X-Plane Upgrader Asking Some Questions

Hello,

 

I am considering an upgrade to either FS2017 or XPlane-11. I have heard some amazing things about both.

 

No - I'm not going to ask 'which is best?' because I presently fly FS9 and know improvemnts to both packages. And I respect pilots of both. I have long admired X-Planes relaism, and wobbly wings :)

 

So here's the thing - I've invested a lot into FS9 ... scenary for the whole British Isles, airports all over the land mass, traffic packages, road packages, freeware scenery and payware, and also scenary and packages for Australia, and Singapore.

 

The UK, Singpaore/East Asia, and Australia are my main fly zones. I wanted to know what XPlane-11 is like defaulted in those areas. I dont want to spend any more money on lots more scenary packages and would appreciate and feedback on these areas.

 

FS9 airport and traffic defualts were quite tragic. Are there any improvements on XPlane-11's? Is there much in the way of AI traffic with correct liveries and volume.

 

Also, can you add on freeware AI's like the new A350s and A380s etc without a lot of work?

 

Finally, would love some posted pics including around Plymouth UK and Newcastle area in Australia, and around the Singapore coast (Changi and Sentosa Island especially - I have the pawaye Singapore scenery for FS9).

 

Thanks in advace for your help - I do appreciate it.

What's "FS2017?" Never heard of it (shrug).

 

APUtech

What's "FS2017?" Never heard of it (shrug).

 

APUtech

 

No such aminal! Hmm....maybe animal! Anyhoo, it don't exist!

About AI and ATC: in my experience both are "not good" in X-Plane. Even XP11 is a lot worse than what you know from FS9. I always start up XP with the desire to like it, but the first two 747s taxiing for takeoff at (the small regional airport) LIEO always make me cringe. I even bought an AI package for XP, but was disappointed. Unfortunately there is nothing even remotely comparable to WOAI, UT2, UTL or MT6. Ultimately I turned AI off completely.

About AI and ATC: in my experience both are "not good" in X-Plane. Even XP11 is a lot worse than what you know from FS9. I always start up XP with the desire to like it, but the first two 747s taxiing for takeoff at (the small regional airport) LIEO always make me cringe. I even bought an AI package for XP, but was disappointed. Unfortunately there is nothing even remotely comparable to WOAI, UT2, UTL or MT6. Ultimately I turned AI off completely.

 

Thank you for your imput.

 

RE: FS2017 - I now understand this is false Youtube stuff and it is just P3D or FSX but no FS2017 which doesnt exist.

 

Sorry to hear Xplane isnt the job. Had hoped for a positive sim upgrade and thought Xplane was always the better choice.

 

Thanks again

peugot309style, for me X-Plane 11 is far more realistic than both FSX/FSX:SE and P3D (I own P3D v2.5), despite the minor annoyances of the AI and ATC, and with it I actually "feel" like I'm flying an airplane.

 

Many people complain about certain things in X-Plane 11 that turn them off, but having flown real life since 1978 (at the age of 17) I can honestly say that those annoyances--which Laminar Flow are constantly working on--pale in comparison to the satisfaction that I get every time I "climb into" a propjob or jet in X-Plane 10.5x/11. The immersion factor for me is much more tangible than in FSX or P3D; shoot, even FlightGear (a free Open Source flight Simulator) has certain advantages over FSX and P3D.

 

While many still aren't happy with X-Plane's scenery, clouds, AI and ATC, I concentrate first on the airplanes that I fly and their authenticity as far as flight dynamics, handling and systems and I must say that even the default aircrafts' behavioral characteristics are much more satisfying and tangible as compared to the other flight sims.

 

I haven't flown XP-11 much in Europe yet, but the scenery here in the US is pretty incredible. My Mom's street and house is even in there as well as the private school buildings and quonset-like gymnasium. Many of us in the XP-10/11 community downloaded Open Street Map from X-Plane.org and edited the map files to add our own favorite areas of detail and submit those files, some of which were included in subsequent releases of XP-10 and 11.

 

If you'd like to know if your desired areas in the UK are represented (or downloadable) for XP-11 you can go to x-plane.org and peruse their downloadable scenery areas.

 

The greater majority of my pilot friends who sim choose X-Plane 10/11 over FSX and P3D pretty much for the same reasons that I do: we want authenticity.

 

X-Plane is a different breed of flight sim than FSX and P3D are, and being as such does take a while to get used to, but in my mind the effort to get X-Plane configured to your liking is well worth it.

 

Happy Flying!

 

APUtech

Thanks for your reply, aputech.

 

I've been looking at a lot of Xplane scenery recently and it looks quite amazing in the YouTube videos - although they could be running on expensive machines with powerful GFX cards, but the scenery does seem more pleasing than in the other sims I've looked at.

 

Does it take a very long time to render your own scenery? I saw a Great Britain freeware download of every road, house etc in the country, but it required a base underlay for the fields etc. The video looked amazing.

 

Xplane's been around for over 20 years and reviewers often suggested it modelled aero dynamics more realistically than in FS.

 

I mainly pilot Jet flights A380/A320 and Dash-8 regional trips, though I hop into a mono engine to do some sight seeing. Hope I could still get my favourite airlines in those liveries.

 

That brings me to a last question - ATC/AI... are there any good add ons for this? Traffic2005 was my choice for FS which filled empty airports with correct planes and AIs. Would like to see updated AIs like B738s and new A350s etc.

 

Thanks for your feedback which is appreciated.