WOW, a lot of questions...
I've never used FS9 or FSX, this means I can't really compare those flight simulators with X-Plane 10.
Also, I've never really used any version of Windows for games, I've always used MacOS (since december 1984).
-- Maybe I can help a bit cause I know both platforms Win / Mac OS / xplane / FSX - about mac in my POV it is much to expensive for gaming and to closed to "tune" it what is necessary for FSX and XP if you want to fly with very high settings. A modern PC can be tunes easily to 4.2 GHZ and with more efforts to 4.9GHZ. You can use really high speed ram and fast video cards like the GTX600 series. --
Is x-plane 10 really as good as it looks like in their company website / video? I read also many comments of simmers complaining that this is still a beta version full of bugs...
Those videos and screenshots show what X-Plane is. No lies. Actually, I can do much more in my configuration than those videos and screenshots let see. There is a stable version at this moment (10.10), no problems there... and there is another version in developing (10.11), this last one is of course a beta. You see, X-Plane is always in developing (that's why I love it). I use version 10.10 for flying and version 10.11 for checking and testing the new features and fixes.
-- Absolutely true what Ricardo said - yes the ongoing developping is the good and the bad - cause a lot of developers are complaining that following a stable RC a new beta is following - and austin just keep going. If there is already a higher beta version of 10.10 RC then ok for austin but a nightmare for plane developers.--
Currently I use Squawkbox and FS Flight Keeper to connect to VATSIM and log my flights, but I am afraid this latter one at least does not work with x-plane... what should I use instead?
No idea, because I do not know exactly what are the features of FS Flight Keeper. Sometimes I use VATSIM (with XSquawkBox 1.06), sometimes IVAO (with X-IvAp 2.0.1), both work fine. But I prefer to fly "offline" using X-Plane's ATC (more possibilities), because I think the online networks doesn't add much more to the fly experience (mostly problems and limitations). For the registration of the flights at Air-Child we use XAcars (it has limitations but there is nothing better yet).
-- Again it is right what Ricardo says - but an app like flight keeper does not exist for xplane. Xsquwakbox is like the squwakbox for FSX and the xarcars is much more basic like flight keeper, it just let you connect to your airline and sent the acars info - not less not more - but it works perfectly. --
I read in your website that x-plane doesn't feature many small airports and that even the large ones are often little more than an airstrip, with no building at all... Do I understand this correct? I have difficulties to believe that considering that somewhere else I read that x-plane comes with a 60 gbytes load of sceneries... Can you please clarify?
It's simple. X-Plane, actually Laminar Research, gives you a flight simulator with the best flight simulation, with some aircrafts, sceneries of the whole Earth (and Mars) and some demo-airports, many other airports have only runways and taxiways (the users must build them further). I do not think this is something bad of X-Plane, I call it a feature. It gives me the possibility to make sceneries of airports and cities/towns. I use it to fly, but also to create.
It's also so that many medium and small airports are not usable in X-Plane because the program uses extern data for airports and navigation aids (coordinated by Robin Peel, with information from users). There are also other commercial sources for this information, like Navigraph and Aerosoft, but the information is always parcial (many fixes, airports, VOR's, etc. are unknown). I mean, this is not a problem of X-Plane, but a global one.
60 GB? Maybe, only the "Global Scenery"-folder in my configuration is 57.05 GB, and the "Custom Scenery"-folder (sceneries made by users) is 71.63 GB. In my active "Custom Scenery" I only put the sceneries and libraries I'm really using (right now = 1.36 GB)
-- there are hundreds of airports in the xplane forums round the world - the number is growing daily and the payware sceneries are growing as well. I myself have 3TB of sceneires including high resolution photo textures in europe, north america and japan - I do not know exactly how many airports which are working very well - hundreds for sure. And most of them for free. and you have quite good scenery manager apps (for win) do not know if the mac app is back. A manager is really important if you got a lot of sceneries - otherwise the sim becomes to heavy. --
Like you I love small propeller planes because they allow to enjoy the landscape and are closer to the planes I hope to fly for real soon (I'm applying to a course as private pilot). Is it x-plane better than FSX in this regard?
Sorry, I do not know. I can only say that for X-Plane there are some very good small propellers, like the Twin Otter (DHC6) from X-Hangar, the BE58 Baron and the Mooney M20J from Carenado.
-- I see it like this FSX and XP have 2 complete different approaches FSX is databased and XP is realtime calculation - for that a databased sim can be much more accurate - it depends on the database and a realtime sim can be very accurate it depends of the variables the sim is working with. So XP is absolutely unbeatable concerning the GA simulation but for the heavies you need more the XP variables can provide - till now - more and more xp becomes only to a base for high class plugin driven addons. so those addons can be more and more independend from the xp flight dynamics. But this goal is really difficult to reach - till now there is no model for XP which reaches the PMDG NGX or MD11. In dynamics maybe Peter Hagers A380 and A321 but in the complexity of simulation Peters aircrafts are not ready yet. --
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- So you have the choice if you like more GA flying with nice photosceneries which you can make by your own and a lot of free airports, freeware, conversions, some payware try xplane and the Carenado GA. If you want a complex plane like the NGX PMDG FSX or FS9 is the choice - of course PMDG is building the NGX for xplane - we will see what is coming up - but they will go crazy with austins everyday updates, that´s for sure.
Concerning the platform I would ever prefer pc with win7 with an modern IVY BRIDGE processor which starts at 3.5GHZ a MAC (even I use them in my prof. sound for film studio) is always old - cause thy always using the outdated intel processors, outdated main boards, outdated videocards in a cool looking case - it works fine but it can be better, especially for that money. And you get a lot more of apps and hardware which are needing windows to work --
Cheers Tom
