Must Have Addons for New X-Plane User + PE Area?

[Miniwebbs]

Im currently on P3D and I am going to purchase X-plane 10 as it is on sale at the moment. The main reason I want to try X-plane out is because I will get better FPS and many other simmers seem to be using X-plane more often. But what must have addons do I need to get to make the PilotEdge area look nice and look realistic (preferably free and don't kill the FPS ). Keep in mind that I would prefer to not get payware addons but if they are a must have an exception might be made.

Scenery
-What scenery Is must have for VFR?
-Free mesh?

Aircraft
-Cessna 172 will be the only plane I am looking for
-What is the best payware C172 and the best freeware C172?

Weather
-I'm not that worried about weather but if there is any great free weather addons then I guess I can't really say no

Other must have addons
-Are there any other must have addons that I should have for X-plane 10 that would make the experience more realistic and immersive?

[Kyle.Sanders]

Scenery
Mesh free- http://www.alpilotx.net/downloads/x-pla ... cenery-v3/ (install only one at first to see how it handles on your system... It is intense)

X-plane.org and x-aviation.com are two site you will want to get to know for addons.

Airfoil labs made a great 172. Second to that would be Carenado.

There are many weather addons out there. I just personally use this one: http://x-plane.joanpc.com/plugins/xpgfs-noaa-weather

SkyMaxxPro is about the best payware out there. It doesn't control the weather for you but it will draw the clouds MUCH better than any other default or addon out there... To say that agin because it is often confused- it does not control the weather for you (like the NOAA plugin does)... It only draws the clouds.
---also see their "real weather connector"

Check out "real terra haze". A lot of reading and work will go into getting this to work but once you do... It's worth it. I haven't messed with it much but it allows you to do so much more with the visual aspect of x-plane that isn't accessible through their normal channels.

[Keith Smith]

Moved to the xplane forum.

[RyanK]

A couple of my thoughts on weather add-ons:

- I tried SkyMaxx a couple times and had trouble getting clouds to be where they should. I'd set a layer at 500' and it would end up at 1000' or at the surface. Also, the stratus clouds are far too transparent, so on an approach with weather set to 200' overcast, I'd be able to see the runway through he haze from 1000'. Both of these are serious issues in my opinion. Also, unless you add the real world connector, SkyMaxx will set one uniform weather system for the entire globe, so you won't be able to see distant weather as you approach it. When you enter an area with different weather, it abruptly changes. It is pretty, though.
- NOAA weather does a good job with more dynamic winds aloft, but it has the same issue as SkyMaxx without real world connector. It sets weather everywhere at once. It also doesn't play nicely with the X-Plane ATIS system. The ATIS will report whatever the weather is at your current position and altitude.

In my opinion, default weather is the way to go for real world weather, for now. When I'm practicing instruments and setting my own weather, I use a modified NOAA plug-in that lets me override the clouds, visibility, and precipitation. That works great for being able to set weather to minimums while still having dynamic winds, temps, and pressures, except that the X-Plane ATIS doesn't work properly with it.

My X-Plane setup otherwise is basically default with lots of freeware airports, running SimAVIO pro on a touchscreen for panels.

[wmburns]

But what must have addons do I need to get to make the PilotEdge area look nice and look realistic (preferably free and don't kill the FPS ). Keep in mind that I would prefer to not get payware addons but if they are a must have an exception might be made.

FWIIW, there are tons of us out here using only the default x-plane weather engine. IMO have found it works well enough for how I use the sim. The weather seems to match the METAR very well.

With virtually any sim we could get into lengthy discussion about how "realistic" the clouds should look. I for one in more interested in the clouds matching the reported levels than how they look. Especially considering how taxing real 'looking" clouds are on the hardware/FPS.

On my home x-plane set up, the only add on software I have are payware aircraft.

Hardware wise really love the Saitek rudder pedals and yoke. IMO a better place to spend what for many of us are limited $'s.

[rtataryn]

I agree with Ryan and wmburns. I like the default x-plane weather, because the reported levels are spot on accurate. I disabled Skymaxx because getting accurate cloud levels is more important than the cloud textures, and as far as I'm concerned, the texture and cloud realism of the X-plane default is pretty good. The only oddity is the occasional insta-grayouts where you go from seeing clear and a million to zero vis in a second once you enter the layer or METAR area that's reporting that particular ceiling and vis.

The one software plug-in that I absolutely love is g2xpl. It's free with a donation, but the donation can be as small as one euro if you're a cheapskate. It takes a while to download the photo imagery data (which is free) depending on the zoom level you choose, but what an improvement in the view and situational awareness if you are flying VFR over familiar territory. Huge improvement over the default X-plane scenery, which in many areas isn't all that realistic and can be very repetitive. If you go crazy with it, you'll need a good size hard drive. I'm working on filling 3 TB at zoom level 17 . . . for now, but you could do ZLA in about 400GB at that zoom level, or back off to zoom level 16 for one-eighth of that ~50GB.