>And of course, there are a whole lot of other pilots (myself>included) who feel just the opposite... :-hah >>But that's okay, because after all these years, we still argue>about what causes " lift". :)>>L.AdamsonI know how you feel about this Larry. I just wanted to preemptively post a different opinion. ;)

Well I went ahead and bought X-Plane, now that I know how to settle it down! I'm in the process of installing it now! What I find interesting is after I installed 11.1GB on the program disk, it gave me a message that unless I installed the remaining scenery disks (Or at least one of them) all I would get is ocean. I thought the global scenery was like an upgrade scenery, to replace a base scenery? Not a problem, as I intend to install the whole package anyway, but it is a slow process.

That IS interesting. I only installed disk 1, and have all the U.S. scenery. I do get "Ocean Only" if I try to fly outside the U.S.My major problem however is that I cannot find a way to file a flight plan for anything more than about 50 miles away (the map coverage) because I don't know the airport designations.Guess I can get them from the FSX tables. :(Regards,Thrakete

>That IS interesting. I only installed disk 1, and have all>the U.S. scenery. I do get "Ocean Only" if I try to fly>outside the U.S.>>My major problem however is that I cannot find a way to file a>flight plan for anything more than about 50 miles away (the>map coverage) because I don't know the airport designations.>I only have about 1/3rd of the disks installed for version 8, which works fine. My "9" is demo only.L.Adamson

>Well I went ahead and bought X-Plane, now that I know how to>settle it down! I'm in the process of installing it now! What>I find interesting is after I installed 11.1GB on the program>disk, it gave me a message that unless I installed the>remaining scenery disks (Or at least one of them) all I would>get is ocean. I thought the global scenery was like an upgrade>scenery, to replace a base scenery? Not a problem, as I intend>to install the whole package anyway, but it is a slow process.In X-Plane 9, Global Scenery is the default scenery.The installation size is much bigger than FSX, because Global Scenery is more pre-compiled, while FSX scenery is more generated in real time. Disadvantage: much more disk space. Advantage: less CPU load while flying.After the install, remember to update X-Plane to latest version:http://dev.x-plane.com/update/installers9/...aterWindows.zipX-Plane gets updated quite frequently, the next major update should be 9.20. Most upgrades do not break compatibility with old aircrafts, but some major upgrades may require limited re-tuning or re-working of old aircrafts.The settings that have the most effect on performance are:.visibility distance (in the weather settings)and in rendering settings:.lateral field of view (lower is better).world detail distance (keep it to low or very low).number of objects.number of roads.pixel shaders (water reflections and, on some video cards, volumetric fog)Be sure "compress textures to save VRAM" and "do any scenery loads in the background" are checked.If cumulus clouds reduce performance too much, decrease the "number cloud of cloud puffs" (set it in the 0.1-0.5 range) and increase the "size cloud of cloud puffs" (set it in the 1.5-2.0 range).If you have 2GB or less, very high "forest density" and "texture resolution" settings may have a negative effect on performance or loading times.Good freeware heavy metals can be found at http://www.xplanefreeware.net, http://www.xpjets.com, and http://www.eadt.eu/xplane/Home.html.Good freeware GA's, etc. can be found amongst the most downloaded planes at http://www.x-plane.org.Overall, X-Plane is quite different from FSX so don't approach it expecting exactly the same things you expect from FSX.X-Plane is poor with regard to ATC, AI traffic, default airports and autogen. There are less human resources both amongst Laminar research and 3rd party developers, so you can't expect aircrafts modeled with the same degree of complexity of top-notch FSX aircrafts.The flight model is not perfect, and has several flaws. Its main advantages are the versatility and the complex (though not perfect) physics implemented.Probably the more you'll use it, the more you will appreciate some subtleties absent in other flight simulators, the complex failure modeling etc.Approaching it with an open mind without making continuous comparisons with FSX is the best way to enjoy it. :)Marco

Marco. i think your last statement pretty well sums things up. X-plane and FSX are apples and oranges. X-Plane is not a competitor for FSX and should not be compared to it. I own, use and enjoy both games.Regards,Thrakete