Future of X-plane

[sanh 823]

I am waiting to see what x-plane 12 does as well. I switched over from x-plane to MSFS on day 1 and haven't looked back but x-plane has a lot of great addons and a good flight model. It doesn't need to match MSFS in the graphics department - just needs to improve certain aspects like ground textures and volumetric clouds and better lighting. It will be a worthy competitor to MSFS then for those who fly for entertainment. 

[tonywob 4,768]

36 minutes ago, sanh said:

It doesn't need to match MSFS in the graphics department - just needs to improve certain aspects like ground textures and volumetric clouds and better lighting

Yep agreed.. and better lighting would massively improve everything, especially if older scenery stays compatible (which I believe it will).

[jcomm 5,890]

As a future development for X-Plane I would really like to see someone joining the team to be working directly with Austin in the Flight Dynamics.

AFAIK there's no one doing that so far ?

[tonywob 4,768]

42 minutes ago, jcomm said:

AFAIK there's no one doing that so far ?

Send him your CV Jose 🙂

[Janov 2,383]

59 minutes ago, tonywob said:

Send him your CV Jose 🙂

He would have to finish collaboration with Austin within a few days maximum, though (before he uninstalls X-Plane again 😂👍)

[jcomm 5,890]

Yeah... with me it's always rabbit-way :  It's going to be great dear, wasn't it ?

[mjrhealth 820]

Isnt there some flight sim thingy in july. if any thing that is when we will find out whats going on.

[tonywob 4,768]

6 minutes ago, mjrhealth said:

Isnt there some flight sim thingy in july. if any thing that is when we will find out whats going on

Maybe, but can't see it happening due to that damn pandemic thing that's going on 😑. I missed out going last year (had my tickets booked to LV and everything), so I guess this year it will be mostly an online event

[akita 429]

9 hours ago, tonywob said:

Yep agreed.. and better lighting would massively improve everything, especially if older scenery stays compatible (which I believe it will).

another +1 for that. and xplane has open doors for some next-gen in that term, what MSFS has is awesome but will be outdated once UE5 like lighting soon becomes an industry-standart. and to have a UE5 like lighting you need a next-gen graphics API.

also the last hype about this weird 737MAX for MSFS proves how proper lighting makes even low-quality art shine at certain conditions. or if I may, MSFS by it self is a proof of how low-quality textures can shine when lighting is good.

Edited February 12, 2021 by akita

[alexcolka 183]

I must admit that since I got Xenviro (and if you are lucky enough to run it pretty smooth) I almost not touching MSFS. God how a good lighting and cloud system may be a game changer, although XE have it own quirks. 

Edited February 12, 2021 by alexcolka

[tonywob 4,768]

Just now, alexcolka said:

God how a good lighting and cloud system may be a game changer, although XE have it owns quirks. 

Yep exactly... the base sim is already there, we just need that extra next-gen graphics stuff to push it off the ground

[jcomm 5,890]

Not to mention the much more plausible flight dynamics, systems details, an SDK... that make it possible to create some reference products in terms of quality / fidelity.

 

 

[jarmstro 2,402]

8 hours ago, tonywob said:

Yep exactly... the base sim is already there, we just need that extra next-gen graphics stuff to push it off the ground

Couldn't agree more. But there seems to be a strange resistance amongst the X-Plane community to having nicer graphics in the sim (they say it's unnecessary 'eye candy'). I  sincerely hope LR take no notice of them. 

[mjrhealth 820]

59 minutes ago, jarmstro said:

Couldn't agree more. But there seems to be a strange resistance amongst the X-Plane community to having nicer graphics in the sim (they say it's unnecessary 'eye candy'). I  sincerely hope LR take no notice of them. 

What resistance, there is none, its a flight simulator, I may not be a real pilot, but I fly xplane because its is the best i have found in flight modelling from what I can see, eye candy is nice, but when learning to fly planes Im not looking at flowers and bugs from 27000ft. Im too busy flying.

[mSparks 2,086]

38 minutes ago, jarmstro said:

But there seems to be a strange resistance amongst the X-Plane community to having nicer graphics in the sim (they say it's unnecessary 'eye candy').

If that is a reference to me, you have the wrong end of the stick. My resistance to MSFS is multifold, but it is nothing to do with not wanting nicer graphics in XPlane.

First and foremost, I'm a long way from convinced MSFS has nicer graphics. Greazer keeps calling my screenshots "like a PS2", XP is already waaay more capable than that. 

This is my local Ski resort (in my profile picture) in XP11

everything is where its supposed to be (even the ski lifts), this is "standard" scenery (in the sense of Ortho + simheaven stuff), lightings good, framerate is perfect, flight model is perfect, my first comment - I don't have much to complain about, and I already have that level of detail for the entire world loaded on my nvme drive.

Except, Its bugged, because while I was getting full voice control AI ATC working, building planes, testing "under the hood" stuff, the people who are supposed to care about how things looked never reported this in sufficient numbers to get it fixed, So in a way this bug is yours and @Greazer's fault.

So, by default, I generally have SSAO disabled, not because I don't like it when it works, but because its not been fixed.

If all you lot really care about graphics, why the 'f is this still there after 2 years, and why did I, not really caring about graphics, and running on linux, have to be the one to make the video and file it?

Next is the "I can see my house" comments. That's nice, COMPLETELY irrelevant if I can't see my ski lifts or Nav waypoints, losing those is a MASSIVE step backwards in the way it looks.

The next part is, I have my doubts how much "nicer" it can actually look - at least not without killing FPS to the point the aircraft are unflyable... which completely defeats the point. On openGL there was no chance, Vulkan was a lot harder than they were expecting, but its done now.

Additionally, XPlane community is heavily biased towards real life aviation, "that guy on the internet said he was a pilot and MSFS flies perfect" an "it feels fine" doesn't cut the mustard,

That guy on the youtube said you can fly in clouds without pitot heat, he died, nicer graphics is secondary to having a realistic flying experience, and a good portion of the community has the experience to not be duped by paid for propaganda and made up awards.

You then have those with a low tolerance for stupidity, who aren't selling addons, who are non to exicted about the prospect of the community getting flooded by the xbox'ers. This, at least, seems to be turning out to be mostly unfounded, and so far there hasn't been a new flood of "why does my plane pull to the left when I dump full throttle in my Cessna on take off" every other day.

Its not that nicer graphics aren't wanted, everyone has been working hard to improve them, The whole point of those awesome guys that made "KMGM payware for free" was to raise the bar across the board.

But at the same time, nicer graphics are not demanded at the cost of everything else that really matters.

Oh, and btw, I really don't rate the excessive use of SSAO in MSFS and its clouds look nothing like anything I have ever seen in real life.