X-Plane versus FS9 orX

[ryanf]

Hi All,

I also tried out X-plane a few years ago. The scenery was very basic and the flight characteristics of the few default planes I flew seemed to be very unusual - did not feel right to me - of course thats a very subjective statement.

However, one thing I have to recognise is that it is the software of choice for some commercial flight sim vendors such as Precision Flight Controls. They package it with hardware in sim setups from desktop units to full FNPT sims, and it is approved by the FAA - so it must good.

cheers,
Ryan.

[Tomlin]

Hi All,

I also tried out X-plane a few years ago. The scenery was very basic and the flight characteristics of the few default planes I flew seemed to be very unusual - did not feel right to me - of course thats a very subjective statement.

However, one thing I have to recognise is that it is the software of choice for some commercial flight sim vendors such as Precision Flight Controls. They package it with hardware in sim setups from desktop units to full FNPT sims, and it is approved by the FAA - so it must good.

cheers,
Ryan.

Exactly, so what were you and I doing wrong? :-]

[ryanf]

wish I knew

That's why I was also considering giving it a try-out again....

/Ryan.

[Bob Reed]

wish I knew

That's why I was also considering giving it a try-out again....

/Ryan.

Well if you have never flown a real plane and all you have ever flown is FS you might be misled. One of the things that struck me the very first time I flew X-Plane was how real the airplane felt... Putting this feeling into words will not be easy but in a real airplane when you move the yoke or the rudder pedals, since the plane is "floating on air" you feel that. In other words the plane tends to move on all axes not just the axes you effect with the controls. Wow not explaining this very well but it feel almost "spongy" Anyone else understand what I am trying to say that can explain it better? Any way X-Plane has that feeling to the aircraft much more then FS... The plane responds like it is in the air not turn like a car.

[Tomlin]

Well if you have never flown a real plane and all you have ever flown is FS you might be misled. Wow not explaining this very well but it feel almost "spongy" Anyone else understand what I am trying to say that can explain it better? Any way X-Plane has that feeling to the aircraft much more then FS... The plane responds like it is in the air not turn like a car.

Yes, now THAT I can understand as Ive flown lots before, but the over-all handling to me is not very good. Maybe it was the default aircraft, but then again, that's my whole point. If the software supposedly models how the real design would move thru space and time, the 747 was built horribly (in XP).

Thanks Bob, that was a good comparison btw! I just cant feel that in XP though. Maybe I should go back and try it.

[Bob Reed]

Well one of the things you have to remember Eric.. Is sitting in our non moving chairs it "feels" different as you cant feel the movement by the "seat of your pants!" By the way all I used was the default AC but just the GAs as I think that is where all the work went. I never tried any heavy iron in X-Plane...

[Matt Olieman]

Austin Meyers focus has always been about the aerodynamics and performance of the aircraft. Input and output and the results as it were a real aircraft in the air or on the ground. Scenery/cosmetics has always been second. Although the scenery has made a significant improvement. Well, at least that's my opinion.

MSFS has all the bells and whistles and comes close enough for me to have enjoyment out my sim, as most of you do. But I'd love to see the Austin Meyer expertise in MSFS, it is too bad FSUIPC nor PM software does not work with X-Plane, because that's what I would be using in my sim.

[Tomlin]

Austin Meyers focus has always been about the aerodynamics and performance of the aircraft. Input and output and the results as it were a real aircraft in the air or on the ground. Scenery/cosmetics has always been second. Although the scenery has made a significant improvement. Well, at least that's my opinion.

MSFS has all the bells and whistles and comes close enough for me to have enjoyment out my sim, as most of you do. But I'd love to see the Austin Meyer expertise in MSFS, it is too bad FSUIPC nor PM software does not work with X-Plane, because that's what I would be using in my sim.

What would be nice would be to see a huge financial increase to be worked into the XPlane platform, to bring all of this together. Even better would be if someone had the ability to start a new product alltogether.

I have often dreamed of if I 'won the lottery' about putting together a team of experts to build a competing product to MSFS/Xplane/CAE/FSI software. Yes, it would cost a ton in R&D, but obviously it can be done. Just secure the capitol and resources and then market the heck out of the product and get it in the hands of the user base.

A team of individuals that were absolutely brilliant in their software/graphics skills would usher in an amazing new sim that can only be dreamed of. We have the talent out there- but many of them have thier day jobs and cant devote the time like the user base would like to see unless it was their full time jobs. By it being built from the ground up and not affiliated with any of the big power-house software companies, the project managers could pick and choose from proven elements that would make the product very successful and not require hours and hours of hair pulling once installed on a variety of contemporary machines. The key would be to have a scalable architechture that would allow the user to tailor the software to their hardware while delivering the tools required for 3rd party developers to create the most important content instead of relying only on in-house knowledge. Like MSFS, the 3rd party products would sustain the core development (in theory).

If someone had the money and interest, I dont see why it couldnt be done. Most people will say that there's a good chance that it wouldnt be financially viable, but I disagree. You could have 3 versions, each targeted at a specific user base.

One would serve the home desktop sim market and be made for the masses, like MSFS, complete with a handful of aircraft and an actual SDK included with all the tools released on the day the product is shipped.

The second version would be priced a bit more, but be filled with all of the networking and internal-grabbing software required for home sim building and would possibly have a subscription-based structure in place that would allow for product enhancement as updates were available for a time period.

The third version would be the same software- targeted as a viable alternative for real-world training and priced according to an extended service contract, complete with FAA certification available for a limited number of aircraft.

Dream over...back to the real world for now!

[BlackWidow]

"MSFS has all the bells and whistles and comes close enough for me to have enjoyment out my sim, as most of you do. But I'd love to see the Austin Meyer expertise in MSFS, it is too bad FSUIPC nor PM software does not work with X-Plane, because that's what I would be using in my sim. "


This is exactly how i feel too Matt, I relaoded the Xplane demo after all of this discussion and although i absolutley love the scenery in MSFS (beatuiful eyecandy) I like flying in Xplane it feels much more like beign in a real cessna the effects of the airplane always remind me of beign in my friends 150. When I was speaking with Austin and Airventure 07 I could tell he was very pationate about the flight dynamics in Xplane (and his corvette) although i know that he was tyring to get the eyecandy into Xplane the scenery for Insbruch (spelling) was fantastic and the water was fantastic. Anyway when Austin showed me the outside view of the plane with all the little ribbons on it to show how the forces of the air moving over the aircraft and what this is doing to the plane I knew that if i wanted "as real as it gets" I would have to move to Xplane but I had already spent so much money on interfacing that I could not justify leaving FS.

Eric there are some freeware Xplane heavies that you could easily put into the demo that i think you will find are much more to your idea of a heavy. I dont want to sound like Im bashing FSX over Xplane i think both sims are fantastic. And for under $100.00 we get to fly any plane we want anywhere around the world and never leave home. SWEEEEET

[Bob Reed]

Blackwidow...I agree with you! My version of X-Plane is old now and I am thinking about reloading it and taking a look. There is some hardware that works with it but I do not remember which... PFC does but other then that I am not sure. I am still on the X-Plane's mailing list and still get all the stuff sent out.. The outside view has improved a lot. Yes Austin is VERY pationate over his software... There is a lot of stuff built into the software like multiview over a network and so on... The software has it's +s.....