X-Plane 11 My Verdict

[Bjoern]

I've watched a few videos about X-Life, World Traffic and Pilot2ATC today. With those, the X-Plane experience seems to be quite close to FSX/P3D in terms of AI/ATC (minus AI chatter).

But doing a bit of mental calculation has the entire setup (X-Plane 11, World Traffic, Pilot2ATC, a good 737 or A320 and some other, potentially necessary add-ons) come out at $200+. And that's without the required hardware upgrades (16 GB RAM and a bigger SSD). Urgh!

[ChrisHunt]

Nice screen shots Nigel. I'll have to do some later. Me and my wifeare joining a group of friends next January on a cycle tour of Sri Lanka - I think I'll create that in Ortho to explore the terrain. We did a cycle tour of Central America last January and it would have been useful to get a better idea of the lumpy bits before we went - Google maps doesn't quite do it.

Bjoern, it's worth it - the overall experience with X-Plane is so much better than P3D; no blurries, no popping autogen, no popping terrain, no stutters. The only down side and it is quite a big one is the investment in P3D and all those aircraft not transferable or yet made for XP.

[ChrisHunt]

I completed Sri Lanka using images from Bing but to be completely honest it's rubbish. Poor images with quite a bit of cloud cover in places and also very large patches of white where I assume there's no effective satellite coverage. Also each satellite pass seems to have taken place in a different season so it's a real patchwork of odd colours. Anyhow - off to archive with Sri Lanka!

As for the rest I've decided to split it into regions or countries where the countries are large enough and to archive each and bring them back when I want them, each with it's own scenery_packs file. Sounds great in principle but archiving to network attached storage is a sloooooow process!

[Paul K]

Great screenshots Nigel, thank you !

[ChrisHunt]

I've got a few to post but what's the best way nowadays to upload them to here?

[Nigel H-J]

Nice screen shots Nigel.

Great screenshots Nigel, thank you !

You're very welcome, enjoyed that flight very much.

I've got a few to post but what's the best way nowadays to upload them to here?

Hi Chris, yesterday I created an account with Imgur, very fast in uploading all pictures I had taken and easy to use, when uploaded just click on the picture you want to display and you are given 6 selections, press the copy icon on the BBCode.

I don't really know much about Imgur apart from it being free.

That cycle tour you are going to do sounds great, will you be back packing or using hostels/hotels to stop at? Don't forget to take your camera!!

Bjoern, it very much depends on what suits you best, I could have gone to P3D and taken many aircraft from FSX with me but chose to go to X Plane and will no doubt spend more money but over a longer period of time. As for hardware upgrades I am only running an i5-4690 CPU @ 3.50GHz with 8GB RAM and a NVIDIA G-Force GTX 760. Admittedly I am only running Ortho and X Europe 2 but still getting good frame rates and as Chris wrote:

no blurries, no popping autogen, no popping terrain, no stutters.

At the end of the day it is down to what you want and what you will be happy with.

Regards
Nigel.

[ChrisHunt]

Thanks for that Nigel. I'll give it a go in the next day or so.

Regarding Sri Lanka - it's guest houses/hotels and a guided tour. About 360 miles in total.

It is similar to what we did in Central America but with a different company. That trip was through three countries with things like white water rafting and hot and cold springs thrown in for good measure. All in all a great deal of fun even if some of the hill climbing ended in "good views", which was code for a big hill! I can thoroughly recommend it.

[Nigel H-J]

Regarding Sri Lanka - it's guest houses/hotels and a guided tour. About 360 miles in total.

It is similar to what we did in Central America but with a different company. That trip was through three countries with things like white water rafting and hot and cold springs thrown in for good measure. All in all a great deal of fun even if some of the hill climbing ended in "good views", which was code for a big hill! I can thoroughly recommend it.

Wow, that sounds really interesting and adventurous, unfortunately at my age and health it would take me three times longer climbing those hills as you call 'em. I would need another holiday of six months duration to recover!!

Regards
Nigel.

[grumpyoldb]

After following Nigels adventure into Xplane I've taken the plunge. It was a hard decision seeing as I've come all the way down the track from FS5. I still have fs98, fs2000, fs 2002, fs2004 and FSX on my system and regularly fire them up just to remind myself how far we've come on this journey. Had I not followed Nigel on these threads, I don't think I would have done it as I was just about to go for P3d.
Thanks for your help.
Steve.

Chasing Nessie this morning.

[Nigel H-J]

Hi Steve Welcome to X Plane, if there is anything you would like to know or need help/advice then do not hesitate to ask and as you know from my posts.....................I did a lot of asking!

Like you it was a hard decision for me on which way to go, P3D or X Plane 11 but what actually did it for me more than anything else was the fact that you could try before you buy, something that P3D do not offer though they will refund you within a limited time frame. Also I spent a lot of time viewing videos on You Tube and of course asking here in where I got excellent advice.

Great screen shot though did you manage to see the elusive creature? What we need is some one to model a Nessie making it appear at random times throughout the day!!

Regards
Nigel.