Makes me so happy (and very relieved) to see content like this starting to come out.

No matter how little I believed the monotonous bellows of "xplane is dead" over the last 18 months, it really was voracious enough to instill an uncomfortable doubt. Coupled with the only YT videos being months old against the first early access and mainly focusing on things that were wrong with it.

Doesn't really matter now if you believe they were motivated by competition, or just doing their normal day job, I can honestly say I did really not expect XP12 to be the huge generational leap it has ended up being. And omg, they are still just warming up....!!

100% default, out of the box, offline.

Light years ahead of any of the competition - actually not hyperbole. 

I couldn't agree more!

For the last 20+ years I've been a loyal MS flight simulator customer (various versions), and I've been flying the latest version for 2 years until last September when (for reasons not worth debating here) I decided to give XP-12 a try. All I can say is that I haven't flown the other sim since. The sensation of flying that I get in XP-12 is so close to what I feel when I fly in real life! For me, that makes all the bells and whistles from the other sim totally irrelevant. I'm very happy that I joined the club, and I can assure you that I'm not looking back.

Edited January 20, 20233 yr by peyote
Hit send too quicly

It's been a long, long road but this is by far the best version yet!

I started at the end of version 4, it took me months to just figure out the UI....

Enjoying these beginnings.

Can but agree with the view of mSparks.  I Left P3DV5 etc for XP12 and absolutely no regrets. What Laminar have achieved with XP12 is amazing. I see all sorts of gripes and complaints on various fora, etc.,  but I am not sure if some folk are just perpetually unhappy or have inadequate PCs and Graphics Cards. 

XPs dynamic environment and its approach to basically everything sold me, aircraft fidelity, scenery coverage, light, shading etc etc - It is all very very clever and as mSparks says it can only get better. 

I am continuously impressed by the dynamics of the simulated environment and the XP world and the only thing that catches me out is scenery. Namely the Gateway process and how those community contributed airports etc are checked and then folded into the airport scenery for XP - that alone is very impressive. Took me awhile to catch on to this. I have basically had to go back and take out a whole bunch of junk I threw into the Scenery folder. Now I check the default before even considering an ADDON. I only now have a few (Antartica being my only bug bear - why did they not bother to do something with it even it was just to cover the area in ice - but water? There my only complaint!

 

On 1/20/2023 at 12:44 PM, mSparks said:

Makes me so happy (and very relieved) to see content like this starting to come out.

No matter how little I believed the monotonous bellows of "xplane is dead" over the last 18 months, it really was voracious enough to instill an uncomfortable doubt. Coupled with the only YT videos being months old against the first early access and mainly focusing on things that were wrong with it.

Doesn't really matter now if you believe they were motivated by competition, or just doing their normal day job, I can honestly say I did really not expect XP12 to be the huge generational leap it has ended up being. And omg, they are still just warming up....!!

100% default, out of the box, offline.

Light years ahead of any of the competition - actually not hyperbole. 

100% correct now 🙂

On 1/20/2023 at 4:46 PM, coastaldriver said:

Can but agree with the view of mSparks.  I Left P3DV5 etc for XP12 and absolutely no regrets. What Laminar have achieved with XP12 is amazing. I see all sorts of gripes and complaints on various fora, etc.,  but I am not sure if some folk are just perpetually unhappy or have inadequate PCs and Graphics Cards. 

This so much 🙂

The irony is that there are groups of bitter complainers for every single sim (and the ne plus ultra are the virtual Mavericks over in DCS World. My god, they make Chicken Little look like the ultimate optimist!).

I kinda think it's a syndrome related to some misguided sense of "expertise". They seem to feel like complaining shows how sage and sophisticated they are, etc.

Even more tragically comic are the guys who only fly one or two aircraft in one sim, and so have absolutely no frame of reference, yet make sweeping generalizations about the state of the sim, the devs business practices, incredible degrees of Rivet Counting, etc.

And when you peel just one or two layers back, you realize that much of it is driven by utterly inexperienced boys who just want "moar free stuffs", or they truly lack the objective skills to figure out that they're complaining about Speed of Light issues (I find it's mostly the VR users there).

On 1/20/2023 at 11:44 PM, mSparks said:

actually not hyperbole

Of course it's hyperbole. Nevertheless that video is a great showcase of the quality of XP12.

Never noticed that the S-76 does not have pilots models until this video.

6 hours ago, Rimshot said:

Of course it's hyperbole.

 I do not think its hyperbole to say xplane 12 is light years ahead of xplane 11.

although how that compares with other sims probably depends on how far ahead or behind you believe xplane 11 is to those other sims... For me, XP11 was the best sim prior to X-Plane 12... so... Not hyperbole.

50 minutes ago, Bjoern said:

Never noticed that the S-76 does not have pilots models until this video.

she also needs some PBR loving.

9 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

who just want "moar free stuffs", or

Always worth considering a good portion of them will end up being the next generation of developers. Cash poor, time rich, passionate.

Over the years I have found with the right nurture, a double dose of pilot levels of patience, and the odd slap with a wet fish when they do or say stupid things, they will very often go on to do truly amazing things.

Maybe the wet fish slaps arent 100% necessary, but they are just to much fun to stop now.

Edited January 22, 20233 yr by mSparks

For reasons of personal health and family tragedy I have been away a considerable time.

Yesterday I spend the day installing the new version, looked at what I had in XP11.5+, then bought Global Forests so that I could override the Ortho Overlays right angle trees.

Took her for a spin, with default aircraft over some ortholand and default, I was totally engaged again.  It's a wonderful thing.  Totally offline, not fuss no muss.

Absolutely love it! I am now checking to see if there are some important add-ons available like Realistic Pro, sharper clouds and the like but regardless.  It was good to be back.  I'm almost frightened to start up that other sim.

@1st fltsimguy Glad to see you are back! Chapters in our lives happen! Great to have this hobby, appreciate the advances in the sim and bring us to a good place!

On 1/22/2023 at 3:59 PM, mSparks said:

she also needs some PBR loving.

And systems. Or at least more interactive cockpit elements.

I honestly wonder why Laminar included some XP11 default aircraft without giving them a touch-up for XP12 first.

Looks pretty good, I just wish the AA was better and there was some kind of frame generation. I’ll get it all updated and check it out. One question, what is this global forests people keep talking about, and why/is it worth it? 

2 hours ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

global forests

 

Interesting so its worth the money then