A few questions about versions and such...

[joaopaz]

Hi guys,

I always wanted to try X-Plane but never really had the PC for that, then stepped away from FS for a few years.

My PC is now an old friend from 2014 but with a little help from another ol'graphics card it can run FS9 maxed out at above 60fps.. and also FSX I'm sure.

 

This past weekend I installed the X-Plane 9 demo (I started with that one because of its release date) and it was a breeze! Then I tried v12 but immediately got a warning about my card so stepped down one noth: X-Plane 11 runs nicely, I guess.. at least the demo, untweaked. The images are breathtaking and I'd say it runs smooth but if when panning on the VC I notice the weight of the sim on my system.. so I'd probably end up trying 10 and maybe buy an old copy of it.

 

Is v10 a great improve from 9? .. it's a 3-year span. v10 is 2011 so I'm sure it will be ok.

6-years from 10 to 11 so I guess that's when the huge leap really happened?

 

My main interest is the Alaska, Canada region. Also Finland, far north landscapes.

Is Alaska covered by 10? And what about freeware versus payware available packs? Are there many freeware developers for X-Plane?

 

Oh, I have a dual boot setup with Win10 and Linux Mint. I suppose I should try the demo on both to check which one holds it better?

 

My apologies for all these questions - it is just that I am coming in way late to the party!

Any info will be appreciated, thanks!

Joao

 

[snave]

I too, would need/like the answer to this question, while I ponder XP12....

 

Win 11, GTX1060 6gb, 16gig RAM,  i5-3570K CPU

[flytv1]

Hi everyone.

X-Plane 12 is Not something that I would consider at this point regardless of your ability to run it or not. It just has too many problems,, some are very difficult to understand why they exist.

If your system can run XP11 I would get that. XP10 runs better on older systems, but not much better,  but XP11 has some improvements that make it a better choice in my opinion.

Scenery wise, the XP11 default, if you like it, does cover portions of the North / Alaska but there are some issues navigating if you get closer to the Poles.

The good thing is that you can make your own free scenery using Ortho4XP that can give you photo imagery and if you use Zoom Level (ZL) 18 you can get very good low level scenery and do away with trees, objects... that are not needed with that  ZL, which improves your Frame rate (FPS).

The problem is that in that area North / AK the tiles are not very good and you may get different colors / textures and you will have to do some painting yourself to fix it. Another possibility is Payware which can get very expensive  and not much better in my opinion.

I just helped a buddy of mine that wanted a CD / DVD version of XP11 and they are getting difficult to find if you want XP11 you may need to get the Digital version and I think there are some discounts for around $30.00?

[joaopaz]

On 2/16/2023 at 9:10 PM, flytv1 said:

Hi everyone.

X-Plane 12 is Not something that I would consider at this point regardless of your ability to run it or not. It just has too many problems,, some are very difficult to understand why they exist.

If your system can run XP11 I would get that. XP10 runs better on older systems, but not much better,  but XP11 has some improvements that make it a better choice in my opinion.

Scenery wise, the XP11 default, if you like it, does cover portions of the North / Alaska but there are some issues navigating if you get closer to the Poles.

The good thing is that you can make your own free scenery using Ortho4XP that can give you photo imagery and if you use Zoom Level (ZL) 18 you can get very good low level scenery and do away with trees, objects... that are not needed with that  ZL, which improves your Frame rate (FPS).

The problem is that in that area North / AK the tiles are not very good and you may get different colors / textures and you will have to do some painting yourself to fix it. Another possibility is Payware which can get very expensive  and not much better in my opinion.

I just helped a buddy of mine that wanted a CD / DVD version of XP11 and they are getting difficult to find if you want XP11 you may need to get the Digital version and I think there are some discounts for around $30.00?

 

That was a great reply, thank you for that!
Roger on everything - just need to clarify 2 things.

ZL18 means that you're flying high and that no "autogen" is needed, but if you zoom in you still get a lot of detail?

Those $30 dicounts are for the digital edition, right? Where can I find those?

 

Off-topic (maybe) coming from Microsoft flight sims one thing I noticed when I tried the demos was... there's something about the perspective in X-Plane, both scenery outside or VC views, that make my monitor (a samsung tv) look like it doubled its size! Does this rings any bells? Is it a well known fact?

 

Thanks again flytv1,

JP
 

 

[flytv1]

1 hour ago, joaopaz said:

Those $30 dicounts are for the digital edition, right? Where can I find those?

 

Hi JP.

You can try Steam, below. I only use CDs / DVDs and I am not familiar with the process, I am sure others here will give you more details on how to go about it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/269950/XPlane_11/

 

1 hour ago, joaopaz said:

ZL18 means that you're flying high and that no "autogen" is needed, but if you zoom in you still get a lot of detail?

No, actually if you fly High / Heavies the Default LR scenery may be acceptable to you?

Z18 if for Low / Very low flying, below 5000 AGL, and at that ZL you can recognize the terrain you are flying over, if you a re a RW (Real World) pilot, You can actually make out the trees and many other buildings, objects on the ground but they are 2D / flat but with a good texture and lighting they can almost look 3D if you get the right source. See pic included that shows the trees and buildings.....

 

[joaopaz]

15 hours ago, flytv1 said:

 

Hi JP.

You can try Steam, below. I only use CDs / DVDs and I am not familiar with the process, I am sure others here will give you more details on how to go about it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/269950/XPlane_11/

 

No, actually if you fly High / Heavies the Default LR scenery may be acceptable to you?

Z18 if for Low / Very low flying, below 5000 AGL, and at that ZL you can recognize the terrain you are flying over, if you a re a RW (Real World) pilot, You can actually make out the trees and many other buildings, objects on the ground but they are 2D / flat but with a good texture and lighting they can almost look 3D if you get the right source. See pic included that shows the trees and buildings.....

 

Thanks again!

Got it now.

I'm still trying the demo... it runs nice on my system but I must keep antialiasing off - as soon as that kicks in you can count the frames It's a huger difference. But even without AA it still looks really good!

[michaelkalinowsk]

Joao, I would recommend XP11 over XP10 for sure. Besides FS2004 I am using X-Plane every now and then and I really like it. Of course the strain on your hardware is higher with XP11 compared to FS2004. Aerosoft has a boxed version including Lugano, Toulouse, Weeze, Manchester, Maastricht-Aachen, Svolvær airports on offer for 35€. I have no experience with the Steam version so far.

 

Kali

Quote

 

 

[michaelkalinowsk]

BTW it is available as a download version at Aerosoft  . . . https://www.aerosoft.com/de/shop/sale/weitere-angebote/2637/xplane-11-aerosoft-airport-pack

[joaopaz]

On 2/18/2023 at 6:07 PM, michaelkalinowsk said:

Joao, I would recommend XP11 over XP10 for sure. Besides FS2004 I am using X-Plane every now and then and I really like it. Of course the strain on your hardware is higher with XP11 compared to FS2004. Aerosoft has a boxed version including Lugano, Toulouse, Weeze, Manchester, Maastricht-Aachen, Svolvær airports on offer for 35€. I have no experience with the Steam version so far.

 

Kali

 

 

Hi Kali!

So that pack is the XP11 simulator plus the airports right? Sounds great and a fair price.

I tried it already (the 11 demo) and as long as I keep antialiasing off it runs (and looks) very decent. Love the VCs, very immersive (even with moving shadows

I have a dual boot setup Windows 10 (because of FS2004) and Linux Mint and it runs marginally better on Linux. 

Will for sure consider that, thank you!

 

Joao

 

[ColR1948]

I have XP11 & XP12 they both runn OK on my PC, but if you have XP11 you will find some not all XP10 aircraft will fly in it too, it is trial and error to see which work.
Same applies to XP12, some XP11 aircraft work OK some don't behave lol.
You probably already know a lot of FS9 aircraft work in FSX, shame it is only one way you can't reverse it lol.

 

Col.

[joaopaz]

10 hours ago, ColR1948 said:

I have XP11 & XP12 they both runn OK on my PC, but if you have XP11 you will find some not all XP10 aircraft will fly in it too, it is trial and error to see which work.
Same applies to XP12, some XP11 aircraft work OK some don't behave lol.
You probably already know a lot of FS9 aircraft work in FSX, shame it is only one way you can't reverse it lol.

 

Col.

Thanks Col,

 

I'm still playing with the demo and liking it better each day. I could turn on antialias this time, just one notch, and still get frame rates at about 40. Some minor visual glitches on VC but no important at all as the rest really compensates.

 

So, If I may ask one more: out of the box XP11 has airports all around the world? even though generic, I guess? I trying to figure if it is like FS9 or FSX...

 

[ColR1948]

With XP11 from the box version you get the choice of what countries/continents you want to load, if for example you never fly around Europe or Asia then don't load that scenery.
If by some chance you make an error and start your flight in a country you haven't loaded in the scenery you will find you are surrounded by water, no land anywhere, then just go to configure and select the right airport you wanted.
I am used to FS and the files and what a lot of them do, I tweak a lot, but in XP I'm lost, I try to tweak some things like I do in FS but they are different and I'm not sure what half of them do or mean, I'm a bit too old to start learining lol.

Col.

[jwenting]

same with the download version, if you want to save disk space you can select to only install specific areas. Run the installer again to change the selection.

 

XP11 is definitely a world better than XP10, the difference in flight modelling is far greater than between 11 and 12 (it just needed less tweaking).

XP12 has far better lighting and scenery, but that does come at the cost of higher hardware requirements.

 

[ColR1948]

I've used a few aircraft from XP11 in XP12, some work OK but others not, I'm not proficient enought to upgrade them, I don't have the know how, all I know is you put the model in Plane Maker then I'm lost at what to do next.

 

Col.

[joaopaz]

Thanks again for your answers, guys. It's been very interesting and enlightening, too

 

So, since you mentioned aircraft... what would be the best page to check what freeware is available for XP11? Here at flightsim.com or elsewhere?

 

Me too, I'm so used to tweak FS9/X and that's wonderful, but at the same time the flight experience itself seems to be very different (better?) in XP... so I'm thinking I'll keep them all and have the best of both worlds

 

[jwenting]

x-plane.org is the largest x-plane site. This place tends to be very slow with x-plane content.