You can basically engage in any simulated flight environment of your choice. Highly technical - deep systems simulations (Airbus or Boeing Airliner) for example or something as simple as a DH82 Tiger Moth.

There are basically no fudge factors built in now so you have to apply controls and flight techniques as per the real world. You will find getting control sensitivity sorted with your stick a bit of a pain. Turn off the crash feature till you get the hang of it. You will be impressed at the detail built in visually that surprises - like the world AI trains, cars, boats etc. Not to mention airport stuff. To see and experience correctly depicted sloping and undulating runways is also a gotcha! 

Used to think P3D had the best light treatment for the sims - not now XP has it done to exception really. Weather and cloud depiction is nearly 100 % but still overall pretty realistic. SimHeaven for a bit of scenic colour I guess, maybe ORBX Global Forests - oh and one gotcha for this sim - no coverage above 70N or below 70S or the polar regions. There is enough available community and some payware scenery about to cobble together most of Antartica and similarly Northern latitudes (Greenland, Northern Canada, Iceland etc). 

Just running around and experimenting with place and time in the venerable Cessna 172 is fine to get one comfortable and having fun. In depth elsewhere as you go. 

Next to having to learn all the new keybindings, the biggest challenge during the switch from FSX was getting used to the constant control inputs that are required to keep the aircraft going where I wanted it to go. Even when very well trimmable (which hardly any aircraft are without tweaks), X-Plane is not a hands-off experience without an autopilot.

And X-Plane doesn't require huge monetary investments to compensate for its (current) deficiences, just time. What I consider somewhat essential is Global Forests (less than 20 GBP or €) when using orthophotos and X-World (both free from Ortho4XP and Simheaven) plus X-ATC-Chatter (also comes with a good, lightweight ATC client) for use with LiveTraffic (free) to provide (an illusion of) livelier skies. Maybe also MissionGenerator if you just don't know where to go next. These three are like 50€ in total. Granted, learning to set up the free plugins properly takes time and in the case of Ortho4XP also terabytes of disk space, but it's worth it.

Airplanes are a different story. There's always Zibo's 737-800 as the pinnacle of 737s (and freeware) in any flight simulator, but also tons of other good aircraft for free on x-plane.org. General aviation payware is still affordable, but anything related to bizjets and airliners requires deeper pockets and thus some careful research and consideration before buying.

Where X-Plane really, really shines is helicopters. No other simulator comes close in terms of flight modeling and there are some crazy good freeware options. Even the more intricately represented payware is affordable. Well worth a look.

Hi all

Can anyone help with the best scenery package I can download and use offline for Africa for XP12. There's too many YT info not sure what to follow.

I cannot auto ortho as I can't be online constantly during flights.

Switching from msfs I'd like go give Xplane a good try.

@coastaldriver

In FSX I flew mostly PMDG 777 and KA350 when I wanted to switch to props, which both are technical enough for me 😁 

@coastaldriver @Bjoern

Yeah, flying controls. I didn't fly on rails in FSX, at least I tried not to pretty hard. And in XP yesterday I successfully landed every time. It was just during testing VFR flights in C172 in clear weather during the day on major runway, but if you are saying that XP is more unforgiving that FSX, I probably flew FSX much closer to real flight than I needed in FSX. I only crashed few times before I connected yoke/x55, because flying with mouse is completely new for me and also in my brain mouse pitch is reversed. So I dig few holes around runway before I gave up on mouse flying during my peripherals tests 😄 . Now I'm trying to figure out some comfortable response curves, because even on yoke and x55, I can do all maneuvers within 1mm around center threshold. That doesn't even seem difficult to do, especially if I can do it for each plane individually.

Flying without AP I haven't noticed too much difficulty (default C172) - usually disconnect AP 3 miles from runway and then hand flying the landing from there. It probably helps that I have all trims physically on yoke and pitch on TPM, so I can do it in real time without letting off controls and fiddling with trims using a mouse. I need to test some crosswinds to see if I can handle hands-off flying in more challenging conditions in XP models.

Right now graphics are more than good enough (remember, I'm coming from FSX 😆), that much deeper in ToDo list. RIght now I downloaded KA C90B from IBAV8N, going to install it and check it. I need to play offline, so ATC would need to be completely part of my PC. I'll check some 3rd party or maybe wait what XP will offer in next release (I haven't even checked the actual XP12 one yet). Mission generator/career mode is also on the list (if some offline version is available). 

Who knew I would have such a blast installing/setting up a new FS, feels like 5 years old on Christmas. SIM flying is just compensating my long term unfulfilled dream becoming airline pilot and this excitement with new FS starting to feel silly. I should calm down and also stop spamming this thread with long posts. But I'm grateful for all your replies, encouragement  and hints. AV community has been always great regardless the portal (try to ask something on Apple forums if you want to really appreciate AV people 😄)

14 hours ago, topsky said:

Can anyone help with the best scenery package I can download and use offline for Africa for XP12. There's too many YT info not sure what to follow.

I cannot auto ortho as I can't be online constantly during flights.

Switching from msfs I'd like go give Xplane a good try.

https://simheaven.com/simdownloads/x-world-africa/

X-W:A is only buildings, roads, etc. For better/different ground textures, the only offline option is ortho tiles generated by Ortho4XP.

nothing - technical error posting image 

 

https://imgur.com/IA6hcXw

[img]https://i.imgur.com/IA6hcXw.jpg[/img]

 

 

 

Edited October 16, 20241 yr by coastaldriver

Note sure why but cannot post images from IMGUR here any more puts the link nothing elses.

 

20 hours ago, Bjoern said:

https://simheaven.com/simdownloads/x-world-africa/

X-W:A is only buildings, roads, etc. For better/different ground textures, the only offline option is ortho tiles generated by Ortho4XP.

Thank you.

Which should I get

Normal or forked version.

I see forked version installs some files in different directories ( which might be a concern?) but from what i understand it's an easier installation ? Any drawbacks ?

 

4 hours ago, topsky said:

Which should I get

Normal or forked version.

I see forked version installs some files in different directories ( which might be a concern?) but from what i understand it's an easier installation ? Any drawbacks ?

I do not know of any forked version.

On 10/15/2024 at 1:35 AM, FrozenPolarBear said:

@coastaldriver

In FSX I flew mostly PMDG 777 and KA350 when I wanted to switch to props, which both are technical enough for me 😁 

@coastaldriver @Bjoern

Yeah, flying controls. I didn't fly on rails in FSX, at least I tried not to pretty hard. And in XP yesterday I successfully landed every time. It was just during testing VFR flights in C172 in clear weather during the day on major runway, but if you are saying that XP is more unforgiving that FSX, I probably flew FSX much closer to real flight than I needed in FSX. I only crashed few times before I connected yoke/x55, because flying with mouse is completely new for me and also in my brain mouse pitch is reversed. So I dig few holes around runway before I gave up on mouse flying during my peripherals tests 😄 . Now I'm trying to figure out some comfortable response curves, because even on yoke and x55, I can do all maneuvers within 1mm around center threshold. That doesn't even seem difficult to do, especially if I can do it for each plane individually.

Flying without AP I haven't noticed too much difficulty (default C172) - usually disconnect AP 3 miles from runway and then hand flying the landing from there. It probably helps that I have all trims physically on yoke and pitch on TPM, so I can do it in real time without letting off controls and fiddling with trims using a mouse. I need to test some crosswinds to see if I can handle hands-off flying in more challenging conditions in XP models.

Right now graphics are more than good enough (remember, I'm coming from FSX 😆), that much deeper in ToDo list. RIght now I downloaded KA C90B from IBAV8N, going to install it and check it. I need to play offline, so ATC would need to be completely part of my PC. I'll check some 3rd party or maybe wait what XP will offer in next release (I haven't even checked the actual XP12 one yet). Mission generator/career mode is also on the list (if some offline version is available). 

Who knew I would have such a blast installing/setting up a new FS, feels like 5 years old on Christmas. SIM flying is just compensating my long term unfulfilled dream becoming airline pilot and this excitement with new FS starting to feel silly. I should calm down and also stop spamming this thread with long posts. But I'm grateful for all your replies, encouragement  and hints. AV community has been always great regardless the portal (try to ask something on Apple forums if you want to really appreciate AV people 😄)

Welcome to XP12. I came from MSFS into XP 11.5 when Asobo had an incredibly buggy sim update and I was already on P3D v5, which is basically an evolution of FSX. Once I gave XP a shot, I never left. I am now on both MSFS and XP12 (P3D gave me no continued reasons to stay) and it's a joy watching both sims grow and develop and push each other. 

I see you MAY be interested in some airliners, so I can provide a few recommendations. 

For flight dynamics, ground handling, and night flying, XP12 provides a great out of the box experience. Because the sim is constantly developing, I am flying it completely vanilla but have a library of great aircraft. Be sure to download Zibo 737 (completely free) - it's a high fidelity 737-800 NG that will provide an experience comparable to PMDG on FSX. I also can't recommend enough the Toliss Airbuses (all of them). I also REALLY enjoy the FlightFactor 757 and 767 and those beat anything available for any sim out there right now, the IXEG 737-300 is also exceptional. There is an exceptional 747-200 by Felis which surpasses any other 747 for any sim out there, including the PMDG ones (in my opinion). For a newer 747, there is SSG. Also, there is Leading Edge DC-3 out there which I enjoy a lot. 

All the best. 

The thing with XP is you have to ditch your MS world view or the FSX interpretation. XP is operating on a different plane altogether but graphics are graphics and bigger market outside of the sim world so lots of feedback benefits. I could bolt together all sorts of stuff in FSX and P3D not in XP different calculus for model design altogether particularly objects. One could learn but hey the works been done by folk like Zibo, Felis, Tolliss. On top of that you can add numerous freeware or non payware models which are superb! 

Running a good GPU and CPU gives you a pretty amazing simulation experience. It is where I thought a sim should be once upon and now it is. Never going to mirror the real world all over but in between - management of scale is a pretty neat computing trick. 

FrozenBear made a good point about community and resources and knowledge being strong!. It was a bit sink and swim when I first got XP12 after its release. Just the keyboard interface changes took forever to get the hang of not FSX so you have to unlearn stuff too! Great to see all of that makes life a lot easier!

On 10/15/2024 at 9:05 PM, Bjoern said:

https://simheaven.com/simdownloads/x-world-africa/

Ah well, I stopped using it when I noticed that buildings were put on the runway and apron at one of my favourite airports DGSI. I complained and sent screenshots a long time ago but it was not corrected.

 

https://github.com/shred86/Ortho4XP/wiki

Mods please delete the post and link to the xplane forum I posted