Getting the itch to try a flight sim again. Is one of these clearly better than the other? What differentiates them? Can Flight Simulator X be played using mouse/keyboard? (I know X-Plane can)
DOES NOT COMPUTE
Yes, quite easily. I also used a game pad for a while to test it on Vista. The only drawbacks of not having a gamepad or joystick are the free look movement, and of course easily placed buttons for specific uses on a joystick.
Xplane - runs on a worse PC better, better if you are prepared to roll your own stuff to use
MSFSX - looks better on a better pc, better if you are prepared to pay money for stuff to use
You “can” use anything to control anything these days :)
I have not tried MSFSX (FM?), but this page reminds me why I enjoy X-Plane. The creative powers of the community are quite impressive.
Just get both. I love xplane’s grassroots feel and the extra customizability is nice, but for some reason the flight model grates. FSX is moddable enough and runs maxed out on just about any recent hardware. Plus, if you are a pilot or are considering the plunge, FSX has tutorials and is meaty enough to approximate actual IFR.
This is almost the exact opposite of what I would say in regards to the suggested use of the two. X-Plane is known for its very realistic flight model and super smooth instrumentation. I’m fairly sure it is approved by the FAA for use as an IFR simulator if you have the right equipment to go with it.
FSX on the other hand has really nice graphics and a ton of very high quality commercial addons. If you want to fly big iron or see your house lovingly rendered then FSX is it.
If you have to get just one for casual use I would recommend FSX.
Meh. Either is perfectly adequate for things like keeping current on procedures, familiarizing yourself with an approach, or watching a properly modeled plane do what you would expect in given situations.
X-plane feels like it’s by and for aeronautical engineers; FSX, pilots and CFIs.
I don’t see any practical reason for planes unless they have guns attached! None!!!
i beg to disagree:
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
[I]Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941[/I]
guns do tend to make planes more fun though.
Yeah, I picked up FSX after a long time messing around with X-Plane and I have to agree. FSX feels more like an actual product, X-Plane is more of a test platform.
That said, it sounds like we have enough people here flying to answer … any good FSX freeware you’d recommend? The default install has a gap where vintage military (WW2,WW1) and mid-sized commuters (I’m thinking the type that use the Luton/Stansted airports and hop around Europe; I think they might even be prop-driven) appear to be.
Well, and modern military but I really have no interest in flying those.
Either way, a recommended freeware site would be nice. I did some quick googling and couldn’t find anything as solid as the X-Plane community.
Crap, I can’t think of any good freeware planes at the moment as most of mine are payware general aviation planes. I’d poke around in the FSX forums at Avsim.com They have a bunch of freeware under their reviews section too. Keep in mind most freeware planes are hit and miss with regards to the quality of their virtual cockpits.
For some good freeware scenery there’s http://www.blueskyscenery.com/download.html which has high resolution scenery for localized areas.
There’s also Tile Proxy which allows you to stream scenery from the big map providers on the net. http://edtruthan.com/tileproxy/tutorial/
TileProxy is still the most badass freeware out there, provided you’re using a good satellite imagery source and are flying slow enough planes to not make the loading a problem (I hear quad cores let you stream in terrain much faster)
I’d suggest, if you haven’t already, that you pick up Acceleration for whatever trivial price it is now, simply for the F-18 and carrier landings. Thre are plenty or freeware jets too but there are always little niggling annoyances about them.
Definately use the HDR mod ( properly adjusted to fsx) … it blows the vanilla bloom effect out of the water, and is virtually unnoticable in performance.
It’s greate until you want to fly upside down in an airliner, then it loses all realism though that was a few years ago. Maybe Austin fixed it in the last few revisions.
Holy hell!!
Yep, I wanted to replicate that exactly in both a 707 and 747, but when your roll hit hit ~80 degrees off level the sim would flop the plane. Austin said his fluid dynamics algorithm couldn’t handle it and he had no plans (didn’t care) to change it. But like I said, that was 2 or 3 revisions ago so it’d be cool if they got it fixed since the rest of the flight characteristics were better than MS’s Flight Sims.
Nice, thanks. The AVsim file repository is a bit tough to navigate, but discovery’s part of the fun. :)
I’m not looking to start buying tons of content just yet - tons of content on the disc already, plus I need to learn how not to overstress my aircraft :P - but if you have some recommendations on payware I’d love some links.
If you want some high quality freeware planes, check out planes by Tim ‘Piglet’ Conrad. Awesome stuff, ranging from WW2 prototype fighters to Star Wars ships.
He just released a really nice pair of A-1 Skyraiders that aren’t up on sim-outhouse yet, but are on flightsim.com. Here’s the link to the Navy modelon FlightSim.com. Just search the library there for “Tim Conrad” to find the rest of his planes.