

 

 

Edited February 27, 20188 yr by Wojciech Wolny

Aaah, you gotta love the internet and its constant platform wars *g*

This thread reminds me of what you see in the racing sim community on a daily basis: People arguing over which race sim depicts a F1/Indycar-style open wheeler more realistically. 99.9% of them never even got to drive an open wheeler, and some are even too young to own a drivers license....but all opinions are stated as facts of course

Edited February 27, 20188 yr by Woozie

3 hours ago, NZWW said:

Simmer since FS98 here. 

Reasons I'm not even considering trying X-Plane 11 (currently upgrading from FSX to P3D V4):

1. Reduced FPS lead to reduced flight progress, making it next to unusable for proper on-line flights such as with IVAO in frames-heavy environments.

2. No season changes.

3. Weather simulation inferior to ActiveSky.

4. Daylight graphics, especially clouds look appalling in comparison with P3D V4 +ActiveSky+CloudArt/REX (yet most people tend to compare mountainous areas and night city environment between P3D and X-Plane, but actually count how much an average simmer spends in those two environments...).

5. Limited tweaking functionality - no Fsuipc equivalent.

6. Less airport sceneries and less quality payware airport sceneries.

7. Not largely supported by serious vendors such as PMDG, but dominated by amateurish developing teams.

Highly subjective and arguable, my perception: 8 - mostly preferred by eye-candy type of simmers claiming that it is "realism and physics" that they are after, while actually not caring about airmanship and procedural stuff too much (again, subjective, but my observation over many years, and yeah, I know that real-life pilots also use X-Plane sometimes.).

 

Nice to havs:

1. Sloped runways (Developers of P3D say it's on their list already)

2. Runway friction model and icing effects (achievable in P3D with external mods/software, I've been using FSPS SimPhysics for years in FSX)

3. Slightly better FPS performance & optimization (get a new PC)

4. Night environment (achievable with tweaks and mods in P3D)

 

The principal claim about "realistic physics" and it's superiority over FSX/P3D is next to anecdotal.

 

Honestly don't see how claims about "million light years ahead of P3D" can be justified, it is equal, at most in terms of visuals, but falls behind in other areas.

There are so many misconceptions and plain wrong conclusions in your post that it is not really worth answering point by point. Anyway, per your own admission, you already have a mind set about one thing and how it is much superior than the other even before trying the alternative. Enjoy P3D! 

1 hour ago, GCBraun said:

There are so many misconceptions and plain wrong conclusions in your post that it is not really worth answering point by point. Anyway, per your own admission, you already have a mind set about one thing and how it is much superior than the other even before trying the alternative. Enjoy P3D! 

Fact: I own XPlane 11 and P3d

Fact:  I fly P3D

You fly what works for you and stop trying to convince everyone to eat your flavor of ice cream, and I’ll fly what works for me!  You enjoy Xplane 11, and I’ll enjoy P3D.

Happy Simming!

 

 

 

 

 

4 minutes ago, rcoultas said:

Fact: I own XPlane 11 and P3d

Fact:  I fly P3D

You fly what works for you and stop trying to convince everyone to eat your flavor of ice cream, and I’ll fly what works for me!  You enjoy Xplane 11, and I’ll enjoy P3D.

Happy Simming!

 

 

 

 

 

I own both and enjoy both! That is the best way to do it for me. I don`t have a problem if you tried both and prefer one over the other. I do if you say one is the best while openly stating you are not even willing to try the other. 

Edited February 27, 20188 yr by GCBraun

I use both sims, love both. In my opinion I feel more like I am flying in XP vs P3D. I do hold a couple ratings so I have flown real world also. 

I appreciate opinions, comments, and a lively smart debate about each platform. Both have their own Pros and Cons. 

That being said, I would still like the opportunity to give PMDG my money to have an airliner of there's installed into my XP11 directory. The day I get to do that I will jump for joy, that is a fact.