I was thinking about taking advantage of the steam sale and picking up X-plane 11 for 33% off.

Now I don't mind steam for video games but I think I would prefer my flight simulators not to require steam running in

the background. Is there a difference between the stand alone version straight from LR website and the Steam Version

or is the Steam version the same? i.e. standalone not requiring Steam to run in the background?

You won’t get the beta releases on steam if that is important to you? It is to me, plus I like the stand alone nature of it. Apart from that no difference except obv you need to use steam.

Chris

In steam, go to your game properties, betas and opt-in to the public_beta....

This is a total no-brainer. Go with the stand-alone version for two reasons:

1.) Beta access. While Steam may allow "opt in public beta" they usually don´t publish many betas, only very few select ones. Right now we are at 11.25b1 with lots of new goodies, but the steam guys can´t get it! You may think that you don´t care for betas, but the forums are full of Steamers crying about not getting the betas, and if they had only known, and so on...😝

2.) Support the devs. If you buy off of Steam, a big percentage of your money goes to steam, not to the hard-working devs.

Jan

Edited June 23, 20187 yr by Janov

Well, I've been on 11.25b1 on Steam for 2 weeks now 🙂

But it's true sometimes Steam takes some time to get in touch with interim betas...

OTOH it's a lot faster to re-install the game from Steam 🙂 

Although I nearly always, encourage and favor games, if they exists on Steam, I would in this case advocate for the stand-alone version.

The same goes for DCS, by the way.

In the past on Steam games, I have had to click on "copy to clipboard" on a small window with a key code that appears the first time a games exe is run. Then the game ask for the key code in the usual way. Is this what happens with X-Plane 11 in Steam? If so is it possible to just use the key code purchased from steam to activate the X-plane 11 stand alone demo?

Edited June 23, 20187 yr by Guest

5 hours ago, jcomm said:

Well, I've been on 11.25b1 on Steam for 2 weeks now 🙂

But it's true sometimes Steam takes some time to get in touch with interim betas...

OTOH it's a lot faster to re-install the game from Steam 🙂 

Ah, ok - didn´t know they had that up so quick...and I can imagine that Steam MAY get faster or more willing to put up interim betas, especially that a bigger share of the userbase is now on Steam. I am also a Steam customer and pretty satisfied with how the games work and the ease of installing or re-installing. But I got burned with DCS A-10 several years ago as well (no updates on Steam).

With X-Plane 11 also being a digital download from Laminar and the way their installer works (you can add/remove scenery incrementally, fix your installation, etc) I really see no advantage to using Steam.

Jan

I buy new versions of XP direct from Laminar, for several reasons. 

First, as mentioned above, to support the developer. This is the only civilian flight sim I use, so I have a strong interest in seeing them supported as much as possible. Access to all the betas is also worthwhile, I think. They very seldom release any beta stinkers, and when they do, they're usually hot-fixed. You'll see fewer betas on Steam.

Another reason is that my Internet service isn't the best, and occasionally goes down for short periods. It's possible to launch games from Steam in offline mode, but that process can be a little flaky sometimes. I think the direct purchase version of XP only phones home to check authorization every once in a while, so it's more stable to launch when the Internet is down.

And finally, I already have a ton of games tied up with Steam. I like having at least a few of the things I enjoy on independent platforms, both to support the developer and just on general principle, to avoid Steam monopolizing all my recreational use of the computer.

Laminar Research changed their policy towards Steam over a year ago.

Now, Steam gets the beta's usually a few (2-3) days later. *

The advantage of the Steam version is it's less expensive if you are buying outside the US, and it frequently goes on sale. 

Otherwise, you aren't missing anything other than a delay of a few days when a new beta is realeased.

* Laminar Research is a lot more cautious about pushing out beta's to Steam, especially early in a beta cycle where it's not uncommon for them to remove a beta from their non-steam edition due to extremely serious bugs. With Steam it takes longer to undo changes of this nature so this is why they wait a few days to see if any serious bugs are reported first before releasing to Steam.

Hello,

I apologise if this has been answered, but I can't for the life of me find the answer.

I'm looking to invest in X-Plane 11 and I'm deciding between Steam and a direct purchase, however Steam lists 6 free scenery DLCs that I can't find elsewhere. If I purchase directly, would I be missing out on these scenery files?

Thanks :) 

1 hour ago, t3hb00t said:

I can't for the life of me find the answer.

I did find the answer and will leave it here just in case it's helpful to others in the future.

The free "DLC" on Steam are actually just the base scenery, which of course means the direct download has them.

I have purchased X-Plane 11  from Steam when it came out and never had any issues. 

 

Edited March 31, 20197 yr by michelh

For flightsims, I always go standalone.

For games, I always go Steam.

I purchase direct, more money goes to Laminar .... my choice, everyone to their own.