Poll: Your civilian simulator of choice and the future

[ryanbatc 12,836]

I think it's clear that at avsim, p3d is the most popular sim.  Of course avsim has always been a MSFS / ESP based forum.  Overall the XP addon market is growing rapidly.  I expect to see more growth of xp users here.  Someone else mentioned streamers - it's true the big names are putting out more and more xp vids these days.

Anyway I voted both xp and p3d.  I tend to use xp just a little more frequently than p3d... Unless a cool new addon is released or I'm testing one in either sim...then my time will sway to to one side for a few months

[Raging Bull 23]

8 hours ago, edetroit said:

I see this poll is not for me. 😀

 

No. As this is actually for people who like serious flight sims. 🙂

[Pastaiolo 1,688]

15 hours ago, jabloomf1230 said:

I'm thinking that you meant to say "pushing for XP11". But that aside, I think you are being a little too optimistic about the time frame for those add-ons. HiFi has been talking about an XP11 version for more than a year now. That's not a problem in itself. But you also should note that HiFi has dropped numerous hints that the structure of XP11 doesn't lend itself to a replication of the FSX/P3d4 version of Active Sky. It might be more of a Somewhat Active Sky for XP. And PMDG has stuck its toe in the XP waters before without much success. PMDG seems quite content to sell new P3d/FSX products for big bucks and I doubt that there are enough XP users that will shell out that kind of cash when cheaper options exist. Basically, the flight sim world is a dichotomy. XP11 is nicely suited for GA/VFR flying and P3d4 is still the best when you want airliners, IFR, ATC and AI traffic. I certainly don't mind that.

There is a parallel issue that has nothing directly to do with XP11 and P3d4 but it does illustrate to me why developers tend to focus on one flight sim at a time. VRS has probably the best military jet simulation in its F/A-18. For years, its users have been asking why VRS didn't produce a version for DCS. The official answer was that the architecture of DCS (and also the way that add-ons were approved) was a major challenge.Since nature abhors a vacuum, Eagle Dynamics released its own version of the F/A-18 in the infamous "early access" mode. Just like DTG FSW, which set the extremely low bar for early access, the DCS version is still missing  a lot of pieces. I suspect the F/A-18 will eventually get to a final release, but in the meantime, all ED did was to prove VRS right. Making the leap from one flightsim to another with either a complex aircraft or other add-ons is a tedious process.  In contrast, ORBX has had an easier time of it, because much of what it does consists of textures and orthoimagery. Even the modeling that it uses at airports isn't that elaborate, since the airports are generally small. KSAN has been their one big NA airport and I don't get the impression that it's been a big seller. ORBX has marketed light aircraft in the past, but they have lost interest in that as of late.

If i may, there are some things that needs to be pointed out ( i don't know if you are aware of them or not, no idea if you use XP11 or have been following news on it too).

Active Sky XP is being worked on and beta tested too according to the developers posts. It's true we don't know its exact content but it should be interesting regardless compared to the default weather. Even xEnviro, with all its problems, does something which can give pretty visuals (in some ways, even better than Active Sky imho since the currently worked on version is using real volumetric clouds and not high quality 2d textures).

Regarding PMDG, them being a business, i would say they are still exploring the idea but haven't invested much into it, or, it's not convenient for them to yet.
Look at the DC-6. They ported it over but it remains bugged and not up to date yet. For the 737 instead, they have quite a competition with the Zibo 737. Which granted, might not be yet on par with PMDG 737 BUT it's free, almost daily upgraded and made by pretty much two guys only.

Last chapter of my reply is on DCS. The work on their F/A-18 have taken them years with the collaboration of Boeing. They have been given access to pretty much a lot of things, and for a matter of secrecy they even had to "dumb down" some of its features since it's a platform still in active service. One of the developers (Wags) is an ex CIA analyst, and there are lots of examples of FSX/P3D companies who tried to enter the market but were kicked out for the simple reason that Eagle Dynamics raised its bar regarding the quality of the modules introduced  in its sim by a lot  and said companies simply didn't have the knowledge and skillset required to work at high level. Currently only RAZBAM seems to be managing being a developer on both sims, and it took them quite a serious effort too.

The early access is a normal thing for DCS and it always worked well. These are things which takes a lot of time but DCS developers always delivered (and those who didn't were kicked out, VNAO is the running example) and EA is a good way of buying it with a small discount too, knowing that the rest of the features will follow and that the current features are well enough to enjoy the machine you want to fly.

[Leen3131cs 107]

9 hours ago, torfih said:

22:40 local time:

Avsim: WHO'S ONLINE   146 MEMBERS, 0 ANONYMOUS, 267 GUESTS

X-Plane.org: WHO'S ONLINE   588 MEMBERS, 11 ANONYMOUS, 319 GUESTS

This moment ( 8 hours later )
Avsim                   Members 105 online , 0 anonimous  and 267 guests
X-Plane.org         Members 412 online , 0 anonimous  and  305 guests

If you repeat this kinda check every 6 hours  ( I did some months ago )  the result probably will give more or less the same impression every time.

Keeping in mind X-Plane.org is a forum exclusively for X-Plane and AVSIM is a multy-sim-platform its very easy to draw some conclusions , seen in the light of this poll

BUT

We have to keep in mind X-Plane.org has a store as well,   that might influence the picture in a way though its not an explanation for such a huge difference.
There are far more websites  FSX-etc orientated than there are websites dedicated to X-Plane that may be a better explanation.

These days I am painting X-Plane -planes and I see the download numbers just being a bit lower than the downloadnumbers of the same sort of planes for FSX etc..
The averge  download-numbers are slightly higher for FSX-etc.
In the past download-numbers for FSX-etc were much higher in my perspective and these are getting slowly lower these days. 
As a painter I think this numbers are giving the answer to this poll.

[edetroit 933]

2 hours ago, Raging Bull said:

 

No. As this is actually for people who like serious flight sims. 🙂

Clearly. 😁

[ErichB 3,642]

9 hours ago, torfih said:

22:40 local time:

Avsim: WHO'S ONLINE   146 MEMBERS, 0 ANONYMOUS, 267 GUESTS

X-Plane.org: WHO'S ONLINE   588 MEMBERS, 11 ANONYMOUS, 319 GUESTS

This poll has to be taken with a pinch of salt as it was never intended to be anything else other than a broad brush poll of anyone interested in polling their response.   I am not an XP user but I struggle to believe that results,  as they stand,  represent reality - even on Avsim.   

 

 

[Leen3131cs 107]

18 minutes ago, ErichB said:

This poll has to be taken with a pinch of salt as it was never intended to be anything else other than a broad brush poll of anyone interested in polling their response.   I am not an XP user but I struggle to believe that results,  as they stand,  represent reality - even if just on Avsim.   

 

 

The difference in the number of visitors on AVSIM and X-Plane.org can be caused by diffrent facts as I stated in a previous reaction on this thread and does not say a thing about the popularity of the sims we are discussing now.
They only show us X-Pane.org generates more traffic these days.
Does that mean its a better forum, absolutely not, they are just visited by the majority of the X-Plane-users, a community wich is growing fast.
 

Leen de Jager

moderator at AVSIM  and  X-Plane.org

[ErichB 3,642]

2 minutes ago, Leen3131cs said:

They only show us X-Pane.org generates more traffic these days.
Does that mean its a better forum, absolutely not, they are just visited by the majority of the X-Plane-users, a community wich is growing fast

I agree.  I'm one of those visitors, although I don't use it.  But XP is an easy gateway into simming and the Twtich and Youtube content creators are largely responsible for that growth. It's all good for simming as a whole.  The more love any sim gets is a good thing - because regardless of which one it is, it means better prospects for future users.

[Leen3131cs 107]

One thing I forgot to say, but wich is quiet something really important to realise.
Though X-Plane .org is not an official website managed by Laminar-Research (developer/vendor of X-Plane)  wich actually is X-Plane.com ,it wears the name X-Plane and many X-Plane users kinda automaticly flow into the X-Plane.org- community.

[G-RFRY 1,710]

Can we expect another poll in a week or two on what is wrong with P3D.

[Leen3131cs 107]

Do not have the impression anyone is mentioning things being wrong with P3D

[ErichB 3,642]

29 minutes ago, rjfry said:

Can we expect another poll in a week or two on what is wrong with P3D.

After all the obvious offense, hurt, sarcasm resulting from this simple and fairly innocuous poll, you won't be getting another from me. 

I'm more inclined to run a poll titled, 'What's wrong with flightsimmers'.  

[G-RFRY 1,710]

1 minute ago, Leen3131cs said:

Do not have the impression anyone is mentioning things being wrong with P3D

You have not been following the OPs polls on the P3D forum I take it then. 

[Leen3131cs 107]

I did not follow that indeed.
As a moderator its my experience its best to react in a thread on the contents of that thread only and not on posts in other threads, things get very messy then.

[G-RFRY 1,710]

Ok I will stay off the poll threads from now on.