boshar

Did a quick recon flight after updating. Ground textures look worse (more seams/differences in quality between areas). More stutters. Most annoying is there are now water textures on top of bridges. My default flight is from EHRD. Almost every bridge is covered with shine through water. Maybe the fact that the land lies beneath sea level is triggering something in the scenery engine? It looks horrible.

That is the simple crux of this kind of debate. Not agains you personally Helo_Head but there is a motivation when one is still on the FS-X side to want to rationalize the amount of $$$ invested in the system. It creates a gut feeling in which you don't want the other sim to be just as good OR beter because of that invested amount. Its great that you are honest enough to mention this yourself.

Strange, I really want to love FS-X (if only to justify all the add-ons I bought) but I have come to the conclusion I'v become a 100% X-Planer now (eeeh make that 90% still need my steam gauge a300 fix very now and then). I just can't stand the blurries. The tweak, get it right then fly somewhere else and start again dance is tedious. I've never been able to hit a consistent sweet spot in FS-X. X-Plane give me a sharp beautiful view and a constant 30+ frame rate every single time. Of course it also helps I'm not interested in AI (one of the first things I turn off when tweaking FS-X). Just last week I discovered a website that has free X-Plane photo sceneries for practically the whole of Europe. (see http://simheaven.com/?page_id=1335 ) . I tried some of my preferred flying area's and was blown away by the effect. We are talking hires photos, no blurries and the autogen is aligned (due to x-planes OSM roads match the photo scenery and the autogen is aligned via the roads). This is what a 64 bit modern program can do for you and it doesn't cost 1 Euro to explore it. I can understand that if you love your boxed AI and ATC you hate X-Plane. But writing this program off because you don't like the UI? How about the FS-X UI, you can't even set the all important HIGHMEMFIX using the UI. It takes a while before 'you get' X-Plane but at the moment there are exciting developments. The new GPS in the BETA is so much beter and most airplanes are easy to update. To me as 'oldtimer' this feels like the time I upgraded my FS by getting RealityXP's Garmin add-on but even beter because its in the default program, there to be used by all the add-ons. If you have X-Plane 10. Leave it on your HDD and play with it from time to time. It might grow on you an who knows maybe one day you will be like me and leave 100's of Euros behind... (getting a bit depressed now).

Converting to X-Plane certainly took me a while (as in years I started when version 8 was the current release) but at the moment is the main simulator I use. For my intents and purposes I rate it an 9 (to leave some room for improvement). The thing that is the hardest to get used to is the changes that are rolled into a new major version over time. X-Plane 10 has had unbelievable changes for the better but with that there are always some add-ons ore little things we have to leave behind which kind of sucks but in general the changes are good and give us an ever improving program.

That would be a good sign. Like Ghandi said: "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."

I would love to have an FS-X thats is screamingly fast and doesn't suffer from the blurries. I made a bootcamp partition on my brand new iMac i7 with GForce GTX 680 MX 2 Gb graphics card in order to have access to my Windows flightsimulator collection. Everything I throw at that machine looks amazing and runs blazzingly fast but FS-X is still the tweak fest that it always was. I installed my ORBX PNW add-ons, apply the ORBX reccomended tweeks and up close and the first few minutes it looks amazing. After those first few minutes you start to notice the blurries and pop up. As always the blurries spoil the experience for me. Large amounts of tweaking can get rid of them for a while but then you switch to another area or add-on and it becomes another tweak party. I'm used to the sharp X-Plane look. I never liked AI and artificial ATC (not even in FS-X) so those things I don't mis. I just want to enjoy my virtual flying, tweaking feels to much like work. I think the ORB-X guys are way to quick to dismiss X-Plane. The thing that is never mentioned is the format that is used for X-Planes add-ons. X-Plane add-ons are pretty open and models, textures and ACF's can be opened, converted and used by a more technical user. I wonder if this is the real reason for developpers to steer clear of X-Plane add-ons.

Flight was never created for this community. They went for the first time sim flyer / online gaming crowd. They misjudged the market and didn't find their audience. They already judged the hardcore market as not large enough to get the profits they need so (thats why they made Flight!) Microsoft has left the simming market. A shame because they made magnificent simulators (FS9, FS-X) but it will be interesting to see what it will do to the hobby. There are plenty of sims (free, commercial, corporate) and we still have a vibrant add-on community. There will be new sims and new add-ons in this post Microsoft era.

I think the entry first time flighsim market already moved to the smart phone / tablet market before Flight came to market. Apps like Inifinte Flight and the different X-Plane offerings give a cheap first experience and if successful there are in app add-ons to expand these light flight civie flight sims. So from a X-Plane perspective this is probably o good thing for the X-Plane apps. The apps act as an appetizer for the full desktop version so we might see some growth there as well. I don't know if my experience is typical but I to tried some X-Plane versions and always returned to the Microsoft side. With version 8 however my X-Plane sessions became more serious. With version 9 I began buying some of the add-ons. When version 10 came around I realized I rarely used the Microsoft sims anymore. My gaming PC with FS-X and FS9 is still packed up (moved house a few months ago) I fly X-Plane on the iMac and don't want to go through the hassle of setting up the gaming rig for a few scarce MS flightsim sessions. I'm satisfied with X-Plane 10 and still have to find me some time to tinker with the local airports and WED. X-Plane has so many tools and for my flightsim use it has become the program that is the perfect fit.

Thanks for the suggestions but I tried all the usual tricks (restart, closing programs, different devices) but it doesn't help. I tried a lot of different starting locations but haven't found a fps friendly spot. Reducing visibility doesn't help. I guess i'll have to wait for an update. I'll let you know if this gets fixed.

Just bought the game and played it on a new iPad an a iPhone 4s. Don't get me wrong I like the retina graphics, the UI and the controls but even at low visibility settings I get occasional stutters that ruin the flying for me.It looks like reducing visibility doesn't help with the frame rate are there airports in the scenery that are easier on the framerate? I think the UI, controls and detailed models are the best you can get on iOS if only the framerate could be more consistent.

Unless what they are offering is target drones and a combat add-on :(

Problem is there are already lots of flight games in the market and they fail to be big money makers. The consoles have the Ace Combat series and that franchise struggles to make money its audience is shrinking. Nintendo's Pilot Wings (now there is a title that has a lot of idea's borrowed by Microsoft!) only has a modest market share.Probably the best current example of a flight game finding new customers is the X-Plane apps for iOS and Android. Relatively cheap, Small gamy flightsims that act as advertising for a larger Desktop flightsim. I think that the free/cheap online game model like Flight wants to be is quickly superseded by this game on mobile / tablet model.

Trees where switched off. The scenery demo is made near the 1 detailed airport that wil come with X-Plane 10. FPS with this Beta was between 15 and 40 fps. Austin was honest about this and the demo is about the new scenery engine.I was impressed with wingflex and wing condensation effects. Austin demoed the standard 777 from X-Plane 9 and these effects where added automatically.Again the emphasis of this demo was the believable world scenery and that part was impressive. The clouds, environment lightning looked impressive. The street lights and moving car lights also where amazing.I haven't seen any Prepar3d setups. There where FS-X, X-Plane and Flightgear groups. Aerosoft was pushing X-Plane hard. The X-Plane X demo was on the large screen at the entry point of the museum.

I think we can safely assume that Mathijs and his contacts have a clear idea on how large the serious FS market is. They can see it in the sales of their add-ons. Flightsims will have to innovate and change to appeal to the current day market. FS-X +1 will only appeal to us addicts so the flightsim market is stagnating. Its like many of the old big genres/pc sellers. Adventures, combat flight sims and wargames once they where big genres and there were many releases per year. Now there are only a few specialised developers and most releases are download only. A basic flightsim with good community/chat options might be just what we need. Give it some detailed area's and a fun mission structure (cargo hauler, sightseeing, forest fire spotting, etc). Make tie-ins with TV shows like Flying Wild Alaska via a scenery and mission pack. Younger gamers need structure and fun in their games. After they get hooked they still have the option to upgrade to prepar3d.

For me to buy it, it has to be totally new. Optimized 3d engine. Some GA aircraft. Maybe a few small passenger jets. Social online network play (think MMO for flight simmers). In this enviroment you could ship cargo, ferry passengers, do rescue missions, etc. You would have simple voice chat comms with aircraft the are in visual range so you can join in in rescue missions and other 'quests'. I guess they could do a realistic world server for the hardcore FS-X er. But there is no need for MS Flight to be an FS-X ++++ You can fly al those complicated add-ons in FS-X already. We need something new. Most flightsim users fly for their entertainment. Realistic fuel calculations, ATC, SIDS, Stars can be nice to study but nothing beats 30 minutes of sightseeing after a busy day at the office.

First get the update here http://www.x-plane.com/pg_downloads.htmlUse the update installer if you have the full DVD version. (I'm guessing you have a first release DVD set)Current version is 9.67Current beta version is 9.68

I never understood the fascination some people have with AI planes. For me it's the thing I immediately turn of to get a better frame rate in FS9 and FS-X.As some have commented the FS AI looks like its on rials and on close inspection the AI planes do strange things. For the few times I need a crowded sky I would like an AI system that hooks into the real world flight tracking flight radar systems like this site http://www.flightradar24.com Maybe its even better to have a dedicated service log all that info so you can pick a date and time and have perfect AI traffic all the time. (some generated GA traffic would be needed but most AI fans seem to like the heavies anyway)

Don't know about your government. My government likes manipulating the data in order to keep some things secret.http://maps.google.nl/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=nl&geocode=&q=den+helder&sll=52.951948,4.758453&sspn=0.196503,0.673599&gl=nl&g=den+helder&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Den+Helder,+Noord-Holland&ll=52.958928,4.793816&spn=0.01228,0.0421&t=k&z=15(The Dutch main naval base at Den Helder)

It takes a while to get used to. Most X-Plane veteran users just use 2-3 releases from the flood of releases. Most of us keep the old release when we upgrade. I believe that for version 9 used the stable releases for 9.40, 9.50 (9.55) and when it looks good I wil go for 9.6x most developers use the same strategy.The reason for the 20 AI aircraft is the full aerodynamic modeling Austin insists on. An AI that uses simplified (dare I say it, lookup table based) flightmodels could give us many more AI aircraft (and I'm all for it). The 20 highdef AI planes flying realisticly might have its own charm but I rarely use the AI planes in X-Plane 9.

Ouch, although he mentions some good news (in typical Austin style...) the news about aditional AI aircraft (a max of 20 and insisting on using the full flightmodel for them) is bad news for AI addicts.It also looks like Austin is developing using his own 8 Core Mac Pro as the sweet spot. Nice if you have the cores for it but that 2 core Notebook (or iMac) might suffer.Its also clear Austin still hates photo scenery. Its hard being a photo scenery developer for Austins Sim. There are some great photo scenerys for X-Plane and photo scenery can run great. I feel photoscenery is more graphics card dependent, a decent dual core with photo scenery can look beter than a downgraded 'plausible world' on 'just'2 cores.So it looks like improved ATC for a max of 20 AI aircraft. I think most people would be happier with a large number of AI aircraft with dumbed down flightmodels.The plausible world for X-Plane 10 sounds good but it needs to look OK on the dual cores with 3 - 4 Gb of RAM that are mainstream now. If the plausible world at low / medium obect density with 10 AI craft and ATC runs OK on those main stream PC's X-Plane 10 has a good chance to sell to more of the FS-X simmers. (I don't mean covert to here, I think its crazy to use just 1 flightsim).

You said 'they're basically losing money on each sale'. Thats not what they are sayinghere. They say "desktop development doesn't pay for itself at that price point". So that means X-Plane 10. Most of the current improvements in X-Plane 9 Desktop are either bug fixes or features they made for other code releases (the iPhone versions & the professional versions). So ther isnn't any development for X-Plane 9 anymore. X-Plane 9 sold at $ 29,- will still make them around $20,- profit. Without Microsoft competing in the serious sim market (the jury is still out on how serious and how soon Microsoft Flight wil be) Laminar is free to charge at least $80,- maybe even more. It all depends on the out of the box features. We can be sure that the scenery is much beter then in X-Plane 9. One look at the data in Open Street map will show you how accurate the new water, roads, forrests en generic towns & city's will be. (maybe a bit less accurate then OSM as in some area's they now have to much data per tile so they will have to choose how much they use) Now for me personally global scenery thats close to Ground Environment X details is easily worth $ 80,-. That $ 80,- also funds further development of the X-Plan code to include even more features.I payed around 80 Euro for my X-Plane 9. So around 80 Euro's sounds like the right price for X-Plane 10.

Who's doing your math. X-Plane 9 is sold for $29 + post & packaging. It doesn't cost you $29 to produce 8 DVD's. Every sale they get now makes at least $20 profit. The current price is this low because we are nearing the end of the X-Plane 9 development cycle. Of course X-Plane 10 will cost a lot more (mostly because people are willing to pay more for a bigger beter X-Plane).I guess you read somewhere that the iPhone / iPad version makes them more money and that is correct. But I think the fact that they are platform independent (OS-X, Windows, Linux, iPhone/iPad, Palm Pre) and they use one code base for most of it means theyt can simply extend the code with features and use those features on any of the platforms they release on. Its a very efficient use of code & resources.Also bear in mind that X-Plane scenery uses free open data sources so there is no license fee they have to pay for using that.

You can take any sim and zoom in on the flight behaviour of one of the default planes and use it to destroy the credibility of the flight model. I'm pretty sure I can fly a looping in all FS-X default aircraft (nice one to do in a 747). Sure Austin makes some pretty big claims about his sim but isn't one of the claims of the other sim makes 'as real as it gets'?There are a lot of sims (FS-9, FS-X, Fly 2!, X-plane, Flightgear to name a few) which can give you a great flying experience. All sims have strenghts and weaknesses. Why are you picking a fight in the X-Plane forum over a flight model.If you're open to it X-Plane 10 can become a great way to experience yor flightim hobby. If you want to use the Microsoft Sims exclusivley you're welcome to do that too they are great sims with a beautiful selection of professional add-ons. But why pick on the other sims?

The pesimist in me wonders if we need to take the "bring a new perspective" from the pres statement literal. Lots of console flight games use the behind the aircraft perspective and judging from the screenshots a lot of serious flightsimmers spend lots of time on the outside of their plane.I certainly don't expect there to be improved AI traffic or enhanced ATC in this new game. I'm guessing mission oriented bushflying and sightseeing. A bit like Pilot Wings on the N64 with realistic graphics. Could be fun though. Flying around in a realistic looking area full of things to do can make this a good game.

You can find out more about the CLS A300 on their site: https://www.commerciallevel.com/webshop.php...d=7&groep=1Judging on the review here: http://www.flightsim.com/main/review/clsair.htm the CLS A300 doesn't have an INS, FMC. The FS GPS gets mentioned so I presume you can fly a route using thatThe SimCheck A300 has all analog gauges (CLS uses partly glass gauges). I get the impression that the CLS a300 doesn't model the different hydraulics, air, fuel and electric systems like the SimCheck one does. As they say its a F-Lite product. Easy to use but if you want a bit more system modeling you have to look elswere