Posted: 3/11/2010 7:44:27 AM EDT
Anyone here use X-plane flight sim? I can't seem to get away from it. I am not a pilot but have a huge interest in aviation, since I was a little kid (like most of you guys I'm sure). For those pilots who do use it/ train on it, how close it is it to the real thing? Obviously no sim will ever be like really flying. But I here they use FAA certified versions of the software to train pilots. I have learned a few things, like some acronyms, and not to extend flaps or gears at 400kts on a 747  My wife doesn't like when I sit for hours in front of my computer playing this sim. I always tell her she will be grateful if our pilot ever has a heart attack and I need to land the plane, she just rolls her eyes, haha. So what you pilots say, x-plane close as you can get to the real thing? Who else is an x-plane junkie? I tried MS flight sim, but that is more like video game and couldn't stand to play it after using x-plane for so many years. FYI I am at version 9.51 beta.
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Both MSFS and X-Plane have their pros and cons. Some claim X-Plane models flight dynamics better, however, this really isn't true. They might feel different, but at the end of the day they won't simulate a real experience at all. X-Plane might have an advantage over MSFS in the flight dynamics department, if programmed properly, but that doesn't make it "realistic". When trying to simulate spins, slips, or other maneuvers, neither of them do it right or even at all. MSFS has been used for FAA training as well, so that is just marketing hype.
Personally, my thoughts about X-Plane are more about the big picture since no software is gonna simulate what a pilot feels. I prefer MSFS since it has ATC, AI (traffic), a plethora of scenery, and add on aircraft that come closer to anything X-Plane offers in terms of realism. The eye candy in MSFS, combined with ATC, AI, and a good 3rd part add on aircraft make for a fun experience. Yes, X-Plane has some advantages over MSFS. The weather and turbulence can be more immersive. X-Plane also feels more fluid to some people. I'm just too into the aircraft themselves, and X-Plane sucks in that area. Some nice looking add ons are on the horizon (e.g., CRJ), but most of what X-Plane has to offer looks like MSFS 2000 technology. Plus, I don't know of any X-Plane add on that simulates aircraft operations the way MSFS add ons do. Look at companies like Level-D, PMDG, Flight 1, RealAir, and Dreamfleet for very realistic aircraft that are designed to run in MSFS. Some of these aircraft operate as much like the real world counterpart as the software allows. X-Plane has similar aircraft, but they all look so dated and I don't know how realistic they are compared to the pay ware stuff you get for MSFS. |
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Maybe because I have used x-plane for the last 10 years, I think differently, but then I have never actually taken the controls of a real plane so I can't compare. One thing I did notice with both sims, which you had mentioned, is the lack of ability to actually make the plane lose control. All you do is dead stick and the thing is flying straight again a second later. Never liked that. X-plane does have lots of add-ons, ATC, and extra planes as well as scenery. ATC requires programming the thing, and never got around to it. You can even ATC with other people on a network, One guy is working ATC while you are pilot or vice versa. I never played it with it enough to figure it out. Some planes and add-ons are good, usually payware, and some can be crappy, usually the freeware. But i have found that you usually find a free one that does better than the plane I just bought, so it all depends I guess. One thing I do like with x-plane, is the ability to network to another computer, while you are flying, your position is being updated every few secss on a second computer running google earth. I thought that was nifty. My next undertaking will be to use what I believe is called G2XPL. It allows you to use actually scenery from google or MS maps in the simulator.
The thing I hate mostly about x-plane is the ridiculous amount of hardware required to get it to run smooth. I finally gotta stable over clock going (2.4––>3.4ghz) and average 60fps with full airport and scenery detail. I also have 2 9800gtx + cards in SLI overclocked to 812mhz from 740. I don't think x-plane utilizes SLI much, but I see a slight difference. I might have to install that MSFS demo I got with my joystick and do another comparison. |
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I view flight sims as a mix of "procedures trainer" and "play with stuff you will hopefully never get to play with in the air."
For VFR training... eh. Take it or leave it, you can play with some neat things in it (engine loss on base to final turn), but as for learning to actually control a plane, it's not spectacular. For IFR training, it can be much better. I started my IFR training and haven't had time/money to continue it for a few months, but for IFR procedures and training, it's much more valuable. One of the best things you can do with XPlane (and MSFS) is properly simulate instrument failures. A post-it note or suction cup over a "failed" attitude indicator is one thing. An attitude indicator slowly failing and getting increasingly inaccurate due to either a vacuum system failure or the instrument itsself failing, in hard IFR, can be a totally different problem, and a number of planes and lives have been lost when a pilot doesn't detect the failure and tries to fly the incorrect attitude indicator into the ground or water. You can do this in flight sims quite nicely - set up a few failures, and fly a complex approach in the clag - a few holds, then a fairly complex approach, missed approach, and second attempt. With instruments set to fail randomly at some point through this process. Far too many pilots, when it comes down to it, fail the final exam here. One thing I do like about X-Plane's model is that you can reasonably accurately simulate catastrophic failures. Take a 737 up (or really any swept wing aircraft), remove the vertical stabilizer - try to land it. This particular failure is nasty, as swept wing planes without a tail are horribly unstable. You can also, if you have a good control setup (yoke/quadrant/pedals/etc) play with worst case failure situations - engine failure in a twin on a hot, high takeoff at gross. Stuff like this that is horribly unsafe to practice in a real plane, but might save your life someday. |
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Maybe because I have used x-plane for the last 10 years, I think differently, but then I have never actually taken the controls of a real plane so I can't compare. One thing I did notice with both sims, which you had mentioned, is the lack of ability to actually make the plane lose control. All you do is dead stick and the thing is flying straight again a second later. Never liked that. X-plane does have lots of add-ons, ATC, and extra planes as well as scenery. ATC requires programming the thing, and never got around to it. You can even ATC with other people on a network, One guy is working ATC while you are pilot or vice versa. I never played it with it enough to figure it out. Some planes and add-ons are good, usually payware, and some can be crappy, usually the freeware. But i have found that you usually find a free one that does better than the plane I just bought, so it all depends I guess. One thing I do like with x-plane, is the ability to network to another computer, while you are flying, your position is being updated every few secss on a second computer running google earth. I thought that was nifty. My next undertaking will be to use what I believe is called G2XPL. It allows you to use actually scenery from google or MS maps in the simulator. The thing I hate mostly about x-plane is the ridiculous amount of hardware required to get it to run smooth. I finally gotta stable over clock going (2.4––>3.4ghz) and average 60fps with full airport and scenery detail. I also have 2 9800gtx + cards in SLI overclocked to 812mhz from 740. I don't think x-plane utilizes SLI much, but I see a slight difference. I might have to install that MSFS demo I got with my joystick and do another comparison. You can fly in Google Earth with Tileproxy in MSFS. For the hardware requirements, all MSFS installments have been horrible in this area. I have an Intel dual core E6850 with 4GB of RAM and a GeForce 8800 video card, but I run FS9 (MSFS 2004) and I still can't turn all the sliders up. Between add on aircraft scenery enhancements, traffic, and weather, my computer just won't allow full settings. FSX is even worse. Personally I think FSX is a steaming pile of shit. It requires tons more tweaking and computer power, plus it has a bunch of inherent problems that can't be fixed. Buggy weather engine (worse than FS9), buggy ATC menu, desert textures where they shouldn't be (inlcuding all around each airport), strange errors that can require a complete uninstall and wipe before reinstall, and on and on. You literally have to spend so much time tweaking FSX to get it to run decent, then you really need to buy add on scenery packages to fix the texture/scenery problems. I just don't have the time or desire to mess with it. I have FS9 finally running the way I like it and have spent a lot of money on add ons that don't work in FSX. Btw, you can network a lot of stuff with MSFS too. People network their weather programs, ATC apps, GPS units, and a ton of stuff with it, so that isn't exlusive to X-Plane. I'm not trying to convert you to MSFS, and lord knows, if you play with FSX, you'll probably be frustrated because I hated FSX. However, there are a lot of ways that MSFS can be superior to X-Plane and the reason more people use MSFS than X-Plane. You aren't gonna get add ons like this for X-Plane. Some of these products come with very rich failure models, if you chose to use them, as well as a mound of performance charts and other documentation to teach you how each plane's systems work and so forth. The systems modeling is at the heart of where these products shine. My favorite: http://www.precisionmanuals.com/pages/product/md11.html others: http://www.precisionmanuals.com/pages/product/744.html http://www.precisionmanuals.com/pages/product/js4100.html http://www.precisionmanuals.com/pages/product/744f.html http://www.leveldsim.com/sevensix_home.asp http://www.dreamfleet2000.com/ http://www.realairsimulations.com/home.php?page=home http://www.reality-xp.com/flightsim/st3400/index.html http://www.reality-xp.com/flightsim/sn3308/index.html Check out products like Ground Environment, Ultimate Terrain, GEX, Flight Environment. Not all products on Flight 1's site are good. http://www.flight1.com/ They do make the wonderful Garmin GPS for X-Plane, in case you didn't know: http://www.reality-xp.com/flightsim/gns530-xpl/index.html and http://www.reality-xp.com/flightsim/gns430-xpl/index.html These Garmins work off the actual trainer, so they model the real-world behavior and operate just as you would with a real one. I can't speak for the newer WAAS version, but the older non-WAAS versions have been awesome. The programmer is a genius but has really dropped off the planet. It's too bad. He developed those two products above for FS9 (Sandel TAWS and EFIS) which worked like the real version and had no overhead, thus the computer didn't lose performance when using them. He was part of an Airbus development team and that technology was gonna be used to create a complete Airbus A320, but for some reason they stopped development. A real shame. |