XPlane 11 and PE questions

Post Reply
Casimir
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat May 19, 2018 9:14 pm
Location: KOLV

XPlane 11 and PE questions

Post by Casimir »

I think I'm officially done with FSX.

My last 3 flights, all while attempting to fly the CAT-10, have resulted in a Virtual Memory crash in the middle of the flight. My apologies to all the controllers that this has happened to - twice I was directly over LAX when the sim finally nose dived. I've done all I can to drop the memory weight of the sim - autogen to low, etc. It's equally frustrating since about two months ago I bought the ORBX scenery for S. CA, and have been flying the A2A Cessna 172 (along with a full copy of FSUIPC so I could use the in-cockpit transponder and set my PTT keys). I'm tempted to attempt the flight for a 4th time with the ORBX scenery disabled, as well as AS2016, and see if I can get it done... but I don't have my hopes up anymore at this point.

Which brings me to XPlane 11. I extensively tested it with the downloadable beta. I fly with an Oculus Rift, so VR was the primary testing process for me... and after 2 weeks of testing I laid down the money for XP11. In comparison with FSX, the native VR in XP11 (as opposed to FlyInside w/ FSX) is nearly flawless - glass smooth with very few hiccups once everything loads, and with a couple of environment upgrades along with the US Orthophoto scenery for S. CA, Arizona, and Nevada, flying in VR in XP11 is simply amazing. XP11 just "feels" more like being in a real plane than FSX does, and added together with the dynamic lighting, it's just a far more realistic representation of flight than the 10+ year old FSX can deliver anymore. After all the crashes I continually have with FSX, I'm ready to make the move.

I do, however, have a couple of questions for you XP users.

I really like the A2A Cessna 172, primarily as a study plane (and, honestly, it's the main reason I haven't switched to XP11 before now). Since I will be starting real world training for a PPL in the next few weeks, I use it as much as possible for procedural training as well as checklist training and a few other things. I've watched and read a great deal about the Airfoillabs C172, and it looks comparable to the A2A 172, so I was wondering what opinions those of you who have it might have - and if you've flown it in VR, how is it, and how do the menus work in VR? I've checked out the RealityXP packages for the default 172, but I'd prefer the Airfoillabs 172 for the added features of the walk around pre-flight, etc.

Additionally, with FSX, to get the transponder working inside the sim (as well as having a dedicated PTT key assignment) requires FSUIPC. Is there a similar way to get this working in XP11? I've searched the forums and haven't found anything specific; but I admit I likely missed it, as I'm sure the question's been asked before. I used Joy2Key before I bought a license for FSUIPC, so I can default to that if I have to, but if there's another method I'm all ears (or, eyes, as it were). Can Xpuipc function the same way?
Cessna N5351E (A2A C172 / REP XPlane 11 C172)
Piper N5351A (Carenado Seneca V)
Shawn Goldsworthy
Posts: 514
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2010 9:23 pm
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada

Re: XPlane 11 and PE questions

Post by Shawn Goldsworthy »

Hey there. Welcome to the dark side! I can't answer any questions regarding the Airfoillabs C172 with VR as I haven't tried it. The Airfoillabs C172 is really good though, I can confirm that. The stock X-Plane C172 is actually really good too. As we all know, the stock FSX planes are garbage, that's not the case with X-Plane. You can also look into the Reality Expansion pack for the stock C172 to make it even better.

Regarding your transponder and PTT question. It's much more simple in X-Plane. Turn your transponder to ALT and it works. No addons or workarounds required. For a PTT, just go into the X-Plane control settings and map a button to "Contact ATC". Yes, it really is that simple.
Shawn Goldsworthy
PilotEdge ATCS
Image
Casimir
Posts: 26
Joined: Sat May 19, 2018 9:14 pm
Location: KOLV

Re: XPlane 11 and PE questions

Post by Casimir »

Shawn Goldsworthy wrote:Regarding your transponder and PTT question. It's much more simple in X-Plane. Turn your transponder to ALT and it works. No addons or workarounds required. For a PTT, just go into the X-Plane control settings and map a button to "Contact ATC". Yes, it really is that simple.
Oooh man. I think I've died and gone to heaven. Thanks!

Yea, I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the stock 172 in XP11. I've been flying that for the most part, interspersed here and there with the 787, the B58, and the C90.

Everything I've seen about the Airfoillabs C172 looks great. My main question is a result of VR functionality - in FlyInside with FSX, when I bring up the menu windows in the A2A 172 they pop into view like the Virtual Windows feature. I'm sure I could probably get the same functionality if I used FlyInside with XP11 rather than the native VR (if it doesn't work that way natively)... however, my attempts at using FlyInside with XP11 haven't been very good (crashes every time and tries to bring up the Steam VR interface despite the fact that I didn't buy XP11 on Steam).
Cessna N5351E (A2A C172 / REP XPlane 11 C172)
Piper N5351A (Carenado Seneca V)
Mr H
Posts: 20
Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2018 11:45 am
Location: KSPA

Re: XPlane 11 and PE questions

Post by Mr H »

I use the REP C172 in Xplane and it really is impressive. It’s a tick more realistic than the stock 172, and it has the walk around/memory thingy. When I flew the cat 10, I got a rendering message. That’s the only time I’ve ever seen it. I use three monitors, not the VR, but everything else works great. Great training platform
Gary H
N503AM KSPA
FDXDave
Posts: 202
Joined: Mon Jul 17, 2017 7:56 pm

Re: XPlane 11 and PE questions

Post by FDXDave »

I agree with the others regarding the XP default C172 with REP. it handles very realistic. I fly this plane in VR, since this is the plane I am currently training in in the real world.. Since it's an XP Aircraft with Rep the aircraft will always be up to date which is important because sometimes when xplane updates, it will break 3rd party aircraft physics making them unflyable. I use a plugin for the 172 for VR called "AviTab". This plugin is amazing. It has a chart viewer ( PDF, JPG ETC ) So i download all the charts i need for an upcoming flight and place them in the charts folder. So the REP also has the walk around feature which can be used while in VR. ( have to set up some keys to work the walk around function in VR ) so after my walk around, i set a key, or button to bring up AviTab. I also scan a note and save as a pdf for frequencies used. But the plugin has a feature where you can search airport icao and will display all ap info to include freq's and weather reports. It has no impact on frames and will even display your FPS for you.
Download here. It's free and the Dev is very active in the forum.

https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/f ... -and-more/

Search Mr. X on the org for a ton of freeware scenery.

Dave
Post Reply