Would Anyone Else like to see an X-Plane Discussion Board here

[IanP]

I just discovered - after a lot of digging - that there is actually now an in-cockpit FMC available for X-Plane...

...MSFS had EFIS98 in 1997.

X-Plane needs a lot more work before it becomes a viable alternative to MSFS, both in the background and in terms of what is available for it. I think - indeed I hope - that the current situation at MS will get some more of that development done, but right now, it cannot do what I want it to and that's the end of the story. FS9 can, FSX can. X-Plane can't.

[MCDesigns]

Distances seem to gray out like the whole world enjoys Los Angeles smog.

That is the one thing I have noticed in the many screenshots I have seen, the world is very dark.

I wonder with this stupid move by MS, how many will become more involved in the Xplane community. I can see them over there wondering where all these people are coming from, LOL

Seeing as there is a lack of addons for it, I contemplated doing scenery for it since I am familiar with Blender, one of the supported design apps, but I have to much on my plate already with FSX.

EDIT Speak of the devil, just saw this at the Xplane site
http://www.x-plane.com/ms_to_xp/ms_to_xp.html

[harleyman]

His little speach in your link was intresting to say the least..I just regestered there 2 days ago and the reception was far from friendly IMO...

I was almost banned the first 3 posts there.And recieved several PM's from members not to speak to their Golden Mods like that....LOL

Oh well... I just wanted some help..not a bunch of flack...

[IanP]

You have to remember that Austin Meyer - in the eyes of X-Plane fanaticdom - is God for taking on the evil empire of Microsoft. MSFS is wrong. They are right (although Flightgear passes muster to be allowed to be mentioned in a non-derogatory way as well - MSFS does not).

I've said this before, but it bears repeating. They are only following as they are led. The one time I was in the same room as Mr. Meyer was an awards ceremony for FS developers. X-Plane products were up for a number of awards, but so were some exceptionally good MSFS add-ons. Every time an MSFS add-on won something, Mr. Meyer and retinue sat there stony faced, arms folded, and/or shook their heads a little, while the rest of the crowd applauded. When an X-Plane mod/add-on won, they were cheering and whooping and on their feet with arms in the air. Everyone else was clapping a little louder too, but nowhere near the adulation from that one table.

As soon as the next winner was announced, the table was back to arms folded, stony silence.

I'm afraid that immature rants (with some factual inaccuracies) are what I expect from the X-Plane fanatics over events like those of the last few days - with much gloating and sneering. Harleyman's description above is fairly typical of those I hear from people trying to move from MSFS to X-Plane (or keep using both, which is an even worse crime, apparently) who have dared to go there. So where are these tens of thousands of users flocking to X-Plane and ditching MSFS? I'd put good money, if I had any, on the fact that they don't exist. People are realising that X-Plane has promise and are using both. However, the ego has landed, and what he says shall be written down as hallowed truth.

What I am hoping, very much, is that if there is a sudden influx of developers and users from the MSFS community to X-Plane, they will tell the denizens to shut the heck up so regularly and prove their incorrect assumptions to be so on so many occasions, that they have to grow up and get over their bigotry.

I have nothing against the sim. I'd use it happily if - as I said before - it did what I wanted it to. The people surrounding it? A different matter.

[txnetcop]

They remind me of the people at People's Temple-Jim Jones group and they love their Kool-Aid. Austin is the Exalted One and as you say IAN Microsoft the evil empire. I will say that some of them have been extremely kind about the ACES deal and have great sympathy for their plight, but then you get the other mob that can't see beyond the forest they created.


BTW Michael their sales may be up but they are not counting the ones who buy it, try it and toss it! Those are in the majority. I meet them on facebook and other sim sites like Flight Gear. Still I think an XPlane forum over here would be cool we haven't drunk the Kool-Aid.
Ted

[Boomer]

Interesting read MC. Indeed Austin is rubbing his palms together.

I always enjoyed X-Plane & MSFS concurrently (must be my latent schizophrenia) and never believed that one was overtly better then the other. Both have their strengths & weakness's.

As long as one can appreciate the differences between the sims & not engage in petty one up man ship I think a X-plane forum would do well here.
We have the right kind of group to support such an endeavor.

My X-plane CD should be delivered in a few days & I look forward to posting my observations.

I know the current Mods are pressed for time so if the group should decide to create a X-plane forum I volunteer my services to assist with it.

[spotlope]

I tried the X-Plane 9 demo at several points along the development, and was highly unimpressed. The graying out that Helldiver mentioned was persistent, and my demo told me it was to preserve frame rates. What? I thought one of the great things about X-P was supposed to be how smoothly it ran compared to MSFS. Hardly. My performance was worse than FSX, and with much worse graphics. Also, I never could figure out how to get my TrackIR to work, even with checking the little tick-box in the labyrinthine settings control panel.

Uh-uh. Not for me unless they do a lot of clean up on the interface, the looks, and the performance.

[Lionheart]

EDIT Speak of the devil, just saw this at the Xplane site
http://www.x-plane.com/ms_to_xp/ms_to_xp.html

MC Designs

Thanks for posting that Michael. Gives me some faith in 'plan B'.




On the topic of graying out or background visibility being limited, you can adjust that. It says its for frame rates, but you can tune it to be 100 miles or more. I was running mine like that, and it did have popups saying that frame rates can be improved with less visibility range.

Also, I found you could adjust the Ambient light. It does seem a little dark. Just brighten it up a bit.

There is also a key that adjusts the position of the sun. Pretty fun to 'move the sun' accross the sky in its arc trajectory, lol... (If you hold it down, the sun starts racing accross the sky, then into the night, all the stars, then up comes the sun again, sort of like in the movie "The Time Machine". :d


I love the sim, but then I 'see' potentials. There will sometimes be a freeware plane released, and no one says anything about it because its not perfect, doesnt have a VC, doesnt have this or that in it like the others.. But I see the possibilities in it, what its capable of. I was there. My first work was grim!!!! (eww.. very grim). But we all improve, change, grow...

So.. With that, I say, keep an open mind.. Dont let negativity 'control' your directions, or you will not see the good in things, not see the good in the world.


I should say that most of the time I am writing now in the forums, I am in Mac mode, not windows. Change isnt so bad. Its different. Sometimes better, sometimes not.. I love Mac Leopard over Windows now. I like FS9 over FSX and over X-Plane, but I see the potential in X-Plane. I see X-Plane as being in the FS2000 stage, maybe even FS2002 Pro stage. That means they are behind, but it doesnt mean its not worth it.. Its new, and its growing..



Bill


EDIT: Ted, I know what you mean about the planes being twitchy. These do have 'config files' of sorts (diff name) and someone has told me (cant remember his name, arrghh) that you can adjust the planes to handle softer. Ive been meaning to do this with the 172 to improve it a tad and get rid of the twitchyness.

[harleyman]

My first wife was twitchy...

No...That started with a B...

sorryto interupt........

[Roger]

Signed up at the X-Plane forum, just to see what's going on. Looks active and I didn't see much "told you so" over the demise of Aces, in fact some of the posts were sorry to see MSFS go.
The important thing to me is does X-Plane offer "gradual transition" in spot view? Without it I will not investigate further. CFS3 did not have this option so I dropped it instantly as I can't stand the "toy plane on a stick" scenario without gradual transition.

[limjack]

I wouldn't mind a x-plane forum just to hear what it is all about but I will be stuck on FSX for many years to come. I still have so much to learn, so many avenues I can take with FSX. It really is a chance to really dig into this program and not have to worry about upgrading any time soon. I have always been one to enjoy what I got and get the most out of it!

Jim

[RCAF_Gunner]

Roger,

I downloaded the X-Plane v9 beta demo and installed it. It takes a while to install because it downloads the pieces over the internet as it installs (I believe the retail version comes on DVD). From my limited go at it, I noticed in the external view you can zoom in and out with the - & = keys and you can pan around the exterior with the arrow keys. I'm not sure if that answers your question.

The only configuration I did was to set up the joystick/pedal axis and the monitor resolution. The lack of familiar key strokes and lack of a configured hat switch made hopping between views and moving around awkward but it looks highly configurable.

I could not find a true "full screen" mode setting but was able to fill the screen by selecting the same resolution as my desktop. There were some texture tearing issues owing to vertical sync. I think this could be forced on but perhaps not as I thought I was already forcing that with the nVidia control panel. The other issue I ran into quickly is the whole world isn't rendered in the demo but it looks like all the airports are so I ended up over nothing but water after I jumped to CYYJ. Oops. I need to figure out where the demo scenery is and get back there.

Honest first impression is it has good potential. Were the MSFS products to quit working tomorrow then I'd still have a flight sim I could enjoy. I really want to try it on my iMac too but I might need more RAM first. It's nowhere near as mature as FSX and it felt like stepping backwards in a time warp for the virtual flying experience ~ not so much the included 3D models and their FMs but the scenery. This is not meant as a put down. Far from it considering its almost a "David vs Goliath" kind of comparison; in that regard it's quite impressive. It just means that I'll watch its progress with great interest but I will still keep FSX going as long as I can, continue to buy add-ons, etc, until it's no longer an option.

Rick

[Prowler1111]

The King is dead, long love the King?..afraid NOT, just because MS stopped more FS development in the NEAR future (and the fact the don´t want to sell it..big hint) means they have NOT killed the series..at least yet.NOW..everytime MS delivered a new version, people ranted..we want FS) but with more xxx or FSX with more xxx, :violent: FSX was not just filling the shelves when people were thinking when FS11 will come!...dudes, the fact we wont see a new FS platform say next year, doesn´t mean we have to stuff it and go home, it means more time to enjoy FSX and tweak it and make i even better---´cause there is a 50/50 chance FS11 will be a completely new ride!lighten up , people.
And regarding X-plane9 (reason of this thread)i bought it, i HONESTLY looked for something else, to be frank, i looked for a new market, bought the DVD´s installed, and it was like a time travel.....to what we all hoped FS98 would look like....i still have it installed, but rarely touch it.
Best regards
Prowler

[txnetcop]

Prowler I don't think anyone in this group wants to leave FSX, I know I would not as we have only scratched the surface of what is there. However it would be nice to have an X-Plane forum so that the negativity that is usually expressed over on their side can be more useful for those here who happen to fly both sims.

Austin Meyer is moving very quickly to take advantage of the confusion and many FS simmers are confused about what this means to FSX especially in light of the online activation required for FSX. I think that information being spread by Austin Meyer's Laminar Research here:

http://www.flightsimx.co.uk/xplane/x...ers-to-switch/

would be best interpreted here on our own forum for X-Plane users. The word needs to be spread that FSX is very viable for many years to come should it take Microsoft that long to move on it. However we can't afford to leave X-Plane questions and information to the other side.
Ted

[GT182]

One important question. Does X-Plane 9 support the Tracker IR4?

[bkeske]

EDIT Speak of the devil, just saw this at the Xplane site
http://www.x-plane.com/ms_to_xp/ms_to_xp.html

That is enough to turn me off. I do not NEED someone to capitalize words to emphasize their POINTS to me.


Grow up Mr Meyer.

[Alvega]

That is enough to turn me off. I do not NEED someone to capitalize words to emphasize their POINTS to me.


Grow up Mr Meyer.

:amen: One thing is for sure, he ain't gonna get my hard earned money. Long live FSX.

[Lionheart]

One important question. Does X-Plane 9 support the Tracker IR4?

Track IR, yes...

I dont know what IR4 is though. (Works on my rig).





Bill

[falcon409]

One thing is for sure, he ain't gonna get my hard earned money. Long live FSX.

. . . . .The bottom line is that we at Laminar Research are ready to accept the inflow of customers from Microsoft, will continue to make X-Plane the best flight simulator in the industry

Cocky SOB ain't he. . . .grrrr. . .sure glad we're all bailing out at such an alarming rate that he's already in the gold room counting his millions before they're hatched. That alone would be enough for me to stick with FS9/FSX until I'm too senile to know what a computer is anymore.
I'm another that wouldn't give that guy a dime of my money, as far as I'm concerned my staying with FS9/FSX shows my determination to support the guys from ACES that have given us what we have now, no thanks to Microsoft.

[JT8D-9A]

We only talk about X-Plane because of the weakness of MS and not because X-Plane "all interesting features will be in the next version" is so much better.
Flightgear and Seven-G are looking more interesting to me EDIT: than X-Plane.
But my main Sim will remain FSX, because of its SDK and graphics.

I would vote for a separate forum for all non-MS flight simulators (Flightgear, X-Plane etc).

[txnetcop]

All of this talk of not giving Austin our money is well and good but there are some of us who have been flying X-Plane since the early days on and off and many of us who have version 9, now 9.22. Why send these guys to get brainwashed or brutalized at X-Plane.org.

You should see how Harleyman was treated over there just for asking questions about how to get his PC rig setup to run FSX. Those MAC loving loonies over there brow beat him and one suggested that you can't run X-Plane well on a PC-a outright lie. I run it better than they do!

I doubt if anyone in here is stupid enough to leave FSX or FS9 to go to X-Plane, as it has a long way to go to be a great simulator, but we can help each other not waste what we have spent.

I'm not rich and this was a gift that I chose not to return. I love flight simming and I want people on both sides of the aisle to be able to enjoy their hobby as much as I do. It is why I share the knowledge I share about computers and what makes one run best. It is also why I build them. I know how to build a system that makes X-Plane and FSX sing. There are quite a few in here that know that because they are using my build or have had help in building one.

Let's not send our folks over to their side to drink the Kool-Aid! If you don't want to buy X-Plane I agree. I would not purchase it while MSFS is still viable and growing. You have to understand though that Microsoft passed the baton to Austin Meyer by doing what they did with our ACES team, dropping full support for MSFS, and Train Sim 2.0. Perhaps unknowingly they gave that egomaniac what he has always wanted, but I doubt that Microsoft didn't count the cost. FSX is a small revenue item compared to other things they have cooking on the back burner, in bad times a smaller revenue item is going to go to the back burner and something else brought forward-it's business not evil empire stuff.

Ted

[Francois]

Cocky SOB ain't he. . . .grrrr. . .sure glad we're all bailing out at such an alarming rate that he's already in the gold room counting his millions before they're hatched. That alone would be enough for me to stick with FS9/FSX until I'm too senile to know what a computer is anymore.
I'm another that wouldn't give that guy a dime of my money, as far as I'm concerned my staying with FS9/FSX shows my determination to support the guys from ACES that have given us what we have now, no thanks to Microsoft.

I appreciate that message Ed

[falcon409]

I appreciate that message Ed

My pleasure Francois,
Glad to see the Facebook site is tallying new members at a pretty good clip right now too. Just seems that there could have been a less extreme solution open to MS than to simply dump the entire shop. As I said, FS9/FSX are here to stay and I don't see anything else on the horizon that can touch it, despite what's being said elsewhere.

[bstolle]

I know x-plane since version 3, I tried v9 and even built planes for various versions, but in the end I always came back to FS.
1st; the planes have too little inertia. They don't 'feel' like real planes.
I haven't seen a single 'real' pilot who considers x-planes behaviour convincing.
2nd; basic aerodynamic problems can't be resolved due to x-planes 'blade-element-theory'.
A lot of planes like the really nice looking Mu2 (at least it's freeware predecessor) have very serious handling problems.
E.g. I never achieved flightmanual perfomance for my (v9) Hansajet due to these limitations.
3rd; Planes with a highly sophisticated systems-simulation like the PMDG MD-11 are far out of reach.
IMHO the gap between FS and x-plane became even wider when MS introduced FSX!

I'm really looking forward to an extended FSX live and for that reason, even further improved FSX-planes

No, I don't think that SOH needs an x-plane forum

[gera]

Sure, the more the better. I am sure that with the "Vacuum" left by our great Master MS, who has everyone by the ***alls both with this Sim and in the business world with its "expensive and full of Bugs Vista OS", someone will come out
with a better Sim eventually...........Do you´ll thing NO ONE can do better?????? they were the top of the Mount
and no one can ever beat them?????? ---note I am talking both of MS and the Aces......Come on people, time passes
and things and people go with it....I have seen a lot come and go.....So Yes, do open a Forum for other Sims, why not???:welcome: