Best Flight Sim?

peanutismint

peanutismint

peanutismint

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I'd love to get back into flight sims but there seem to be quite a few strong contenders nowadays. Obviously there's Microsoft's Flight Sim (of which I believe the latest is called 'Flight Sim X'?) and also just 'Flight' which looks like an amateur version of Flight Sim - or am I wrong?

I've also seen 'X-Plane' which I tried on my Mac and seems to have some very realistic planes and landscapes, and also 'Aerofly FS' which although only Switzerland seems to also have some very detailed planes.....

I'd like to be able to fly in many different planes and countries and environments and in many different ways - some days I might just want to 'mess about', other days I might decide I want to learn to fly a commercial jetliner (!!). Not massively bothered about 'combat' sims (although if anyone has any good suggestions, let me hear 'em - last flight sim I played was probably 'Jane's ATF Gold' back in like 1995!!)
 
For varity and breath for non combat simulation you've really covered the bases with FSX/Xplane 10. However there is a new kid on the block called Prepar3d from Lockheed Martin which has spawned from ESP (Microsoft's comercial version of FSX). This means 99.9% of FSX addons work in it. However the licensing for Prepar3d only allows for non entertainment uses. However isn't learning to fly a C172 or A380 education and they do an education license.

There is also Flight Gear, an open source flight sim. I've no real idea how good it is now bit I believe they have world wide scenery available and many different planes.
 
picnic said:
For varity and breath for non combat simulation you've really covered the bases with FSX/Xplane 10. However there is a new kid on the block called Prepar3d from Lockheed Martin which has spawned from ESP (Microsoft's comercial version of FSX). This means 99.9% of FSX addons work in it. However the licensing for Prepar3d only allows for non entertainment uses. However isn't learning to fly a C172 or A380 education and they do an education license.

There is also Flight Gear, an open source flight sim. I've no real idea how good it is now bit I believe they have world wide scenery available and many different planes.
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I wonder what the reasoning for prohibiting people from playing it for "entertainment" is, surely it means less money for them?
 
MikeTheNative said:
I wonder what the reasoning for prohibiting people from playing it for "entertainment" is, surely it means less money for them?
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It will be a restriction put on them by Microsoft when LM bought the source code of ESP I suspect. MS were almost certainly planning/selling Flight when the deal was done.
 
Il2: Cliffs of Dover is well worth checking out as well. It's not as rich in content as Il2:1946 but it is growing and has much better graphics, physics and ballistics.

 
picnic said:
It will be a restriction put on them by Microsoft when LM bought the source code of ESP I suspect. MS were almost certainly planning/selling Flight when the deal was done.
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That is almost certainly the case... you can buy the 'academic licence' which can be for 'home/educational' use, which is the version I run; it carries a small water mark in the top right corner, but is otherwise the same at the pro version. As long as I fly in a serious manner, and don't smile I think I'm ok to use this version :p

P3D is certainly more stable than FSX and may perform slightly better, but it is less user friendly and has annoying quriks, like loading straight into a flight... if I was buying a sim for the first time right now, it would still be FSX... it has the best developer support, both freeware and payware, and it the most user friendly.

Prepar3D is perhaps the best FS to keep an eye on as a developing platform, with some big advances comming in v2.0 sometime next year.
 
FSX.

And then join us in the FSX thread and then fly with us.

We can teach you the basics, the intermediates and some of the advanced things when it comes to flight-simming.

Before long, you'll have photo-real scenery, perform close-to real world procedures and have most of your questions answered by real world pilot(s) and enthusiasts.
 
Thanks for all the responses everybody - those combat ones (esp. the A-10 Warthog sim!) look great. I'm hearing a general love for FSX so perhaps I'll give that a go. Also found this absolutely breathtakingly realistic video which makes me want to play it!!

http://youtu.be/cIfJlGrOIUs

Not to sound like an amateur but part of me thinks the sim I'd enjoy most would be whichever was the best 'looking' :) so do people think FSX has the best graphics? Are they as good as that video from install or will I have to download high-res scenery/models etc as an afterthought?? If so I'll have a go at the demo (if I get into it I'll come join you guys in the FSX thread!)
 
Best graphics for combat sim are: IL2:CLoD, RoF and DCS (A10, Ka50, P51) in this order -imho.

For civilian sim - FSX (MUST be modded to hell and back) and there is also Aerofly, it looks sweet but it has no dynamic lighting and small map. Xplane (from what I saw) ranges from jaw droppingly gorgeous to very ppor indeed.

My favourites are RoF and Il2:Cliffs of Dover. vids :


 
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Out of the box XPlane is far superior to FSX, but inferior to Aerofly. But as everyone else has said DCS-A10 and CoD are top notch and where I'd be looking.
 
peanutismint said:
Also found this absolutely breathtakingly realistic video which makes me want to play it!!

http://youtu.be/cIfJlGrOIUs
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I'll echo the majority, and recommend FSX, even consider FS2004 which still has a very strong (if not stronger) community (in terms of addons).

Just a word of warning: in that video, absolutely everything is 3rd party (i.e. not vanilla FSX), so be prepared to spend hours tweaking, modding and searching for addons before you get your FSX running and looking exactly the way you want it to ;)
 
Dang, I knew you could get some 3rd party software to make fsx look better, but I never knew it could look THAT good.

Going to have to spend some time downloading stuff to get it possibly looking like that, but my pc is already taxed by vanilla fsx :(
 
Shashman said:
I'll echo the majority, and recommend FSX, even consider FS2004 which still has a very strong (if not stronger) community (in terms of addons).

Just a word of warning: in that video, absolutely everything is 3rd party (i.e. not vanilla FSX), so be prepared to spend hours tweaking, modding and searching for addons before you get your FSX running and looking exactly the way you want it to ;)
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So you reckon I'll be able to get better looking visuals on FS2004? And any ideas what 3rd party apps I'll need to get mine looking as good as that video??

Also my other query was - I don't yet have a flight stick - will I still be able to control (albeit very awkwardly!) with keyboard/mouse?
 
I really wouldn't recommend it at all. If you have the money then really a decent stick and TrackIR or a free alternative (Freetrack) will make for a far more immersive experience and more than likely work out cheaper than the amount you'll have to fork out for all the 3rd part addons for FSX.

If you want a good looking flightsim have a look at aerofly on steam. FSX looks good when you chuck money at the rather expensive addons (you can get free stuff) but out of the box it looks worse than XPlane and Aerofly. XPlane is rapidly being more supported in the addon department.

Maybe try the XPlane demo or something first to see if you really want to be flying with a keyboard and a mouse.


 
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