Hacker News Reader

Comment by TedShiller | Hacker News Reader

XPlane is a simulator. MSFS is a game.

That’s not entirely true. They gameafy some aspects for sure, but that’s just about accessibility. You can run it like a full sim and there are great videos of real Boeing pilots talking about it.

Even the old flight sim was so advanced MSFT had contracts with the French military for their mapping tech from the game specifically. This is back in the day now.

To be fair, you do have to buy some expensive addons to make it that realistic. Most of the buttons in the included boeing don't work at all.

Here's a great example of why the flight model is... lacking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GX9lTvKuqU

It's perfectly fine for most things, but _really_ bad with things that could actually kill you.

Meanwhile, in X-Plane land: https://developer.x-plane.com/2022/02/x-plane-12-flight-mode...

Not only that video is very old (there have been multiple improvements), people that are even remotely serious don't use the default aircraft which are always awful, they buy payware aircraft that are much better modeled.

Fans are tribal. Recent reviews shows practically no difference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzokcKkEyuE

There is no comparison to X-Plane land <3

"The flight model" is kind of inaccurate when it comes to MSFS. They've always used a system that allows the aircraft developer significant authority to make their aircraft as simulated or gamified as they want.

IE, a pmdg boeing will be hugely better simulated than the built in boeing.

This is true in X-Plane as well though, right? I would kinda expect a better default Cessna model, though I admit that most people probably aren't going to either flight sim for lots of time in a Cessna (though I'd actually be really curious to know what % of planes are flown what what amount of time).

Let's not start this. There are plenty of pilots with real-world flight experience who vehemently disagree with this statement.

I used MSFS a lot for practising VFR navigation / dead reckoning skills, very helpful for that with how good the scenery is. Not sure I could achieve the same in XPlane

Yeah if you fly VFR in areas you know real-world, it's really helpful to have the photorealistic scenery in MSFS!

It's only photorealistic if you use 10-20m DEM, otherwise any mountainous area just feels completely off and unrecognizable (try to fly over Alps with the default DEM, I couldn't recognize anything around Oberstdorf etc.)

I don't know the alps area :) But I find the surroundings of Barcelona very realistic!

Does Montserrat look realistic in FS 2020? I remember how recognizable it was from Tibidabo but I couldn't find it when I was flying around Barcelona last time.

I think it does yeah. You only see its iconic look really well from the Barcelona angle though! I'd have to check as I haven't really paid attention to it to be honest.

Just tested it and you are right - they seem to have fixed it with the Iberian update.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com