Informed Decision

Without wishing to bore everyone to the point of collapse, I am hoping for some help to steer me to a decision whether to switch from FSX to X! I wont go into what must be hundreds of $$ (or in my case pounds/euros) I've devoted to FSX over the years but I am nearing the point where I want a change and in some ways need to change to a new platform for my hobby. After all although FSX has many good things going for it, it is showing its age (dont get me wrong there's nothing wrong with age) but I need new challenges and inspiration. I don't want to talk about specs and I know that X plane 11 is now the latest, and having watched a few video presentations and read up on some aspects of the sim, I am about (almost) ready to invest in X Plane.

 

There are many many conributors now working within the X Plane environment both free and payware not forgetting the many users who have made the conversion. I suppose I'm looking to tap into the users experience thus far to identify good starter add on packs which will help me to hit the ground running so to speak.........or should that be hit the skies flying. Without wishing to come across as just plain idle, can any of you guys out there draw together a starter add on pack(s) from their experience which are worth installing and that will enhance my flying environment; for instance:

 

Weather and all its associated effects both in the air and on the ground. Is there a weather engine available for X or does it still use its own real weather interface.

 

Ground textures including urban.

 

Mesh.....World and regional.

 

Is there add on landclass software available.

 

Does GSX work in X.

 

Airport environment/scenery .....for example is the new Orbx real environment for airports compatible.

 

Without wishing to plug commercial developers, is their one site which could be recommended for X plane material.

 

Where in your opinion does X Plane now stand in the league table of available flight simulation. I accept that as users this will depend on many factors not least computer specs and whether you have experience of other platforms but it will give me a steer.

 

Anything else you can think of which may help me.

 

Apologies for the list, but if my experience in FSX is anything to go by, you can spend a lot of valuable flying time researching on many forums and for once I thought I would take a different approach.

 

Many thanks to anyone who feels they are able to advise me and thank you for reading.

1. Ground textures are Summer only, no matter where or when you fly. They never change.

 

2. GSX does not work with X Plane.

 

3. Many airports in X Plane are completely empty. That's right, no buildings, no hangars, no gas pumps, just an empty space to land. Yes, THE COMMUNITY has developed some airports that are now included.

 

4. The default AI plane system is lacking. You can have 19 planes moving around your blank airports. They do not fly flight plans in the air, but follow you around like lost sheep. Realistic......not.

Thanks. I must admit to liking airport candy and AI so with the oncoming of X 11 do you know if any of this will change?

I do not know at this time.

Well, there is X-Plane, as well as Dovetail's future sim, as well as P3D! So, choices are there!

Have a look at all their sites to check out features.

Hi Brian,

 

Here's a few things to consider.

 

Ground textures as Jim kindly mentioned are, out of the box, summer. That's not to say that the X-Plane engine can't do seasons, it does. In the file library you'll find an add-on called: Season Libraries. This will change all the trees to the correct season colour (by date).

 

For winter grond textures, you'll need a file called: Simple Season. Again this is available in the file library and will provide you with winter textures when the temperature drops below a certain point.

 

The mesh which comes packaged with X-Plane is of a much higher quality than the default mesh in FSX. If you wish to increase this detail even more, then the free HD Mesh by Andras Fabian does a fantastic job at doing this (available in the file library).

 

When it comes to landclass, you'll find that the HD Mesh mentioned above also enhances the landclass:

 

http://www.alpilotx.net/2014/12/18/hd-mesh-scenery-v3-for-x-plane-10-released/

 

GSX as Jim states, does not work X-Plane. However, the need for such an add-on in X-Plane is considerably less, due to the fact that the default data is already pretty good.

 

There is (at this time) no Orbx scenery available for X-Plane. If need be though, I can point you to freeware scenery that easily matches the level of Orbx, and in some cases, surpasses it.

 

There is no one site (in my opinion) that covers X-Plane better than another. They all have their plusses and minuses. What I would say is to explore:D

 

League tables? Well, that's a difficult one. I will say this though...X-Plane's popularity has increased ten fold in the last few years.

 

Hope this helps Brian:D

 

Happy flying!!

 

Dominic

Many airports in X Plane are completely empty. That's right, no buildings, no hangars, no gas pumps, just an empty space to land. Yes, THE COMMUNITY has developed some airports that are now included.

 

Is there a tool available that allows you to edit airports and add buildings, like ADE for FSX?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Is there a tool available that allows you to edit airports and add buildings, like ADE for FSX?

 

Yes, there are currently 2 programs that you can use to build airports (both are free).

World Editor or WED is developed by Laminar Research and is the defacto airport building tool, but you can also use Overlay Editor, which also has some great capabilities when it comes to airport design and building.

 

There is a lot of info for you to peruse here if you are interested: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?...lopment-forum/

 

Cheers,

Jim

Yes, Overlay Editor and WED.

 

For tutorials on how to use Overlay Editor, check out this series by Paul Mort:

 

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/content.php?16099-Overlay-Editor-Tutorial-Part-One

 

For even more X-Plane tutorials head here:

 

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/content.php?6-tutorials

 

Have fun:D

 

Dominic

Just to add...

 

X-Plane 10 now includes just under 6000 3D airports (a number which continues to grow). This is from a database of over 35,000 airports.

 

More info here:

 

https://gateway.x-plane.com/airports/page

 

A great add-on in the file library is the Prefab Scenery pack which uses a series of airport templates to populate over 25,000 airports!

 

Well worth exploring!

If you want your airports to come alive, download X-Life, which has spruced up the empty airports rather well. Speaking of airports, there are some great payware quality airports for free from MisterX6, and they are incredible.

 

XP11 claims to have "living" ground services, whereby they will service AI aircraft as well as your own, so there's a plus.

 

XP10 has the ability to download real world weather, although it's rendering of weather isn't that great so an add-on like SkyMaxxPro would be a good option. For real world weather on the 3rd party front, there is this:

 

http://www.fly2pilots.com/cms/Ui/Pages/Products/MainPage.aspx?id=253b8b5c-0a91-4935-8d01-b3c70aee6034

 

I have yet to use it, but I hear it's good and capable.

Thanks very much for all the useful and helpful information. I now have a good source to research and look further into whether to cross over or not. I also like the possibility of moving into Prepar3D but I dont have the necessary background to purchase a licence although I have had a few private flying lessons but not actually studying for PPL.