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Nagmaal

Trying to give a X-Plane a fair chance.

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I recently bought X-Plane on the steam summer sale.

The out of the box experience was worse then stock P3d. Looks worse, aircraft feel like their on rails, aircraft systems are very basic, sloped runways were pretty cool though.

I was about to get a refund when I realized, i am not giving it a fair chance. My P3D lives on its Mods.

Any suggestions? I love king air so Airfoil labs King air I am going to try for sure. 

Maybe a cool airport or 2 from ORBX, Juno or Maybe Ketchican.,

Any other mods that are must have to get the X-Plane experience?

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Hmmm,

I would try picking Ortho4XP scenery covering an area you would like to fly around, choose an aircraft from the class you would like to try and try it over that area, using even default weather ( real world ).

There are many modified versions of the default aircraft in X-Plane for free at the .Org, that try to overcome the limitations imposed by their default FDMs...

This guy's work looks really interesting for a start, specially because he's MODs target freeware models also available from that site:

https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/profile/757034-mgouge/content/&type=downloads_file

With all of this in mind, those who use both sims "professionally" say they're a complement, not an exclusion... I use none, so, I like both very much 🙂

 

Edited by jcomm

Main Simulation Rig:

Ryzen 5600x, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, 1 TB & 500 GB M.2 nvme drives, Win11.

Glider pilot since October 1980...

Avid simmer since 1992...

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For starters I would like to recommend the Zibo. It's an absolutely stunning piece of freeware. Other than that I am unsure if I use anything other than the "AIpilot HD mesh" (or whatever it's name is). Oh, I use ASXP for the weather as well. 

I use P3DV4.4 as well and would say that in some situations P3D looks better and in some XP looks better. 

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Richard

7950x3d   |   32Gb 6000mHz RAM   |   8Tb NVme   |   RTX 4090    |    MSFS    |    P3D    |      XP12  

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There's a lot of freeware that can improve X-plane dramatically. 

Generate your own orthophotos using Ortho4xp, or download packages for much of the USA from https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/36327-us-orthophotos/

Add US West Real Life on top for very realistic looking cities throughout the western USA. https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/36109-us-west-real-life/

Then get any of the free airports from Mister X also available at the x-plane.org. PANJ, KFSO, and KLAX come to mind.

If you don't want to got the orthophoto route, consider the HD Mesh v4 and UHD mesh from www.alpilotx.net . It will improve the accuracy of both the terrain and the landclass.

As far as the aircraft being on rails, what weather options are you using? As a real world pilot, I can tell you that flying can be as smooth as being on rails (even smoother actually) when there is no wind and/or turbulence. I find X-plane simulates the sense of flying through a fluid body of air better than Prepar3d and it certainly should not feel like you are on rails if you have some wind and turbulence in your weather settings. As with Prepar3d, flight models vary by aircraft, some being better modeled than others.

Overall both sims have their pros and cons and you may want to use both depending on your mood and where or what you are flying.

Check out my screenshots at https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/556382-short-flight-from-khqm-bowerman-to-elma-municipal-washington/ to see what X-plane 11 can look like. The only payware you see there is the plane. With enough time and tinkering you can create some great scenery for free, or if you want something easier, take a look at the ORBX True Earth sceneries.

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Martin 

Sims: MSFS and X-plane 11

Home Airport: CYCW - Chilliwack, BC Canada

i5 13600KF 32GB DDR4 3600 RAM, RTX3080TI  HP Reverb G2

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3 hours ago, Nagmaal said:

The out of the box experience was worse then stock P3d. Looks worse, aircraft feel like their on rails, aircraft systems are very basic, sloped runways were pretty cool though.


Did you go into the options and turn down Stability Augmentation to 0? That would be a good start if you think the aircraft feel like they're on rails...

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Asus Prime X370 Pro / Ryzen 7 3800X / 32 GB DDR4 3600 MHz / Gainward Ghost RTX 3060 Ti
MSFS / XP

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Airplane on rail, i threw away FSX because I love the XPLANE model, Throw in a bit of wind and turbulence.

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I had kind of the opposite experience when I got XP-11 a few months ago. P3D is still my main simulator, but compared to a vanilla P3D, XP-11 scenery is much better. However, that is not the case anymore after you install ORBX Global etc. Also, Carenado planes seem to be better in XP-11 than in P3D because the systems are made by a different team, but you still get the outstanding visuals.

As for the highly praised XP-11 flight model, my experience is that it is much more agile than the P3D model (kind of the opposite of "on rails"). That seems to hit the nail for GA airplanes, but for larger airplanes it feels completely wrong to me. That's the main reason why I still mainly use P3D.

Peter

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I also started using both XP11 and P3Dv4 and can never make up my mind which one to fire up 🙂 

Give XP11 a chance by taking advantage of the many free addons available.
For planes, Zibo if you like big iron or Vflyteair Navion if you're more into low and slow. The default C172 is also very nice.
Scenery via ortho4xp, misterx and orbx free airports. Also try Orbx TE GB South free demo if you like to fly in that area. 

 

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To give it a fair shake you'll need to spend time with it.  I mean like a month....you probably spent that much setting up p3d and purchasing add-ons for it....I know I did.  You can have xp11 looking amazing for free.  You can't do that in p3d.

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| FAA ZMP |
| PPL ASEL |
| Windows 11 | MSI Z690 Tomahawk | 12700K 4.7GHz | MSI RTX 4080 | 32GB 5600 MHz DDR5 | 500GB Samsung 860 Evo SSD | 2x 2TB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 | EVGA 850W Gold | Corsair 5000X | HP G2 (VR) / LG 27" 1440p |

 

 

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I was not expecting this amount of helpfulness. A lot of x-plane guys got pretty hostile when I asked them these questions.

Kind of reminds me of that quote from down periscope. “Nobody talks about brave men in their proud simulators”.  A lot of people will defend their chosen sim to the death, insisting their the most realistic, not even full motion sims feel like real aircraft.  Adamantly I used to be one of those people. But I am convinced both have their drawbacks & advantages.

The on rails feeling might be 2 fold. I have become accustomed to A2A planes & Flight 1 king air in P3d and they give a lot more feedback and need a lot more input.

Maybe I have setting wrong, but I am giving way to much right ruder. Not that my flight instructor will agree. :-)

There is so much good advice and I will try all of it. I think P3d will probably stay my main flightsim, but X plane is going to get some love as well…. At least till deadstick arrives then both are taking a backseat.  😉

Thank you guys for all the help.

Edited by Nagmaal
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It took me about 6 months to feel at home (that was with X-Plane 10 which had a less friendly interface than X-Plane 11 currently does). Now I hardly ever use P3D.

As Richard says, Download the 737 Zibo and this will keep you going for months. https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/topic/138974-b737-800x-zibo-mod-info-installation-download-links/

When you download a full version, you can then use the updater to patch to the most recent version  https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/topic/157356-zibo-updater-windows/

Not a bad idea either to check out https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/topic/141756-video-tutorials/  to give you an idea what to expect.

 


Jude Bradley
Beech Baron: Uh, Tower, verify you want me to taxi in front of the 747?
ATC: Yeah, it's OK. He's not hungry.

X-Plane 11 X-Plane 12 and MSFS2020  🙂

System specs: Windows 11  Pro 64-bit, Ubuntu Linux 20.04 i9-9900KF  Gigabyte Z390 RTX-3070-Ti , 32GB RAM  1X 2TB M2 for X-Plane 12,  1x256GB SSD for OS. 1TB drive MSFS2020

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If you like GA, there is one add-on I would highly recommend.  The HotStart TBM-900.  (Google it)

It is excellent and systems deep.

The AFL king air you mentioned is also pretty good.  I setup mine with dual GTN 750's from Reality XP (yes there is a GTN and GNS in XP11 too!)


| FAA ZMP |
| PPL ASEL |
| Windows 11 | MSI Z690 Tomahawk | 12700K 4.7GHz | MSI RTX 4080 | 32GB 5600 MHz DDR5 | 500GB Samsung 860 Evo SSD | 2x 2TB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 | EVGA 850W Gold | Corsair 5000X | HP G2 (VR) / LG 27" 1440p |

 

 

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There are some great add-on aircraft for X-P. Check out the hot start TBM 900.... the included garmin 1000 panel makes the Flight1 Mustang and KingAir look half made by comparison...it is that good...I have time with the Garmin 1000 in the RW on a king air. There are some incredibly made freeware airports that are on par with payware for P3d. I came to X-P a couple months ago when waiting for the the patch/hotfix for P3dV4.5. I was tired of spending more time trying to get P3d to work properly and here i am with X-P, something I did not expect ever to happen. X-P 11.34 is much different and much better imho that the predecessors such as X-P 10. X-P 11 has evolved into a very good sim.

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Graphics wise instead, a small investment i think is very worth it is the X-Vision addon since it gets rid of some things graphics wise which are less than ideal while improving other things.

On their site you'll find their online manual with lots of before/after screenshots of what every feature does


Chock 1.1: "The only thing that whines louder than a jet engine is a flight simmer."

 

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You will find, if you are really committed to X-Plane11, that it will do things P3DV4.5 can't do.  Even with the default 172, I did not feel like I was "Flying on Rails", and in real life, in calm (and I emphasize calm) conditions, an aircraft will feel that way--at least the aircraft I have flown, which have been in the Light Sport and Trike Category.  VSkylabs for very reasonable prices offers a ton of Light Aircraft, and a gyrocopter that flies like a real Gyrocopter should.  Then, look into the freeware at Xplane.org.  Do you like old Warbirds?  There is an outstanding free B17 available.  Do you like fast little jets?  There is an outstanding BD5 available.  The heavy iron included with Xplane11 is also quite nice.  Do you like Bizjets?  Aerobask's Eclipse will knock your socks off.  What about RealityXP?  Sure, it works and integrates very well in Xplane11.  Carenado has some very mature titles for Xplane11, better than their P3D counterparts I feel, and none of them feel like you are flying on rails.  Do you like Vintage aircraft/Nostalgia?   There is an outstanding Ford Trimotor available at a nominal price.  In fact most Xplane11 add-ons tend to be cheaper than what you find in P3D4.5.

And others have mentioned Ortho4XP.  You cannot go wrong with making scenery from it, and unlike most photoscenery in P3d4.x you can overlay autogen on your photo scenery, if you know what you are doing with Ortho4XP.

Xplane11 is also much easier to back up, or move to a solid state drive, which is my intention in a few days, which will offer faster load times.

And do not consider me uneducated, like you, I have P3D4.5 too and I enjoy it quite a bit, this morning for instance I am flying the Carenado C170, which was the first GA aircraft I ever flew (right seat) when one owner, the famous (RIP) aerial photographer, William Garnett, allowed me and my buddy to fly with him in exchange for polishing his metal 170--He was the Mr. Miyagi of general aviation for me, and he inspired me to learn how to fly in real life, must have been a message from the afterlife because I started flying around the time he passed away in the early 2000's.

Do not abandon P3D4.5 (the ring of power--otherwise Sauron might get ahold of it lol).  But learn to enjoy Xplane11, use it a little each time, it is fluid as long as you do not go overboard with AA, it's AI is better than P3d4.5, its default scenery autogen, landclass and mesh is way better than P3D4.5.  MisterX has wonderful free airports that cover many destinations in the US West/Southwest, such as LAX, SAN, PHX, SNA, SFO and even Portland.  Xplane11's default LA metroplex is poor, no buildings.  But there is wonderful VFR scenery that adds almost every major site across the LA Metroplex, and it is all free: https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/41603-all-the-so-cal-vfr-in-1-folder/

You need to add a couple of extra sceneries for it, Handy Object's library in your custom scenery folder and the CDB library in your add-ons overlays folder.

There is so much to stretch the imagination, and so much to learn in Xplane11.  You can customize weather to give your flying a feel which is far from flying on rails, by adding wind layers with variable wind speeds vs. a steady speed, makes the chop stress you out on final if you enjoy getting carried away with it like I do.

I hope you find these tips helpful--my specs are in my siggy, and with all maxed except for Antialiasing, my fps regularly tops 50-60 fps in cruise flight and never drops below 30, except when scenery is getting loaded from the hard disk, then there is a slight hesitation which does not happen often.

John

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