X-Plane vs The New Microsoft Flight Simulator

[J4MESOX4D]

I've just seen some of the pre-alpha footage of the new MSF and it not only looks astonishing but in terms of a videogame and how it is being produced, it could very well be the most ambitious videogame ever created.

The whole of planet earth being rendered using Bing Maps via live satellites with every single building, tree and river being 100% accurate and to scale using this technology is just remarkable plus real weather systems too!

No map mods or anything - testers were able to choose their desired location anywhere on the globe and just fly. Some even went through their own town and even over their house. It sounded to good to be true but it appears to do exactly what it said it would which is just insane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RciDscnzJb8
I don't know what this could possibly mean for X-Plane - obviously the new Microsoft Flight Sim is a way off right now and will need a monster PC and streaming capabilities to maximise the experience and we don't know how much this will all cost but this could set a new standard for flight sims that games like X-Plane just cannot compete.

[Prezidentas]

Competition is good for the consumer.

[ZeroReady]

Looks really nice. I'm concerned about the quality of Bing maps though. When I make ortho tiles, the google maps are always better quality than the bing ones.

[gekco]

Streaming and the Xbox game pass makes me believe it's going to be a subscription based game. If that's the case X-Plane has nothing to worry about. Would you rather pay $5-10 USD (maybe even more) a month to play a game with realistic graphics or own a flight simulator and play it for free.


On top of that, there's a good chance multiplayer will require Xbox live since it's going to be on Xbox.

[-OrLoK- Слава Україн]

it does look good but one simply cant compate anything until we have a copy in our sweaty paws.

at this moment in time xplane is imho the best civilian flightsim for the average joe/Jane user.

I'm quietly optimistic for the MS sim but I'll wait for real reviews before I grab my wallet.

[Jeff]

Seeing God rays now in the clouds so nice. If they said ok its 75 bucks for everything includes all future stuff included Im all in.

[BigKangaroo3]

Wow - looks incredible! Microsoft have taken the immersive world of flight simulation to the next level.

2 PetabBytes (2,000 Terabytes) of Bing Maps replicating the entire Earth n 4K may be a little hard to store locally so I imagine this is where the Azure subscription based technology falls into place.

Given the additional cost in purchasing Orbx regions and updating Weather Engines (Active Sky etc), a monthly subscription may do away with the need for these additional purchases which at the moment don't come close to what I'm seeing at lower altitudes.

Probably the one thing I miss the most from my FSX days was a proper ATC and other Traffic in the air (without having to pay an additional $30 for the privilege - World Traffic).

What has kept me flying with X-Plane 11 has been the realistic flight model and FlightDeck2Sims videos helping me learn Zibo's fantastic 737-800. Other than that, i've been less than impressed with Laminar's focus on improving certain aspects of the game (ATC, airline traffic, Airport autogate features) that FSX had implemented 14 years ago.

I hope Laminar get their skates on with this Vulkan upgrade and improve the immersion factor to remain competitive with this new offering from Microsoft.

I think I may finally take the plunge into VR now with an Oculus Rift S. :-)

[Dannnnn]

Originally posted by ZeroReady:

Looks really nice. I'm concerned about the quality of Bing maps though. When I make ortho tiles, the google maps are always better quality than the bing ones.

It's not raw bing maps. It's colour corrected and edited by Microsoft's monster Azure Ai, if you've seen any of the screenshots you'll see they aren't ordinary ortho photos. Also the fact that the Ai also places accurate 3d buildings ontop is what will set it apart from ortho.

[PvWolf666]

This will tell you everything you need to know for now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj2gac_1wA0

[Jeff]

Hope it supports SLI and will let dev outside make aircraft for it.

[PvWolf666]

They are talking to third parties. All you have to do is watch stuff on youtube and they tell you everything

[Urchin]

Even if they sub this at $100 a month it's going to bury X-Plane if it performs as good as it looks on high end PC's. This is shaping up to be a very significant generational leap forward in flightsims.

I've already held off buying X-Plane 11 simply can't compare to this level of detail. It's what the community has been dreaming of ever since the first MSFS.

[Jeff]

$100 a month MS would lose doing that most would not even bother now that price for the full sim no sub no problem then at least for me.

[jerdawg]

Originally posted by Dan Morgan:

Even if they sub this at $100 a month it's going to bury X-Plane if it performs as good as it looks on high end PC's. This is shaping up to be a very significant generational leap forward in flightsims.

I've already held off buying X-Plane 11 simply can't compare to this level of detail. It's what the community has been dreaming of ever since the first MSFS.

I can imagine scenery developers would have to be getting nervous as well.

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by jerdawg:

Originally posted by Dan Morgan:

Even if they sub this at $100 a month it's going to bury X-Plane if it performs as good as it looks on high end PC's. This is shaping up to be a very significant generational leap forward in flightsims.

I've already held off buying X-Plane 11 simply can't compare to this level of detail. It's what the community has been dreaming of ever since the first MSFS.

I can imagine scenery developers would have to be getting nervous as well.

This would pretty much make map modders obsolete.

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by Jeff:

Hope it supports SLI and will let dev outside make aircraft for it.

SLI and CrossfireX are dead

Originally posted by Dan Morgan:

Even if they sub this at $100 a month it's going to bury X-Plane if it performs as good as it looks on high end PC's. This is shaping up to be a very significant generational leap forward in flightsims.

I've already held off buying X-Plane 11 simply can't compare to this level of detail. It's what the community has been dreaming of ever since the first MSFS.

tbh it might even perform better than X-Plane if they add any modern optimisations and good multithreading. It wont cost $100 a month, since then even if its better than X-Plane, no one would buy it.