Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

X-Plane vs MS Flight Sim X Deluxe

  • MS Flight Sim X Deluxe

    Votes: 22 29.3%
  • X-Plane

    Votes: 53 70.7%

  • Total voters
    75
X-Plane. It uses blade element theory to model the aircraft so it is more realistic. Also in X-Plane 9 there is now reflective water etc. Plus you don't need Windows to run it. ;)
 
Hello,
I was very excited by this new simulator that I didnt know before and yesterday I tried the demo on my MBP. I must say that I was a bit disappointed by the physics of the plane behaviour :(

ok I played it with my mouse so the immersion wasnt that great but this strange realism kind of makes me hesitate before buying the game :confused:
 
Hello,
I was very excited by this new simulator that I didnt know before and yesterday I tried the demo on my MBP. I must say that I was a bit disappointed by the physics of the plane behaviour :(

ok I played it with my mouse so the immersion wasnt that great but this strange realism kind of makes me hesitate before buying the game :confused:

I assume you are talking about X Plane. I have both X plane & FSX. Both have their strong points. What I like about X plane is I can run it on OS X, but I do not think it is more realistic. In fact the virtual cockpit mode of FSX gives me the most realistic flight experience.
 
Hello,
I was very excited by this new simulator that I didnt know before and yesterday I tried the demo on my MBP. I must say that I was a bit disappointed by the physics of the plane behaviour :(

ok I played it with my mouse so the immersion wasnt that great but this strange realism kind of makes me hesitate before buying the game :confused:

Flying with a joystick is better. I viewed your linked youtube video. Why exactly were you disappointed with the X-Plane acft physics?

I don't know how the other flight sims out there function but I do know many of them use charts to determine aircraft performance. In other words at 10k, the sim reads the chart and provides xx performance. As far as I know X-Plane is one of the few (only?) retail sims that actually computes drag based on the construction of the aircraft/airfoil. I used to fly a DC9 (actual not simulated) and took an X-Plane modeled DC9 on a trip from Minneapolis to Chicago and basic climb and turn performance was seemed realistic. Now when it comes to acrobatics, sims are far from perfect because the pilot is moving the aircraft, especially an airliner into a new realm that is harder for simulators to simulate especially if your doing departures from controlled flight. As you know airliners are not usually used for acro. :)

One other thing, Airbuses are fly by wire. You are negotiating with a computer to fly the plane. :) Joystick inputs command rates of change, they are not direct input to the flight controls. Now does X-Plane take that into consideration? I don't know. I do know years ago I flew Falcon4 and my initial impression as compared to older traditional airplanes, such as I flew in Warbirds (I did fly a T28 in a former life) was that it did not feel "real". But that is how fly-by-wire birds fly. When you have a plane such as the A320 with auto trim, if you move the aircraft to an attitude (not an extreme attitude) and let go of the stick, it stays right there (for the most part).
 
Flying with a joystick is better. I viewed your linked youtube video. Why exactly were you disappointed with the X-Plane acft physics?

I don't know how the other flight sims out there function but I do know many of them use charts to determine aircraft performance. In other words at 10k, the sim reads the chart and provides xx performance. As far as I know X-Plane is one of the few (only?) retail sims that actually computes drag based on the construction of the aircraft/airfoil. I used to fly a DC9 (actual not simulated) and took an X-Plane modeled DC9 on a trip from Minneapolis to Chicago and basic climb and turn performance was seemed realistic. Now when it comes to acrobatics, sims are far from perfect because the pilot is moving the aircraft, especially an airliner into a new realm that is harder for simulators to simulate especially if your doing departures from controlled flight. As you know airliners are not usually used for acro. :)

One other thing, Airbuses are fly by wire. You are negotiating with a computer to fly the plane. :) Joystick inputs command rates of change, they are not direct input to the flight controls. Now does X-Plane take that into consideration? I don't know. I do know years ago I flew Falcon4 and my initial impression as compared to older traditional airplanes, such as I flew in Warbirds (I did fly a T28 in a former life) was that it did not feel "real". But that is how fly-by-wire birds fly. When you have a plane such as the A320 with auto trim, if you move the aircraft to an attitude (not an extreme attitude) and let go of the stick, it stays right there (for the most part).
ok thanks for your opinion :) I will buy it :p
 
ok thanks for your opinion :) I will buy it :p

Have you got it?
I finally have the Logitech Freedom 2.4 Cordless Joystick, and it's amazing!
Needed some time to figure out which favourite controls I wanted to assign to the buttons, but OMG.. once that's done, X-Plane 9 comes to life!
I played with my mouse only before, and although I considered the game cool etc, it simply was too hard.
But now.... ooohh yeah.... Captain MacsRgr8 speaking to you here. :)
 
Have you got it?
I finally have the Logitech Freedom 2.4 Cordless Joystick, and it's amazing!
Needed some time to figure out which favourite controls I wanted to assign to the buttons, but OMG.. once that's done, X-Plane 9 comes to life!
I played with my mouse only before, and although I considered the game cool etc, it simply was too hard.
But now.... ooohh yeah.... Captain MacsRgr8 speaking to you here. :)

no I dont have it yet.
 
Well after have both Sim installed and working fine I must say MS Flight Simulator is my favorite. The only bad point I have to say about FSX in it runs in windows.
I am very disappointed in this release of X-plane. ( Verso 8 is great) First of all I had trouble installing all 6 DVD's I would get to DVD 6 and be stuck in a endless loop. This weekend I had to reinstall on a new drive and can't get past DVD 3. Also there is a lack of planes for version 9 and it looks like what is available is payware. Also the scenery is nothing special.

Do you know, do you have to install all of the scenery with x-plane?

60GB, or whatever it is, is rather a lot. It would be nice if you can
install only areas of interest.
 
Do you know, do you have to install all of the scenery with x-plane?

60GB, or whatever it is, is rather a lot. It would be nice if you can
install only areas of interest.

You CAN install only areas of interest. For example I you only want North America you can install just that.
 
I do prefer the cockpits of the aircraft in FSX , while I like the flight dynamics in X-Plane-there's even versions of X-Plane for the iPhone and iPod touch, while FSX doesn't (directx and no Mac version to base a iPhone and iPod touch version on).
 
Just installed Windows7 and FSX on my mac pro. WOW!! I tried Vista 64 and had nothing but problems. I took Vista off sold it on ebay and put XPpro on for FSX. I had a few freezes. I have been using windows7 for 2 days now not one freeze. I can squeeze a few extra FPS. Very Happy:D
 
Is x-plane still fun and somewhat easy to use if you are an amateur?

I have a Mac so I'm pretty much stuck with choosing X plane over FSX (just not interested in bootcamp). I have zero real flight experience or training, and my only relation to flying airplanes is the little time I have spent on FS 2004 back when I had a PC. Would I be able to play X plane enjoyably, or do I need the technical know how of realistic flying to be able to pilot one of these aircraft in the game?

A side note; are the majority of joysticks compatible with OSX and X plane software, or are only a few compatible?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.