Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
Once upon a time, Microsoft Flight Simulator was ‘thee go to’ flight simulator. Nothing could touch it. Then came along free equivalents such as flightgear. Creeping up behind them was X-Plane – a far more sophisticated flight sim that really did what a flight sim should do. It took the model, and applied physics to it, and at that point you really were an X pilot – testing out unknown planes. Microsoft’s effort has since fallen by the wayside. It never truly simulated a model plane in physics. Every plane model needed botches to make it seem right, and as of Flight Simulator X it hasn’t been updated. X-Plane, on the other hand, has matured nicely and is, as of writing, at 10.2 with 10.3 in beta.
The problem with X-Plane was that it was huge. And I mean massive. It came spanning almost a dozen DVDs and was available only as a physical object. The makers have changed that now by having X-Plane available to download via Steam. And about time too! The download is not for the faint of heart. My install of just X-Plane 10 and the European scenery is around the 8GB mark. Downloading the rest of the world will get you a grand total of 80GB.
Getting Started
Once your download is complete, you can start X-Plane and get the quick-start window. It’s ironic that they call it the ‘quick flight’—getting to that window took a full two minutes on my Quad Core 2, 8GB RAM machine! Once there, you quickly choose a plane from the default list, a location (airport), and a weather type. To get into the pilot’s seat takes a further three minutes of loading time. You start on the runway with the engine running ready for take off.
You can, if you wish, move your mouse to the top of the screen to access the menu and bring up the location map. This shows you, and some AI planes, on the map. From here, you can see some basic airport info (radio channels, etc), and also the ability to toss your plane into the sky at an altitude/speed of your choosing. You can also choose from the preset buttons to have your plane in the sky heading for a landing. Handy for practice. Something you’ll need.
How On Earth Do I…
Inevitably, you’ll be sitting there in the cockpit not having a clue what to do. X-Plane does come with a manual (don’t worry it’s only 185 pages), but it’s pretty generic as every plane has a different cockpit and features that are unique to that plane. You can quickly learn to fly a single engine Cessna, but that won’t help you a jot if you load up a monster 737/747. Sure, you’ll know the basic dials, but everything above a Cessna may need a knowledge of the flight computer (FMC) or a knowledge of waypoints and flight plans. It’s all heady stuff and a lot to take in. From my short time (thus far) of using X-Plane I’ll give you this piece of advice: remember, it’s a simulator. If you want to know something, look at the real-world. Watch videos on YouTube of actual flights. What you see in real life is what you need to do in X-Plane.
Scenery And Add-ons
While X-Plane looks OK in the graphics department, I recommend you install some scenery packs. X-Plane has the locations (eg: Glasgow Airport), but it looks nothing like the real thing. This can be fixed by using add-on scenery. Similarly, while it does have Glasgow, it looks nothing like Glasgow does in Google Maps. This is rectified by using more add-ons. Once you have a couple of these installed, your X-Plane will look fantastic. If your PC can handle it that is.
There are a myriad of add-ons; realistic sky/clouds/weather, aircraft, online ATC, the list goes on.
Controls
I use a Mad Catz FLY 5 stick which works excellently with X-Plane. Thankfully, X-Plane is highly configurable. In the Joystick/Buttons menu, you have complete control over the configuration – by pressing a button on your stick and then choosing which feature it should control. It does, of course, allow tweaking of joystick sensitivity and joystick calibration. Further in-depth configuration can be done using plugins, but I’ll talk more about that next month. Hint: it involves using a webcam to look around your 3D cockpit.
Conclusion
Make no mistake about it, this is not a game. This is a simulation with so much to learn that it’s quite frightening, but don’t let it get to you. You can treat this as either a friendly simulator (ie: quick flight, no ATC, A to B), or as a full-on sim (ie: get a flight plan online, use real-time online ATC, use auto-pilot, etc) – it’s entirely up to you.
While I definitely have a longer list of CONS than PROS for this review, I still think X-Plane is a fantastic piece of software. Yes, it may seem expensive (£44.99 as I write this), but it has a ton of add-ons and plugins – most of which are free. I do have to deduct a star for its long loading time; it really is unforgivable and something that I hope will be fixed. The other downsides can easily be fixed with free add-ons/plugins.
Next month, I’ll show you how to install the free Python installer plugin (that allows you to run Python scripts in X-Plane), then use it to show your plane’s real-time position on a map. But we’ll save that for Foxtrot, Charlie, Mike, niner, zero.
X-Plane 10 requires, at the minimum: • Dual Core, 2.5 GHz or faster • 2 GB of RAM • A video card with at least 500 MB of VRAM.
PROS: • Looks gorgeous when you have additional scenery installed • You can effectively download the entire world’s landscape • Plugin architecture allows for more planes/scenery/features
CONS: • Can’t easily do multi-monitor cockpit display • Some plugins aren’t Linux compatible (eg: SkyMaxx for improving skies) • Landscape is a bit bland and lacks detail (can be fixed with addons) • Locations and airports aren’t always based on fact (again, can be fixed with addons) • Extremely steep learning curve as every plane is different • Some cockpits are quite blurry on closer (3D) inspection • Takes far too long to load • Download size can be anywhere from 8GB to 80GB depending on what parts of the world you want installed • Could be considered quite expensive for a ‘game’ • Takes a hefty machine to run the game with detailed scenery, buildings, shading and traffic.
For help and addons: http://forums.x-plane.org/
Plane used in the screenshots is the Eclipse 550: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=18661
Google Maps based scenery: http://simheaven.com/