Which is the best flight simulator in your opinion today?

[ermanno2007]

2021, In my opinion, the best simulator for quality / cost, to date possible.
https://youtu.be/S1sRddnhRoM

[Ryan]

It would be XPLANE 11, I have tried all the major simulators. And i find xplane is the best, because of its physics, its ease of upgrade and addons. Its more for the "serious" simulator then any other one. MSFS is more for the general person and for fun vfr crashing.

[GERMANICVS]

Don't forget DCS ;-)

[sparc]

Dcs is beast but a whole different kind lol

I tried Msfs and it's nice but poorly optimized for vr and I refuse to go back to 2d.

I'm literally in xplane right now climbing to 10k feet in a blackshape. I'm working out the kinks in performance settings and so far in vr I get 80fps with no stutters albeit not the highest settings. I like aerofly fs2 because its vr friendly but gets boring fast.

Xplane takes the crown for me. Only problem is some planes aren't optimized and forces me to reduce graphics.

[Ranger]

Originally posted by GERMANICVS:

Don't forget DCS ;-)

dcs is a combat sim, not a flight sim

[Maki Nishikino]

Originally posted by Ranger:

Originally posted by GERMANICVS:

Don't forget DCS ;-)

dcs is a combat sim, not a flight sim

?

[Ryan]

Originally posted by Ranger:

Originally posted by GERMANICVS:

Don't forget DCS ;-)

dcs is a combat sim, not a flight sim

Potato potato, Is it game or simulator. Who knows because its up to the person. Leave people with there opinions.

[Evilhamster888]

As of the situation today, i will say :

Xplane for the feel of flight, overall realism and the endless addons/customizability. If you want an excellent and deep flight sim, it's the way to go but you will need addons to envoy hit to its full potential.

FS2020 for vfr flights. A good rounded package for someone who start in civ/flight sim, no need of free or pay addons, scenary, weather are good to excellent out of the box. Only the aircraft are ok to good and lack realism/system simulation.

As for the combat flight sim apart il2box and dcs, there is nothing apart (very) niche games or oldies.

[Burning Bridges]

It depends, they all have strengths and weaknesses.

X-Plane is the best overall with orthos, mods and tpas but requires an awful amount of time to set up. MSFS has the best scenery but the aircraft are bare bones, and the gameplay is boring. DCS is the most immersive, realistic, challenging and exciting but has really small maps and they also cost a lot of money.

On the other hand DCS base game is free and comes with 1 map (soon to be 2) and 2 free planes so that is a unique offer in itself. To get a very advanced flight sim completely for free and decide yourself if you want to extend it.

I would personally say out of the box DCS is slightly winning this contest, but X-Plane with its excellent airliners and the option to fly around the whole world comes very close. MSFS is the new kid on the block but still needs a lot of work, I would personally rank it last in this list by a mile,

[Burning Bridges]

Originally posted by Ranger:

Originally posted by GERMANICVS:

Don't forget DCS ;-)

dcs is a combat sim, not a flight sim

There are civilian planes in it too that put other sims to shame (eg Yak-52) and many people never fly combat missions, so it's actually a combat sim AND a flight sim.

[Sniper]

Originally posted by Burning Bridges:

Originally posted by Ranger:

dcs is a combat sim, not a flight sim

There are civilian planes in it too that put other sims to shame (eg Yak-52) and many people never fly combat missions, so it's actually a combat sim AND a flight sim.

There is a free C-130 community mod in DCS, still needs some polish but people love it. And it can operate from the carrier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EERe7XEPeuM&ab_channel=DarkSkies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVheIj1kXg8&ab_channel=GrimReapers

[Gryper]

None of them. They all have problems. Too many moving parts, Too many things to screw up your flight every day. I have XP11, MSFS2020 and DCS and wanted to use them in VR. VR isnt quite there yet. Maybe next year. I spent about 5k on a new computer, monitir and VR headset and Im and pretty disappointed. I spend nearly 5 hours every day trying to fix various problems with weather programs, FSUIPC/XPUIPC, scenery, VR headset errors, XP11 errors, and then MSFS2020 has no airliners that are worth a crap yet. I doubt study-level jets will even be possible in VR. My killer systems struggles now with the default aircraft in VR. I've been simming for about 40 years. I thought this was the year it would all finally work, but no, I still have a flight simulator repair simulator rather than a flight simulator. I think I am about to quit using sims entirely for another five years until these jokers figure all of this out and maybe integrate everything into one so we dont need 15 add-ons to make a flight.

[ermanno2007]

Thanks to all guys for your comments.
Reading them it is evident that, legitimately, everyone desires similar things but in reality different from the flight simulator that he would like.
Personally, having a training as an aeronautical technician and test driver, I prefer x-plane for the reason that it is the only one at the moment, which establishes how a plane flies based on an algorithm that simulates the aerodynamic effects on any type of body in 3 sizes.
The others can also reach excellent results (DCS type) but only thanks to a series of measurements on those specific types of aircraft. On the other hand, I need somewhere to introduce a prototype, or a modified airplane, and give me a realistic answer of how the real aero could be in flight. But I realize that others demand different things from their ideal simulator.
Again it all depends on what one wants from his ideal simulator. Which, obviously, is not the same for everyone.

[Antaiir]

Depends on, if you prefer just eyecandy or proper simulation. In my experience, you can't have both. At least not without addons.

Eyecandy: MSFS
Simulation: X-Plane
Both: X-Plane with addons

This is just my personal opinion of course. Others may have other expectations and preferences.

[ermanno2007]

Antaiir, for me the important thing is the final realism; if you need so many add-ons so much the better; so it does not become something for everyone but only for the best.
And that is exactly why I have personally developed numerous add-ons to create the "Extreme VFR" project.
The final result was to transform a normal commercial flight simulator into something unique that can guarantee in the flight sector that I also know in reality, a realism that no other simulator is able to do. To make myself understood, I post a short video where I recreated with absolute relism, the airfield of Senigallia Nord, which I managed for many years in reality.

https://youtu.be/62bMViV-EG8

I believe that with no other simulator this was possible. At least without guaranteeing fidelity both the scenario and the flight model of the various light and ulm aircraft that have frequented it for many years.

[Maki Nishikino]

I've been flight simming since 1997 and have loads of addons for P3D, quite a number for XP, a few for MSFS and pretty much all DLC for DCS.

Give it a few years and MSFS will be a money pit for flight sim enthusiasts. A lot found in MSFS stock is payware and freeware in other sims. In XP with Orho4XP what you're not paying in money you're paying in HDD space. For P3D (and XP) you have a whole line of Orbx products (which will get very expensive).

As for aircraft a good example is the Airfoillabs Cessna 172, the stock Cessna 172 in XP doesn't hold a candle to it, absolutely worth the money.

No matter what route you go flight simulation is expensive and it's only as good as the addons you buy or simply download as freeware for it and you're paying in one way or another. Pretty much nobody is playing these sims stock or near it aside from MSFS and for a good reason, it's still brand new. Check out sites such as FSElite, there is a lot in the oven.

As said above, they all have their pros and cons but I do have to admit it's very annoying to have to have three flight sims installed. Few things I really don't like about XP is weather (despite having Active Sky), it's night lighting problem (despite having an addon that should fix this) and lack of seasons (you have to download a addon).

EDIT: Heavily revised post.