X-Plane 10 vs FSX

In X-Plane, took off from Carlisle, UK and headed south towards the Lake District, Cumbria.

I was able to follow a road with moving cars, then follow along the length of Ulswater lake, climbed over the hills at the other end of the Lake.

Then took a low level flight over Windmere Lake, skimming my Cessna's wheels off the surface of the water.

Which leads me onto this next finding.... the water detail is fantanstic!

With reflections of the nearby mountains and sun being seen, shadow of my aircraft and the gentle waves moving over the surface.

One more FSX vs X-Plane on water.

FSX
========================
Set my airport to KIAG (Niagara Falls), take off in my Pitts and head to the falls and perform aerobatic ducks and dives beneath the bridge just before the falls. Then watch the tourist boats cruise at the foot of the falls.

X-Plane 10
=======================
Set my airport to KIAG (Niagara Falls), take off in my Cessna and head to the falls and.....

.... spend almost an hour trying to find the falls? Although the rivers in X-Plane 10 like the roads are fully mapped, with fantastic water detail; couldn't for the life of me find the falls at all!?

Even crossed referenced aerial photos from Google Maps to help me.

Can anyone tell me if they've seen the Falls on X-Plane 10, or is it as I suspect, they're not there at all?

Regards

Mike

HARRIER JUMP JET

Flying the Harrier in FSX appears easier than in X-Plane.

I believe the dynamics of the Harrier in X-Plane are closer to the real world, where pilots say hovering is like try to balance a plate on a pole.
It requires lots of stick action to remain level.

The jet wash beneath the aircraft is nice feature in X-Plane.
Took a bit fishing on the web to find the controls to set for moving the jet nozzles, but once found; it takes a bit of fine tuning forward and backward to maintain a steady hover.

In FSX, If I recall, the nozzles are connected to the flaps?

Transitioning from hover to forward flight is good in X-Plane, simply switching quickly from down to rear facing nozzles results in no forward air-speed and results in a stall.

In FSX this doesn't happen, you simply move forward.

I found Niagara Falls in X-Plane 10....

Comparing it with a Google map view:

It only renders the roads a river, falls are missing in X-Plane 10.

Using real weather in FSX never appeared extremely detailed, but in X-Plane 10 the realism of the clouds, working in conjunction with local ATIS information is good.

In XP10, for example if ATIS reports cloud at 2000, then scattered at 4000.
You climb up through solid cloud at 2000, then travel in between the two layers of clouds, with solid below and broken above at 4000.

When flying IFR at night or in thick cloud, the local ATIS is accurate to plan your approach to an airfield. So you know when you're on final, with clouds at a given altitude, there's a great sense of breakthrough as the runway comes into sight.

SEAPLANE SCENARIO

In X-Plane 10, the scenarios can be great fun. Similar in a way to the missions in the FSX.

One such scenario is boarding a seaplane and filling your water tanks and you skim across a highly detailed water runway that reflect the sky above.

As you throttle up and bounce, the glide off to your first forest fire to deploy your payload. Once complete, you return to the nearest stretch of water and glide back down for a landing and fill up again.

If you take off into the sun over the water, the reflections off the water and plane, make for a very realistic looking rendering.

Nice idea matching up the two shots.

Thanks for your posts!!

I'm a long time fan of FSX but I downloaded XP10 demo the other day to see what its like.

It looks stunning but what I'm hoping you can answer is does this have 'missions' as FSX does or is it just a massive free roam?

Yes you can get missions.

http://store.meteorbike.com/

You can grab X-Plane here:
https://www.simshack.net/products/x-plane-10-flight-simulator-windows-mac-linux-622

And FSX here:
https://www.simshack.net/products/microsoft-flight-simulator-x-steam-edition-74

(Worldwide shipping)

Hi CheesyB...

Although X-Plane 10 doesn't have missions, it does feature numerous scenarios you can use.

Things such as:

formation flying
- where you allocate numerous aircraft to follow you

mid air-refuelling

combat simulation

forest fires
- where have to land on water way to reload fire fighting aircraft

aircraft carrier landings

oil platform landings

[/list]

Hallo there,

I am a Sim addict, you could say.:Wink: I have followed the FS from 4.0, I still remember installing it from diskette with the add on scenery and later with the 4.1 the add on sound disk. I have always enjoyed evolving with the new versions of the game and add on's. This makes me feel sooo old hihi. I started in '85 or '86 with "MSFS". (damn, nearly 30 years of FlightSimulating. Of all the things I could have done....)

I find that, now we finally have affordable beast machines in witch we can fly using full scenery and add on scenery in full detail without losing fps. Mine has forever been set to 30 fps. Only in Frankfurt main (add on scenery) does the fps jitter between 25-30, in flight at 2000ft I can circle the plane view without it dropping. My only regret is that Ms has abandoned FSX and left it for what it is.
On the plus side is that we the user could not only fly in FSX but also build, model and repaint, then you could get into plane, heli, boat or car and examine your own creation. This to me is JOY and fun gaming software.

Now to the reason for my reply:

I read that the graphics are better, does this affect the fps or do we need to set the scenery to low for the next 10 years till we can afford to get x16 core with 2tb ram and a Quad graphic card before we can set it to high again? (sorry for the slight exaggeration)

Not being able to talk to anyone? Do you mean the only tower you have contact with is the airport where you took off from?

Flight itself? How does it compare to the FSX?

Can't you get a copilot to do the radio like in FSX? Now that I have the time to do other things while flying I often set the freq manually, except for when you need to switch from one to another and back again and again while lining up for landing. So that won't be too bad.

Maps? Does your flight freeze while looking at maps like in FSX or do you have options for those who have multi-display?

I have also read somewhere that it's possible to import your planes from FSX to XP10, if so does this only count for planes and can you repaint in XP10?

Is it DDS files, or totally different?

Is there an SDK for XP10?

Saying that. Can you adjust things? (like parking spaces and buildings)
Do you see ai parked half into buildings and trees in roads? lol

I heard that it's over 50Gb. is this installed or does it 'JUST GET BIGGER' or do you have an option to load from Disk?

Can you fly with friends? (Multiplayer, LAN) Microphone?

I would like to make the leap over to XP10, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort, I'm so attached to my FSX and that is over 50Gb with all the add on's. (well, the preferred one's. Airbus A380 is okay, but I do not need 30 repaints in my simobjects, like some I know).

Mealone

Hi Mealone,

Like yourself I've been an FSX'er for ages, only came to X-Plane with version 10. I've found myself drifting back into FSX more recently when I found the Hi Memory and Quad Core FSX.cfg tweaks to make it use my newer machine.

From my own experience so far as an owner of XP-10 global, here some answers to your questions.

GRAPHICS

I've found in XP-10 ignoring the suggested 'detected' lower graphics settings and bumping it up on my quad-core Windows 7 PC; there doesn't appear to be any real jerkiness at all.
I have a GeoForce GTS 250 graphics card and 4GB of RAM.

ATC TALK

In XP-10 you must enter a flight-plan (which you have to manually calculate, no auto flight plan like FSX) in order to communicate with ATC at all.

Once you'll created a flight plan,
- you file it with the tower.
- you tune to ground who talk to you for taxing
- they hand off to the tower, you must manually retune your radio
- once airborne you must manually re-tune to approach
- then they'll track your flight eventually handing you over to approach at destination

In FSX, in flight you can bring up the ATC window and list nearest airports and request different assistance; like landing or tracking.

This kind of feature isn't present in XP-10, you can tune your comm radio to a frequency, but unless you have a flight plan;
ATC will not speak back.

FLIGHT COMPARISON

In FSX you get a lot of help with short-cut panels, in XP-10 it's much closer to the real thing. You have to set all the comm, nav and gps features in the real location in the aircraft.

For example, setting the GPS in the Cessna Skyhawk in XP-10, it is suggested you visit the Garmin website to read the genuine manual as the you operate it just like the real thing, in situ on the dashboard.

Although you can have keyboard shortcuts for everything, you can rely on a pop-up panel for things such a taxi and landing lights.

I personally think that XP-10 is model much more on actually climbing into the real aircraft and having to find the relevant controls to fly. For example, took me a while to realise the comm and nav frequencies have to be punched in on the central column panels in the 747. Unlike in FSX, where a shortcut panel saves you time.

Sometimes I like the 'realism' of XP-10, with Austin (the owner and programmer of XP-10) basing the software on his own profressional commercial piloting experience.

However, for 'pleasure flying' and sight-seeing I drift back into FSX. It's easy to jump into any aircraft, take off and simply tune your NDB or VOR to a far off point and saunter across the sky.

MAPS

I've not actually checked in the sim freezes whilst looking at the map in XP-10. But I have found the map to be little annoying for longer flight sessions.

In FSX you can hop into the aircraft at any airfield, zoom the map out to a large area and pick a far off point.

In XP-10 for speed, it only loads the map points for a smaller radius, so far off airports, VORs, NDBs are not shown on the map until your aircraft is in nearby airspace.

In XP-10 it does show on the map a bearing ROSE around your aircraft, VORs and airports. You can see at a glance a rough heading to set.

For the UK (where I'm based), there appears to be far more airfields in XP-10 than in FSX. XP-10 appears to include alot of the little flying club airstrips, which transpire to be a simple grass strip in a field.

AIRCRAFT & SCENERY

I've found looking around the web that I can't find many downloads for aircraft or scenery. Although there is an airfoil maker that ships with XP-10 for creating your own.

As for VFR scenery, I've been tempted to purchase some for the UK but seeing mixed reports that it's compatible for XP-9 and XP-10 and some people have struggled.

As for converting FSX to XP-10, not sure on aircraft; but reading instructions on converting VFR scenery from FSX... it looks very complicated needing about 3 pieces of software.

There is another tool available (WED I think?) for creating custom airport buildings and layouts.

AI TRAFFIC & AIRCRAFT

The autogen moving cars, trains and planes in XP-10 is very good. You can reduce the quantities to speed up your FPS.

There is also an option to ask AI to fly your own aircraft so you can take a wander around inside and out of your aircraft, whilst it safely fly itself.

The 'lights' is a big feature that XP-10 has over FSX.
When flying at dawn or dusk, the sky turns red, clouds illuminate according to the suns position.

Also, at night each light is individual; car, truck, plane, street light, aircraft landing and spot lights.

So you can fly a helicopter over the auto-gen traffic at night, seeing a spot light highlight at vehicle; whilst the next street light also illuminates it.

Airfield lights are much better in XP-10, from runway to taxiways.

INSTALL SIZE

XP-10 Global comes on 8 DVDs.... but the main software is on one of them. The other 7 DVDs are the scenery/airports for the entire world.

During install you can select the areas you intend to fly in.
For example, if like me you fly mainly in the UK, it'll ask you to install from DVD 1 and then maybe one or two of the other DVDs. I opted to install all 8.... and yes takes up about 50GB.

MULTIPLAY

XP-10 does have network play, but no internet based multiplay.

As XP-10 is based on a commercial basis, it has things such as using a dual screen. Instructor can use second screen to monitor and influence scenarios on the other pilot screen.

For further reading, I suggest taking a look at the XP Support page http://www.x-plane.com/support/manuals/

For me personally, I'm torn between both....

I'm currently flying more on FSX for pleasure and sight-seeing.

Then using XP-10 for around the UK and the world flight.
(but finding airports without fuel depots in XP-10, spoils the realism.... you open a pop-up menu option to reset the fuel levels)

Hope this helps....

Enjoy

Mike

Cheers Mike,

Yes it does help. I was a little puzzled by the manual before I typed on the forum.
If you want to know specific points about certain software, in a manual you need to read 2 - 4 pages and that's only one point you were curious about. Okay, so you get to know it in more detail than you expected sometimes, but most of the time it slides off to something entirely different.
On a forum or the internet you can search and get just that what you were looking for and your done in 10 min.
This is now the second post on a forum, I've never done it before.

Nice to hear about the installed size although 50Gb is quite large for a default install, like I said in the previous post my FSX takes up about 50Gb and that's with all my fav add-ons.
I like the ai being able to take over the flight for you, but thats like watching a film the take off and landings are for me the thrill of flight sims. In FSX landing with approach gives you a little bit more time to switch channels and concentrate more on other things that need to be done that otherwise get set by your copilot or ATC.

I fly mainly with a 737 or a321

http://imagebucket.flyawaysimulation.com/images/fVUt2.jpg

This is my repaint I made in 2010 from an old photo I had lying around. I have been looking for this one for years, never found one so I collected all the software I needed and made it myself, being from England you might recognise it. I was born in the Midlands but now live in Belgium. So most of my flight-plans are Brussels to London, Birmingham, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, Spain (Ibiza-LEIB) I saw a Youtube, XP-10 747 landing in Ibiza! This could never happen irl, runway is too short. LOL

Anyway, thanks again for the time you made in reacting to my post, I am very grateful to you as will many others for the FSX v XP-10
I will try it out (got it now) Going to install it and play around a little get to know the feel of it.
I will post later how I got on (it could take a few weeks though).

Have a good one
Bye

Mealone

Thx Mealone! 😀

I look forward to hearing about your experience, good or bad about XP-10.

Regards

Mike

Hi Mike,

Installed the Package, although I only wanted the European scenery I still needed to use all the DVD's to the amount of 12.2Gb. :😳:
Now at first glands, it looks okay, but then the control's. It seems to me there are too many of them, for instance: Autopilot "Heading Sync/Heading +/Heading -" even then you need to switch it on. The same for the Alt and speed. Altering the Altitude while in flight is murder, chasing after that tiny little button to get the +/- sign and the clicking it, that's if it works.

In FSX the button is stable with a push/pull, it's on the dash and easy to control. Okay they say it's more realistic than FSX, do they then need to make it difficult to operate?

Then again I've only been testing it for four days now, it's more than likely me. As I said in previous post I fly to LEIB. When I landed there I couldn't see any scenery of the airport except the runway. I tried boosting up the graphics to full and still nothing, bit disappointing I think, for an international Airport, or does this also have something to do with my settings? ❓

As I said I'm still learning. I may or may not get the hang of it. Then again if this is the future of flight simulating then I think I'll just stick with the FSX. But, then again it's too early to make rash decisions. Waste of good money? At this point yes! But I don't give up that easy. Once I get to know the 586 controls by heart and add a second keyboard to set the keys to. I should be doing just fine.

I think it's a shame, they have put so much effort into the detail of the clouds, but the scenery could have done with a little more effort. I mean, What if you're flying on a sunny day (no clouds) what a waste and yet you'll enjoy the scenery more than you would clouds. Strange! 😕

On a short flight in the Cessna, flying with Joystick at 1500meters alt. I came across roads disappearing into the ground and yet the vehicles go over the ground. If I have the choice, I would opt for square clouds and decent roads and houses.

In FSX I was able to use the Google maps in combination while flying, this was even more realistic, but the down side was that you couldn't land on it and it was all flat, but while in the air it was great.

I reckon It will take me longer to get use to the X-Plane 10 than I had planned. Then again we all need something to keep us occupied in the cold, dark, winter evenings

You land safely now!! dya hear? 😀

Mealone Out! 😉

Hi Mealone! 😀

Like yourself I'm a long term FSXer, and finding the jury is still out for me on whether I really want to keep my XP-10.

I bought it fairly near it's launch date, so paid a fair amount for it.

I completely agree on the scenery being very poor as a proximity of the real world. For example, see my earlier example about Niagara Falls.

I find with clouds switched on and flying through the hills, quickly changing the time of day using "Time up lots" and "Time down lots", the lighting effects are pretty good, especially at dusk/evening.

But sadly, sometimes; I find the lighting more impressive than the scenery; so flying at night you can see the autogen vehicles and street lights. Far superior to FSX on this one.

Their does at first glance appear to be a HUGE set of controls, but I've found that predominately I can fly most sorties using my joystick with 12 buttons and the hat swtich.

I did print 3 sheets of A4 for controls, but overtime realised didn't need hardly any of them.

Like you, I do find the interactive dashboard +/- controls a little fiddly... for example when you need to change the heading on the autopilot for a 747. You spend ages sliding the mouse to one side to turn the dial.

Autopilot takes a bit of getting used to, you fly to desired height then set ALT. Unlike FSX whereby you set it first, and plane automatically ascends to chosen ALT.

One thing I do find tedious is having to keep putting the DVD 1 in to play.... (my PC is shared with my children. So they put their games in). If you don't put it in, it'll go into demo mode and only one area is loaded. Entire world becomes water!

Look forward to hearing more,

Thanks for your feedback

Mike

Hi Mike,
I'm beginning to enjoy posting here, hihi. I very much agree with you about the lighting in Xplane10.

About your set back to starting the Xplane10. I think I have a solution for you. I downloaded a copy of the first DVD in ISO format to my 2nd drive, I have "Daemon tools Lite free" to start-up with windows, This is also setup to automatically load the ISO as a virtual DVD drive. All I need to do is click on the icon on the desktop and Xplane10 detects the virtual DVD 1 and is ready if and when I want to play.
You could make it yourself using the "Imgburn" or "Nero" But, I too am lazy sometimes, or preoccupied with other things need to be done. So, no restarting or demo mode for me. I hope this helps.

I too have a 1,2,3... yep, 12 button SAITEK CYBORG EVO joystick and I'm very pleased with it, been using it for FSX for four years now, my previous joystick started jumping after a few month's even while you're calibrating it, but not this one. I have started setting the buttons, but can't seems to get it just right and keep changing them till I myself don't know what or where I set everything. It would help if I just had a list of the standard switch's and where to set them to. After I get used to the settings I can change or add a few of the one's I personally find practical.

Autopilot:
Is that for real? I'm so used to presetting the ALT before take-off, That should be so IRL too if it isn't.

I still miss the repainting every time I start the XP-10, I always seem to fall back to the FSX for that. It's a shame we can't copy our planes over from FSX to XP-10. I have seen the program you could use to make models and things but after five years of 3DsMax under my belt I find it hard to start learning other software. They use Solidworks in the office, tried that and after 30sec the hairs on the back of my neck start to stick out from the frustration of not being able to find what I'm looking for. When in 3DsMax it's a 2sec job. I'm not saying I'm good with 3DsMax, just that why make life difficult when you have Autodesk.

Chin up, Fly straight and have a good one. 😉

Mealone 😀

Hi Mike,
I have been very busy trying to get used to the XP-10. Started it up about 25 times in the last three weeks and really tried to get used to the environment, switches and controls. But, I find it so tiring just to take a short flight, with all the jitters and knocks you get while flying, little to nobody to communicate to, hardly any decent scenery, no activity round the airports apart from the standard 747's either hanging around doing nothing or constantly in the way, even to each other. as for jet ways, parking, fuelling, navigation, directions, decent flight maps, oh and maps (what a disaster). from my point of view X-Plane-10 is lacking on all accounts.
There are only two thing going that are superior to FSX.
1) The lighting weather wise
2) Plane Texture, I should say ground texture too, but can't because other than the light-brown ground texture in FSX, the rest is almost the same.

Okay so you do get better motorways (signposted and lights) but even they suddenly disappear into the ground every now and then. And the bridges are just as bad if not worse than FSX.

I can't help feeling so alone in the X-Plane-10, it's like riding a bike with no wheels, you soon get bored out of your scull.

I'm not saying "it's a sorry excuse for a flight sim". All I'm saying is keep up the good work, I going to uninstall the XP-10 software, and give it 10 more years before I return to it. Because I think that is roundabout the amount of time they need to reach the level of today's 'FSX Acceleration'. I feel like they are taking away the interaction and excitement of enjoying a 'Flight Simulator'. It's not a game, it's a simulation, so it should feel that way too.

Last year November, I bought the 'Euro-truck-sim' It had just came out. After getting used to the controls, I really enjoyed getting around as if I was still doing my old job as a truck driver, but in simulation mode. Sometimes I felt the real thing, you know 'braking on time, speed limits, waiting for the lights to turn green, checking the GPS and cruise control' then there was the loading and unloading, getting to the destination on time, fuelling and so on....

But the XP-10 hasn't got that yet!! and for me it's a long way off.

I'm sorry but, I'm going to have to give X-Plane-10 a '4' out of 10 for the moment.
Now it's time to go and free up some Gb's on my HD.

It was a great pleasure to talk to you here. And I will miss it in a way, but I will stick around to read new post's of other people's experience's and yours of course. I can only hope that it won't take another 10 years for X-Plane-10 to reach the FSX level, I know FSX won't be around forever and we need a new Flight Sim platform. X-Plane-10 are off to a good start.

The best of luck to you all
Hope to hear from you very soon, if not hear then maybe another string. I'm sorry about my results on X-Plane-10, I was just being honest.

Mealone

Hi Mealone!

Thanks for your feedback... it sounds like you and me are coming to the same conclusion on XP-10.

I completely agree with the feeling of being alone... with the very minimal ATC. You can simply fly solo for hours, without any interaction. Apart from if you switch on a few extra planes to follow you.

I've been back to FSX after I came across TileProxy.... the ability to download realtime Microsoft or Yahoo aerial / satellite photos onto the game in real time.

I started a flight around the UK in XP-10, and found way more little airfields to land at... but the pure lack of simple things like runway numbers, made finding the airfields (even with GPS on!) really cumbersome.

I decided to complete my UK tour using FSX with TileProxy... much more enjoyable. Could plan well ahead with VORs and NDBs, see airfields really well in midst of realistic VFR scenery.

I tried a helicopter flight in XP10 at night using the scenario "Take off from helipad", lighting was novel for a while chasing cars along highways with my spotlight.

In FSX; I enjoyed flying from Wick, Scotland up to the the Inner and Outer Hebrides using VFR with TileProxy. Navigating using the VORs along the way.

Tried a short leg in XP-10, in minutes I found myself fighting with the fiddly rotating dials.... missing the simplicity of the pop-up Autopilot panel in FSX.

I too am coming to the conclusion, FSX over XP-10.

Think it needs a fair bit more work to stop me reselling it.

Regards

Mike

Hi Mike,

Just a quick post before I retire,

I think it must have been 6 - 8 years ago when I first (installed, configured) used the google satellite proxy server with my FSX. Then you where limited to a certain amount of tile downloads.
I took off and flew for something like 15 min then the default scenery returned, and for some reason the fsx crashed. I remember it was great while it lasted, but I recall the default scenery fighting to get through as the tiles where downloading. I'm glad to see that they have followed up on this type of connection for "real time" flying experience. I haven't tried it yet, but because you mentioned it in your last post, I thought I'd give it another try. And with an installer it should be easier than when I tried it so many years ago. I have reinstalled the FSX a few times since then and the only files I copied to the new install where my Aircraft folder, so I haven't got the files I downloaded from google and other sites to get it up and running. I did however read before I started that the download was limited and would only work for an X amount of time. But tried it anyway.

I have the TP on the drive and the latest ini update, backed up my cfg's so I'm ready to install. Only trouble is 'time' work tomorrow so it will have to wait.

Mealone

PS I would like to fly with you some time. if that's possible! 😂

Hi Mike,
As I said, I have installed and configured the TileProxy to use in FSX. Why you ask?
This is the reason while we are still here in XP-10 vs FSX thread. You see, I gather from your experience with XP-10 and FSX that you prefer both and can't make a final decision what to keep.
This my friend is up to you, I'm not trying to downgrade either one. I have tried and experimented with XP-10 (using just the default install, no added packages or upgrades).
I've been flying in FSX for nearly thirty years, it has always been my favourite software on the pc and every time the first software I install on a clean system when I've upgraded my MB and HD. I could not begin to count the hours I've spent in MSFS. Over the years all that has been added was plane models and Airports. So for me its been an easy install all the time. The only folders I carry over to the new install are the Airplanes and these last five years the Addon scenery, mainly because I have miss placed most of my downloads over the years.

The first impression I got from XP-10 was the enhanced texture on aircraft as well as the terrain detail and the motorways. It was only a few days later I noticed the weather changes to add to the beauty of the software. There is no doubt that an extreme amount of time and skill has been put in to the designing of this software. But being used to the FSX I find it hard to compare, my FSX has been built up over the years and I have got so adapted to the environment, when I started to use the XP-10 it was as if I had entered another planet and needed to alter my way of flying, tweaking and configuring to get it to run as smooth as FSX. Like they say "As close to the real thing you can get". But it's still a sim.
I find it should be as easy as driving a car without getting your driver's licence. You don't have to be a mechanic to drive, so why do you need to know everything about flying and instruments before take-off.
This is the easy part for FSX. I have now uninstalled the XP-10 and made a few flights in FSX the only thing I missed was the difference in terrain texture. So, I have now added a few enhancements to my FSX to get the XP-10 feeling back. These are the FS Global and the FTX Global. After carefully reviewing the comments on several different forums and websites I came to the conclusion that this is what I've been waiting for all these years. If you don't have it you don't miss it, I used to say. But, after seeing the photo's on the net, I could not believe they came from FSX screenshots till I installed and looked for myself.
The TileProxy gives you the feel of real flight Okay, But when it gets dark there's nothing to see, the FS Global is spectacular at night as well as in daytime and with the 'ground shadows on' it's almost as real as it gets and with little frame loss. I still need to tweak it here and there to get a good balance, It's pretty new for me, when I installed it my FSX settings were still all at MAX, but I still made a flight from Brussels to Heathrow without reducing anything and FPS average was 15. Not bad for the full wack on first run haha.

I would recommend both packs be added to your FSX asap, it's an experience you will not regret. I am never going to uninstall back to default. The install took a fare amount of time, but it's well worth the effort and every penny. I'm just a little disappointed I didn't do it sooner.

This way you get better scenery than XP-10 and you can still enjoy your old FSX to the MAX.

Have a good flight and see you soon
Mealone

PS. My next challenge is Hosting and multiplay. Not knowing much about Networking outside my home, so it might get painfully tiring. but a pilot's got to do what a pilot's got to do.

hi all

I have been using fs2004 and fsx for almost 8 years..took the chance to get xplane 10 while in SA over xmas , paid "ZAR800" amlmost 80US$ and disappointed to the bone..
any new program is always a pain in the begining but compared to fs2004 or fsx ,i personaly prefer fs2004
the graphics in xplane is dull specialy "africa - namibia" so flying is like over the desert
ATC is not active UNLESS u change the radio manualy..not like in FS pop up window , select airport and viola!!!!
xplane 10 migh be great in the long run but for flying fun and as close to real as it gets...my opinion on x-plane 10..3 out 10 and not to mention the poor plane graphics..looks like fsim98 and payware aircraft is WAY TOO expensive for a "fun sim at home" unless you have $$$$$$$$$$$$ to flock out just for simming...not me

Is it true that x-plane's physics engine models simulated airflow?
fsx seems to have a more static flight model. is this right?

I was an avid flyer with FS2004 with many great add ons and jumped into FSX until it would not run on my pc... ended up with an apple air and demo of Xplane 10.

I understand those that talk about flight dynamics and wanting it to be as real as possible to flying, but in reality it is never going to be anything near to flying, you need to be in a plane to experience that other than the controls of the aircraft and simulated weather and wind. (ok I await the 'of course it can brigade').

My point being with adons and scenery in FSX / 2004 it made the sim an immersive experience. As a 'virtual pilot' I do want be make a flight into airports I recognise, I want to see the real world around me and I want my plane to look like the real thing. Im creating a virtual world which means if the flight dynamics are not quite the same in FSX vs Xplane am I really going to notice? I want to be able to create flight plans, taxi, take off, see nice clouds, land, and do all the things a pilot would do...

So right now I do not get that from plane, whether the flight dynamics are right for real world pilots or not, its not a particularly pleasing virtual world right now.. and at the price it is I want it to be better than anything FSX out the box does.. but switching to it I just don't feel its revolutionary enough to say my god what have I been missing all these years...

my opinion thats all.. no more no less ...

can anybody from England help me with xplane10, navigation setting up the plane, and all the controls I have to play this sim.

many thanks dave Walsall. phone me on 07814262804. I can phone your land line for free, please help.

I have owned every and I mean every version of MSFS since ver 2 however long that has been. I also have had other sims over the years like ATP pilot, F-15 strike Eagle and a few others but never thought I would get this wrapped up in something like this in my life. All the addon airports, aircraft and a host of other stuff over the 20+ years doing this. Not to mention all the hardware; computer, controllers, multiple monitors just as a starter. Then came along X-Plane which I have had since version 9.22 then 10

Major stuff to consider
=================

FSX:
Runs 32 bit No Higher
Runs on Microsoft OS will run on the others but still limited to the 32bit requirements
Max avail ram 8 GB because of the OS
Video is usually downgraded so you have to match or change to what system specs you have.

X-Plane:
Installs on Windows, Linux, and Mac
32 or 64 bit your choice. 64 bit is much better
Memory is unlimited
Video is matched for use of the vector graphics better

Minor stuff
=============
Creating flight plans is so simple go to one of a dozen or more flight plan sites create and download, choose and save. For X-Plane don't leave the site. Copy the route to insert in the flt plan page.

FSX:
Weather buy a good weather engine.
Traffic buy the addon
A good FMC other than vasFMC payware
Great looking airports payware quality (photorealistic) there are a few freeware but most payware
Have to disable the stock ATC if flying online

X-Plane:
Weather: Python script from the NOAA
Traffic: either get world traffic or use a python script to generate
Airports are created using the earth nav data file and actually very easy for a stock airport using the World Editor. I created a local airfield which I am still working on but just a good bit of small detail work in progress.
The stock ATC is automatically disabled when you are connected to vatsim
Tuning of radios which can be preset using a python script. Oh and on X-Plane.org just found a script that searches for and assist in programming the com and nav radios of channels that are close to the aircraft.
FMC: X-FMC is the best for a freeware product. UFMC is better if you want to shell out funds.

That is all for now
Either way enjoy
John

I moved from FSX to X-Plane why would i want to go back look at the graphics mint with better frames per second than FSX

ProMotion Video

How do u set more than one plane to fly with you on x plane 10 cause all I get is on 😎 😞

How do u set more than one plane to fly with you on x plane 10 cause all I get is one 😎 😞

You may be interested in our XP11 vs FSX article here:
https://flyawaysimulation.com/news/4950/