What am I missing with X-Plane?

[Quixoticish]

After getting thoroughly sick and tired with MS FS and the constant need to be buying addons and tweaking the damn thing I've decided to have a go at X-Plane.

I've installed the latest demo off the website and I've got to say I'm not impressed. The aircraft models for the most part look quite rough, the cockpits even more so, and the flight dynamics on some of the aircraft included in the demo are absolutely awful. The only thing it seems to have over FSX is that the scenery is much more lush and consistent.

I've come to the conclusion I must be missing something, either in the way I've set X-Plane up or in what I'm using. For a complete newbie to X-Plane where should I look and what should I do to get the most out of it?

[flyinjake]

Quix,

Might want to wait for Xplane 10 before making the jump. I hear it will be considerably better than 9 but might not be as good as FSX when it comes to visual quality. I believe it will become better overall as more companies start making add ons for Xplane.

Unfortunately our hobby seems to pivot around add ons.

Jake

[txnetcop]

I agree I think X-Plane 10 is going to give you more of what you are looking for, but be aware it is now an add on world even in X-Plane to get what you really want. It also requires more computer to really see the eye-candy.
Ted

[Devildog73]

I agree I think X-Plane 10 is going to give you more of what you are looking for, but be aware it is now an add on world even in X-Plane to get what you really want. It also requires more computer to really see the eye-candy.
Ted

MUCH more computer!

I am running a 2.4GB CPU dou core2, 1 GB Vid Card (non-shared), 6GB of RAM on WIN7X64. The aircraft are rough from the outside. The scenery is great except at the airports.
I have been tempted to find and purchase FSX to see what it is like, but right now like FS9 better than X-Plane 9.

[bstolle]

I'm starting to really like x-plane 10.
The 'feel' in FLIGHT and the FDEs have been considerable improved over FSX (and apparently P3D) but it still falls a bit short of x-plane 10.
Yes, the default planes look and fly horrible (except for the 747 which feels roughly correct).
Yes, it brings my old quad core to its knees with everythingturned up.
BUT as I'm interested in the 'flying' part and not the scenery part I have the setup turned to a 'realistic' setting...e.g. similar to a real level D sim.
No car, no AI traffic and almost no buildings and streets.
If you are practicing ILS approaches or if you are doing visual circuits and crosswind landings, cars etc.. are definitly nothing you focus on IRL but the frame rate goes up considerably.
I still have the cockpit, trees etc. shadows enabled which adds a lot to the immersion.
After a looong search I did find a good freeware GA. At XPFT there's a Robin DR400 available that's definitely better than the dault planes.
http://xpfr.org/?body=aero_accueil