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- nixfu, on 10/12/2007, -7/+25
If your a flight sim fan, XPlane is THE GOLD STANDARD for realism. If you a pilot you will realize after ten minutes using it that it feels so much more realistic than MS Flight Simulator.
Its an incredibly well developed program, and run on MacOS, Linux and Windows. - Craga89, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15Wow... someone actually found something useful on about.com. Bravo!
- kremvax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7If you have an nvidia card, this generally isn't a problem.
- alexace, on 10/12/2007, -17/+22Actually, I am a pilot, and having met Austin Meyer personally at Oshkosh, I was rather disappointed (considering all the hype) with x-plane.
I have FSX, and I have played the newest version of x-plane. X-plane is extremely noob UN-friendly. FSX seems way more polished, with better graphics, and physics. FSX is also DX10. However, X-plane has cool stuff like building your own plane (it is extremely difficult, though), and can fly in tons of cool environments like the moon. I have the pedals and yoke, and played both before buying. Try them both and see which one you like first.
Off-topic Alert!
(Austin is such a turbonerd) - ellisgl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4When I saw Linux I was thinking "Free" but no - you have to pay for it.. They have demo.. Which I'll download now - to see how friendly it is for N00BS.
To the poster - ***** hell - Post a link to the fricken real website! - byronm, on 10/12/2007, -6/+10@mooninite
guess you don't fly much then. - CrushThemTorg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If you're into giant robot action, Laminar also has Young's Modulus. Which is X-Plane, with giant freakin' robots. It has fun value as good as X-Plane (read: Intensely difficult), and ... come on. Giant robots.
Space Combat is godlike. A lovely recent addition. That and Orbiter (which is free and open source and such) are great flight sims that really blow your mind. And they're incredibly technically complex. Orbiter especially focuses on current/near-future sort of flight. You can run realistic Apollo missions or go through the maddening process of plotting a course to Mars. Sorry I'm whoring out Orbiter.
I agree with the comment further down, though: X-Plane was certainly developed for Macs. I've played it on a Linux box, and it just didn't stand up. - isny, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4River Raid FTW!
- AlfaWolph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2For all those saying the article is inaccurate, read the description a little closer. It's not inaccurate, it's just not related to the headline.
It's for this reason we need a bury for bad headlines and descriptions for when the story itself is not bad, but the headline/description is. - alexace, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6@ Salmon
I would say that the fact that I can drive to the airport, sign out a plane and go flying by myself makes me a pilot. - dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Which raises a point : How realistic is X-Plane? Any flight sim where I can land a space shuttle (or any other plane) first time I try instantly makes me doubt the realism of it.. Although I get the feeling I'm missing the realism-settings (Not prodded about them much)
Anyway, one of the better addons I've found for X-Plane is a Fly-By-Wire script, http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?autocom=dlmanager&do=viewfile&fid=4996 - "X-Plane Fighter Control Script (XFCS) is a Python script that uses the X-Plane Python Interface by Sandy Barbour to simulate the essentials of the flight control systems (FCS) found in most modern combat aircraft. XFCS allows you to '€fly-by-wireâ' (FBW). This means that instead of controlling control surface deflections, as in traditional aircraft, your stick and rudder pedals are used to send control commands to the FCS, which calculates the necessary control deflections and sends these to the surface actuators. My ambition with XFCS has been to make modern combat aircraft more realistic to fly in X-Plane. Envelope protection plays a big part in this, but I also think that XFCS is capable of making your aircraft feel more like the powerful and high-tech combat aircraft it’s designed to be."
It's slightly complicated to isntall (Needs Python, another X-plane script, and you need to configure each plane seperatly with a config file - albeit an extremely simple config file)
- Ben - dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1X-Plane's 3D cockpit isn't exactly perfect yet, in X-Plane 8.50 the HUD is always centered on the screen while your looking around, and the controls are a little annoying, but, as the original post said, X-plane is updated extremely regularly, so I don't imagine it'll be long till it's sorted
- Ben - FlyboyGWN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@jimrooney
99% with you >> FlightGear does have a Windows (& Mac & FreeBSD, etc.) version (no, I haven't tried it) ... no one has mentioned that the lessons & missions in FSX can be a useful training tool, too. - macusernick, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Also, you can get Space Combat (for free), which is created by the same guy who made X-Plane and it is for Mac, Linux, and Windows.
http://www.x-plane.com/SpaceCombat.html - Tenroh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I've been playing XPlane for quite some time. I love being able to land the shuttle. That and tinkering around on Mars is a blast.
- infinitespecter, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5I've been playing X-Plane for nearly a decade, and from everything I've read and seen, it is NOT developed with Linux in mind. In fact, the Linux port is fairly new. If I recall correctly, it was originally an Mac OS only game that was ported to Windows and then later Linux.In fact, you can see the machines they used to develop the program at http://x-plane.com/weapon.html. Marked as inaccurate.
- GeneralAntilles, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Bought a CH Products setup a few years ago to play X-Plane. Helicopters are quite a bit of fun with a decent setup and a little practice. If anybody is interested, http://www.x-plane.org is the biggest and best X-Plane community. They run weekly online fly-ins around the world.
- alexace, on 10/12/2007, -6/+7FSX, X-plane and FS 2004 are all approved by the FAA.
- reticulate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Pilot Wars!
- t0ny, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I love X-Plane I've had problems with it under Linux but I love it on Winblows. I used to love MS flight sim but now after waiting years and years for the next on too see there is the same bugs and the physics are near the same and the only new things are a few new planes and better graphics. But then just look at the X-Plane web page "Rotor wash in low-altitude hover in helos and VTOLs kicks back into the rotor, as in reality, to bounce and kick the helo or VTOL around a bit as it hovers in it's own ground-resonance pressure-waves." and look at all they say stuff like "Better graphics". X-Plane is updated weekly/monthly and the only update for 2004 added a few new bridges and fixed A bug. If you want something pretty get fsx if you want something realistic get X-Plane. The ONLY thing from ms fs I miss is the 3d cockpit.
/rant - t0ny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I know its some what there but its still not what I'm looking for yet.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1
I would also like to attest to the realism of X-Plane. Being able to do barrel rolls and Immelmans in the Space Shuttle is fun. - th4tguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13d cockpit was added in x-plane 8.x - but not all the plans out there support it. Still... it's kinda cool.
- zhulien, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2but can you crash into buildings?
- damentz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I feel sorry for radeon users.
- sublime, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3X-Plane is amazing because one man is going up against Microsoft, and he does a decent job at it. X-Plane is like a virtual wind-tunnel, and it's a blast to play (once you figure out how to turn the brakes off).
Get the facts straight though - It's not free, it's not open source, and it is developed on Mac, not Linux. - bitsyboffin, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Inaccurate, the title is about X-Plane but two thirds of the article (and all the summary) is about Flightgear (also a good sim).
- byronm, on 10/12/2007, -7/+6X-plane is nice, but i too prefer flight sim x. The precision of x-plane is enjoyable to a degree but with a little work you not only get that precision in fsx, but all the other features to boot. (graphics second to none, a live ATC network, hundreds of addons and ease of extensibility)
just not sure what this article is about. The heading makes absolutely no sense and x-plane is neither free nor open source. I guess this is flight sim under linux? Then yeah, no FS-X - insomuchas, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2I tried the FSX demo and the graphics were exactly the same as FS2004, except the water, but the frame rate was unplayable.
FS2004 is also cheaper and can be had for 20$. - jimrooney, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Lets see...
X-Plane runs on Linux / OSX / Etc... aka, not only windows
FSX kicks butt, but windows only.
Flightgear is free, runs on non-windows.
Nothing to see here, please move along.
X-plane accuracy is a wonderful thing to argue about... but few people can tell the difference and fewer still care.
I'm a professional pilot and ex game developer.
X-plane rocks because it works on Linux / OSX / Windows, hell just about everything.
The simulation bar need only be set so high, then it doesn't matter. X-plane is well above that bar, but that's not what matters.
FSX is far easier to use and meets the simulation bar also.
zzzzzzzzzzz - r3volution, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Last XPlane I tried was 6.5...all I can say is WOW...amazing physics...but you had better hope your Linux graphics card drivers (for your behemoth 256MB+ card) are up to date.
- dignation, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2sorry to hijack the post, but does anyone have a torrent? there are only three mirrors to download it and they're all overloaded.
- schestowitz, on 10/12/2007, -9/+5How about FlightGear? You can play it with a Wiimote, too!
,----[ Quote ]
| With thanks to WMD, you could use the Wiimote under Linux fairly easily.
| For those who don't know Wiimote talks to the Wii console via bluetooth.
| So it works with any computer with bluetooth as well.
`----
http://pigeond.net/?cat=flightgear&comments=fg-wiimote (it's a video) - DoubtfulSalmon, on 10/12/2007, -11/+6@alexace: "I currently hold a student pilot certificate, with certification for PA-28-180. I also have a Class C medical."
So you're not a pilot. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3OK what I meant to say is that x-plane got its approval the hard way. Ms just paid the FAA to gets it approval. I bet you the 90% of the planes that go down were MS FS fans.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3FSX is nothing compared to x-plane. lets take a look x-plane is approved from the FAA for flight training while FSX is not. FSX is just more Microsoft bs its crap and always will be. FSX is just a stupid kids toy.
- alexace, on 10/12/2007, -11/+5@ mooninite
Oh yeah?
I currently hold a student pilot certificate, with certification for PA-28-180. I also have a Class C medical.
Flying from Roanoke, Virginia (Roanoke Regional / Woodrum Field) It is a class C airport, I am flying a Piper Cherokee tail # N8ML, from LC's Flight Service.
Don't be an ***** because you are jealous that I can be a nerd and do exciting things. I am also 16, and I soloed 2 weeks ago. - brentdanley, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1@alexace - Congratulations on your solo. I'm a pilot. You're not a pilot. You're a noob. Good luck on your checkride.
- mooninite, on 10/12/2007, -33/+9@alexace
I'm sorry but I haven't met a pilot that has said or even knew the word "noob."
You failed.
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