1 hour ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Based on your extensive scenery criteria and this comment, you’re setting yourself up for disappointme

Why mine is pretty much all default cept for Hawaii and im happy. Just because some need a thousand add ons to be happy doesnt mean everyone else does

32 minutes ago, mjrhealth said:

Why mine is pretty much all default cept for Hawaii and im happy. Just because some need a thousand add ons to be happy doesnt mean everyone else does

I don’t disagree with you. 

But XP is not a good match for OP’s stated  criteria 

On 1/19/2026 at 5:55 PM, Pilot53 said:

4.) I only fly in VR, i tried the demo version but couldn't get it to work.  Can I use the pimax crystal light without steam vr in xplane?  In msfs it works flawlessly with only the pimax software.  I really dont like steam VR.

I'm not sure if this is still valid with the latests versions of XP12, but until recently you had to add a command-line option when launching XPlane12 for force it to use OpenXR, which you're probably using for your MSFS.

To do that, you have to edit the shortcut to XPlane12 main exe file, and add the "--open_xr" option at the end of the target field. For example, the shortcut on my desktop is set to this target: "G:\X-Plane 12\X-Plane.exe" --open_xr

 

On 1/19/2026 at 5:55 PM, Pilot53 said:

5.)  I have a beefy system but in VR its always a struggle, can expect similar performance to what I get with PMDG aircraft in fs2024 without having to lower my settings too much?

You'll have to lower your settings a bit, the VR performance in XP12 is similar or lower to MSFS/MSFS2024, from my experience.

Download the demo and try it for yourself.

 

In my experience, X-Plane looks much better than MFS if you're looking for realism.

If you migrate at the beginning, you're going to have a problem. X-Plane has much more natural lighting and color than MFS, which is very cinematic. X-Plane is like your neighbor who just got up at 7 a.m. when you run into her in the elevator. MFS is the heavily edited Photoshop photo of your neighbor that she posts on Instagram.

Simheaven does a much better job than MFS in some areas, while MFS does a very good job in others. In the end, you'll be flying above FL10 90% of the time, and it doesn't matter which one you use. If you leave areas of ideal coverage (90% of the planet), both will fail if you know where you're flying.

Thanks for all of the advice, I ended up buying the challenger, man what a cool addon that is!  Ive found that map enhancement + simheaven + a snow cover plugin gives seasons and graphics comparable enough to msfs.  Heck even msfs seasons dont work perfectly.  Lighting and colors are indeed more natural in xp.  The biggest downside for me is the night lighting and lack of dlss.  Popping in of night textures, cities are barely visible.  Clouds are not lit by aircraft or city lights. It looks good at 1000ft but above that its pretty poor.  But at least its dark when it should be unlike msfs which is always too bright.  Having dlss available would also help greatly with perf.  Fps are lower overall but i do find it less stuttery than msfs.

Regarding DLSS, why not lossless scaling? Works great with xp12

1 hour ago, Pilot53 said:

The biggest downside for me is the night lighting and lack of dlss.  Popping in of night textures, cities are barely visible.  Clouds are not lit by aircraft or city lights. It looks good at 1000ft but above that its pretty poor.  But at least its dark when it should be unlike msfs which is always too bright.  Having dlss available would also help greatly with perf.  Fps are lower overall but i do find it less stuttery than msfs.

Extended night lighting is possible with a hack that modifies default files, not an ideal solution as it might cause all kind of other issues. You have been warned 😁
Hopefully the Next-Gen scenery will take care of that. 

Some form of frame generation, antialiasing and maybe upscaling will come with the planned implementation of motion vectors.
That might release some load from GPU allowing mid range hardware to perform decently.
 

Well done getting the Challenger...and geting into XP12.....love it!👍

11 hours ago, Pilot53 said:

Popping in of night textures, cities are barely visible.

That’s because you’re using map enhancement.  The default scenery has city night textures to the horizon.  You will still get the 3D lights popping up closer though.  Pick your poison.

Edited January 22Jan 22 by Gilandred

8 hours ago, Gilandred said:

That’s because you’re using map enhancement.  The default scenery has city night textures to the horizon.  You will still get the 3D lights popping up closer though.  Pick your poison.

There's now an option in Map Enhancement Pro for night textures, but I do agree default Xp12 looks way better at night...

If flying at night I simply do not start MEP or stop it during a flight when it transitions to night time.

Edited January 23Jan 23 by jcomm

On 1/22/2026 at 9:40 AM, Captaintull said:

Well done getting the Challenger...and geting into XP12.....love it!👍

Its great, really love it so far!  They are the fenix of xplane for sure. 

12 hours ago, jcomm said:

There's now an option in Map Enhancement Pro for night textures, but I do agree default Xp12 looks way better at night...

If flying at night I simply do not start MEP or stop it during a flight when it transitions to night time.

Ahh ok.  I tried turning it off mid flight but it game me an error.  Ill try without it on my next night flight to compare.  I did get some extended night textures but i found that there was a mismatch between the intensity of the close lights and the extended ones, with the extended lights being too dim.

Edited January 23Jan 23 by Pilot53

6 hours ago, Pilot53 said:

Its great, really love it so far!  They are the fenix of xplane for sure. 

Glad you're enjoying it.

Make sure you join our discord.  

13 hours ago, Pilot53 said:

Its great, really love it so far!  They are the fenix of xplane for sure. 

Great you're enjoying.

It's more like an Aerowinx in X-Plane, the C650 :-)

On 1/24/2026 at 5:04 AM, jcomm said:

Great you're enjoying.

It's more like an Aerowinx in X-Plane, the C650 🙂

Its fantastic so far.  And wow, the weather and lighting has come so far since I last used xp in v11.  Been reading up on some of the v12 blog posts regarding the flight model improvements they made, very detailed and impressive stuff.  I think the fact that the xp devs are rw pilots really gives xp a stong advantage in terms of its flight model.  I may be spending a lot more time on this sim than I thought!  If they can get dlss working and get the night lighting a little bit better xp will be unstoppable.  

Edited January 28Jan 28 by Pilot53