Next Gen XPlane (Gen-X) "Choose your destination!"

[ianlighting 51]

To start this topic. I would first like to pick up on a previous post with the question of do I think it should be backward compatible, yes and no is my reply. I think it would be bad idea to have backward compatibility to a number of libraries, aircraft models or sceneries that go as far back as XP9/10 and, this upcoming iteration seems the perfect opportunity to move forward with a more modern games (excuse the term) engine which is available in 2021 as opposed to what was in 2009. Call it a win/win for current developers and users sticking with X-Plane!

Where do I see XP Next Gen, I don't want it to be in a competition with MSFS. Don't get me wrong as I think MSFS does a lot items that are unique but XP has something else as the same as P3D. The way I look this is that each offers a different perspective to each other allowing for choice, otherwise it would be very boring if each sim copied each other exactly.

I will also add that we are finally going to be free of "OPENGL" phew! not before time......

I would be interested to hear from other community members views with what has been posted recently.

 

 

[jcomm 5,889]

For me I would be glad if XP NG added a few features to flight dynamics, stuff I have been sending to Austin since XP11 debuted, and even after he relased the "Experimental FM", but also:

.) a flexible, more capable weather engine, with all the hooks necessary for alternative 3pd solutions, unlike the route followed by MS / ASOBO. A sophisticated convection model, as well as other forms of air mass dynamics would be great to have too !

.) ATC, would be yet another area where I would like any flight simulator to offer basic features and make available all of the SDK hooks to allow 3pds to add to it.

 

[ianlighting 51]

Yeah ATC I agree 🙂 Personally I use pilot2ATC which I like a lot but, there are times when I would prefer not to have to go through the process of setting up a complete flight in that and, just use the internal ATC and the current implementation definitely could do with an overhaul.

With the weather I do wonder about how some of the current addons like xenviro, asxp etc are going to integrate in the next level of flight sims but, I'm looking forward to spending less time with the CTD which is a current theme at the moment which always seems to be end of the flight and never at the beginning when it happens hehehe.

MSFS I do like what they do but personally I removed the software as it was consuming more and more and more space on my system and the time with downloads each time. My plan is to wait until they have settled down with the patches/updates to gauge how much space it will require as a new drive is on the agenda as ortho4xp also requires plenty of space and that is from someone on a 6TB system at the moment.

I prefer the look of XP and the way it works but would like to see in the future a better way of implementing the "scenery_packs.ini" file for add on scenery and this tends to take up more time than anything else even when using xToolbox and remember when I was new how daunting a prospect this can be to someone.

[ianlighting 51]

I will just add to this that the one item I hope does not get removed or restricted in the next revision is the accessibility which unlike MSFS and P3D is far more accessible with how you want your flight sim to look and feel. 

[ianlighting 51]

Personally, if I had a choice of photogrammetry it would be apple without any question as the models and quality are far superior these days from the initial days of release but, I can't see this happening, maybe LR can drop in a mention (hint!) to Tim Cook the CEO they are one of the few natively available flight sims on Apple OS as well as Linux!  hehehe 😉

 

[ianlighting 51]

The other item is this that I would like to see a promotional activity with developing scenery for XP which currently only some developers reach, what do I mean by this is that WED and Overlap editor are not so much the awkward tool that the current perception has but are are the best friends with making something unique in XPlane and the experience for everyone! There is no additional requirement like 3ds max which is something that gets missed quiet often with creating a unique environments in X-Plane!

[ianlighting 51]

BTW for the normal flight simmers here I'm not going to keep up with the abnormal XP org guys who need to keep top with everything as this AVSIM and we don't run this way, maybe they have some mental issues going on with everything lol but for us normal people a once inn a while posting is more than enough with feedback! far-out lol

 

[Bjoern 1,153]

On 8/2/2021 at 7:14 PM, ianlighting said:

Yeah ATC I agree 🙂 Personally I use pilot2ATC which I like a lot but, there are times when I would prefer not to have to go through the process of setting up a complete flight in that and, just use the internal ATC and the current implementation definitely could do with an overhaul.

Take a look at X-ATC-Chatter. It comes with a utility called SimpleATC, which may not actively control you or care for your flight plan (it's more of a dialog generator), but it's the most flexible solution I've tried so far. Supports VFR, IFR, IFR Commercial. Enter departure and destination plus a few other infos and that's it. As a bonus, X-ATC-Chatter comes with real precanned ATC clips, so you can at least pretend that there's other stuff going on around you. Since it's the same plugin, there's seamless integration, i.e. you can't transmit when a clip is playing and your transmissions won't get interrupted by chatter clips.

 

[Janov 2,383]

On 8/3/2021 at 6:41 AM, ianlighting said:

but for us normal people

That made my day! 😄

[tutmeister 695]

I would like more graphics options to tune performance like older Xplane, P3D or even MSFS has! Xplane is too all or nothing in the settings screen and it should not require outside soltions to tweak the rendering options.

[mSparks 2,086]

9 minutes ago, tutmeister said:

I would like more graphics options to tune performance like older Xplane, P3D or even MSFS has! Xplane is too all or nothing in the settings screen and it should not require outside soltions to tweak the rendering options.

Just edit settings.txt

[Paraffin 2,197]

33 minutes ago, tutmeister said:

I would like more graphics options to tune performance like older Xplane, P3D or even MSFS has! Xplane is too all or nothing in the settings screen and it should not require outside soltions to tweak the rendering options.

FYI, the reason the settings were simplified compared to previous versions, was to reduce the tech support load. The sliders in older versions of XP could be set in ways that interacted to degrade performance, and people didn't understand how it all worked. They would contact tech support complaining about poor frame rates. So Laminar bound the various settings to more simplified sliders that couldn't have bad interactions, and were easier to understand.

As said above, you can still dig into settings.txt if you want to, but try to understand exactly what each setting there does, so you don't get into frame rate conflicts.

[tutmeister 695]

Yeah I get that but you have to quit x-plane then change things in the file and then reload, which lets face it is not quick when it is fully loaded. Previous versions were so much easier to tune performance with granular options.

Nearly every modern game(and lets face it, not so modern games) has plenty of scope to adjust graphics and I think that the tech support cop out is pretty pathetic for a modern high end simulator. It is basically saying, guys you don't know what you are doing so we give you a my first simulator interface. Why not have a basic interface with low, medium and high with an advanced tab just like we have had for years in other games.

You aren't a real simmer unless you break out the config files!🤨

Edited August 5, 2021 by tutmeister

[jcomm 5,889]

This morning Alexis ( Alec here @ AVSIM ) sent a message to Austin asking for yet another feature that should really be made part of the next generation of X-Plane - Earth Magnetic Field.

Presently ( since ever ) it is hardcoded, so, no way to update it properly and it's rather outdated now, specially if one keeps updating the NAV database using any of teh available sources.

Austin was receptive to the idea 👌

He should, preferably, make it updatable.

Sophisticated add-ons, like the upcoming Felis 742, and many other, would really benefit from it.

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by jcomm

[Janov 2,383]

2 hours ago, jcomm said:

Presently ( since ever ) it is hardcoded, so, no way to update it properly and it's rather outdated now, specially if one keeps updating the NAV database using any of teh available sources.

I don´t think it is that outdated right now. I updated it about 5 years ago for Austin and I picked a (predictive) date in the future...I don´t quite remember, but I believe I put it 10 years in the future, so it should get more accurate still for another few years. Of course the actual movement of the field was just a forecast, a scientific guess.

The data in the navdata packages is just referenced to true north...and should not be affected by magnetic declination at all. Even the azimuth for ILS localizers that is nowadays coded in the navdata is referenced to true north, not magnetic. The one thing that is referenced to magnetic is the charting - so if you use old charts, the magnetic information on it will not be accurate anymore.

Nevertheless - having this updateable would be awesome!