Since I had purchased MSFS 2024 it became my Go-To sim, with Xp12 being used only for casual flights in the few addon aircraft I own.

With the new 12.2 Beta though, and also due to the successive improvements in various aspects of the sim, including the default ATC which is now up to a level which I consider perfectly acceptable for the kind of use I give to it, and with Traffic being injected by JustFlight Traffic Global, the new lighting, clouds and colours, as well as the excellent performance, using presently SimHeaven Europe X-World 3 and default scenery until 12.2 goes final and I start using again "Map Enhancement Pro", X-Plane is the sim I load 80% of my simming sessions.

Yesterday I finally added, again, "Better Pushback" which I had been skipping for more than 2 years, and Wow!, the integration with the INIBUILDS A300-600 made my weekend 🙂.

I still use FS 2024 SU2 Beta, for some weather rendering and data accuracy tests, or to fly some selected addons like the INIBUILDS A350 900, but that's it.

Not saying I am uninstalling FS 2024 😁 no no no !!! Just saying I really have to LOVE X-Plane 12, and honestly would be ready to pay again for it, or to go "subscription model" to support the team, and be able to hope for even more progress and new features.

Now only looking fwd into the changes in the FM that Austin kindly reported to me and will probably come with 12.3 or 12.4 👍

 

Edited April 13, 20251 yr by jcomm

Thanks for the update jcomm. It's nice to hear Austin is making improvements. In my little test, when I was considering getting xplane 12, I noticed the night lighting looked so much better. Mainly on the runway and how they illuminated the area around them. Looked very realistic. 

The only thing keeping me from pulling the plug is it requires Navigraph to have up to date navdata and I would have to drop a lot of money to get passable scenery. Not to mention shilling out a lot for an airliner, they cost so much more from what I can see.

I will say if any flight simulator goes subscription based I believe I would stop flying. The ONLY way I could see putting up with a subscription model would be if I didn't have to purchase any addon's, so it would need great weather, ATC, at lease one included study level aircraft for GA, Airliner, Business jet, etc. Other wise I can see paying out roughly 120 a year for a sim.

1 hour ago, Lotharen said:

a and I would have to drop a lot of money to get passable scenery.

Why? x-world is free, auto-ortho is free, map enhancement is free, ortho4xp is free… 

1 hour ago, Lotharen said:

Not to mention shilling out a lot for an airliner, they cost so much more from what I can see.

Zibo 737 is free. 

I’m certainly enjoying it also, @jcomm !

Some incredible lighting and clouds in this latest XP12 beta, for sure.

Like you, I’m also enjoying the MSFS2024 beta…other than a jarring and repeatable pause around KLGB, it’s behaving smoothly and looking great (and I adore my new Fokker F28).

Speaking of the A350, I just saw that AFS4 now has one.

Too many well-behaved sims and content, too little time! :)

Regarding ATC, at present default ATC in Xp12 does, IMO and excluding traffic injection, a better / more complex / complete work than, say, BATC or FSHUD for IFR and even more for VFR flight.

OFC it still needs fine tunning and additonal features, but I honestly prefer to start an airline flight in Xp12 these days than doing the same in FS 2024 and using BATC + FSLTL for the ATC and AI Traffic.

Weather is also an area where the latest update to Xp12 are bringing a richer and closer to reality depiction of actual RW weather, from METAR to forecast. Specially in the last weeks MSFS has been failling in terms of real weather being close to reality, and while I found Xp12 failling last week in a couple of occasions, this seldom takes place in XP.

I have been playing around with XP12 and see the appeal. One thing i am trying to figure out is why i get nauseous when sitting in the cockpit, panning around. I am getting over 80 fps but it just doesn’t feel smooth. I have tried the lossless add-on but still it hits me. No such problem in MS. 

It´s been almost THREE days and it is still your go-to sim, @jcomm?

You must be getting old (or did I just miss an announcement of yours Monday or Tuesday on the MSFS2024 forum that THAT is now your go-to sim?)

15 minutes ago, Litjan said:

It´s been almost THREE days and it is still your go-to sim, @jcomm?

You must be getting old (or did I just miss an announcement of yours Monday or Tuesday on the MSFS2024 forum that THAT is now your go-to sim?)

😜

It is! Lately I have been enjoying Xp12.2 Beta. I was almost 90% playing FS 2024 until the recent SU2 beta started.

I like the SU2 Beta because it is surely a step ahead and FS 2024 needs to progress, but since 12.2 beta also became available I decided to give it a fair go, and have been really enjoying most everything about it.

There are two aspects I still find not so good in the Xp12.2 Beta though:

1) Just like @RobJC mentions above, Xp12 is still stuttery when panning around, and in this aspect MSFS 2024 is probably the smoothest and more detailled (scenery wise and also 3d cockpit wise) general purpose sim I've used so far (exception goes to other niches which aren't supposed to be compared to either XP or MSFS...);

2) Xp12.2 beta is stressing my CPU more than 12.1 did, and I really don't like to see my CPU Temps growing and staying above 72ºC most of the time. My Ryzen 5600x is a lot less hammered by FS 2024, and FS 2024 is overall smoother that Xp12.2.

I believe MSFS is very optimized, and is capable of using GPU and CPU in a much more efficient way than Xp12, at least until now.

And OFC, scenery detail wise, with or without Photogrammetry, MSFS beats anything other than maybe DCS World with it's latest scenery areas. I like Xp12 + SimHeaven, it's actually good enough for me and the type of simulated flying I do, and can even be enhanced nicely with Ortho4XP or the like, but heck! nothing compares in detail, to the point of seeing the exact detail of my house facade, to MSFS!

 

Edited April 15, 20251 yr by jcomm

duplicate post - sorry 😕

Edited April 15, 20251 yr by jcomm

34 minutes ago, RobJC said:

I have been playing around with XP12 and see the appeal. One thing i am trying to figure out is why i get nauseous when sitting in the cockpit, panning around. I am getting over 80 fps but it just doesn’t feel smooth. I have tried the lossless add-on but still it hits me. No such problem in MS. 

G-Sync? 

Any head tracking? If so, use X-camera and in settings set head tracking smoothness to 10.

 

Xplane smoothness since they switched to vulkan a few years back Is unbeatable imo. You just gotta get it tuned in right. 
 

If using lossless lock your frame to 45, and then X2 it using lossless. If you have a g-sync monitor, make sure g-sync is active. (Providing your display is capable of 90hz+) 
 

Also in x-camera settings, per plane settings, enable smooth camera joins etc.. 

 

Disable v-sync in game, and just set it to on in the nvidia control panel. 
 

if using x-camera, disable the option in xplane settings to ‘use track ir’ as xcamera will take care of it. 

Edited April 15, 20251 yr by Ianrivaldosmith

2 hours ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

G-Sync? 

Any head tracking? If so, use X-camera and in settings set head tracking smoothness to 10.

 

Xplane smoothness since they switched to vulkan a few years back Is unbeatable imo. You just gotta get it tuned in right. 
 

If using lossless lock your frame to 45, and then X2 it using lossless. If you have a g-sync monitor, make sure g-sync is active. (Providing your display is capable of 90hz+) 
 

Also in x-camera settings, per plane settings, enable smooth camera joins etc.. 

 

Disable v-sync in game, and just set it to on in the nvidia control panel. 
 

if using x-camera, disable the option in xplane settings to ‘use track ir’ as xcamera will take care of it. 

@Ianrivaldosmith, what would you advise, for use with Lossless, given that I have a non G-Syn or Free-sync monitor, 1920x1080 @60Hz?

I used it by disabling V-Sync, but also never enabled V-Sync in NCP, setting FPS to 30 throught Riva Tuner OR Nvidia Inspector, and then x2 in Lossless, but I wounder if I should do it differently?

2 hours ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

G-Sync? 

Any head tracking? If so, use X-camera and in settings set head tracking smoothness to 10.

 

Xplane smoothness since they switched to vulkan a few years back Is unbeatable imo. You just gotta get it tuned in right. 
 

If using lossless lock your frame to 45, and then X2 it using lossless. If you have a g-sync monitor, make sure g-sync is active. (Providing your display is capable of 90hz+) 
 

Also in x-camera settings, per plane settings, enable smooth camera joins etc.. 

 

Disable v-sync in game, and just set it to on in the nvidia control panel. 
 

if using x-camera, disable the option in xplane settings to ‘use track ir’ as xcamera will take care of it. 

I do have a G-Sync monitor. 4k. 144Hz. Trying your recommendations. Thanks!

On 4/13/2025 at 5:27 AM, Ianrivaldosmith said:

Why? x-world is free, auto-ortho is free, map enhancement is free, ortho4xp is free… 

my time isn't "free", and getting all that stuff up and running properly takes a lot of time and hassle.

The end result is good, but once you fly around in a helicopter, you really start to see the differences.

Again, this is largely why I've ended up "trapped" in Orbx TrueEarth regions - they're THAT good, and THAT easy.

Edited April 15, 20251 yr by UrgentSiesta
clarification

On 4/13/2025 at 3:05 AM, jcomm said:

Since I had purchased MSFS 2024 it became my Go-To sim, with Xp12 being used only for casual flights in the few addon aircraft I own.

With the new 12.2 Beta though, and also due to the successive improvements in various aspects of the sim, including the default ATC which is now up to a level which I consider perfectly acceptable for the kind of use I give to it, and with Traffic being injected by JustFlight Traffic Global, the new lighting, clouds and colours, as well as the excellent performance, using presently SimHeaven Europe X-World 3 and default scenery until 12.2 goes final and I start using again "Map Enhancement Pro", X-Plane is the sim I load 80% of my simming sessions.

Yesterday I finally added, again, "Better Pushback" which I had been skipping for more than 2 years, and Wow!, the integration with the INIBUILDS A300-600 made my weekend 🙂.

I still use FS 2024 SU2 Beta, for some weather rendering and data accuracy tests, or to fly some selected addons like the INIBUILDS A350 900, but that's it.

Not saying I am uninstalling FS 2024 😁 no no no !!! Just saying I really have to LOVE X-Plane 12, and honestly would be ready to pay again for it, or to go "subscription model" to support the team, and be able to hope for even more progress and new features.

Now only looking fwd into the changes in the FM that Austin kindly reported to me and will probably come with 12.3 or 12.4 👍

 

I've recently gone back to basics because of the v12 Beta; i.e., just a couple really good addon aircraft and nothing more. And lemme tell you, I sure am SATISFIED so far.

I'm going to start linking in some Orbx TrueEarth scenery in from v12 Prod (and v11!), as well as trying additional Hi Fi addons that have more complicated DRM (like AFL & TorqueSim).

If that goes as smoothly, yeah, it becomes easier to choose the big blue X whenever I sit down for a sim session 🙂