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P3D vs. X Plane or back to FSX??


BillTheSlink

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I really didn't know where to put this as I am not a newcomer, but I have been away for a very long time and we don't have a general simulation subject forum.

 

I am going to build a new gaming machine with all the latest and greatest hardware, the details of which I am working on now. I want to get back into siming, but don't have a clue as to which program to get. I know there are pros and cons to each, there would have to be, but I can't afford to invest heavily in add-ons for two separate programs and to be truthful wouldn't have the time to use two since I work and go to school. I just don't know the state of the industry right now. For a time reference of how long I have been out, Microsoft had just shut down the FS studio who was developing the new PC FS and was going to go with there "Live" thing (I hear that didn't go so well). P3D was just starting to get off the ground although few used it, and there was X Plane 9 which was second in a two man race. I enjoyed FSX, but things could have been a lot better. There was the dreaded out of memory issue for guys like me who did long hauls, and then over much of the world the scenery wasn't plausible or interesting. I am hoping either P3D or X Plane 10 would correct this.

 

So I am looking to chose a sim and need some guidance. These are the attributes I find important in a sim in the order of most importance. The first two are equally important and are both numbered "1":

 

:MUST BE COMPATIBLE WITH VATSIM:

 

1. Eye candy of environment.

1. Availability of complex and realistically simulated third party aircraft (example PMDG)

2. Hopefully better ATC than FSX whether built in or add-on

3. Availability of decently modeled historical and obsolete aircraft (Example Boeing 707) in freeware or cheap payware.

4. Availability of freeware and payware scenery.

5. Flight dynamics.

 

 

I could sum it up by saying I am more into graphics and systems simulation than being exact on flight dynamics (although they should be somewhat close). I have checked out a few videos on YouTube and that has left me more confused than ever. There was one guy in particular of a P3D channel whose graphics were so good you would almost think it was real. Then in other videos, P3D didn't seem very impressive at all and wasn't much of a step up from FSX. I am really confused at this point.:confused:

 

Can someone point me in the right direction?? I don't know the state of things now, but back in the day there weren't meany add-ons for X-Plane. Is this still true??

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The confusion stems most likely from the fact, that without addons none of the sims 'shines'. Youtube is especially unhelpful, because on top of fancy addons in the sim the videos tend to be edited too.

 

P3D and FSX (SE) are twins. For all intents and purposes P3D is FSX, but it uses an updated graphics engine (displaying the same scenery with the same textures as FSX) - which makes it even more prone to 'out of memory' delights. Without addons both are pretty bleak, but drop in some textures, weather, scenery and a plane you get a very nice looking world (or a slideshow of it if your system can't cope).

 

XPlane is on version 10.3, and just releasing 10.4 i believe. Out of the box 10.3 is as bleak as the other two, ATC and AI still suck, and still no seasons in the XP world. It has been updated to 64 bit, but performance wise this makes no difference (on my system). You seldom get OOMs in XP, but then again, the offering of high quality payware addons is still sparse - so one cannot compare the system load of XP to a 'fully loaded' FSX/P3D.

 

To sum this up: not much has changed with the base platform(s). The addons on the other hand were developed to ever higher levels and are truly amazing nowadays. Still more of the really good stuff for FSX/P3D than for XPlane. But this is only natural, if you have a couple of years to develop your addon because the base platform is not changing, you can really make it shine. Had Microsoft continued to churn out a new sim every 2-4 years, this would not have been possible to the same degree.

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XPlane is on version 10.3, and just releasing 10.4 i believe. Out of the box 10.3 is as bleak as the other two, ATC and AI still suck, and still no seasons in the XP world. It has been updated to 64 bit, but performance wise this makes no difference (on my system). You seldom get OOMs in XP, but then again, the offering of high quality payware addons is still sparse - so one cannot compare the system load of XP to a 'fully loaded' FSX/P3D.

 

To sum this up: not much has changed with the base platform(s). The addons on the other hand were developed to ever higher levels and are truly amazing nowadays. Still more of the really good stuff for FSX/P3D than for XPlane. But this is only natural, if you have a couple of years to develop your addon because the base platform is not changing, you can really make it shine. Had Microsoft continued to churn out a new sim every 2-4 years, this would not have been possible to the same degree.

 

OK, so if you can't have seasons in XPlane and there aren't many high end planes to go in it, I guess I am looking at P3D or going back to FSX. Can most of the photo real scenery made for FSX go into P#D? If so, I think I will just go with P3D. I saw this on YouTube:

and some others like it with P3D and would be happy with this. Very, very happy, but I know there have to be a lot of add-ons being used here.

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You can try the X-Plane 10 demo for free.......if you don't like it, then you can try something else. As far as Youtube videos of any sim, I would not assume the actual graphics look that way. Most people posting those type of videos edit them in video software to make them look that way.

Ricardo

FSThrottle.com

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OK, so if you can't have seasons in XPlane and there aren't many high end planes to go in it, I guess I am looking at P3D or going back to FSX. Can most of the photo real scenery made for FSX go into P#D? If so, I think I will just go with P3D. I saw this on YouTube:

and some others like it with P3D and would be happy with this. Very, very happy, but I know there have to be a lot of add-ons being used here.

 

That video actually really mostly shows the original sim with addons, except maybe the passing cloud fragments and window frames in the wing views - those may have been edited in.

 

The addons used probably are ASN, Rex4Textures, Rex soft clouds, some head shake (Ezdok or opus), the airport scenery from FlyTampa and the PMDG 737 NGX. That makes about 200$ worth of addons, the sim not included. Looks almost as good as FSX boxed on DX10...

 

I have all four sims on my system (FSX boxed, FSX SE, P3D, XP). The one I use almost exclusively is FSX boxed. With the same addons and setting, P3D crashes with OOM whereas my FSX does not. XP I just don't like, it would take a lot of effort to build that one into what I want (took me two years to get my FSX there)

 

P3D has a money back policy too. But. P3D is not aimed at the home simmer, as you will notice when you look at the licensing options.

 

At the present state of affairs, I would have a close eye on Steam. The instant they discount FSX again, buy it. (FSX Steam Edition or "SE" is a recompiled version of FSX with a few bugfixes). XP probably wont fit your bill. But be prepared to spend a lot of time and money for visuals and content. I'm well into the mid four digits by now, still counting.

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Not to hijack the thread, but I want to ask. Is FSX SE radically different from boxed FSX? I mean, can I tweak boxed FSX and get the same 'performance, stability' as FSX SE?

 

No you can't. The binary program code has been rebuilt (recompiled).

 

Not sure about 'performance and stability'. On my system it runs exactly the same as boxed does.

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P3D vs. X Plane or back to FSX??

 

Firstly, if you click 'Forum' near the top of this page and scroll down through the forums list and glance at the 'Viewing' readouts, you'll see that far more people are always viewing the FSX forum than all the others combined, which is a good indication of how popular FSX is.

Secondly I've never had P3D so can't comment on it, but I've had extensive experience with FSX and X-Plane 10, both of which have their good and bad points, and to cut a long story short, I much prefer FSX because it looks so beautiful straight out of the box, and has a wealth of available addon aircraft, and its propeller planes handle a tad more realistically than X-Planes, but of course that's just my personal opinion.

The best thing would be to buy them BOTH (plus P3D) so you can check them out yourself..:)

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Absolutely a no brainier. I have fsx, p3d and xplane. There is no comparison - p3d hands Down. Frame rates are smooth and quick, scenery is much improved with great lighting, better planes (some are payware), and you can fly most any fsx native aircraft in the sim. Have x plane but never use it. Blah scenery, terrible aircraft, and takes hours to set up controls.

 

Well worth the download and price (get the academic).

 

Bob

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Absolutely a no brainier. I have fsx, p3d and xplane. There is no comparison - p3d hands Down. Frame rates are smooth and quick, scenery is much improved with great lighting, better planes (some are payware), and you can fly most any fsx native aircraft in the sim. Have x plane but never use it. Blah scenery, terrible aircraft, and takes hours to set up controls.

 

Well worth the download and price (get the academic).

 

Bob

 

Hi Bob,

 

I'm rather interested in your technical analysis of X-Plane as I've been a fan of the sim and its community for the past fifteen years.

 

You mentioned 'blah scenery' in your post, so I was wondering if you could perhaps explain what you mean by this? The same goes for its associated aircraft, which you describe as 'terrible'. Again, could you tell us what payware aircraft you've tried?

 

In regards to control setup...(on a fresh install) this takes around five minutes once you know what you're doing, so perhaps your joystick has a few more buttons?;)

 

You know, I've said this before and I'll no doubt keep saying it, but why only use one sim? None of them are 100% perfect, but at least by using a dedicated few, you get to experience all their plus points.

 

Happy flying!!

 

Dominic

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That video actually really mostly shows the original sim with addons, except maybe the passing cloud fragments and window frames in the wing views - those may have been edited in.

 

The addons used probably are ASN, Rex4Textures, Rex soft clouds, some head shake (Ezdok or opus), the airport scenery from FlyTampa and the PMDG 737 NGX. That makes about 200$ worth of addons, the sim not included. Looks almost as good as FSX boxed on DX10...

 

I have all four sims on my system (FSX boxed, FSX SE, P3D, XP). The one I use almost exclusively is FSX boxed. With the same addons and setting, P3D crashes with OOM whereas my FSX does not. XP I just don't like, it would take a lot of effort to build that one into what I want (took me two years to get my FSX there)

 

P3D has a money back policy too. But. P3D is not aimed at the home simmer, as you will notice when you look at the licensing options.

 

At the present state of affairs, I would have a close eye on Steam. The instant they discount FSX again, buy it. (FSX Steam Edition or "SE" is a recompiled version of FSX with a few bugfixes). XP probably wont fit your bill. But be prepared to spend a lot of time and money for visuals and content. I'm well into the mid four digits by now, still counting.

 

OK, that makes the most sense to me then. I am willing to shell out $400-$500 right off the bat to get my environment looking right. I was where you were years ago. I thought I never would get back into simming and threw all my old add-ons out when I went threw a massive downsizing of space. While that may sound crazy, I became disabled and it looked like a permanent thing and when the computer died it looked like there would never be another as I was on SSI. Oh well, by now that stuff would likely be obsolete anyway.

 

You said that in the video I posted, it looks like boxed FSX. I am lost on all these different editions of FSX. Which one is the best as far as #1 stability #2 eye candy? I started off with FSX, then it got SP1, then we got Accelerator, and then I think there was an SP2. That's where I got out.

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You said that in the video I posted, it looks like boxed FSX. I am lost on all these different editions of FSX. Which one is the best as far as #1 stability #2 eye candy? I started off with FSX, then it got SP1, then we got Accelerator, and then I think there was an SP2. That's where I got out.

 

Hi, all there is left is FSX Steam Edition or "SE". Dovetail acquired the license to sell FSX from Microsoft, so Steam is were you go. The old "boxed versions" were topped off with "Gold" (FSX and Acceleration with all SPs) a few years ago, and nothing else followed. Microsoft stopped printing the boxed versions (right on cue with the Steam release I reckon) and they are hard to come by.

 

What I did is, I bought yet another addon called "Steve's DX10 Fixer" and switched FSX over to DirectX 10. These IMO are the best visuals you will get out of FSX and some things are only possible in DX10 anyway (like cockpit shadows).

 

$500 sounds about right, if you are conservative with sceneries and aircraft. You need to decide where you are going to fly, and should max out that region to your liking. You will probably want ActiveSkyNext, Rex4 Textures and Rex Soft Clouds right away. Then a mesh addon, like FSGlobal Ultimate. Next come the airports and sceneries according to your geographical choice. Aircraft wise you should start with an A2A GA aircraft (the Piper Comanche...), a really good GA twin (the RealAir Duke) and a nice airliner (PMDG comes to mind). If you like the vintage jets, there practically is only CaptainSim worth having of the paywares. But be warned that their system modelling is not as sophisticated as the visuals. But these birds really do look nice (I'm currently driving a 707 around south america). More depth you get in the Coolsky DC-9, that one is really amazing. Then you should think about getting nice controllers, a yoke, pedals, throttle quadrants. Next an ATC addon, and maybe MultiCrewExperience or FS2Crew to shake things up. Btw, best to check Youtube for videos if someone throws an addon name at you, there is everything on anything available (frooglesim is a good place to start)

 

But first and most important, get your PC system right. There are some things to be considered there, as the system load with FSX is massive. There still is no "financially sensible" PC setup on the market that can run FSX all maxed out. And size matters too, I have the FSX virtual cockpit stretched over three 24" screens combined with a head tracker (TrackIR) and a FSX camera addon (EZDOK). The immersion I get from this is most enjoyable... And I spent quite a lot on controllers (check PFC or PrecisionFlightControls). It transformed my sim experience from "playing a game" to the real "simulator feeling". Hard to explain, but you can control the aircraft so much better, and just holding the yoke and realizing, that one is doing the tinyest adjustments subconsciously like in the real thing, is just - amazing.

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Last but not least - a few screeshots to prove that I know what I'm talking about when I recommend certain addons ;)

 

Somewhere over the Italian Alps

2015-5-3_9-27-38-403.jpg

 

Coolsky DC-9 panel at night

2015-5-3_21-30-2-567.jpg

 

CaptainSim 737-100

2015-5-7_20-35-15-696.jpg

 

QualityWings 757 in front of Aerosoft Olbia. AI planes curtesy of UT2

2015-5-11_20-46-13-349.jpg

 

Somewhere over Bolivia in a 707

2015-7-5_14-44-4-863.jpg

 

2015-7-5_14-45-35-631.jpg

 

2015-7-5_14-51-3-995.jpg

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  • 1 year later...

It is, as a previous poster said, FSX:SE is a no-brainer....

Development has been frozen. So, the obvious choice, academically speaking is......

P3D . Please, the licensing saga HAS been done to death. !

Hopefully, shortly, they will be resing a 64bit version, please keep in mind that this 64bit version MUST be considered as a totally new sim, with very few, if any, existing 32bit add-ons being compatible.

Robin

Cape Town, South Africa

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Development for FSX/FSX-SE continues with new add-ons and content every week, every day. And that other sim's "saga" hasn't changed, still a niche simulator created for a specific clientele, and nowhere near having FSX popularity and support.
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I have FSX and X-Plane. I have numerous addons for Fsx such as PMDG, Majestic, Aerosoft, ASN, GSX, etc. I bought XP 10, 8 months ago but my graphics card (GTX 970) began crashing like crazy and XP refused to run on my system. XP is now sitting on my shelf collecting dust while I am using FSX again. However I am keeping a close eye on P3D, I think it is the future. In a couple of years, XP 11 will be out and P3D will be well into V5+ and that's when everyone will begin switching to either of those sims.

 

My point is that P3D will become the new version of FSX. We will all have to switch at some point and P3D is the right way to go because of the high amount of addons that are currently available. I have to be careful how much money I spend on FSX lol

 

Specs

Intel I7 4770k @3.5 ghz

GTX 970 4 gb VRAM

16 gb RAM

Z86-G41 Motherboard

Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler

650 Watt PSU

256 gb SSD

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