[Flight Sim Geek] X-Plane 10 is out!

[Thud]

Well, the demo is out... the full version is out on Dec 7.

Since Microsoft doesn't make Flight Simulator any more, this is really the only thing like it nowadays, and better in many respects (ease-of-use not being one of them).

"X-Plane 10 by Laminar Research Demo" [HD] - YouTube



I downloaded the demo overnight, but haven't had a chance to fire it up yet.

:dance:

[Thud]

MS looks like they are working on something new.

Welcome to Microsoft Flight from the Microsoft Games Studio! (http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight)

Very interesting... I had not even heard of that until now. I hope it's not too dumbed-down.

[Jay13]

Very interesting... I had not even heard of that until now. I hope it's not too dumbed-down.

The opposite. It's actually Lockheed Martin that is supposedly doing the programming for actual training purposes and their EULA impolies that it is illegal to use it for recreation. I guess you could always download it and say you didn't have any fun.

Can't wait for X-Plane 10. I love 9.0 better than FSX, but I still run them both.

[Thud]

The opposite. It's actually Lockheed Martin that is supposedly doing the programming for actual training purposes

From what I've read, LM bought the rights to the original FSX codebase, and is using that to develop their simulation-- but Microsoft Flight is being developed internally by Microsoft, and is not based on any prior Flight Simulator code.

What I mean by "dumbed down" is that it might not be a "whole world" simulation, but focuses on specific regions (like Flight Unlimited did back in the day), may not have GPS navigation, ATC, and such, but geared more toward "awww neato I'm flying!"

[Thud]

Well I messed around with the demo last night.... looks pretty, but damn it's buggy.
Takes for-freaking-EVER to load. My system isn't the latest and greatest but it's not exactly pokey either (2.83GHz Core2Quad, 4GB ram, GTX460) and it takes probably 90 seconds just to load the sim.

Took a while to map all the basic functions to my joystick buttons but it runs rather well, until I turn the details up. Then it's a slide show... without looking THAT much better.

The cars travelling on the roads are very cool. So are the runways that follow the terrain contours (so runways aren't necessarily perfectly flat, just like real life).

Lots of graphical glitches though. I think I'll wait for a few patches to come out before shelling out $80. :ack:

[Jay13]

From what I've read, LM bought the rights to the original FSX codebase, and is using that to develop their simulation-- but Microsoft Flight is being developed internally by Microsoft, and is not based on any prior Flight Simulator code.

What I mean by "dumbed down" is that it might not be a "whole world" simulation, but focuses on specific regions (like Flight Unlimited did back in the day), may not have GPS navigation, ATC, and such, but geared more toward "awww neato I'm flying!"

My mistake. I was thinking of Prepar3d. Question is whether MS will ever get around to releasing Flight. So far they are screwing the pooch with the development publicity.

Thanks for the report on XP10. A lot of people are bitchinb about the UI, graphics, etc. I think I'll wait too.