ZZZZZzzzz, X-Plane Development???

[Major_Spittle]

Well it has been awhile since Microsoft shut its doors in the FS market and X-Plane made a big marketing push. I have high hope for X-Plane, I love their flight modeling, weather generator, and other aspects of the game. It is getting difficult for me to keep my interest due to no AI traffic and lack of multiplayer though. Does anyone know if X-Planes developer planes to actually develop his product into something worth while or will this forever be just a great concept for a flight sim that was never brought up to FS9 standards?

[txnetcop]

Well it has been awhile since Microsoft shut its doors in the FS market and X-Plane made a big marketing push. I have high hope for X-Plane, I love their flight modeling, weather generator, and other aspects of the game. It is getting difficult for me to keep my interest due to no AI traffic and lack of multiplayer though. Does anyone know if X-Planes developer planes to actually develop his product into something worth while or will this forever be just a great concept for a flight sim that was never brought up to FS9 standards?

I was at their latest conference only because I happened to be in town and was curious what the plans are for the future. You have to remember that X-Plane was strictly an engineer's simulator on the fly based on the type of design it would render the flight characteristics. Austin never intended it to be like MSFS which is a whole flight world. He says he wants to push that direction but they have a very small team. He will NOT use any of the ACES group, but none have wanted to work for him. They are hoping for 3rd parties to pick up the slack to build their world-so far most them suck. At least the goal is there and they have a decent platform to build from.

I could care less right now, FSX has so much life-span left in it, but it will be interesting to see how it develops. There are also two fairly new flight simulators being built one is Open Source and has been funded to grow.
Ted

[Major_Spittle]

Thanks for the reply. It is sad to hear that the sim will never be finished due to mismanagement.

[JT8D-9A]

http://xplanescenery.blogspot.com/2009/10/order-independent-transparency-what-it.html

I wish i would have read something like that in a MS blog...

[Tregarth]

I bought X-Plane to see what it was like. Initially I was impressed but found that a lot of detail was missing, even on the default plane. Then I discovered that it is constantly being upgraded (great) but the newest upgrade was not always compatible with add-ons for a previous upgrade. It seems to be a plaything for the developer to tweak.

I think it is now up to Beta 9.44 (it started at Beta 9.01) so I have decided FSX is not that bad after all.

[mfitch]

As txnetcop noted, X-Plane is aimed, primarily, at a different audience. It is actually certified by the FAA for training (with appropriate, expensive hardware). Commercial clients are likely their main source of income. This has not encouraged great add-ons.

However, recent additions to the feature list make X-Plane capable of beautiful planes. Some are beginning to emerge. Beginning and emerge are both important words for now.