Author Topic: New flight sims  (Read 1430 times)

Offline EHM-2131 Bruce

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New flight sims
« on: May 03, 2022, 01:26:02 pm »
Hello all, have be looking into getting a new flight sim, and would like to know what other member use   . Have been looking at the new FS2020 and X-plane 11 , would appreciate any experiences you have had  with the platform's,  I am not very savey  with computers so one that is not too difficult  to set up  would be ideal, have looked at the reviews  of them both, but Like all reviews they are mixed good and bad , thanks for reading my ramblings best regards Bruce EHM2131

Offline EHM-2387 Eric-Jan

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Re: New flight sims
« Reply #1 on: May 03, 2022, 07:01:58 pm »
I have both, XPlane11 and FS2020, and I find myself flying FS2020 almost every time.

XPlane11 is more responsive to control inputs, making it harder to fly, but not necessarily more realistic. I find that I am over-controlling far more than in reality in a C172. FS2020 is more docile, but that makes it on the other side of the spectrum as far as controllability goes. Of course you can play around with sensituivity settings and such, but I have not been able to get it to the sweet spot with XPlane11, while FS2020 comes close.
I fly sims for fun, but also for training purposes, so that's why I am looking for realism first.

As far as graphics go, FS2020 is a clear winner. XPlane can get every bit as beautiful, but that requires addons. They may be free in a lot of cases, but they sure put a burden on your system resources. FS2020 is better in that respect, "out-of-the-box". Also, with BING maps, VFR flights around the entire world are better than with OOTB XPlane11.

Downside is that you will need a "trick" to get Flight Logger to work with FS2020.
With X-Plane, there is XP-UIPC, and FL was developed when XP9 was already on the market, so that simply works.
For FS2020 you need FSUIPC7, AND you need to have run FL succesfully against a "known" sim first at least once, on that same PC. Here's why: On startup, FL looks in the list of processes which sim is running, and looks for any update in scenery files since it last started. If scenery files are updated, FL will re-scan those files to determine if ICAO codes were changed or added, for instance. So, if you have a fresh PC, with only MSFS2020 on it, your fresh FL installation will not recognise any sim running. Normally FL will then take the last known database (the one from FS9, FSX, XP9, ZP10, XP11, P3D) and use that one, assuming that you started FL before the sim. On a fresh (or a re-)install, that "last known sim" database does not exist yet. That's why you need to have run FL sucessfully against one of th known sims first, before FL can use that other database. Note that if you have run FL against FS9 earlier, FL will use FS9 ICAO codes. Which should work fine because the website converts between the sim formats, but it IS annother risk there.

But other than the potential FL issue (it has been working fine for me with FS2020 for half a year now), I would recommend FS2020. Better default scenery, better visuals, very regular updates, good "tweaakbility", of course loads of addons - also in freeware there are some awesome things (I think FS2020 community addons are at the same level of XPlane11 already, and increasing in number by the minute).
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Offline EHM-2131 Bruce

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Re: New flight sims
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2022, 05:49:31 pm »
Hello E-J. Thanks for your reply, sorry for the delay in responding, 2020 sound to be right for me, did you get the box set with 10 cds or the download version, have seen were both have there problems getting them on the PC,  I don't have the best of download speed just now, they are starting to replace land lines from copper cable to fibre, so keep getting interruptions to the  servers, thanks for   your help , Keep safe Best Regards Bruce EHM 2131

Offline EHM-2387 Eric-Jan

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Re: New flight sims
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2022, 07:16:36 am »
Hi Bruce,

I have the downlaod version from the Microsoft Store. But it is indeed a huge downlaod, with large downloads every other month (mandatory sim updates). If you install from CD, I imagine that on first startup you will have to update (read: download) to almost the same extent as the initial download, so not too much to win there.
We just moved to a newly built apartment, so we have state of the art glass-fibre internet at our place. Combined with a PC with SSD, for me the long waits on downloads are in a far, grey past :). So I would not know if you'd do right or wrong by buying the CD version.

Oh, and the above holds for both MSFS2020 and XPLANE11, so it is no argument in the decision to go with one or the other. That's just how the software world works these days, I guess.

E-J
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