What are you guys using here

[hey_moe]

I know we have some in here who fly in space. What program or plane are you using.

[Daube]

Orbiter Sim is the main choice, the one that offers the most realistic space flight (and it's freeware !)
However, the Earth is not detailled at all, so flying in the atmosphere is quite useless.

XPlane allows space flight as well. The space experience might not be as realistic as in Orbiter Sim, but at least you get a detailled world, so it's a better balance in my opinion.

FSX allows you to "be" in space but unfortunately the physics engine is unable to handle space physics, so forget about it.

[James]

Yeah. Orbiter is definitely on of the best out there. I am not aware of a 'go-anywhere' sim.

[Bjoern]

Freespace 2. :cool:

[warchild]

And here i thought ya'll had just gotten a sip of my coffee ::chuckles::

[CodyValkyrie]

Space Shuttle Mission (soon to be boxed and in stores soon as well).

www.space-shuttle-mission.com

... anyways, that's just my choice. Never been a huge Orbiter fan personally, but I certainly understand it's appeal.

[Mr.Mugel]

Freespace 2. :cool:

Hehe, I really enjoyed that one, too! Haven´t done it for quite some time though.... There were talks about a 3rd one, but haven´t heard anything more about it.

[Bjoern]

There were talks about a 3rd one, but haven´t heard anything more about it.

Maybe fan-made with the engine of the second one...

Would require A LOT of voice-acting 'though.

[gigabyte]

I have messed with Orbiter and Xplane and both are very cool, I found the learning curve fairly steep though and didn't really stick with it, I will probaby go back at both some time in the future. I do really enjoy the X3 series, it is not as realistic a flight model by any stretch of the imagination, but the graphics are outstanding and there is a lot of variety in the game play. The only thing I find it lacks is atmospheric flight but "ya can't have everything".

I think the cool thing about X3 is the Tradeing and exploration aspect, it offers plenty of combat if that is what you are after, but you can also take the Merchant, or Explorer role and play it like a sim, you will get attacked by Pirates from time to time, but you are not in constant battle unless you want to be. The other thing I really like is the huge fan base and all the mods/add-on's, just like FSX there are a wide variety of add on ships and scenery avaliable to expand the experience.

If you are interested check the X3 Terran Conflict section here in the Outhose, it is not overflowing with posts, but there are lots of good screen shots and tips in there.