The focus of Austin's videos was on the flight dynamics, not visuals.

There are other videos showcasing the visual improvements like clouds, environmental effects, trees and atmospherics out there, so these things certainly exist.

As for scenery and landscape in general, you won't see anything until shortly before release as an entire world build including art assets is an extremely time consuming endeavor for which all inputs have to be just right lest one has to do it all over again.

Edited February 28, 20224 yr by Bjoern

I love the way critics of XP talk so much about the visuals. While it's true it is superior to XP11 as of now, I find it amazing how many addons there are for MSFS.  2020 out of the box was to be the whole world as it is, so why is there so many addons to make the world look real?  I could go broke making the sim look real with all the scenery they have. I have over the years purchased  airports to XP, but most default airports from the XP are much better then the default airports in MS. I don't hate MSFS but find I don't use it much because of the aircraft. Half the switches and buttons don't work on the default aircraft I would like to fly. The flight dynamics need work. The clouds are not much better than Enhanced Skyscapes. Please don't get me wrong, I am not saying which is better. I just think people will find after XP12 has been out for 2yrs that will be the time to compare.

5 hours ago, Noel said:

Good Lord, I wasn't demanding anything--please go read my post again. I was surprised, clearly as fogturtle was whose comment I was responding to, that 'visuals', which clearly are a very big part of the excitement of the upcoming release (new clouds/weather/autogen/pooled water/animated trees/etc), were not showcased at all in this 'early alpha' preview.  I conjectured maybe that was by design to keep people tuned in.  Why others here have to become instantly contentious is sad.  I do not relate to the 'us versus them' mentality stuck in Murmer's and uwespeed's and mSpark's minds.  I've said exactly zero negative things about XP as I've never even used it and may well become a user when XP12 releases. When I make false statements I encourage challenge and feedback.  But that is not what's happening here everything I stated in that comment was accurate or stated as my impression/opinion.  But no can have honest exchange w/o going into attack mode?  One thing is certain:  a few people here make wretched ambassadors for Xplane, which I find surprising as well since clearly there is loyalty and appreciation here for it.  It's a very good thing LR is not depending on this subforum in their marketing strategy.

Well, when someone is wishing LR demise and death in a roundabout way, what do you expect?

 

18 hours ago, Noel said:

I'm out of here anyway ...

Please do so - unless you really have to contribute something reasonable. And no, something like the below isn't reasonable, but trolling. If you can prove it isn't trolling, please do do. Thanks.

  

20 hours ago, Noel said:

Oh really is that what XP11 does?  Good, real progress 🤣

 

Edited February 28, 20224 yr by uwespeed

5 hours ago, Noel said:

I've said exactly zero negative things about XP

So this is you being "positive"?

On 2/27/2022 at 8:28 PM, Noel said:

It's really a pathetic look for XP12.

You must be a blast to be around on a bad day.....

5 hours ago, Noel said:

 I do not relate to the 'us versus them' mentality stuck in Murmer's and uwespeed's and mSpark's minds.

I don't relate to how you can say 

19 hours ago, Noel said:

that video was showcasing improvements in visuals

then a few hours later say

5 hours ago, Noel said:

that 'visuals' ...were not showcased at all in this 'early alpha' preview.  I conjectured maybe that was by design to keep people tuned in.

So we conjecture that by design maybe you are just making it all up as you go along because you

6 hours ago, Noel said:

never even used it

^perhaps address that fundamental flaw, its not like you have ANY excuse, because 100% identical to the paid version time limited demo is completely free to download.

https://www.x-plane.com/desktop/try-it/ 

3 hours ago, uwespeed said:

Well, when someone is wishing LR demise and death in a roundabout way, what do you expect?

Go to your room uwespeed!  Geez, how old are you anyway?

  

23 hours ago, Noel said:

I'm out of here anyway because it's really a sick place to spend time.

 

2 hours ago, Noel said:

Go to your room uwespeed!  Geez, how old are you anyway?

Please stop to behave as if you were the victim!! It's a well known tactic of aggressors, who claim to have to make use of article 51 of the United Nations Charter. Please go home VP.

Edited March 1, 20224 yr by uwespeed

1 hour ago, uwespeed said:

  

 

Please stop to behave as if you were the victim!! It's a well known tactic of aggressors, who claim to have to make use of article 51 of the United Nations Charter. Please go home VP.

Be gentle, Having never even tried it, he's still trying to come to terms with XP11 from 5 years ago looking almost as good as Microsofts new flight sim just from a few lighting tweaks.

The prospect of XP12 including visuals that exceed everything else on the market on top of XP11s otherwise all round perfect offering has them all in such a panic they will find any scrap of hope that it might not be true. 

Plus anything they can do to get yet another thread locked they will chalk up as a win, since that is mostly the only reason they post here in the first place. 

I mean, he is clearly not here discuss xplane, he's never even tried it despite doing so being free.

Edited March 1, 20224 yr by mSparks

I have seeing what some have done with XPLANE and some look like cartoons, noting realistic at all, not sure where they get some of there colors from.

9 hours ago, mSparks said:

Be gentle, Having never even tried it, he's still trying to come to terms with XP11 from 5 years ago looking almost as good as Microsofts new flight sim just from a few lighting tweaks.

The prospect of XP12 including visuals that exceed everything else on the market on top of XP11s otherwise all round perfect offering has them all in such a panic they will find any scrap of hope that it might not be true. 

Plus anything they can do to get yet another thread locked they will chalk up as a win, since that is mostly the only reason they post here in the first place. 

I mean, he is clearly not here discuss xplane, he's never even tried it despite doing so being free.

I've never flown any version of XP, but I'll try the demo once it releases, and may buy the full version, depending on several factors. In my posts in this forum, I have attempted to ask legitimate questions in search of solid answers without being argumentative.

But to say that XP11 from 5 years ago looks almost as good as MSFS is, from what I've seen (in the case of me flying MSFS with the ol' Mk. I Eyeball, and videos and live streams of XP11 and conversation with quite a few XP pilots) pure fallacy, and you know this, Mr. Sparks. Even if you don't (or won't acknowledge it), Mr. Janov has said in multiple posts, and I'm paraphrasing here, not to expect the same graphical quality in XP12 as what is currently in MSFS.

XP12 looks promising with regard to graphics improvements, and while graphics aren't everything in a flight sim, what are the vast majority of the votes on this site asking for?  https://feedback.x-plane.com/

I'm no fan at all of Microsoft as a corporation, but they and Asobo have knocked the cover off the ball in many aspects of modern flight simulation.

Nobody who wants to discuss the legitimate improvements of XP12 wants this thread locked, to my view. As I've said before, competition in our most niche of niche gaming/simulation genres is a good thing.

1 hour ago, OlliePen said:

But to say that XP11 from 5 years ago looks almost as good as MSFS is

I said "with a few lighting changes"

Which is all we have really seen of XP12 visuals so far, plus a couple of updated art assets that would work fine in XP11

The biggest visual update coming is probably the trees and clouds, which are "early alpha".

The clouds arent quite up to Enhanced Skyscapes yet (XP11 only), but both are ~= MSFS

The new trees have no rival, anywhere, the old trees are annoying, but not exactly a make or break issue for a flight sim, compared to say, having an aircraft with wings that work similar to actual aircraft wings.

17 hours ago, mSparks said:

The biggest visual update coming is probably the trees and clouds, which are "early alpha".

The clouds arent quite up to Enhanced Skyscapes yet (XP11 only), but both are ~= MSFS

The new trees have no rival, anywhere, the old trees are annoying, but not exactly a make or break issue for a flight sim, compared to say, having an aircraft with wings that work similar to actual aircraft wings.

The trees look great up close but from the air they don't blend well with the terrain textures and roads and appear to stand out too much, IMO. The ground textures leave a lot to be desired. Hopefully there will be improvements to those as currently they look very much the same as XP11 (I'm guessing they are).

The aircraft look amazing, the lighting good and the clouds on par with MSFS. The aliasing though or lack of it looks pretty awful. That part surprises me the most. I understand that for performance they might not want to use have aliasing turned on but surely in a video showcase, even if it's alpha footage, it makes sense to show the sim at its best for whatever current state it is in.

In it's current state to me, it looks like more of a sizeable update to XP11 than a complete new edition for the reasons I mentioned above.

I'm still very excited for it though and I will buy it when it's released. 

32 minutes ago, steve310002 said:

terrain textures

 

32 minutes ago, steve310002 said:

ground textures

So far they are XP11 ground textures, hence "from 5 years ago".

Except this stuff, which is a new function of the texture system and sees such improvements automagically on all 30,000 odd airports

Pretty sure that is going to mean the bottom end of default XP airports is going to compete with the best of any other sims payware airports......

Anyway, the solution to the rotten textures in all 3 sims is the same. OrbX and colleagues, Except for XP12 you can use their ground textures from XP11 (unclear if new ones using the new features will be extra pay). There is simply no better solution than hand edited orthophoto for performance and visual perfection. Raw blended sat imagery is no better if not worse than autogen with all its baked in cars and buildings, massive internet consumption and dependancy.

49 minutes ago, steve310002 said:

roads and appear to stand out too much, IMO

There is two aspects to this, one I expect will be fixed -> the road textures themselves, if you are running ortho or OrbX there is already work arounds for XP11 by making the roads themselves transparent.

Here's an example of that in XP11 for those here that have recently admitted never even trying XPlane

The other is 3D related, roads are typically well below ground level or have steep banks on the sides (especially highways for noise reduction), this means from any kind of lower altitude they are hidden by other scenery items. I don't expect this to be resolved any time soon, its the same issues that need resolving to make snow realistic.

43 minutes ago, steve310002 said:

it looks like more of a sizeable update to XP11

That's because there is nothing so badly broken in XP11 they had to throw it all out and start again.

45 minutes ago, steve310002 said:

than a complete new edition

And thank goodness. Needing to do so would only mean everything takes much longer for marginal improvements. We've seen exactly that issue play out in super slow motion with Microsoft, 9 and a bit years into that project and they just threw out their entire flight model and started from scratch.

5 hours ago, mSparks said:

Anyway, the solution to the rotten textures in all 3 sims is the same. OrbX and colleagues, Except for XP12 you can use their ground textures from XP11 (unclear if new ones using the new features will be extra pay). There is simply no better solution than hand edited orthophoto for performance and visual perfection. Raw blended sat imagery is no better if not worse than autogen with all its baked in cars and buildings, massive internet consumption and dependancy.

 

Nope. OrbX are no longer interested. They have become just another marketplace. And in any case I can't afford 3000 new drives.

1 hour ago, jarmstro said:

 

Nope. OrbX are no longer interested. They have become just another marketplace. And in any case I can't afford 3000 new drives.

OrbX just released Spain like a few days ago

https://orbxdirect.com/product/eu-spain-south-hd-xp11

 176.31 GB when installed.

A whole country for the price of one MSFS airport, and you're complaining about the price?

 

Edited March 2, 20224 yr by mSparks

18 minutes ago, mSparks said:

OrbX just released Spain like a few days ago

https://orbxdirect.com/product/eu-spain-south-hd-xp11

 176.31 GB when installed.

A whole country for the price of one MSFS airport, and you're complaining about the price?

 

Already got SpainUHD. And the OrbX offering is just part of Spain. New SSD drive required on top of the price for the whole country.

And there's no photogrammetry so the cities are rubbish unless you are into Half Life 2.

Edited March 2, 20224 yr by jarmstro