XP Beginner here from P3D!

[1123213 26]

Hello everyone!

 

So I'm seriously thinking about getting XPlane 11. I have P3D installed with things like the FSLabs and I love it. But it has become a bit... stale recently, I don't really feel like spending head over heals for a large bunch of airports. I have a lot of free time this summer, so I was considering doing something different and getting XPlane 11. I had the NGX in FSX, and I really loved flying it, I didn't get it for P3D and I missed the NGXu deal, so I was gonna have to pay £139 for a 737, which with the upcoming sims doesn't seem worthwhile to me. (I know buying XP will contradict, but it's quite a cheap solution imho.) I was looking at XP11, because I've seen a lot of people flying some really cool routes and really realistic sims for free. Before I bought it, I had a few questions..

 

1) I currently run the FSLabs a320 at around 30fps at a major airport like EGLL How would the performance be in XP? (ZIbo and some free airports). I know this is a tough question to put here, but It's a vital one for me, I can re post it somewhere else if needed!

2) What are the must-have freeware plugins?  I'm a bit familiar with XP, I've heard of the ZIBO mod (my main choice for buying XP) and I am also aware of things like MisterX sceneries, BetterBushback, Avitab, XCamera.. A list could be really helpful!

3) What are the libraries? I saw that a lot of sceneries needed some libraries, could someone explain what they are/for?

4) Can I run XP11 on the same drive as P3D? I don't think I'm going to install any addons which I have in P3D.

5) Finally, how much disk space would you reccomend? I've got quite a bit, but how much would I need for the zibo, some sceneries and maybe a few utilities?

 

Thanks so much for the help, If you can offer any advice at all it would be greatly appreciated!

Have a great day!

Canine 🙂

Edited July 7, 2020 by Canine Crew
Grammar

[Jude Bradley 659]

Firstly, welcome to the world of X-Plane. 

 

We would need to know your system specs to answer some of your queries, but Vulkan (similar to Directx12) is in beta at the moment and it should help with frame rates at the moment. 

I would recommend the Tolis A319 and A321 for Airbus, they run quite well and yes, you can use any drive you want for X-Plane. It occupies only one folder, no registry entries. 

Also the 737-300 from IXEG is very near PMDG standards 

I would recommend at least 250GB drive, but I use a 1TB SSD as I have quite a lot of scenery (this takes a lot of space), but can be added to a separate hard-drive if needed. 

Libraries are basically customised depenendencies which uses have created to enhance sceneries, such as static aircraft,people and airport vehicles - they are ususually required for sceneries if the scenery developer added these when creating their own custom scenery. 

 

[petehowell57 17]

Hi Canine

 

I used FSX and P3D for many years and I still have P3D loaded, but I eventually decided to try out XP11.  At first I didn't like it - probably because it involves a new learning curve, but I'm so glad I persevered!!

I assume you're a "tube" man whereas I fly low and slow so I can't help much with questions directly involving airliners.

When designers produce scenery etc they often use "stock" items like fences, hangers, people etc.  These are all contained in areas called "libraries".  When you download an airport for example you may be asked to also download certain "libraries" that contain the objects needed to make the scenery look correct, or even operate in the correct manner.  A list of the required "libraries" is attached to the instructions given with the scenery.

A very useful site is X-Plane.org which has loads of free scenery, aircraft, utilities etc  A very useful utility is called XOrganiser which makes organising scenery etc very easy. It has equivalents in P3D that you may already use.  It does cost $12.50 but I think it's worth every penny.

It's difficult to comment on disk space etc as it really depends on what and where you want to fly. I fly mainly in GB so I have invested in ORBX True Earth software which takes up quite a lot of disk space.

Hope that has helped a little.  I now fly XP11 98% of the time, so I suppose I'm hooked!!

Pete

[1123213 26]

Hi,

 

Thank so much for the quick replies!

My specs are:

i5-9600K @3.7 GHz

16GB RAM DDR4

 ZOTAC RTX2060

And about 300GB on my D drive SSD

 

This is all very helpful, I just hope that I will want to use P3D and XP together, otherwise P3D would be a waste of money... 😄 

 

Thanks!

Canine

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Hello Canine,

1. Toliss A318/319 and A430/321 highly recommended, an alternative is Jar Design (a little less complex in my opinion, but stlll a great aircraft set)

2. Google this one .... Q8pPilot does quite a few of these videos and very well in my opinion, again. (subscribe to his channel)  He does aircraft, freeware/payware, utilities and sceneries. His opinion is very well respected in Xplane circles I believe. Another very, very good source of information is Thomas Rasmussen.  There is plenty of video and media advice available.

3. Libraries.  I am unable to tell you how they function other than the fact that, all of them are necessary and most of them are free.  In addition if you add a plug in or scenery, you will generally be advised which libraries are going to be required. Just follow the steps ... a little daunting at first but like everything, practice makes perfect.

4. No problems. As previously stated it is just a folder. also, please note, as also advised, sceneries, which can take up a lot of storage space, can be routed to another drive. If you have the resources, I would recommend a minimum of 500GB, (particularly if you are going to share this drive with P3D) for the XP programme and 1tb for the sceneries. Again, if you have the resources, I would opt for a 2tb SSD or 500gb SSD and 1tb ... preferably SSD, although an HDD is entirely adequate for the scenery.

5. I guess this has been covered by Para 4.

I would also like to add my voice to your warm welcome to the folds of XPlane. I am very sure you will settle in and be very comfortable in a very short time. Please do not forget that everyone here is generally very happy to help you out with any further queries or problems..

Regards

Tony

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

You do realize that you can download a trial version of X-Plane I hope.  I have never done it because you can only fly for 15 minutes as I understand it, but it will give you the opportunity to see how your system handles it.  There is a Zibo version of the default 737-800, which, according to real life pilots, Is pretty close to the real thing... and it’s free.  I have the IXEG, but it lacks the modern instrumentation and I am spoiled.  I have tried PMDG over the years, but my mama told me, “if you can’t say anything nice......”. Give it a go and give it a chance - there is a learning curve.  Welcome to realistic flying!

[Murmur 3,941]

8 hours ago, Canine Crew said:

1) I currently run the FSLabs a320 at around 30fps at a major airport like EGLL How would the performance be in XP? (ZIbo and some free airports). I know this is a tough question to put here, but It's a vital one for me, I can re post it somewhere else if needed!
🙂

Best thing you could do is install the free XP demo, install Zibo 737, and then see what is the performance at default Seattle airport. Demo can be played 15 minutes at a time and then can be restarted.

Be advised currently XP features a beta Vulkan mode, which offers better performance and smoothness but of course is still buggy being a beta.