I agree! The mental challenge of learning a new sim is gratifying!
This post is not about which is better, it is about do you use both! I now have both and couldn’t be happier.
I answered yes to the following 5 questions which helped me make my decision:
- Do you enjoy flight simming on MSFS?
- Do you own a game ready computer?
- Do you own a monitor, keyboard and mouse?
- Do you already own flight sim hardware?
- Can you afford $59 ( I gave up 4 Big Macs for the week)?
Since I answered yes to my own internal questions, it was a go for me.
Is MSFS 2024 momentous? Of course it is. Do I like XP12? Heck yeah.
I think MSFS 2024 is awesome for low VFR GA flying and X-Plane 12 rocks for long haul airliner. At 35,000 feet terrain graphics are the same in both sims. Horses for courses.
2 Likes
Obviously MSFS has bing at its fingertips, but I wonder if XP has ever considered partnering with Google for its map data.
Or if they are just happy with how it is and place more value on functionality than looks and believe their main user base views are the same.
1 Like
I wonder how much that would cost Laminar. Jörg recently revealed that they get Bing Maps for free. I always assumed that there was some internal charge that they sustained with Marketplace sales, but apparently, nope. (Wonder if they’re paying for Azure.)
1 Like
Whatever it may cost them should be made up in sales when it goes nuts. It’s not a terrible idea, the question is if they already tried and Google is not interested.
1 Like
It would be awesome, for sure! The reason I do MSFS is because I fly GA, low and slow. Scenery is important to me.
I have to imagine that Laminar has thought about it.
Here, someone can play around with the pricing, if they want:
https://mapsplatform.google.com/pricing/
I’m a little hesitant to continue down this conversation path more, though, because technically, we’re supposed to keep discussion to MSFS in these forums. (Talking about X-Plane is okay, but as long as it’s tied back to MSFS.) So this is as far as I’m comfortable going.
1 Like
I wonder if you work for X-Plane? They now have Google Maps in their sim.
I don’t think X-Plane will be ever able to touch MSFS in terrain graphics quality and realism though, as MSFS is able to stream the world to you in high def and high speed from their servers.
No, there’s a mod for it.
It’s not natively in the sim.
2 Likes
If X-Plane had procedural terrain (grass, dirt) etc instead of just textures it would transform the simulator in those “close up” modes like landing a bush plane in some random clearing.
Its autogen assets are already good enough up close (especially things like light poles etc where MSFS doesn’t really do a good job) but the terrain itself is flat and “polygonal”.
They’ve mentioned “seeding” the sim with autogen data gleaned from ortho photos without actually pushing the ortho into the simulator and one advantage of doing this with autogen is that you don’t get the leftover building shadows, clouds etc that orthophotos have sometimes.
It will be interesting to see what it looks like once the next gen scenery arrives.
2 Likes
Does X plane ever go on sale on Steam? Im ready to buy it (I did play the demo) but not at full price.
Not that I have ever seen.
Hi everyone,
I use both and love both.
In short words. XP12 have better flight physics and Msfs2024 the better scenery.
Both have their advantages and disadvantages.
It is a great time for being a flight simulation enthusiast.
Take care all and enjoy your day.
2 Likes
I can’t help but feel this isn’t so much a problem with MSFS…
The regular price is $59.00
True words. Now I am wondering if I should get a 3rd sim!!! P3D!!! It to is only $59. For less than the price of a 3rd party plane you can have another sim!!!
Why stop there?
There’s always FlightGear (free!) and AeroFly FS if you’re into VR.
1 Like
X Plane is l ike flying over wallpaper scenery.
2 Likes
Yes it does.
Of course this is problem with MSFS, default airports are awful. Wrong taxiway designations, wrong parking spots, missing apron lighting… If XPlane can have decent airports all around the world so can MSFS. I don’t expect Asobo to fix all the airports, just give us Scenery Gateway and the community will fix it in a matter of months.