Microsoft FSX or XPlane... That is the question

[MMeseke]

Hi,
I'm looking for some fellow "Pilotedgers" opinions here.

I am currently running MS FSX and I was very happy with it until it recenlty stopped downloading and updating "Real Time Weather". This became apparent on a recent flight to KSMO when I requested a visual approach for RWY 21 as it seemed to be a 100% clear night, but ATC came back with the weather being below 300'.

Not having real time weather takes a lot of the fun out of flying, so I'm thinking about switching to XPlane 10.

What are your thoughts (Pro or Con) for this switch?

Thanks in advance.

OR... Better yet, please let me know if you know how to get the Real Time Weather working again!!!

[Pieces]

There are several third party weather providers available for FSX including ActiveSky and Real Weather Extreme. They do cost, but so does switching simulators.

As far as switching sims I think you'll find that the opinion here is pretty well split. There are pros and cons to both sims. FSX is old and no longer being updated (though Prepare3D mitigates that somewhat). XPlane doesn't have as many addon aircraft. Etc, Etc.

[MMeseke]

Thank you Pieces. I prefer to not have to switch, so I will be looking into the 3rd party providers you mentioned.

[djrisc]

As Pieces said, I think you'll definitely find this topic completely polarized as it's very much peoples personal preference.

That being said, I'll now give you my completely bias opinion.

I have just recently switched back to FSX from X-Plane due to a single aircraft. I personally think the A2A C172 trainer is a game changer when it comes to simming, so I decided to switch back.

That being said, FSX is not my favorite environment to deal with. I find you have to spend a LOT more time tweaking FSX to get it to work properly, and you end up dealing with Add-Ons that interact negatively with each other and make a total mess of things. X-Planes add-on's API seems to be *much* more stable and you deal with conflicts a LOT less than FSX, it also has solid core functionality where you aren't having to use add-ons for features that make up for the short comings of a software package that is essentially end of life. (aka. FSUIPC, EZDOCK)

Also X-Planes add-on community seems a little less about making money and more about just being a solid community and providing cool stuff for people. I find that almost every "cool" plugin I come across for FSX, they're going to want $20-$40 for it. Most of the plugins I have for X-Plane were just free from community members.

I find with X-Plane, I could set it up for someone in about 30 minutes and they will be flying. With FSX, I started tweaking it to get it working "correctly" again on thursday of last week and I'm -STILL- tweaking it.

Again, this is my very very bias opinion of my experiences with both packages. To be perfectly honest, if A2A decided to switch all their planes to X-Plane tomorrow and ditch FSX I'd move back over in a heartbeat.

[bruce]

Add OpusFSX to your list of weather engines http://www.opussoftware.co.uk/opusfsi/downloads.htm

If you want a weather engine that accurately interprets the rw weather then OpusFSX is hard to beat I've bought & used rex & Ac sky & I believe that Opus is the best currently available for real wx interpretation

[Mark Hargrove]

To elaborate on Bruce's post: OpusFSX is, hands down, the best "weather engine" out there for FSX. It's absolutely brilliant, overcoming pretty much every deficiency that FSX's native weather engine has. OpusFSX has other functionality as well, including the ability to drive networked displays on additional PCs for panoramic views, but that's almost secondary to how good their weather engine is.

What OpusFSX doesn't do is to provide any improved weather textures -- the actual bitmaps used to depict a cumulus cloud, for example. It will use the native FSX bitmaps if that's all you have, but they look, well, pretty lame. What a lot of simmers are doing is to buy ActiveSky or REX for their textures, and then use OpusFSX as the real-time weather engine. AS and REX both provide beautiful textures as well as weather engines, and their weather engines are better than the default FSX engine -- but still not great. The scheme that I use (and lots of others) is to buy AS or REX (I picked REX), use that app to install new textures (which is a one-time, batch operation), and then just run OpusFSX to drive the real-time weather.

Also, just to throw a monkey wrench into your original question, it's NOT just FSX vs. XPlane any more -- it's FSX vs. XPlane vs. Prepar3D. While there can still be ongoing, rational debate about Prepar3D vs. XPlane, IMHO, FSX really won't be on the map for serious simmers for many more years.

[larryav8r]

I agree with the previous comment about Opus X. I've been using it now for over a year and couldn't be happier. I frequently cross check its depiction of weather with current METARs and it's always spot on. It's not a frame rate killer either. It uses whatever cloud textures you already have. The program includes some camera/view utilities, but I haven't messed with those much.

[djrisc]

Can you turn the view/other features off with OpusFSX? I'm currently using EZDok and don't want it to interfere with that?

Thanks!

[Rick Stratman]

The biggest issue I have been running into is getting the same weather view on my main system and the system I use for front view. The program I am using now is the WideView and its rather old and no recent updates.

I am using Active Sky Evolution on the main computer and REX for the front view system as Rex has better textures. The interesting thing is even though they pull from the same METAR it seems the weather view is ALWAYS different

Also when I fly in LAX area low level clouds seems to appear and disappear with no rhyme or reason. OpusFSX seems to have addressed this ???

I have tried using WideView to make sure weather is the, but they said its an issue with FSX.

It seems OpusFSX has solve this issue, as well as not requiring a license for each system.

Looks like I might need to take a look at OpusFSX

[twharrell]

A few months ago I leaped from FS9, directly to P3D. I tried FSX, only to use the Flight1 Mustang, and didn't care for it. P3D has been very reliable and, like others, I use Opus for weather. Get rid of EZDok. Opus includes a camera viewer. The developer is also working on a flight recorder. So, for $40 USD you get a killer weather engine, multi monitor interface (I don't use that), camera views and, soon, a flight recorder. I also use REX clouds as well, but you can find some freeware clouds on some of the major flight sim sites.

Here's what I would do - wait for P3D v2.0, which is going to be released this year. I know a beta tester and he told me the performance upgrades will be worth the purchase alone. And the great news is all addons that work in the current version will work in v2.0. Pretty much every developer is now using the P3D SDK these days. Aerosoft has even come out and stated the upcoming CRJ700 was developed in P3D. I agree with the comment above that FSX is old news now. It's yesterday's sim. It's time is limited, and the only reason it will be around at all is for PMDG. Every other developer knows where the future is going - P3D and X-Plane.

To summarize: Prepared3D v2.0.

Todd