Late to the party but loving XP11

[Holdit 551]

It was FSX and then P3D all the way for me until 18-24 months ago when I got tired of it and drifted away from flight simming. Then I bought MSFS 2020 and was impressed but my excitement was tempered its still-raw state and the limitations of my current system (i5-6600k/GTX 1060). So I thought about XP11 and downloaded the demo, played around with it was was impressed enough to pay for the full offering. I'm glad I did - partly because it's reignited my flight simming mojo and also because it's impressive in its own right. 

Straight away I saw a few things I liked...out-of-the-box scenery that's way ahead of P3D...3D objects everywhere...gorgeous night lighting (and properly dark nights). I've always thought the night flights even in a sim should make you a bit nervous, and FSX P3D always seemed like a darker version of daytime, a bit like those old movies that were shot in broad daylight and then darkened with a filter to look like night. XP11 gets this right - and MSFS seems to be much improved that way too. But the biggest in-your-face difference is in performance - with the graphics set fairly high I'm getting 60 FPS out in the sticks and 32-38 FPS over cities like London. Now I realise that you can get that same with P3D out-of-the-box graphics, but the default 3D terrain is vastly more accurate and looks so much better that I'm not sure if it needs adding-to.

The clincher, though, was yesterday evening. I hadn't flown a taildragger yet in XP11 so I took the Stinson out for a spin. I was aware that flight modelling is considered an XP killer feature but I hadn't actually given it much thought until I looked at the external view of the Stinson and thought "I wonder if..."  and advanced the throttle while holding the stick forward and engaging the brakes. Sure enough, up came the tail with the aircraft standing still. In previous experience, this can only be done with A2A Simulations taildraggers, especially the J-3 Cub. That clincher was followed by another while taxiing. the aircraft appeared to go into a skid on the ground and I realised I had just ground-looped it, something I' had never done in FSX or P3D.

So now I have three flight sims 🙄, each with its own unique charm and selling points, but it's XP that has really relit the fire. I should have taken the plunge ages ago...

 

 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2021 by Holdit

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Holdit,

Mate, I do not think that anyone in their right mind can call either XPlane or P3D "out of the box" scenery good or even adequate. This is particularly so in comparison to MSFS.

I much prefer Xplane for its flight dynamics and some of the aircraft (Aerobask and Zibo 737s) and I am still talking basic "out of the box addons" although Zibo is not payware.

P3D "out of the box" scenery is pretty bad but, in my opinion, it is better than Xplane

There are a couple of absolutely HUGE advantages for MSFS and the first one is absolutely extraordinary scenery graphics. The second is Potential.  With new aircraft developers emerging onto the MSFS platform (and stability) this newbie on the block is streets ahead at the moment. I stress, at the moment.

XPlane and VR is well ahead of MSFS although the MSFS experience is bloody awesome to say the least.  Clarity is superior in XPlane.

P3D has some incredible payware aircraft, weather and scenery addons.

To summarise, each of these platforms have a lot to offer and, I say it again, it will be a long time before I ditch two to play one. I enjoy them all and so we all should.

Enjoy your choice but to specialize in one platform (based on already acquired addons) at this time is premature, in my opinion.

Regards

Tony 

[GoranM 3,764]

@himmelhorse Can we just agree to disagree on opinions and let people enjoy whatever they want to enjoy, without moderators and other people calling us trolls and without others trying to sell them on something else?  
 

@Holdit enjoy your new found “toy”. Have fun with it. Whether or not you choose X-Plane, P3D, or MSFS, I hope you get what you want out of it/them. 

Edited June 23, 2021 by GoranM

[Holdit 551]

Actually, I'm not planning on choosing between them. As I said, "...now I have three flight sims". Perhaps I should have added that I'm flying all three...MSFS for nice VFR flights, even with graphics options dialled back, P3D for those aircraft that I wouldn't want to say goodbye to, and XP11 for where reasonably accurate scenery will suffice. Maybe I didn't give the default P3D scenery enough of a chance because I installed my Orbx Scenery straight away, but if it was anything like the FSX default then dreadful is the only world. 

Very early on I did think that X-Plane would be enough on it's own, as I'd already uninstalled P3D and FSX:SE, thinking I was done with simming, but having installed MSFS and XP11, I reinstalled P3D and I'm quite happy with the mix. As MSFS matures and with XP12 reportedly being worked on, who knows what the future will bring.

[mSparks 2,086]

50 minutes ago, Holdit said:

with XP12 reportedly being worked on, who knows what the future will bring.

 

1 hour ago, GoranM said:

Can we just agree to disagree on opinions

 

2 hours ago, himmelhorse said:

Mate, I do not think that anyone in their right mind can call either XPlane or P3D "out of the box" scenery good or even adequate.

Can we just agree you are both mostly right.

XPlane scenery out of the box is better than FSX and P3D

XPlane 11 scenery out of the box is pretty bad - especially in comparison to what XP11 is actually capable of in talented hands:

https://www.thresholdx.net/news/adkmgm

https://propstrikestudio.com/products/fisheries

Edited June 22, 2021 by mSparks

[mwilk 1,106]

4 hours ago, Holdit said:

 

So now I have three flight sims 🙄, 

 

 

 

 

Only three?

[BobFS88 635]

2 hours ago, Holdit said:

Actually, I'm not planning on choosing between them. As I said, "...now I have three flight sims". Perhaps I should have added that I'm flying all three...MSFS for nice VFR flights, even with graphics options dialled back, P3D for those aircraft that I wouldn't want to say goodbye to, and XP11 for where reasonably accurate scenery will suffice. Maybe I didn't give the default P3D scenery enough of a chance because I installed my Orbx Scenery straight away, but if it was anything like the FSX default then dreadful is the only world. 

Very early on I did think that X-Plane would be enough on it's own, as I'd already uninstalled P3D and FSX:SE, thinking I was done with simming, but having installed MSFS and XP11, I reinstalled P3D and I'm quite happy with the mix. As MSFS matures and with XP12 reportedly being worked on, who knows what the future will bring.

Thank you for sharing your experience in what YOU found enjoyable in X-plane. It’s never said enough about the feel from how the aircraft handles from what I experience as well. The hand flying was the most impressive thing to me that made up for any lack of, from what anyone else finds wrong with X-plane IMO. When I left FSX to go to X-plane 10 from a technical stand point, leaving a 32 bit sim and going to a 64-bit flight simulator that uses all of my resource the way it should at the time was the biggest reason. No OOM’s to worry about if you wish to complete a flight, no performance compromises and sweets spot you have to find in the cfg files and not having to deal with an unfinished graphic api (directx 10) support in the sim which you need a fixer to fix.

(Yes, I know others like P3D later MSFS with their versions and improvements; however, I made my decision to move and was satisfied with my experiences that is important to me; period.)

I just install it, take little time to learn and understand how to operate the sim to get the best out of it and just take off. The experience has been very rewarding ever since. I found scenery addons to suit my taste and anything else that came along. The first pay ware aircraft that brought me over was the IXEG 737 and I still enjoy it today. I’m also a big fan of Zibo as well, right now, I have been flying the TBM 900 and continue to enjoy the experience which what I think is most important.  

[Holdit 551]

36 minutes ago, mwilk said:

Only three?

It's a 33% increase on the number of flight sims had before. Rome wasn't built in a day, you know, heh, heh... 

[tull 290]

For me its the feeling of x plane that I like, the landings, takeoff....it feels so so different than the the other sims, I just can't go to the other side (mainly fs2020) permanently, I think its going to be X plane all the way for me, not ti mention how smooooooth it runs on my 11 year old i5  3.2 ghz nvidia 1060 card. Lovin it! 

 

Regards

Paul EGCC

[C2615 319]

I get to XP mainly for some of it's unique aircraft, like A350, 727, Tu154 and A306 (well, some of them are in FSX, but I mean 64bit...)

I have very low bar for scenery, as long as it's lined up to the recent charts it's OK to me, for P3Dv4, I'll need a lot add-on (some ADE upgrade is good enought for me), But most XP's airport works for me "out of box"...

I heared P3Dv5 have more up to date default airports, but not yet on that now.

Actually I got XP11 on day one, but only recently get back after it added the ablity to set different control for different aircraft.

[Torsen 495]

Me think the ones among us that are enjoying more than one sim and not doing the "fancy word not allowed fighting" are usually little bit more relaxed and are posting less often and less violent. Why the heck we should not enjoy all of our sims we love to fly. All of them offer something valueable and thats the thing to go. Same like Holdit I was quite late to the XP party but enjoying it a lot nowadays. The point where I got sold was when I just by accident found JRollons Siai Marchetti. That was an eye opener for me into the XP world followed directly by the Thranda Beaver with REP pack. But for me the main fact is whether I fly Zibo or SF260 or Beaver in XP, or my PMDG 747 and A2A crates in P3D or now the PMDG DC6, Arrow and CRJ in MSFS (all just examples of my quite big fleet and not base for any speculations 😉 ), I love them all. And for an armchair sim pilot without a PPL and very short time hands on in a real plane I enjoy every bit of it. I have currently 5 sims installed on two PCs but using only the three major ones we all know. Simming for more than 30 years I can say times never have been better for us simmers... Lets enjoy it...

And now out for a quick round of wreckfest banger race before my love and peace attitude takes over completely 😄

Cheers

T.

Edited June 23, 2021 by Torsen

[mSparks 2,086]

4 hours ago, Torsen said:

Me think the ones among us that are enjoying more than one sim

Conversely, there are some 2M+ "pilots" who have been led to believe the latest sim to drop is the pinnacle of all things flight sim and all other flight sims are inferior in every way.

With a mentality like my niece who needed forcing to try salmon and cream cheese because she was convinced she wouldn't like it but now eats all the salmon out of the fridge every time we get it in.

4 hours ago, Torsen said:

JRollons Siai Marchetti

nice back story here:

https://www.jrollon.com/SiaiMarchetti.html

4 hours ago, Torsen said:

but using only the three major ones we all know.

Warthunder, DCS and X-Plane?

[devgrp 1,233]

5 minutes ago, Janov said:

According to devgrp you should only have MSFS because it is the best scenery viewer in the whole wide world 🙄.

Alright mods, the MSFS disciples are here (what took you so long? Tweaking MSFS to get rid of the stutters?), time to close this thread 😁.

😂 😂 😂 😂 You're late to the party and you're right about msfs being the best scenery viewer. That's not an insult man. Ask yourself how many armchair pilots can go rent a jet to fly around at 30k ft? I'd rather be flying vfr in my scenery viewer at 5k ft, then go do it in real life 

[mSparks 2,086]

16 minutes ago, devgrp said:

According to GoranM you should only have XP because it has the best flight model in the whole wide world 🙄 

Only because he's not got round to getting himself a VR setup yet.

Once he does I'm sure he will be laughing at everyone who doesn't VR like the rest of us VR junkies do.

Edited June 23, 2021 by mSparks

[Janov 2,383]

2 minutes ago, devgrp said:

I'd rather be flying vfr in my scenery viewer at 5k ft, then go do it in real life

That is interesting! I think most folks using flightsimulators would rather do it in real life?