bonchie

I fly jets for a living, and I'm happy they are including more reasons to fly than "here's a world map, do whatever." You have missions in real life. Reasons for doing what you're doing. You also don't just spawn in the cockpit, crank up, and go. Any expansion of what it's really like to be a pilot is welcome, IMO. The other benefit a career mode provides is a reference point for seeing lots of cool places in the sim. Would I normally research some backwoods Aussie strip or where to go hot-air balloon in Africa? No. But a career mode that curates the locations for me and puts me in some cool spots doing some cool things I may have never otherwise seen or done is a positive. Booting up, spawning in the cockpit, and flying A to B isn't bad, but there's no reason to limit the hobby to that. Heck, I don't even sim anymore right now because I get enough of the mundane flying in real life. A career mode that provides some purpose, backstory, and variety is a good thing.

The grass in MSFS is much better than the stuff Orbx used to use in P3D. What I’m seeing in that video looks like the default procedural grass. It does have a lot of variation and it goes past grass. For example, dry areas have overlays of small rocks and thin ground foliage too.

Direct comparison (I actually think P3D does some things better in these shots, but it ain't the night lighting)

It's hard as heck to see to taxi in real life unless there's a ton of ramp lighting. I've almost taken a turn into grass several times in real life. Night is dark. We are just conditioned to the bright nights of P3D.

The crab doesn't really use rudder until alignment at touchdown. You are turning into the wind and letting the plane fly the way it naturally wants to in order to stay aligned. Thus the crab. In smaller planes we are typically taught to dip a wing and then apply opposite rudder to align the plane on short final. That makes heavy use of rudder and helps not to side load so badly on touchdown.

Even though people say not to, I've had much better luck using the REX textures with wave animations baked in. Looks much more like FSX.

Companion to my XP10 thread. I use both sims about the same. This gives you an idea of the graphical differences at lower levels. P3D handles distant terrain and horizons much, much better. But you can't beat the XP10 lighting and how they manage autogen (vs. a hard cut off like P3D). Scenery is OpenLC NA, Orbx Global, and Active Sky Next. Airport is a freeware AFCAD.

Thanks. Nothing special going on in these shots. All freeware or default except the Bonanza. MisterX's RTH settings are a difference maker. He's managed to get the lights to where they are bright but not oversized. XP10 has it's warts, but lower level GA at dusk/night is impressive.

Hazy, rainy departure from KABQ at sunset. Scenery is default + W2XP (not custom, just the general single download for the US on their site) + HDv3 Mesh, all freeware. Airport is a gateway airport added a few versions ago. Real Terra Haze settings are MisterX's. You can nab them off his youtube channel.

People also do it (notice it's standard practice for official Orbx shots) because it helps cover up the engine deficiencies with autogen distance and texture resolution.

Had the same thing. Unstable FPS, even in rural areas and clearly worse performance overall. Went back to 3.2 and haven't bothered to update again. Could be a driver issue, but I don't care enough to chase it down. It doesn't I think. You have to go manually delete those folders to do a real complete reinstall.

Ironically, I find P3D to be 10x worse in this department. So much so I can't bother to fly at night in it.

I recently got XP back up and running. Tried to go back to P3D but the night environment and the hard line/short distance autogen (introduced back with 3.1 I think) just kills it for me. I thought OpenLC NA was going to be a difference maker to switch me back, but it really wasn't. Like I tell everyone new to XP, just take the time to get things right. There's literally so much free stuff that you can get by with just spending $100 or so on addons and be set (a good payware plane + skymaxxpro). If you need tips on what plugins I've found essential, let me know. Now, what you like is a major point as well. I like to fly GA in XP, so the lack of decent AI and ATC doesn't bother me that much. 10.50 is supposed to of improved the ATC but I haven't tried it yet. And there's addons like you need with P3D as well. Someone mentioned no GTN...X-Plane's native 430/530 is really good. You can update the database and actually fly current GPS approaches. I haven't found any features I need that it's lacking to perform up to date RNAV procedures (and I use a 430 in a real life all the time). So yeah, it's not 100% functional, but it's 10x better then FSX's native GPS and is actually useful for real life training. For P3D, I basically can't fly it anymore unless I'm in an Orbx region. It's just too lacking in too many respects.

Just take the time to get things right. Out of the box, it's going to disappoint, or at least it did me (and that's a common theme). But there's tons of freeware that gets things up to par. W2XP and HDMeshv3 are musts for me.

Towered fields will give you a "turn right on course" type of call with your takeoff clearance. But, to be frank, if you are VFR at a non towered field, just climb to 700-1000AGL and turn where you want. Announce leaving the pattern and your direction. There's nothing else to it.