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You haven't understood what I've meant, at all.

It's fairly obvious X-plane is "nothing like FS9", something that I never said of course, but considering the REASONS why we are not very willing to keep supporting FS9, which I've clearly explained as the lack of some crucial features that Xplane still lacks, it wouldn't make much sense supporting X-plane for the same reasons, without this having *anything* to do with saying the two are alike.

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Hi everyone,

It seems Aerosoft is the only active FSX scenery developer that I know that is going to start porting to X-plane 10. FS Dreamteam for their reasons (they know their reasons, I won't thrash them like some do as they know much more programing than I do) as well as ORBX -it seems they won't either -not to mention some other devs. Now, about aircraft, I am wondering if Aerosoft will port their aircraft (including the A320/321, CRJ's, etc) as well as PMDG... will they port its aircraft to X-plane 10? I'm afraid X-Plane will suffer from scenery (it seems Aerosoft will be the only one I know from FSX there) and especially from their good heavy aircraft. I know Carenado has some X-plane GA aircraft but not X-Plane 10 native yet...

Now, before I give my humble opinion about X-Plane 10, I want to make clear that progress in flight simulation is always welcome, even though it does not come from Microsoft. I am not against X-Plane 10. I think it's another solution to flight simulation and strongly believe that competition is always healthy. I don't have to say that everyone is entiteled to have all the sims they want, it's their choice.

That being said, one thing that made me smile when ACES closed down, as time went by, is that people were thrashing Microsoft and FSX, saying that the FSX simulator as a future base simulator would cease to exist... that most everybody would move to the X-Plane 9. Even Laminar Research gave a discount for a time for those changing to X-plane. Well, guess what happened. FSX devs are making more and more scenery and aircraft not to mention other type of addons -freeware and payware- and it seems the FSX addon industry is thriving. There is a reason for this. A lot of people, instead of getting upset about the ACES ordeal, spent their time investigating the script bugs and problems so they could make FSX's code better, just to mention one, Jesus Altuve. Many of you have heard of him. Plus many, many others that I haven't heard about. Thanks a million to all of you guys. I invite those who are skeptical to check out Jesus Altuve's website for free: http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html and compare the results you get from modifying the FSX.CFG (Always save the original file somewhere else!)

Now I'll give my humble opinion about the X-Plane 10 after trying it on an older computer I have (only two years old) that runs FSX and the extras very well (sliders at a highish position):

·Problem number 1: Some people try to sell that FSX is older than it is. Old? Not exactly. It was very badly scripted, that's all. With the computers we can have now, we are starting to get the juice out of it, taking into account we have have passed Altuve's CFG filter in the webpage I mentioned earlier. It does work wonders, especially for you people that like flying heavy metal. I can testify that.

·Problem number 2: What about customers that bought all the addon software for FSX? Say I wanted to transition now to X-plane 10. Would I have to buy all Aerosoft's software again (having to wait the time it'll take to convert it to their new platform)? After all it'll be the same software passed on to X-Plane 10. Not to mention all the other addons a lot of people bought apart from Aerosoft's. In my case it's a lot. Is it worth changing platforms when it works well and smooth on my computer? I think not. Another thing is buying X-Plane 10 just for the sake of owning it. But spending money for two totally different platforms, in my opinion, is just crazy.

·Problem number 3: In my honest opinion, after trying X-Plane 10 I believe that they are selling something different of what they are trying to sell. I am not against X-Plane 10. I would say this of any other program if it happened.

When you read that people in the X-Plane forums are "thrashing" version 10 because of hardware problems i.e. joystick config problems, and saying that planes don't fly correctly as in what Laminar Research calls "real physics" flying (or real flying behaviour) makes me upset. I tried it myself first. Then to see if I was the only wierd guy out there I went to X-Plane forums (I'd be wrong to go to FSX forums to hear about X-Plane, right?). My point is: Is Laminar Research really selling what it says? When I see the guy that's presenting a program that can be valid for FAA certification and cannot take-off in a correct manner, to me he really loses his credebility.

I tried flying the XP Jumbo and it really sucks compared to what I enjoy in the better FSX one and much, much better PMDG (mind you, in X-Plane they sell you that their planes have the real "wind tunnel" flying behaviour, not so in FSX as they say). So this tells me a lot of X-Plane. And that is what people over in the X-Plane community are raving about apart from other things like X-Plane 9 cross-compatibility. I know that all can be fixed by fixes... but this is only the start. And people grumbled about the first FSX problems...

My points to end:

1. Group number 1: I doubt people who invested -and still are investing- on FSX addons in hundreds or thousands of dollars will change to another flight simulator platform in the near future. If they do, Great! They are most welcome to do so, it's their money.

2. Group number 2: Those that are new to flight simulators or haven't invested in buying a lot of FSX addons, I find it great if they like X-Plane. I just firmly believe X-Plane 10 is not what Laminar research tells us what it is, at least in flight dynamics terms.

Just my humble two cents on the subject.

Now, ya'll have the liberty to have the simulators you want. I was just expressing my thoughts on the subject.

Happy flying and safe landings on your FS9, FSX and/or X-plane! :)

Andrew

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It is true that the initial feeling with default settings is that flight dynamics are wierd.... Now, if you start plying a bit with the joystick sensitivity sliders, you'll get a much more stable aircraft (like in FSX)....

Beside that, i felt in love with Xplane 9.70.... Runs very fast on a medium computer and the immersion (weather, sounds...) is much ahead of what i find in FSX imho.....

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@Andrew, I do not have XP-10 (I am thinking of getting it) but if I am understanding you correctly you are making a comparaison between a mature FSX (6 years old with some bugs still) including Jesus Altuve's tweaks (plus our own fsx.CFG tweaks) and 3rd party developers products against a virgin XP-10 beta demo, am I correct?

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Hi!

I am one of the global scenery developers of X-Plane 10 (mind it: my part are the "natural scenery", not the cities etc. !). I have just posted a bunch (125 to be correct) of screenshots from outside the demo area (mostly Europe). Just to show you, that not only the demo area looks nice ;)

On offer are regions like:

  • Austria - Zell am See
  • Barcelona
  • Corsica
  • Hawaii
  • Japan
  • La Palma
  • Norway
  • Pyrenees
  • Scotland
  • Switzerland

Follow this link: https://picasaweb.google.com/101666907909842492197/XPlane10LandscapesOfTheWorld

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  • Deputy Sheriffs

I am one of the global scenery developers of X-Plane 10

Hi alpilotx,

Thanks, that looks very good!

Do I understand it correctly that these shots are taken from the default global scenery of X-Plane?

Are these enhanced areas, or is most of the world like this?

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The more I play with it, the more I like it! The lighting really is excellent. The cloud system is way better than anything FSX ever dreamed of, and the "Plausible" auto-gen gets more and more real-looking as you crank the settings up higher and higher. The frame rate and smoothness is also unlike anything I have ever EVER seen in FSX.

I note that sans HDR and full shadowing (Which are apparently the Sims real system hogs) I can pretty much max the thing. I also note that Full (insane) anti-aliasing does great things for the games appearance with no noticeable impact on frame-rate, which tells me my graphics card is more than capable for now.

Still playing around, but I can already see massive potential.

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Guest GoncaloCarvalhoPT

Hi Mathijs,

I hope we can make flights with your brand new "Aerosoft Airbus" on X-Plane 10 too. The plane is awesome and just between us: My favorite airplane on real world is the medium range Airbus A32X family ;) Ponder this please ... ;)

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Hi alpilotx,

Thanks, that looks very good!

Do I understand it correctly that these shots are taken from the default global scenery of X-Plane?

Are these enhanced areas, or is most of the world like this?

This is default Global Scenery (no extra,special hand made enhancements)! All the world is processed in an identical manner. BUT, of course there are differences. Most of them result from the different data sources we used (for each part of the world we try to use the best available data ... but which doesn't means that its always perfect). The USA and Europe have the best data, but the rest of the world is still quite good (still far better than was available for XP9!).

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@Andrew, I do not have XP-10 (I am thinking of getting it) but if I am understanding you correctly you are making a comparaison between a mature FSX (6 years old with some bugs still) including Jesus Altuve's tweaks (plus our own fsx.CFG tweaks) and 3rd party developers products against a virgin XP-10 beta demo, am I correct?

Logically incorrect. My point is to say that people that have spent hundreds or even thousands of €€€€€€€€ (Euros) will find it difficult changing to a totally different virgin flight sim platform like X-plane 10 if that someone has a good rig that runs it smoothly. I say new virgin platform because that's what X-plane 10 is all about, not counting the typical faults you find in a new platform version. Why change to a different virgin platform when, in my case and many more, we have rigs that fly FSX with all the addons wonderfully well?

Now, if you are a current FS9 or FSX user with little or no addons, I find if wonderful if you get the X-plane version. You'll only have to wait for the first service packs to arrive so all the platform can be smooth like I personally waited for the FSX Service Packs to arrive. I personally couldn't fly any sim with it's default aircraft and default scenery (default airports)... There is nothing better to fly great addon aircraft or scenery addons such as Carenado, PMDG, Aerosoft, ORBX, etc. Mind you, I didn't buy FSX untill SP2 came out and I had some addons bought. And before buying FSX Professional I did download the FSX demo and liked what I saw as I knew that was a demo and the possibilities that simulator base had for addons.

Now, If you have a lot of addons for FSX and you can run them well and even though want to change to X-Plane 10, you are very free to do it. It's more. I'll be sure following the X-Plane community forums to read about the updates and addons they'll be adding to it.

If I may recommend you an aircraft addon that is wonderful may I recommend you one a Spanish guy (I'm living in Spain) made: http://www.jrollon.com/CRJ.html

He has some freeware as well so I'll give you his page so you can see his quality for yourself. Mind you -it's all for X-Plane version 9 but I read that he's planning to make his stuff compatible for X-Plane 10. http://www.jrollon.com/indexResto.html I hope you enjoy the new sim!

Happy flying!

Andrew

P.S. I liked you saying FSX is mature. Not old, as some say. I liked that. That's talking with common sense.

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Why not the poles?

We didn't have time to do that too ... and it would have needed an entire set of extra data (with its own processing etc.). And we were still happy to get the rest of the world halfway good looking to you (and say what you want but the poles are boring to many users ... of course, not all ... which I understand ;) ).

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Logically incorrect. My point is to say that people that have spent hundreds or even thousands of €€€€€€€€ (Euros) will find it difficult changing to a totally different virgin flight sim platform like X-plane 10 if that someone has a good rig that runs it smoothly. I say new virgin platform because that's what X-plane 10 is all about, not counting the typical faults you find in a new platform version. Why change to a different virgin platform when, in my case and many more, we have rigs that fly FSX with all the addons wonderfully well?

Now, if you are a current FS9 or FSX user with little or no addons, I find if wonderful if you get the X-plane version. You'll only have to wait for the first service packs to arrive so all the platform can be smooth like I personally waited for the FSX Service Packs to arrive. I personally couldn't fly any sim with it's default aircraft and default scenery (default airports)... There is nothing better to fly great addon aircraft or scenery addons such as Carenado, PMDG, Aerosoft, ORBX, etc. Mind you, I didn't buy FSX untill SP2 came out and I had some addons bought. And before buying FSX Professional I did download the FSX demo and liked what I saw as I knew that was a demo and the possibilities that simulator base had for addons.

Now, If you have a lot of addons for FSX and you can run them well and even though want to change to X-Plane 10, you are very free to do it. It's more. I'll be sure following the X-Plane community forums to read about the updates and addons they'll be adding to it.

If I may recommend you an aircraft addon that is wonderful may I recommend you one a Spanish guy (I'm living in Spain) made: http://www.jrollon.com/CRJ.html

He has some freeware as well so I'll give you his page so you can see his quality for yourself. Mind you -it's all for X-Plane version 9 but I read that he's planning to make his stuff compatible for X-Plane 10. http://www.jrollon.com/indexResto.html I hope you enjoy the new sim!

Happy flying!

Andrew

P.S. I liked you saying FSX is mature. Not old, as some say. I liked that. That's talking with common sense.

I'd like to see XP10 in 6 years time... :D

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  • Deputy Sheriffs

[..]The USA and Europe have the best data, but the rest of the world is still quite good (still far better than was available for XP9!).

Can you show us some examples of how Africa looks? Like Tanzania or South-Africa?

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@ Andrew, I understand one not been welling to buy a new sim. because of the money he already as invested in the sim. he is flying with BUT to me it's like a new computer, here is what I have..

Thermaltake Xaser VI Full Tower

OS: Window 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Motherboard: Gigabyte UD-9..........$700.00

CPU: I7 980x @ 4677.4MHz as of 10/21/2010.........$1,000.00

RAM: Suoer Talent 2004MHz...........$300.00

Timing @ 7-7-6-20 1T

CPU COOLER: Noctua NH-D14........$89.00

PSU: ABS Targan 1300W..................$350.00

SSD OS: Crucial SSD Sata III 128GB.......$250.00

SSD game: OCZ Z-Drive R2 P84 PCI Express 256GB for FSX.....$1,200.00

HARD DRIVE: 1 x 300GB Velociraptor +...........$300.00

3 x 150GB all at 10,000rpm...........$600.00

VIDEO CARD:Zotac GTX 480 AMP! 840/1680/2052........$530.00

I spent over $5,000.00 on this computer, so should I keep it and not buy another one because I've invested to much money in it? Computer (or hardware) are getting better and better, my GTX 480 is better compare to my old GTX 285, so the same way of thinking (for me) can be apply to a new sim, I have a lot of payware scenery addons for FSX, some from Aerosoft some from Orbx, including payware plane so I am one who as invested a lot of money in FSX BUT with time and patches I think XP-10 will be a lot better compare to FSX, 3D clouds and night lighting is already better.

It's an easy choice for me, I'll go with what will give me a better feel of immersion regardless of the money I invested in FSX, same with computer, I'm waiting to see what the Ivy Bridge can do and if my rig is outperformed a lot you'll see me buying the new platform.

Don't get me wrong here, money can be tight for some and they can't afford to start all over again with a new platform or a new sim, I respect that.

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Hi Mathijs,

I hope we can make flights with your brand new "Aerosoft Airbus" on X-Plane 10 too. The plane is awesome and just between us: My favorite airplane on real world is the medium range Airbus A32X family ;) Ponder this please ... ;)

....i actually hope that if thry translate hir Airbus X, they'll make it compatible for XPlane 9.70 too ( like Jollon CRJ)... Commercially that make more sense....

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@ Andrew, I understand one not been welling to buy a new sim. because of the money he already as invested in the sim. he is flying with BUT to me it's like a new computer, here is what I have..

Thermaltake Xaser VI Full Tower

OS: Window 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Motherboard: Gigabyte UD-9..........$700.00

CPU: I7 980x @ 4677.4MHz as of 10/21/2010.........$1,000.00

RAM: Suoer Talent 2004MHz...........$300.00

Timing @ 7-7-6-20 1T

CPU COOLER: Noctua NH-D14........$89.00

PSU: ABS Targan 1300W..................$350.00

SSD OS: Crucial SSD Sata III 128GB.......$250.00

SSD game: OCZ Z-Drive R2 P84 PCI Express 256GB for FSX.....$1,200.00

HARD DRIVE: 1 x 300GB Velociraptor +...........$300.00

3 x 150GB all at 10,000rpm...........$600.00

VIDEO CARD:Zotac GTX 480 AMP! 840/1680/2052........$530.00

I spent over $5,000.00 on this computer, so should I keep it and not buy another one because I've invested to much money in it? Computer (or hardware) are getting better and better, my GTX 480 is better compare to my old GTX 285, so the same way of thinking (for me) can be apply to a new sim, I have a lot of payware scenery addons for FSX, some from Aerosoft some from Orbx, including payware plane so I am one who as invested a lot of money in FSX BUT with time and patches I think XP-10 will be a lot better compare to FSX, 3D clouds and night lighting is already better.

It's an easy choice for me, I'll go with what will give me a better feel of immersion regardless of the money I invested in FSX, same with computer, I'm waiting to see what the Ivy Bridge can do and if my rig is outperformed a lot you'll see me buying the new platform.

Don't get me wrong here, money can be tight for some and they can't afford to start all over again with a new platform or a new sim, I respect that.

A computer gets old if you install new demanding software. If you buy a computer and know how to care for it and are happy with your software you bought for it, in a way, your computer never gets "old". Of course, nothing is eternal. I just had to change my screen because it defaulted on me. And a computer can die. But you can't compare a great platform like FSX with a lot of addons and telling me a new virgin platform without addons (in your case X-Plane 10) will be better than the former sim.

In a sense, it's not so much about what I spent on FSX. The reason is about starting all over again without any addons ready in the market for you to enjoy except those 3 not-so-important airports Mathijs promised. It's like buying a brand new computer without software... To me X-Plane without great addons is simply a void simming platform.

I live near Barcelona, Spain and when I saw the X-Plane 10 screenshots of Barcelona I almost fainted... Barcelona is far from being what is depicted there. The screenshots look like if the city was a huge park full of trees when in reality it's full of concrete buildings... I won't even mention about Barcelona's airport... The streets don't even match close to what it really is. You only need google satelite maps to see that X-plane's "plausible world" is really nothing more than a marketing tool so people may believe it and buy it without seeing in a demo how airports and city scenery are done out of the Seattle area. Thanks to AlpilotX everyone could see shots of other areas of the world. Maybe the only plausable world is in the area of Seattle... Now, the mesh seems correct although I must say that for that I have FS Global. And for clouds and water and beautiful sunsets and sunrises I have REX 2 and Overdrive.

I just bought the PMDG NGX for my new i7-2600, 12 GB of RAM and 3 GB of video computer, and boy, does it fly smooth in the most complex scenery... With the great addons I have for FSX makes FSX something like FS20. I agree that FSX solo is nothing more than a boring stale virgin world (even though it included most of the airports in the world, not like the new X-plane). What you add to a sim is what makes the sim special.

I would have to wait some years to really start enjoying X-plane 10 (if that sim gets some good scenery and good aircraft). But maybe X-plane 10 will soon be "old" before devs make a lot of addons for it when version 11 will launch...and 10 will be "outdated".

I hope you get my point. I am not amused with new virgin simulators, be it X-plane, or Microsoft's flight. What makes a good simulator in my opinion are the ones that have lots of addons. It's simply impossible for any simulator developer to make the whole world great looking, and that's why the community needs good addon makers. And the FSX addon industry is thriving with very good quality stuff. That's why I don't want to change. I'll be ready to change when I see great addons for a simulator that has been tried out and great looking. I don't buy Virgin sims.

Happy landings!

Andrew

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