A quick question to those of you who have both FSX and Xplane10:
- Which do you prefer overall and what are a few of the strengths and weaknesses of each? I do get that the aerodynamics in xPlane are supposed to be more realistic but, not being a RL pilot, I'm not sure I can fully appreciate the differences. Also, I've heard that FSX has more aircraft and scenery options available with a little searching and, possibly, a little spending. Xplane does have a combat option and I'm interested in trying some combat in obscure aircraft of the 20's, 30's, and 40's.
- I've also considered flying some European airspace starting with following the Rhine from the North Sea to the Boden See. Can anyone recommend a detailed set of scenery packages that offer lots of eye-candy, such as traffic, both ship and shore, as well as detailed buildings and realistic terrain/vegetation? I plan to build a new gaming rig later this year or early next so I'm not worried about performance.
If you are a more All round user like I suspect you are, I think you will find FSX to be more enjoyable. It has more additional stuff on offer and has a better user experience.
Xplane is on the up though and a great project. Especially the latest version has made some good strides forward. Lighting is gorgeous and flight dynamics are good for the bigger jets.
But the available quality addon content is sparde and hard to find.
But the project as a whole has a lot of potential and as its the only civillian sim still being developed the future looks bright with devs like PMDG having announced that they will adopt Xplane.
Still, I find its not quite there yet in relation to the big package Fs has to offer.
I'm uing FSX, but find XPX to be very tempting indeed, but agree with ysk that it probably has not yet shown its full potential. Unless MS come back to 'proper' FS, then I suspect the future will lie with XPX.
FSX is entertaining and educational at e same time.
XPlane is more education. Flight is good but but lacks the "complete packaging" that FSX has.
FSX has more add ons too.
If you want to look at the next gen FSX. Please Google Lockheed Martin's Prepar3d. But for me FSX is good enough.
II don't like the XPlane community. I feel many there are elitist and belittles FSX users.
Thanks for the feedback guys. Jomni, that Prepar3d looks like it may have potential. I did notice this next to the license versions feature chart (http://www.prepar3d.com/product-overview/prepar3d-license-comparison/) though:
QuoteTo see which version of Prepar3D® is right for you, please reference the chart on the right. As provided in our End User License Agreement, the Prepar3D application is not to be used, offered, sold or distributed through markets or channels for use as a personal/consumer entertainment product.
So, onto #2:
Can anyone recommend a very high quality European scenery package that covers the are from the Alps to the North Sea? I don't mind paying for it if the price is reasonable but I need to know the product is detailed enough from a VFR eye candy stand point.
Stagger, Xplane comes with detailed scenery for the whole globe. The only thing you need to add yourself are the various detailed airports, because those are all generic, apart from Boeing Field (IIRC).
There's also a plugin available that converts OpenStreetMap data into scenery for Xplane.
Its a time consuming task and packs are available for sale which feature complete updated regions for importing into Xplane, complete with accurate airfields.
As for FSX, you will need to look at the various scenery packs, either commercially or freely available.
But I don't think you can get a big region like you are looking for in one pack.
This is basically, because -like Xplane- FSX comes with (lower detail) scenery of the whole globe and people update parts of it with detail that they find interesting to fly in/through.
NL2000 is a very detailed freeware scenery pack covering Holland, the North Sea, a bit of Belgium and a bit of Germany's West border.
It's a big performance hog, though. And you will find this to be the case with many detailed scenery for FSX.
The best advise I can give you is to look on sites like Avsim.com and FLightsim.com to get an idea what's available.
Also publishers like Aerosoft and FLight1 are carrying some great scenery packs.
The above illustrates the flightsim world; it's a hobbyist scene where people like to fiddle with stuff. Therefore it is very hard to find a one-stop-shop. It's all fragmented. And this goes even more for Xplane.
But if you know your way, there is so much cool stuff to be found.
That's good advice. Avsim is a pretty good source of content.
Thanks again!
Just curious, appears they are currently on series 10 for xplane....did that just recently come out and expected to be within that series for awhile, or is 11 (or whatever the next release is) soon to come out? Seems you get free updates in the current series and with the hefty $70 price tag, would hate to purchase and find out next version is just right around the corner.
10 has been out around a year or so IIRC. I have v.9 but didn't find it as easy to use or as complete as FSX. I was curious how improved v. 10 is so I've already installed the demo and that does look pretty good. The demo lets you fly any aircraft you want that you can find online (you even get a few helpful emails from somebody at Laminar Reaserch) but it has a timeout after which you can no longer control your a/c. I don't imagine v.11 is right around the corner though I'm not up on any xplane scuttlebutt either.
No the 64 bit version is new and we are on version 10.21, so my guess is there are a lot more comming.
My biggest complain with xp is flight planning, that really sucks. But the rest, when one has learned the ui, is really nice. A dawn flight is really a sight to behold, the lightning system is absolutly in the major league (imho). And the payware planes are pretty good with a lot different plugins.
Indeed, I don't think XP11 is anywhere near.
The thing that bugs me the most is that a) Xplane generates random fictitious airfields b) all airfields are tarmac only without any structures whatsoever unless you either place structures yourself with the included editors or download scenery made by others.
Xplane really is a aviation sandbox kit. It has extensive editors to create everything from aircraft to scenery included, but it is a LOT of work to create something.
With XP10 now finally getting some more mainstream exposure things are just starting to get rolling more seriously, but as a lot of products are still a work in progress you will need to have some more patience.
One project that is absolutely beautiful is the 777 project found here: http://store01.prostores.com/servlet/x-planestore/Detail?no=398
Another thing that XP asolutely is king over vs FSX is its lighting engine as mentioned above.
Scenery using the OpenStreetMap feature is cool as well as all the roads are real and in-sim, world wide.
The scenery engine reads 'regions' from the openstreet map import and then genericly places buildings in those zones. Residential/Commercial and Industrial.
While the technology is cool, the result is less great with a lot of cities not resembling their real world counterparts due to weird input from the scenery engine. Obviously landmark structures won't be automatically imported either and need to be placed manually.
Hence the up and coming scenery packs.
All in all, XP really has GREAT potential to become the premiere civilian flight simulator, but its developer studio is tiny and its userbase is still pretty obscure.
XPlane Scenery sounds good on paper but poor in application. You get real world road networks using openstreetmap but it does not know what type of building to place along the roads. Most of the time, big cities become green suburbs. And other areas are poorly covered by OSM.
The default scenery texture is nice and better than FSX when flying low. But it doesn't change by the season.
I have flown FSX for years and would recommend it over X-Plane. Both have their + and - , however FSX is the one I have come back to. Be aware through you may have to do some tweaking to get FSX where you want to, however once set it is great. I own a ton of add-ons and I can recommend some freeware and payware to start out with if you like.
If you are flying Europe then you need this texture set as it is free and is what I use by Adam Mills (I use it over GEX Europe). This is the #1 freeware I can recommend and if you are flying VFR then anything from http://carenado.com is suburb (payware).
Adam Mills EU Texture Setup (parts 1 - 8)
http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php?searchid=9693645
FSX has moved to PrePar3D http://www.prepar3d.com/ which has taken the engine and made some refinements to it. I have not purchased as my FSX setup is running fine, but others have moved to it with a little less hassle. Note that some add-ons meant for FSX will not work in PrePar3D so that is a downside.
PE