This forum is to discuss MSFS. So yes, MSFS can be discussed.
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As a former long term XP11 user here, this isn’t quite a fair comparison right? You’re comparing a paid addon specifically designed to improve the lighting, clouds, etc to a default scenery. Apples to oranges really and no one has made an equivalent paid addon for 2020 because it doesn’t really need it where XP has always lacked visually.
I really do hope that XPlane 12 succeeds because competition is good for the consumer, but I booted xp12 up to take my toliss aircraft out and forgot how much “faffing” was required with all the addons, weather, and ortho to bring the sim up to par. The aircraft in xp are beyond amazing, but addons are always needed for everything else. If only I could get all my XP aircraft in 2020 I’d have it all 
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I’ve caught a few streams on Twitch, and it does look rather good. I believe there is a bit of a frame rate cost to using it, and when I asked that question it was ignored. That may have been because it was sponsored. 
But I had to ask.
You mean aside from Rex Weather Force?
There’s always a cost to prettier graphics right, but it might be worth it from those screenshots 
REX Weather Force is designed to make more accurate weather by blending metar data and injecting it into the sim, but it uses default clouds and lighting. VisualXP is designed to change the look of the clouds, water, and atmosphere represented in XP. I don’t think we have anything that changes the looks of clouds, water, atmosphere, etc in MSFS.
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Hm… pardon my ignorance, but I see nothing in those screenshots that I haven’t seen in MSFS already.
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MSFS does a pretty poor job of cirrus clouds, and always has. Thick, and puffy it does well enough, and prior to SU-7 you used to get nice bands of clouds, at different altitudes, but since then the atmospheric diversity has been curtailed, and never recovered.
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Personal Comments and Observations
And reality will always find a way to depict itself in ways sims never can. Yes I’m referring to all Sims mentioned here. Don’t get caught up in the proselytization too much folks.
Screenshot from a RL feed of a commercial liner:
That’s true. Ever since the METAR based weather was introduced, the excellent weather engine was neutered and reverted to much lesser fidelity.
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I gave it a try and I recall the reason I gave up so fast was MSFS had a lower barrier to entry to get up and flying. I say this as a simmer using 0.00% assistance options and many 3rd party plugins.
I am curious to give it another go for comparison sake.
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I’d guess the comparison could be that MSFS is not open to use 3rd party weather. I’m not specifically looking for that but I know it’s a bone for many.
However, after studying the FAA materials on weather, I do have more a critical eye on the sim’s weather and more recent funky clouds.
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You all realize that it is not really illegal to have both simulators installed in one household??
I have FS9, FSX, MSFS and Xplane 11 and 12 …. all on the same PC even.
And it has not self destructed so far.
I actually use them all, at different times. And again … no flames from the box, not even when they are running at the same time.
I don’t really see the point in the OP, to be honest. MS or Asobo are not reading his posts. If they care about the competition they simply look for themselves.
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I know right! I bought it because I fell for a forum post on Avsim about how “ good the new beta was”. I spent an entire day tinkering with the ■■■■ thing. Even downloaded autortho. In the end? I was left annoyed that everything looked pale, generic and no matter where I flew the landscape looked exactly the same everywhere.
So, yeah, to get to that end result that OP is referencing, you need to spend a long time tinkering, and occasionally you get a view like that one.
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I did…But they flagged my post.
That’s a bit of a stretch claim.
MSFS 2024 hasn’t been released yet, and we’ve only seen a teaser video made from a prototype.
I had a great view yesterday, watching these massive battleship clouds on the bottom scooting from left to right (repeated into the distance, there was a fleet of them) against a backdrop of various other clouds. I sat there visualizing being able to either skydive down that Godzilla Kaiju cliff face over Tokyo on the middle left (with some great RL memories of cloud cliff diving), or being in a jet agile enough to run smoke rings around it (something I’ll never get to do in RL).
I hope we get to do that one day in a sim, to a high enough visual fidelity.
I love clouds. Here’s to better clouds in every sim!
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Its a special operation of course
I own both MSFS & Xplane.
They are both excellent, but as time goes on, I find myself using MSFS 90% of the time.
I don’t think Xplane has even had any updates for months either.
XPlane 12.06 has just been released.
While MSFS is visually more polished, I enjoy flying in XPlane from time to time for the feel it gives (inibuiild A300-600, Twin Comanche etc). The Toliss A320 and HotStart Challenger 650 are supposed to be top notch as well.
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I literally just fired Xplane up, but I get no update.
Use the manager (installer) to check for update. Maybe it also auto updated?