5 minutes ago, SceneryFX said:

Well I had trees, no problem. As far as buildings, the OSM data was hit or miss in Xplane 11, depending where you were flying. St George had about 70% coverage on the OSM data for buildings in Xplane 11, so yah some advantage in MSFS for that.

Still though the color is pretty bad for some areas in this Bing imagery and kind of low res to be honest, the resolution is only hidden in some places better than others (mainly where there are lots of trees or fields that get the overlay). The desert areas need a lot of work in MSFS.

I will have to plan a flight out into the Nevada desert and check it out this afternoon. 

7 minutes ago, reignman40 said:

LOL, 15 hours? I only have 120mbps (15MBs) and took me 3 hours.

Gotta squeeze out some more sales before MSFS gets the updates and add-ons needed to deal its final death blow! 🤣

Well, yeah... they're not totally wrong, but that is just poor style IMO. This is not LR, but they are quite tight and they have a de facto monopoly on XP addons. So that has some weight and they should act more professional.

But it's understandable they are getting nervous. Once MSFS receives quality addons, their payware scene will probably take a big hit. Which will directly affect x-plane.org of course.

Las Vegas is amazing, but it's a high detail area. Nevada is ok for the most part, but parts of California are pretty bad (too dry looking).

 

Edited August 22, 20205 yr by SceneryFX

2 hours ago, SpiritFlyer said:

....and the fat lady has sung her last song..

You've seen my Beverley screenshots then, Stephen? 

16 minutes ago, tweekz said:

Look what the x-plane.org apparently are pulling off: 🤦‍♂️

 

That's really bad form and this sort of thing is something that's always bugged me about X-Plane. Remember in the old UI when the settings had options like "mega tons" and "totally insane" for the rendering options? It's always felt slightly unprofessional and unpolished in that regard.

Controversial but I wouldn't exactly call the FF 757/767 to be exactly leading examples of superior systems either to be honest (I own the 76)...

5 hours ago, Chock said:

Poor Lockheed Martin... Sob... They're down to their last $7.2 Billion... What will become of them?

LM won't be in the slightest bit concerned. P3D is a training solution.

 

While I agree that LM will not have any financial concerns with their flight sim line, we all know that LM has been selling P3D in the consumer space under the guise of their academic license for years, and have their updates have been in response to their de-facto consumer base.

I think the MSFS will pull back that portion of the consumer market and further advances will cease...

5 hours ago, Chock said:

Poor Laminar Research... Sniff... Austin... Can barely afford to run... His Ferrari... his Tesla... and his custom-built turbocharged Lancair Evolution. The poor little lamb.

Austin's got fingers in load of pies, so like LM, his sim work is not merely catering for Joe Blow. But even then, his more accessible stuff is a moneyspinner; his mobile phone version of Xplane alone, makes over 100,000 Dollars a month, so he's hardly on the breadline.

 

Hey i don't know Austins financial standing, but he admittedly lost over 500k fighting the patent trolls over his mobile app. I admire his decision to fight / make the documentary, and the legal changes that have limietd the impact these types of lawsuits.

I agree that he has other lucrative ventures besides XP which is why I think he will drop XP in the long run as a desktop application...It does return much for the invested time / $$$ required to keep the fan base and addon creators involved.

Time will tell if his passion outweighs his pockets, but I believe that XP will be the best mobile sim only product in the future.

There are still plenty of times in ALL these sims where it still feels like 1999 unfortunately.

FS 2020

 

 

Edited August 22, 20205 yr by SceneryFX

5 minutes ago, reignman40 said:

I will have to plan a flight out into the Nevada desert and check it out this afternoon. 

A good flight is between Reno or Carson City to South Tahoe. You get it all, red, yellow, green, blue, rocks, trees, mountains, lake, irrigated lands, hotels, lodges etc... you could check the whole sim there 😃,

7 hours ago, tonywob said:

Don't feel bad... Both sims will survive. You're forgetting X-Plane has been around for years and has survived as a niche in a niche. They also have their mobile platform which is doing very well. Many users who don't run Windows also can't use MFS, so they'll be fine.

I didn't get that impression at all. All can happily coexist.

XP has survived in the midst of "stale" competition...

LR posture over the last year shows that MSFS is a threat to their consumer base...the couch gathering video...the talk of new things on the horizon...Austin's seemingly new found enthusiasm to engage with the community.

The mobile platform (that cost him an expensive legal battle) may not be able to subsidize the desktop application (with a shrinking fan base), and with 3P Devs leaving XP as well.

I doubt that we will see an XP12 (that is 2 -3 years away) with any substantial improvements that would warrant someone paying more for basically the same thing, the need for addon life support etc...when they can get so much more in MSFS.

 

 

A lot of people were hoping the visuals in MSFS would be good enough across the board to not need third party scenery, but I personally am craving at least 60cm Ortho, this stuff is too low res. It works fine in SOME areas, but it doesn't satisfy me enough overall. I'm very much looking forward to the addon market in this (unfortunately) to give us some better visuals with mountains and what not.

 

5 minutes ago, FlyBaby said:

I agree that he has other lucrative ventures besides XP which is why I think he will drop XP in the long run as a desktop application...It does return much for the invested time / $$$ required to keep the fan base and addon creators involved.

There are at least two things that argue against that.

First, as I understand it, the core flight modeling in XP is a single code base that runs in the mobile app, the consumer desktop versions, and the FAA certified Pro version. If Austin intends to continue with the Pro version -- and I don't know why he wouldn't -- then parallel development for the consumer desktop version isn't a diversion of resources. The Pro version is essentially the same as the desktop PC version with specific flight control integration.

The other reason is that Austin is a Mac-head and he develops XP on the Mac. Something like 30% of XP users fly it on a Mac, with a tiny number on Linux and the majority on the cross-platform Windows version. So he'll keep the consumer desktop version of XP going for himself and for Mac pilots. Windows and Linux users get to fly it as a side benefit. As far as Austin and XP goes, we've always just been along for the ride, so nothing changes here. 😃

59 minutes ago, tweekz said:

Look what the x-plane.org apparently are pulling off: 🤦‍♂️

 

I think Xplane is on the right in this video;

 

23 minutes ago, Paraffin said:

There are at least two things that argue against that.

First, as I understand it, the core flight modeling in XP is a single code base that runs in the mobile app, the consumer desktop versions, and the FAA certified Pro version. If Austin intends to continue with the Pro version -- and I don't know why he wouldn't -- then parallel development for the consumer desktop version isn't a diversion of resources. The Pro version is essentially the same as the desktop PC version with specific flight control integration.

The other reason is that Austin is a Mac-head and he develops XP on the Mac. Something like 30% of XP users fly it on a Mac, with a tiny number on Linux and the majority on the cross-platform Windows version. So he'll keep the consumer desktop version of XP going for himself and for Mac pilots. Windows and Linux users get to fly it as a side benefit. As far as Austin and XP goes, we've always just been along for the ride, so nothing changes here. 😃

Hey, as far as helis go, I will continue to fly XP. And I don't need XP to improve (other than performance) to get more out of my 3,000 ft or below flight with Helis. That will all stop when MSFS get Helis.

I think XP will remain on PCs for one reason or another, but the major DEV (if we can call it that over the years) will stop, the fan base will be too small, and folk can get so much more for less $$$ and less hassle (with addons for this and that).

I really don't think XP with see a version 12 with any substantial advancements...too little too late.

 

sorry if i am breaking anyone's illusions but there has been nothing as path breaking as msfs2020 to come out till now. others will have to catch up.

Edited August 22, 20205 yr by ajaybala

11 minutes ago, ajaybala said:

sorry if i am breaking anyone's illusions but there has been nothing as path breaking as msfs2020 to come out till now. others will have to catch up.

So, which are you, a path breaker or an illusion breaker? Pick one, you can't be both.

please don't break my legs...😆