Hey guys, the new Fenix A320 is coming out soon, and I wanted to hear from folks that are in the know what makes the Fenix A320 stand apart from the great (free) FlyByWire A320? most of the other threads are very old on this topic.
Are you going to pay for the Fenix one or stick with the FlyByWire? We have some decisions to make!
Just about everyone and their dog is streaming it today, jump on youtube and ask one of the streamers.
One general comment right now is FPS is terrible on the ground. Now is that the Fenix? or a result of SU9, can’t say.
Don’t know. But the FBW is a good piece of software and most probably I don’t buy the fenix. I bought the BAE und and I will buy the Pmdg 738 later this year. So the free fbw and the other two aircraft are more than enough.
Guess the fenix will be much better as the fbw in some parts, but does it matter for me….think not.
Is just my opinion and decision for sure.
I honestly think that it’s Airbus nature that you won’t notice a whole lot of difference. With the fly-by-wire being such a buffer between the pilot and the aircraft as it is. I doubt you’d really feel a lot of difference between an A320 and an A321. Or an A330 and 340 for that matter. (I know Airbus fanboys 
or going to disagree, but all in good sports. 
)
Overall, I don’t think you’ll notice a lot of difference in handling the aircraft or handling its systems as the FBW has really been very good already. In terms of system depth and actually operating the aircraft, the Fenix will obviously take over with all the detailed reallife quircks and procedures accounted for.
For a newbie, there wouldn’t be a lot of difference maybe. For more experienced/hardcore simmers the Fenix is the way to go. For me it’s a day one purchase anyway.
And let me ad to the newbies who are willing to jump in anyway: go for it anyway. An Airbus flightdeck is a great and fairly comfortable place to learn how to operate an airliner, as the FBW has already shown many new simmers around between the clouds. This will certainly take your understanding and experience further.
I also recently bought the Bae 146 as well as the PMDG 737 and they are both incredibly fun (as well as incredibly different).
I fly the FBW A320 sometimes still and it also feels very realistic. So that’s why I was curious what the Fenix version brings to the table to enhance the already great spread we have at the moment.
I’d say that’s the likely cause, given that SU9 has been an unmitigated disaster for a lot of simmers.
In summary:
Fenix is the older generation A320… The A320ceo variant.
FBW is the latest and current generation A320, the A320neo variant.
Fenix A320 has higher fidelity, all systems operational, and cabin is fully rendered.
FBW has the same goal of complete fidelity in the end, it doesn’t have cabin rendered yet.
The main thing here is: If you want High Fidelity A320 right now and don’t mind having to fly an older generation. Get the Fenix. The FlyByWire will eventually reach the same level of fidelity as Fenix, but it is a long road ahead, but it’s a freeware and it’s the current and latest generation A320. The choice is yours.
For me, I will definitely get it. Fly around with it a few times, get to learn the differences and stuff… But eventually I would still get back to the FBW A32NX because I just prefer the NEO and it has cleaner liveries without the dirt and grime. That’s just my personal preference.
I also bought the PMDG 737. And I love that aircraft, and it’s fun to fly. But after flying it for around 20 hours or so. I think I have enough and I’m jumping back to the FBW A32NX because it just flies better for my flying style.
great, thanks for the concise and informative answer. i will probably sitll with FBW for now unless i start to get a hankerin for somethin new to learn.
however I do love a fully rendered passenger cabin. i like to walk around in flight and take compliments form the passengers. the FBW is missing that right now
What does the Fenix A320 have operational j side the cockpit that the FBW doesn’t? For me I’m not really too interested in the cabin, after all this is flight simulator, not passenger simulator.
I don’t think Airbus fanboys are going to disagree, because the similarity between them is the very nature of Airbus. I love flying Airbus, and it’s easy to jump between A330’s and the A320 family. And in the A350 and A380 just the mcdu’s are different, but the rest is very similar. I had no trouble flying them (in XP, FSX and P3D). If you know 1 Airbus, you can fly all of them. And for me that’s a good thing.
well i’d argue that the passenger cabin is actually a huge part of the flight simulator if you’re pretending to be a captain of a giant passenger jet. eventually they will release a cabin and crew addon that will simulate each passenger, including potential emergencies like a heart attack or a rowdy passenger that will force you to go off course and land at the nearest safe field. 
Talk about realism
You can already do that with Pacx, though…
thats a cool app hadn’t heard of it. just googled it. seems someone stole my idea 
Fenix is base on prosim
FBW can not reach the “depth” of prosim
not sure what you mean, says who?
Check this
Fenix is based on it
I think that FBW continues to push the boundaries of what is possible and now expected in a freeware airliner. They have no doubt paved the way to a greater level of product for all of us!
The possibilities with the FBW team are endless and I expect they may be the pioneers of a base even more realistic than something like ProSim. The free and unencumbered are always at an advantage. Who knows, but I don’t think anyone thought we’d be here today with all these quality aircraft in the sim… Fenix, FBW, PMDG, BAE, Milviz 310, etc.!
At this very moment, it is hard to deny that Fenix is levels ahead of FBW. However, with the induction of VNAV and maybe a separate FMS, FBW will give a tough time to Fenix. Again it’s my personal opinion so take it as you want.
I love the FBW A320neo, but until they stop using Asobo’s horrible A320neo model and implement their own model, I will not be flying for a while. The fuselage and overall appearance of the plane is fine, but the sloppy modeling of the wings with flaps bleeding through the spoilers, the over all thickness of the wings and flaps, and the horrible main landing gear and engine model are keeping me from flying the plane now.
This is not FBW’s fault though and let me just say that they are THE ONLY reason I was staying with MSFS. I have no doubt, once this very competent team releases an equally great visual model, it has the potential to rival payware devs.
Now, I just completed my test flight for the Fenix from PHX - ABQ, and after a couple of odd controller issues, my first flight went perfectly! It flies solidly.
The performance is not as good as I had hoped, but it was certainly a playable 30 fps + with my 1660ti. Having the GPU control the displays is the way to go, and I have switched over to the 4k liveries. Tomorrow, I will see how that affects performance. Also, disabling the cabin made a big difference (obviously) for me. I don’t care too much about this though, as I will only use the cabin for screenshots, then turn it back off again.
I guess it’s just a matter of availability and priority on which part of the aircraft to be developed/improved. There’s a potential to create a new model built from the ground up… But that is a time consuming process. Time of which is not really justifiable to take away resources from other side of the project just so that they can rebuild a model that we already have.
Especially when they have to pull resources away from developing the A380X aircraft model. It just doesn’t makes sense seeing as there are other parts in the aircraft that is of a higher priority to improve over something that we already have.