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X-Plane 8.0 (DVD-ROM) Reviews
Jan - 26 | By: yulypis | 3 comments.
Filed under : Xplane
X-Plane 8.0 (DVD-ROM)
- Try out both subsonic and supersonic flight dynamics, sporting aircraft from the Bell 206 Jet-Ranger helicopter to the supersonic Concorde
- Fly 40 aircraft spanning the aviation industry — plus hundreds more downloaded from the Internet
- Customize the textures, sounds and instrument panels for your own airplanes — or redesign the flight panels of pre-existing planes
- Detailed failure-modeling with 35 systems that can fail randomly — fail instruments, engines, flight controls, and landing gear at any moment
- Variable weather patterns, from clear skies and high visibility to thunderstorms with controllable wind, wind shear, turbulence, and microbursts — rain, snow and clouds are also available
X-Plane 8 is the comprehensive flight sim available today. It offers incredible accuracy in flight models, wider scope in aircraft and a more versatile set of aircraft types and weather conditions. Users can download new aircraft, scenery and more — for a flight simulation that’s amazingly close to the real thing. Land at any of 18,000 airports across the world, with realistic scenery from all of them – you can even land on Mars, thanks to the Mars Orbiting Laser Altimeter
List Price: $ 39.99
Price: $ 63.98
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3 Responses to “X-Plane 8.0 (DVD-ROM) Reviews”
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Move over Microsoft, or should I say Microsoft who?,
(6/18/05): Other consumer sims use static flight models that essentially are a series of numerical quantities for each aircraft concerning thrust, turn rates at a give speed, lift, etc. X-plane is a revolutionary consumer flight sim that uses real aerodynamic fluid-like physics to “derive” a flight model in real time, by simplifying the forces into “blades” acting upon the aircraft…almost like having a wind tunnel in your computer. It uses the same concept of software that aerospace companies utilize for testing airframes and roughing-out control software prior to a prototype being built. In fact, I hear some smaller companies are now using it for that purpose rather than buying the previous software only available at high prices to major engineering firms. X-Plane is also approved for some aspects of early pilot training by the FAA. There is also an add-on for the planet Mars available from the X-Plane website, as well as a Space Combat Simulator.
The usual flight procedures and failures are included in X-Plane. There’s no lack of them there. The real-time weather is also fairly sophisticated, though they still haven’t fixed a bug in some of the clouds that tend to rotate as you do. There is a lack of landmarks on terrain for VFR, but there is software included to make your own. I have no doubt we’ll be seeing some payware terrain for certain regions, like Los Angelis or New York. Also, because of the nature of the derived flight models, an aircraft modeler is included. Yes, X-Plane is luring those strange people who make model airplanes in their basement. But the rest of us get to benefit. There are a lot of freeware aircraft out there. All they need are the blueprints for the aircraft and its control surface/engine specs, or they can create an original design. Like Microsoft’s, many payware designs have also been flight tested and tweaked to match the published flight envelops. In contrast, though, most X-Plane aircraft will perform much like the “x-plane” (prototype) version of it would if recreated in the real world based on the model built for it with this program, regardless of how accurate the design is. Thus you might need an engineering degree for an approximation of a real design to be adequate — especially with more complicated ones — but it is available.
As you can see, this modeling aspect of X-Plane is to some degree also its biggest weakness. Inherently stable aircraft, if correctly “designed” in the modeler, will perform pretty much as they do in real life. Active pilots will be amazed and feel very good about their simulated flight time on X-Plane. But because so many aircraft are inherently unstable, don’t expect the fly-by-wire (i.e. the software between your controls and X-Plane’s derived fluid/Newtonian flight model) to be as real or forgiving as the real ones. No one, except maybe a software engineer for the actual aircraft, can be expected to get the FBWS perfect. The more unstable the aircraft, the less likely the bedroom programmer’s FBWS will be anything near what it should be, let alone a true replica of the real deal. The real F-22 is very unstable, but can perform turns and stalls that would pop a blood vessel. In DID’s hard to find Total Air War, the F-22 used a standard non-fluid, non-derived model, but represented more of the filtering and limits placed on the pilot from the FBW system. It never let you turn so quickly or at the wrong angle-of-attack that your aircraft would immediately become uncontrollable or cause you to suddenly red/black out. In X-Plane, while it is certainly a more accurate representation of the real airframe (and quicker on its feet without those FBWS limits), you will be messing with elevator trim and trying your best to be restrained in your control inputs. Some aircraft will just seem uncontrollable unless you’re a test pilot…hence the title of the sim: X-plane. It’s as if you’re flying early, or in some cases, outright pre-FBWS prototypes. Other aircraft are simply unpilotable in their current form. There is an occasional habit by the modeler to simplify some of the freeware airframes to compensate for this, but purists will likely disapprove.
Also, the tail rotor compensation on light helicopters is way off and you’ll suddenly start going into a main-rotor-induced spin. A little rotation left or right if you’re adjusting collective rapidly is completely authentic, as is the liberal amount of side slip and environmental effects (which will become worse the lighter the airframe). But the FBWS and tail rotor compensation is seriously not doing its job in the most basic way here. Also, I have not been able to find a way to switch the cyclic to being “sticky”, so to speak. When I push the stick forward and then release, I want the chopper to stay pitched forward. In X-Plane (at least in the default setting) the main rotor pitches back to level, requiring you to have…
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|Incredibly realistic,
I am no novice to the world of aviation and after thoroughly scrutinizing every feature of X-plane 8, I regretted being a fan of MS Flight Sims. For years I had been fairly impressed with MS Flight Sim’s “gaming experience”, taking for granted that it’s the closest thing to real-life flying that you can get on PC for under $50. After using x-plane I realized just how wrong I was. For the first time, I felt like I was actually sitting in a REAL cockpit looking out the window feeling like “WOW this is amazing!!”. The feel of each flight model is uniquely different in each aircraft, unlike in MSFS where you fly one and feel like you’ve flown them ALL whether it’s single/prop/multi-jet/big/small etc. In the beginning the scenery details can be a bit boring during some segments of flight(especially during take offs and landings), but you can enhance that on x-plane yourself, easily downloaded from the net…thus pushing the scenery realism much further beyond MSFS 2004′s expectation. MSFS frame rates are always poor and sloppy even on my brand new super customized dell, and I’m not particularly amused by their continued lack of cockpit realism over the years, now that I’ve embarked upon the x-plane and can compare MSFS to it’s more superior competitor. X-plane is much smoother in frame transition. The cockpits are so MUCH more individually detailed. The only tiny problem is that the entire cockpit doesn’t fit within the immediate view, you have to shift it a bit every now and then to have access to additional controls, but that’s understandable considering it’s broad spectrum of instrumentation.
The concept of building your own aircraft and actually being able to test it on your own PC-interfaced wind tunnel is extraordinary!!! The intense physics applied to these software models is brilliant. I’ve read that the FAA approved of x-plane for initial pilot training. Also, a couple companies that design aircraft incorporated x-plane into their testing. Doesn’t surprise me at all.
Like with any other software(including MSFS!), it’s not flawless, there’s always room for improvement, patches and updates need to be added to bring this sim closer to perfection. With x-plane, there’s a broad range of goodies you can download free on the net to enhance it.
I would not recommend x-plane to those who are just gamers looking for novice-friendly spoonfeeding. This is for serious aviation enthusiasts, student pilot practice, or for those interested in the most true-to-life aviation challenges that you’ll find in a single software package.
N.B.: Please excuse the ignorant morons who rate x-plane with only 1 star.
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|WARNING: Not the current version…,
The most sophisticated simulator for PCs and Macs, but:
1.) Search Google and you’ll find that this is NOT the most current version of X-Plane. (That’s why it’s so cheap!)
2.) Make sure you understand that you need a lot of computer power to take advantage of all its capabilities.
3.) I hate to see Amazon consider this a “game.” This is not a toy…it’s a product for real flight sim enthusiasts and/or real-world pilots with an instrument rating. Patience will be needed if you want to take advantage of all its features.
That all said: Once they post the current version, GO FOR IT. If you’re serious about flying a PC, or a real airplane, this is probably the sim you want.
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