Why X-Plane 9.xx is superior to MSFSX

[Colin S]

    I was a short-time user of MSFSX, and I can start by saying one thing: There was only two things better about it than X-Plane 9.xx.

   

    (1) AI Aircraft: Wonderful yet absolutely needless to say pointless... the big deal about MSFSX was that you could fly online... so why does one truly require fake people flying around a horribly-rendered fake world?

    (2) 3D Clouds: I can't dis this in any way- they got it right there. No need to say it's about the only awesome thing about MSFSX.

   

    But, there are countless reasons for which MSFSX is inferior to to X-Plane 9.xx. I'll let you decide... please leave anything you hate about MSFSX, or something they didn't have, or something X-Plane portrayed much better. I will start by saying that the idea of putting you right into the simulator at the beginning instead of a stupid welcome screen with elevator music was ingenious. I know lots more, but anyways, please leave what you love about X-Plane in comparison to MSFSX. This thread is not to be confused with the "Best of the Best" thread. In this thread, please leave comparisons... maybe even to other flight simulators, too!

[Oliver]

     I was a short-time user of MSFSX, and I can start by saying one thing: There was only two things better about it than X-Plane 9.xx.

     

     (1) AI Aircraft: Wonderful yet absolutely needless to say pointless... the big deal about MSFSX was that you could fly online... so why does one truly require fake people flying around a horribly-rendered fake world?

     (2) 3D Clouds: I can't dis this in any way- they got it right there. No need to say it's about the only awesome thing about MSFSX.

     

     But, there are countless reasons for which MSFSX is inferior to to X-Plane 9.xx. I'll let you decide... please leave anything you hate about MSFSX, or something they didn't have, or something X-Plane portrayed much better. I will start by saying that the idea of putting you right into the simulator at the beginning instead of a stupid welcome screen with elevator music was ingenious. I know lots more, but anyways, please leave what you love about X-Plane in comparison to MSFSX. This thread is not to be confused with the "Best of the Best" thread. In this thread, please leave comparisons... maybe even to other flight simulators, too!

Another thing would be you need an insane computer to run it with everything on max, and in xp your computer doesn't have to be insane! Also I gotta say the X-Plane water is absolutely beautiful and is very much superior to the water in FSX!

[Kesomir]

Before you read this, x-plane is my sim of choice.

MSFS is more 'mature' and built more from a consumer wishes rather than the more quirky austin-centric x-plane.

• Default scenery in FSX far surpasses x-plane currently.
  
• AI traffic (not everyone wants to fly online)
  
• ATC (not everyone wants to fly online)
  
• Flight Lessons
  
• UI is more straightforward - I'm used to x-planes, but would change the aircraft loader for one like msfs image based - although, just improving the folder navigation controls would be a start.
  
• Higher quality of default aircraft (being addressed in v10)
  
• X-plane controls based on order usb plugged in means you can have them 'forgotten'
  
• Big one - Add-on market is far more mature in msfs and offers glorious choice (hopefully gap will get shorter)
  
• Wider hardware support
  
• X-plane simulates 'flight', msfs simulates the other stuff around flight more
  

The killer x-plane features for me are:

• Performance, performance, performance
  
• More controls assignable to levers
  
• Higher resolution textures - better looking ground scenery over distance (big one)
  
• More fluid gauges and flight feeling
  

[Eagle]

There's a lot of things in fsx I would like to see in x-plane. I left fsx for three (tree) reasons:

• Trees: the shimmering was worse with the latest updates of windows, drivers and whatnot, and the issue was beyond repair.
  
• Performance: I never got a computer that could cope with it, even if I spent a lot of money.
  
• Dead end: Computers and video cards develops, but the core is discontinued, so we have to move on. X-plane is the only alternative.
  

If only x-plane could have the scenery, generic airport scenery, airplane, AI and ATC more equal to fsx, I'd be very happy with it. And maybe it will in time, cause after all it's still developing.

I don't care about the GUI issue, after all (even if it looks a bit odd) the joystick setup, and replay engine is much more efficient than MSFS. Also the local map is a joke in fsx, but aok in x-plane.

One thing I miss is a good looking tubeliner cockpit with accurate systems like PMDG. The 737x is ok system-wise, but without a decent 3d cockpit I don't get the right feeling.

The actual flying feeling is IMO far better in x-plane. I've tried both 737 and Dash-8 at an aviation academy with completely real cockpits, and x-plane is much closer to that feel.

So guys, lets hope all the good MSFS stuff will be integrated to x-plane in not a far future. Also I hope more people will port over to x-plane so that the community could be more crowded :-)

Have fun!

Eagle