Looking to purchase X-Plane and working with a Mac...any advise...

[azpdec]

I am new to the aviation and sim worlds and want to purchase X-Plane as a supplement to career.  I have a mac and, from the hours of research, it appears X-Plane is the way to go. My question is, what products will I see the best value from in regards to a flight sim yoke and pedals.  I want to make sure it is mac compatible and worth the investment.  Thanks.

[Cameron]

azpdec,

This all depends on your financial situation as well. If you are looking to purchase some high quality, true-to-life feeling stuff, it's out there, but runs about $500 or so per yoke and pedal.

If you're looking for something that works pretty well, then I'd suggest the Saitek yoke found here:

http://www.amazon.com/Saitek-Flight-Three-Lever-Throttle-PZ44/dp/B000TCD1UK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258089514&sr=8-1

A lot of people may also recommend the CH Products stuff, however, yoke wise, I would suggest the one above. For pedals, I would recommend the CH Products line here:

http://www.amazon.com/CH-Products-Pedals-Simulator-300-111/dp/B0000512IE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1258089578&sr=1-2

Hope this somewhat helps! Welcome to the world of X-Plane. You've made a good choice!

[azpdec]

Thank you very much for the info, any advise I can get is great. 

I contacted Saitek and they advised me their yoke, and all their products for the that matter, are not compatible with mac.  Do you, or anyone you know, use a mac for X-Plane?  I contacted CH and they advised me the controllers will work on the mac but the software for personalized configs is not compatible. 

[Zach Decou]

I use a Walmart special cheapo Saitek st290 pro stick on my 20" imac. It was plug n play from the get go. It seems odd to me they would tell you their products will not work on a mac.

[tsedge]

Saitek products may not be officially supported on Mac with X-Plane but they do work.

The yoke, pedals and quadrants work out of the box.  The Pro Flight Switch, Radio and Multi panels are supported by X-Plane plugins written by myself and Sandy Barbour. 

I'm talking with Saitek over the Instrument Panel to see if they will support me writing a plugin for this.

Tom.

[Cameron]

Thank you very much for the info, any advise I can get is great. 

I contacted Saitek and they advised me their yoke, and all their products for the that matter, are not compatible with mac.  Do you, or anyone you know, use a mac for X-Plane?  I contacted CH and they advised me the controllers will work on the mac but the software for personalized configs is not compatible. 

As has been said here, regardless of what Saitek says, the yoke and pedals DO work on the Mac.

[azpdec]

Thanks for all the input.  I am sure that Saitek was giving me the company line, but it is reassuring (before spending / wasting money) that several of you have used these products on your macs!!!  Thanks

[Cameron]

Thanks for all the input.  I am sure that Saitek was giving me the company line, but it is reassuring (before spending / wasting money) that several of you have used these products on your macs!!!  Thanks

Not a problem, azpdec! Come around for any questions you may have and I'm sure we'd all be more than willing to get you rolling in the XP world!

[MatthewS]

I am new to the aviation and sim worlds and want to purchase X-Plane as a supplement to career.  I have a mac and, from the hours of research, it appears X-Plane is the way to go. My question is, what products will I see the best value from in regards to a flight sim yoke and pedals.  I want to make sure it is mac compatible and worth the investment.  Thanks.

My advice is sell your Mac and buy a Windows 7 PC.  With the money you save buy the Saitek yoke/throttle/pedals, and maybe a joystick for Airbus/fighter/heli flying.

;D

[dan]

You forgot to mention the cost of subscribing to anti virus software, that definitely eat up that savings over the computers lifetime, not to mention all the headaches and frustration Windows normally give you from an unstable buggy system, and the lack of awesome software that comes free when you buy a mac, similar software on Windows will cost you hundreds of dollars. In other words you won't save a damn cent!

Now that TrackIR has been proved to work with the Mac, I see no reason whatsoever ever running Windows again, thank God! ;D

[Cameron]

You forgot to mention the cost of subscribing to anti virus software, that definitely eat up that savings over the computers lifetime, not to mention all the headaches and frustration Windows normally give you from an unstable buggy system, and the lack of awesome software that comes free when you buy a mac, similar software on Windows will cost you hundreds of dollars. In other words you won't save a damn cent!

Now that TrackIR has been proved to work with the Mac, I see no reason whatsoever ever running Windows again, thank God! ;D

Also remember that Windows can natively run on Mac's now as well.

[MatthewS]

You forgot to mention the cost of subscribing to anti virus software, that definitely eat up that savings over the computers lifetime, not to mention all the headaches and frustration Windows normally give you from an unstable buggy system, and the lack of awesome software that comes free when you buy a mac, similar software on Windows will cost you hundreds of dollars. In other words you won't save a damn cent!

Now that TrackIR has been proved to work with the Mac, I see no reason whatsoever ever running Windows again, thank God! ;D

Also remember that Windows can natively run on Mac's now as well.

Guys... Windows 7 is better than Snow Leopard. 

Mac's are over priced and are mainly purchased by people who are more interested in "brands" and looking "cool".

[Cameron]

Guys... Windows 7 is better than Snow Leopard.  

Mac's are over priced and are mainly purchased by people who are more interested in "brands" and looking "cool".

Matthew,

I don't agree with this statement at all, and I as well as others could take offence to it. I personally own Mac's and PC's. They are both good in their own right (my primary desktop is a PC with Windows 7, while my primary laptop is a Macbook Pro). I didn't by the Mac for reasons that I wanted to look cool or get a brand. I bought because of prior experience with other laptops made that operate using windows, and seem to be prone to die at a quick rate. I have Mac's that date back to the early 1990's that still work flawlessly to date (not that they're of any use). I can't say the same for my PC laptops, as their build quality is inferior to that of any Mac's I have purchased.

When you buy a Mac, you're buying QUALITY. Call it a brand if you want, call it cool if you think that's what it is, but it's certainly not my reasoning for shelling out additional dough. It's definitely not a statement to say "Hey, look, I own an Apple product, you must be poor!" After all, most Mac's these days are becoming increasingly competitive with their price vs. other laptops out there.

I do like Windows 7. It's much less bloated than Vista was. I do not believe that it's better than Mac OS X, but just as with any operating system out there, Mac OS X is not flawless either. These days I've grown more into liking Ubuntu Linux, simply because it's light weight, fast, and is good in an environment for productivity. All that said, I do commend Microsoft for their efforts on Windows 7. It is a nice step forward.

[MatthewS]

To say that only Apple can make quality laptops is silly :

Ive got an old Dell laptop that's about 6 years old and is still going strong.  Never had any problems with my current Dell XPS or Asus either.

Desktops, same thing, super reliable... Sure a hard drive might fail every couple of years, but I'm sure that happens with Mac too!

Yes Windows 7 is a real winner! 

Really, Mac may have had something going for it years ago now IMHO its just trading on Brand and Kool!  Well that's reflected by 90% of the market that can see past the overpriced hype that is Mac.

[Cameron]

To say that only Apple can make quality laptops is silly :

I never said anywhere in my post that nobody but Apple can make a quality laptop. I said what I've purchased (mainly the laptop market) has been inferior to that of a Mac.

Ive got an old Dell laptop that's about 6 years old and is still going strong.  Never had any problems with my current Dell XPS or Asus either.

I've got Asus, Acer, and Averatec laptops sitting right here. All three dead. Doesn't mean they're all like that, but my personal experience has not been good.

Desktops, same thing, super reliable... Sure a hard drive might fail every couple of years, but I'm sure that happens with Mac too!

I've had better results with PC desktops. I've never bought a name brand one (always built my own), but I don't think I've had any issues with them at all. I'm sure there's been plenty of HD fails on both ends of the spectrum...Mac and PC.

Yes Windows 7 is a real winner!

Compared to Vista, yes, I agree.  

Really, Mac may have had something going for it years ago now IMHO its just trading on Brand and Kool!  Well that's reflected by 90% of the market that can see past the overpriced hype that is Mac.

I suppose that depends on who you are. I'll buy Mac's because I have a good track record with them, along with the desktop PC's I have. What I won't due is "supersize" a Mac with ram or extra hard drives at Apple's cost. I tend to go to places like Newegg or Amazon and upgrade from there. That's where I would agree with you in the "overpriced" statement.

At the end of the day, we are all here for the same reason, and that's because we like X-Plane. What operating system and brand you choose to like is a matter of your own opinion.

[MatthewS]

At the end of the day, we are all here for the same reason, and that's because we like X-Plane. What operating system and brand you choose to like is a matter of your own opinion.

Yes true!

[Nosig]

Now that TrackIR has been proved to work with the Mac, I see no reason whatsoever ever running Windows again, thank God! ;D

I thought that was about the only thing that didn't work on a mac, the combination of TrackIR and X-plane? I've been trying to search for an answer, but got the impression that it won't work. Can you confirm that TrackIR DOES work on OSX (snow leopard) with X-plane 9?

Back on topic:

I got a Saitek Cyborg X joystick, which I can really recommend. Fully customizable regarding handsize and shape, foldable and with dual throttle for a very good price. Works out of the box, no driver install needed, on my macbook (and yes, I've owned all windows versions on desktops (and MS DOS) and laptop, love Ubuntu and even ran MS Flightsim 1.3 on my Commodore 64 decades ago). I love certain aspects of X-plane, think it has a lot of potential, but there's still lots of stuff not correct, missing and sometimes plainly annoying. But I'll keep the faith, I'm sure the ending of the MS FS team as well as the growing mac userbase (probably because it has the ability now to also run windows, even though I don't) will trigger lots of people to move to x-plane which will give it the community it needs to mature.

[dan]

So far there's just been a proof of concept plugin developed that you'll have to build yourself from source code. I can confirm that it works on OS X Leopard with TrackIR 4 pretty good! It's not ready for mainstream though, and if building your own plugin intimidates you then you'll have to be a bit more patient while Michal and the rest of the developers get around to releasing a public beta. You can read more in this thread over at the .org.

I thought that was about the only thing that didn't work on a mac, the combination of TrackIR and X-plane? I've been trying to search for an answer, but got the impression that it won't work. Can you confirm that TrackIR DOES work on OSX (snow leopard) with X-plane 9?

[Rafael Fernandez]

I have the Cyborg X joystick also works fine with mac snowleopard and windows

[gilbenl]

Guys... Windows 7 is better than Snow Leopard.  

Mac's are over priced and are mainly purchased by people who are more interested in "brands" and looking "cool".

...Someone drank the Kool-Aid...You apparently LOVED this ad :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRF9-5itZA4

I doubt this is the place for this debate, which unlike the airbus-boeing debate never gets old in my book. Nevertheless, I will admit that Windows 7 is probably the best PC OS thus far. That being said, OS X blows it COMPLETELY out of the water. Mac computers are indeed pricey. BUT, compare a PC running OS X to a PC running windows, and guess who wins? OS X every time...even when it's been hacked to work on an inferior system.

*Sigh* that being said, X-Plane, unlike most programs, runs best on Windows running on a mac AFAIK. So, I would advise having windows on the system. Okay, maybe on an external hard drive you can remove when the windows half gets a virus.

[alconburyace]

I doubt this is the place for this debate, which unlike the airbus-boeing debate never gets old in my book. Nevertheless, I will admit that Windows 7 is probably the best PC OS thus far. That being said, OS X blows it COMPLETELY out of the water. Mac computers are indeed pricey. BUT, compare a PC running OS X to a PC running windows, and guess who wins? OS X every time...even when it's been hacked to work on an inferior system.

    I am new to this site and I agree with you  opinions will not build this program or org. The fact that x-plane was developed to run on all three programs is appealing to me. That shows a lot of for-thought on the part of the developers. I run all three os systems and x-plane runs equally well on any of them with some  minor adjustments. By working together we can really make this the sim that was in view by its developers.                                                                                                                   

      There is nothing worse than running a program that has a noose around your neck. This program is not like that. Depending what knowledge you have or can learn, you can do anything you want to with the program from just flying, to building a complete sim with motion table big screens etc. The tech. is in  there to do it. By working together we will make this the flight sim of the future. None can compare  LIVE ON X-PLANE  This has to be the most refreshing forum that I have been a part of thank you so much

[jcf1966]

hello

can any one tell me what the saitek pro yoke switches do out of the box, do they all work or do we get dead ones

i am thinking of the yoke and the peddles as i have seen a deal on them in the UK

my system will be the mac pro 8 core 12 gig ram ATI 4870 card  30 inch screen

hope you are all well

James

[woweezowee]

They do nothing, but it's very easy to configure your setup in Xplane. Every button, the hat-switch etc.: all do fine.

[jcf1966]

They do nothing, but it's very easy to configure your setup in Xplane. Every button, the hat-switch etc.: all do fine.

so as with my joy stick i use x-plane to set all the buttons and not the program that comes with the yoke ( i understand this will not work with a mac )

many thanks by the way

james

[j1j2j3j4j3]

I got a Logitech 3D Pro. It cost about 30-50 USD. It works like a charm, as it has 12 buttons, a joystick, and a twist grip for the rudder (you get used to it). It's not super expensive and I like it a lot.