Is XP still worth mantaining in 2023

[charliearon 3,032]

MEMBERS!!!  No more Sim vs Sim or participants will be sitting in the "Penalty box"

[blingthinger 649]

16 hours ago, brinx said:

As a smart consumer, I would say always try before you buy if possible

You mean like, say, a hypothetical demo mode that lets one experience the sim for 15 min at no charge? Pretty sure that's been a XP trademark for a while now.

FWIW, XP is currently on sale on Steam for $40. These summer savings won't last forever! Of course, it's better to support LR by buying direct from them, as much as I like Gabe Newell and all...

[level7 175]

I would wait until the 12.06 release which should have better graphics performance and much better clouds

[mwilk 1,107]

On 7/11/2023 at 10:07 AM, Swe_Richard said:

Any addons? Have you checked the crash log?

It looks like it may have been a bad Zibo installation. Since updating I haven't had any issues. Thanks for your help.

[Swe_Richard 1,174]

3 minutes ago, mwilk said:

It looks like it may have been a bad Zibo installation. Since updating I haven't had any issues. Thanks for your help.

Well, it wasn’t much to be honest but you are welcome!

Glad you got it sorted!

[Franz007 505]

Man answers have been given so far. I wonder if the thread-opener @MalcolmDaFoxtrot is satisfied with the answers or if he has still some specifical questions about XP?

[brinx 276]

3 hours ago, blingthinger said:

You mean like, say, a hypothetical demo mode that lets one experience the sim for 15 min at no charge? Pretty sure that's been a XP trademark for a while now.

I guess hypothetically a demo for 15 minutes is better than nothing. I wouldn't rush to "Trademark" that though.  I'd much rather have a one-time demo of 1-2 hours instead of 15-minute intervals. 

This is why, I prefer to buy on steam. You can try games/sims for under 2 hours. If you like it, great!! If you don't like it, they'll give you a refund. Also, you don't have to worry about your key being locked to one computer when you have multiple computers. It is tied to your steam account, not a computer. I can play on my desktop or laptop. Consumer friendly.

Steam takes a cut but hosting and bandwidth is not free and if developers didn't approve of it, they wouldn't sell on the store. Regardless, you are still supporting the developer.

Quote

The Steam refund offer, within two weeks of purchase and with less than two hours of playtime, applies to games and software applications on the Steam store.

 

Edited July 12, 2023 by brinx

[turbomax 3,299]

On 7/10/2023 at 10:40 PM, enright said:

and there are many things it does better than other sims.

and even more it does worse than other sims.

my suggestion: try the free demo and decide for yourself.

[blingthinger 649]

50 minutes ago, brinx said:

I wouldn't rush to "Trademark" that though

My bad...hallmark.

I agree. 15 min limit might be overdue to be expanded a little at this point in history.

[The_Flying_Potato 25]

I have been using XP11 for about five years, FS2020 for two and a half, and XP12 for roughly six months. My PC s also about five years' old so XP11 is the sim most suited to my hardware and its capabilities. It's the sim in which I can slide those sliders to the right.

For a while, I tried to keep XP11 and XP12 as 'similar' as I could - but have sort of given up with that goal.

Very recently, I started messing around with autoortho and have to say I'm quite impressed.

Sadly, whichever sim I'm using, I briefly yearn for one of the others. (I'll demand a VAR review if I am penalised!)

[Bjoern 1,158]

22 hours ago, brinx said:

I don't think that is a good sales pitch honestly. If someone tells me to buy any product and see where things go, I'd be more than a little skeptical. It sounds like uncertainty to me.

As a smart consumer, I would say always try before you buy if possible. That is why I don't shop for shoes online.

Well, XP's demo is always up to date, free and supports all add-ons, so one can always see where it's at.

 

P.S: I don't order any clothing online, too.

[The_Flying_Potato 25]

16 hours ago, brinx said:

I guess hypothetically a demo for 15 minutes is better than nothing. I wouldn't rush to "Trademark" that though.  I'd much rather have a one-time demo of 1-2 hours instead of 15-minute intervals. 

The 15 minutes does allow one see whether or not one's PC is up to the job. As far as I recall, one can still fly beyond those 15 minutes; even after the flight controls stop working, one can continue to fly, using the autopilot controls.

13 hours ago, Bjoern said:

P.S: I don't order any clothing online, too.

I once bought a tee-shirt from a German company. I was fatter than I'd imagined. I was sent a free replacement - with an extra X. Hurrah!

Edited July 13, 2023 by The_Flying_Potato

[flying_carpet 657]

38 minutes ago, The_Flying_Potato said:

The 15 minutes does allow one see whether or not one's PC is up to the job. As far as I recall, one can still fly beyond those 15 minutes; even after the flight controls stop working, one can continue to fly, using the autopilot controls.

That's correct. And you can use it indefinite times 15 mins with controls working (and after that with autopilot).

[mSparks 2,092]

On 7/10/2023 at 8:46 PM, MalcolmDaFoxtrot said:

Im a flight simmer who hasnt been posting or hell made a account and today I wanted to ask the question

 

is mantaining XP as a sim (buying addons etc) worth it?

well, the simple answer to that is yes. definitely. If you enjoy flight sim (which I guess is a prerequisite of asking the question).

Both XP11 and XP12 are great sims in their own right.

XP11 has very limited life left, it will be surpassed by XP12 in every respect very soon, Im 50/50 how much I would recommend anyone start on XP11. You dont need to spend any additional cash over the base sim to get XP11 to the point it is a really solid sim that will give 1000s of hours of great flight sim fun - but you do need to put more than a fair bit of effort into getting it to that point, testing the various freeware, getting ortho set up, finding what settings work on your machine, and navigating the minefield of freeware scenery libraries that you will need to install to get it to look half decent.

XP12 is very much the new kid on the block.

At time of writing we are at version 12.05, this version really resolves pretty much all of the serious complaints about XP12 you will find in existing videos, screenshots etc. complaining about XP12. with possibly the exception of:

that thread is worth a read through to judge for yourself (with also trying the demo) what is by far the most controversial issue in XP12 atm.

For me, in VR, it is glorious, a level of realism I honestly didn't believe would be possible in my lifetime. for others even in 2D its how they expect it. For yet others, such as @efis007its problematic enough they dont want to use XP12.

XP12.06 (and beyond) is "just around the corner", its taking longer than the previous point releases because they are working hard on making sure its not worse in any way than 12.05, and a lot changed and therefore broke. description of what to expect from that is pinned in this forum:

The answer to the question really rests, I suppose, in how much of a role you want to take in making sure the future of flight sim meets your needs.

If you just want to keep current for real life, grab something like

https://www.gleimaviation.com/shop/cockpitbatd/

or

https://flypfc.com/product-category/training-systems/fixed-wing-simulators/

https://flypfc.com/product-category/training-systems/rotary-wing/

which are XP11 based.

If you want to cut your teeth on the bleeding edge of flight sim developments, grab XP12 and work out for yourself what is and isn't perfected yet. If you just want to play in a C172 at your local airfield, you also wont go wrong with XP12.

[Sethos 4,459]

I find X-Plane 12 is absolutely worth having as my secondary simulator. Does some things better than the other major names in the business, like a really strong feel of flight and the overall flight modelling - Which is absolutely the top reason why X-Plane is so great to use. Excellent replay system, great free addons that walk all over even payware alternatives in competitor simulators, better code access meaning even 'identical' addons feel a lot better (like XPRealistic vs FSRealistic Pro), great out-of-box lighting, colours and overall look and hands down the best and most enjoyable interface and user experience by a country mile.

X-Plane just has a lot of potential and does some things extremely well. Though the reason why I only consider it my secondary sim, personally, is just that potential I mentioned often sits unused. I could make a whole laundry lists of improvements needed but I think I'll just be rehashing a lot of common complaints. A lot getting worked on, a lot dependent on the modding community, all of it moving at a very glacial pace at times.

That said, X-Plane is hard not to love and I'll always maintain it because it just has that magic spark that neither MSFS nor P3D has.