X-Plane, Flightgear or any other Flightsim?

Hello fellow aviators.

 

Since a few months I've switched from using Windows to Linux (Ubuntu)

I had always been very much into Microsoft flight simulator (2004, X)

Although I did take a large break in flight simming due to all sorts of priorities.

 

I know Flight simulator X doesn't run on Linux, aswell as so many other games.

I could use Wine, but I'm confident that's going to cause all sorts of performance issues and I expect many mods would present quite the challenge for them to be successfully installed so I decided I should forget thinking about using FSX on a Linux computer.

 

In my opinion that leaves... either Flight Gear or X-plane. (if there are other alternative Flight simulators, please specify)

I have no experience with either of the Flight simulators, although X-plane 10 does seem to be a little more popular.

 

I would however stress that I desire a fully impartial opinion on both products by anyone that's willing to advise me hence forth (unless one only has advice about one of the particular simulators)

 

My demands are simple-

 

-Realism (above all)

-Able to install plugins

-Multiplayer support that works within Linux (either build in or through third party software)

-Graphics/performance

 

And by that I mean that graphics software does tend to run a little slower then I'm used to on Windows. I would like for the sim to atleast look alike vanilla FSX with good framerates. Does any of the available Flight simulators work well on open source graphics drivers? If not, the propriatary graphics drivers for my Videocard are sometimes better but may underperform depending on what game or program I'm running. I know flight simulator software mainly stresses a CPU. But I already found that in the least GPU stressing video software (games) things can get quite hairy on a linux machine.

 

I hope I can get some decent responses so I can make up my mind about this.

Hi there, and welcome to the X-Plane forums.

 

Hmm...FlightGear or X-Plane? Well, I'd say why not use both? Don't limit yourself to just one as both simulators are incredibly detailed and highly enjoyable.

 

FlightGear is free and can be downloaded here:

 

http://www.flightgear.org

 

For X-Plane, you can download the demo here:

 

http://www.x-plane.com/downloads/x-plane_10_demo/

 

FlightGear and X-Plane have both been used in professional environments so that should give you an idea of their pedigree.

 

Happy flying!!

 

Dom

Hi.

 

Welcome to Ubuntu.

I did the switch about 2 years ago and never looked back. I develop all of my airplanes in Ubuntu with it's available software.

 

Flight gear is an high potential and advanced simulation. I recommend you to google and read some information about it's core (flight dynamics model is different from X-Plane's for example).

 

On the practical level - Flightgear in less intuitive when using. It requires more self learning time to adjust and operate some of it's features. It's airplanes and airports are getting better but are still behind X-Plane's top models, mostly due to lack of developers of these add-ons. If you are interested in designing your own models, there is no Plane maker in Flightgear so you'll have to teach yourself how to make one from scratch, without a dedicated tool. (not for beginners).

 

Multiplayer support is available and supported.

 

Graphics/Performance - X-Plane looks much better but use much resources, so, I would say that if you count frames-per-seconds, flight gear is the winner. but each frame will look much less better...

 

Realism - it depends on what you are looking for and what is "real" for you...I don't want to start here an old battle of realism, so I will just say that when you look (from an external point of view also) at an aircraft which is flying, landing, spinning, stalling, ground looping, dirt riding, wheels bumping, shadows casting, high-g maneuvering... X-Plane looks more realistic.

 

..Which means that in the eye of some of us who used to see real airplanes do all of this stuff I've mentioned for years, the virtual physics behavior looks more 'realistically' in X-Plane than in Flightgear. (If you see a basketball bouncing on your screen, and it looks just like the one that bounce in your gym, it means that the physics on the screen is good).

 

Drivers etc...I am using the NVIDIA binary driver (proprietary) and I have no performance issues.

 

I personally keep an opened eye on flightgear. It's a good alternative.

 

Good luck with your Ubuntu experience :)

 

JetManHuss.

Or, instead of the binary decision, you could set up a second partition or whole second HDD and run a small Windows installation from there just for the flightsims/games. Or a swappable drive bay (that is what I do). You can lean out that Windows install to the bare minimum required for the Sims, which has benefits in itself.

There's a nice little list of free flight sims here-

 

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/best-free-flight-simulators/

 

I might try some including FlightGear but it says it might be a hassle to install (I'm a PC dummy) so I might chicken out.

I have FS9.1, FSX-A, P3Dv1.4 on Win7, while FlightGear and X-Plane are on Ubuntu.

 

Why limit myself? :)

i have fs9.1, fsx-a, p3dv1.4 on win7, while flightgear and x-plane are on ubuntu.

 

Why limit myself? :)

 

+1

 

w33