Customer Reviews

X-PLANE V8 (Mac)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There has been a noticeable lack of flight simulators in the Mac software market for a long time. Amid the faltering competition, one developer has stood by the platform through thick and thin - Austin Meyer's Laminar Research and their acclaimed sim, X-Plane.

X-Plane is every bit a simulator but not much of a game. Aviation professionals should be excited by the fact that aerodynamic performance is accurately simulated using a complex physics engine. Believe it or not, most sims cheat by depending on pre-defined data that is used to estimate aircraft behavior in different configurations. It is such an accurate simulation that you can even fly on Mars or guide the Shuttle Orbiter from orbit to landing!

Superior accuracy is teamed with above-par graphics too. With satellite derived terrain, detailed aircraft models, realistic clouds, and high-resolutions, X-Plane holds it's own visually against most Windows flight sims. Though turning the settings all the way up can challenge even a G5, the graphics are scalable to support even old and low-end machines. This leaves load times the only real frustration.

With its technical emphasis, X-Plane can be very useful to aircrew as well as certified or aspiring private pilots. The program keeps a logbook of all flights, offers true to life system failures, air traffic control, airfields, charts, instrument panels, and aircraft checklists to practice with. Approaches and takeoffs can be practiced repeatedly with easy menu commands and there's a "get me lost" feature for challenging navigation skills. Two computers can even be networked in an instructor mode for training purposes.

While X-Plane isn't a combat sim and doesn't provide a real gaming experience, hobbyists and aviation enthusiasts can still enjoy experimenting with the wide variety of included aircraft - including airships, helicopters, gliders, and more. There's even an active community that uses the included content creation tools to churn out an ever-wider variety of downloadable aircraft (both real and fictional), flight plans, and scenery. Add to that a variety of challenging scenarios like water bombing, tanker rendezvous, and carrier landing, and X-Planes appeal grows.

Thanks to the author's secret weapon (http://x-plane.com/weapon.html) X-Plane is in a perpetual state of rapid development. That means regular bug fixes and feature additions. Not that it needs more! It can even playback real blackbox recordings, has both ambient ATC recordings and real-time ATC interaction thanks to OS Xs built-in speech software.

One of X-Planes coolest extras is the ability to capture the screen to a QuickTime movie. Though there is no indication that you are recording and no sound will be saved, there was little affect on the sims performance with default settings on an iMac G5.

Simple menus are always available and offer a lot of flexibility, but since development is simultaneously cross-platform, command-key shortcuts don't exist and the interface makes use of non-standard elements that may take some getting used to. Fortunately the menus and dialogs are fairly intuitive and require few trips to the minimalist printed manual or the more thorough version on disc.

X-Plane is a valuable tool for professional aviators and engineers yet it is affordable and accessible enough to appeal to anyone with an interest in aviation. Besides, it's the only civil aviation sim for sale on the Mac since Microsoft, Flight Unlimited, and Fly! faded away with Mac OS 9.

All aircrew should have a copy and visit XPlaneFreeWare.net (http://www.xplanefreeware.net/~barry/) to download relevant airframes and anyone involved in air operations should at least give the demo a try. X-Plane isn't priced like engineering software or marketed like a just-for-fun flight sim, but it succeeds as both!

... it's a flight simulator, plain and simple. I've always dreamed of obtaining a Private Pilot Certificate, but one thing has always kept me from achieving this goal. You guessed it, CASH! The one thing that steadily increases the amount you have to pay for flight lessons is the need to keep doing things over and over until your instructor is satisfied that you can perform any given procedure satisfactorly. X-Plane allows you to practice these procedures in the comfort of your own home until you have them down cold.

I've read the other reviews and I'm convinced they are dealing with an X-Plane evil twin or something. I've had no such problems with my modest computer setup. Here's the breakdown; I run X-Plane 8.6 (it is now Universal Binary) on a MacBook Pro that comes with the standard ATI Radeon 1600 256 MB graphics card. 100 MB hard drive and 2GB DDR2 SDRAM. OS is X version 10.4.10. I run X-Plane off and external fire wire 800 1 TB 7200 RPM drive. Finally my controls are the CH Products USB Flight Sim Yoke and Rudder Pedals. Everything is calibrated for maximum realism. Of course, all my rendering settings aren't maxed out, everything is pretty much middle of the road (the X-Plane webite has very detailed instructions on how to get the best performance out of you machine.

When I fly the simulator I average between 50 and 60 frames per second - smooth, smooth, smooth.

I haven't had one single glitch or system crash.

All the procedures I practice are straight out of Sporty's Private Pilot Course (about 200 bucks). The actions of X-Plane emulate the procedures described in the course to a T.

Now think about it, how much further you'll be ahead of the game if you practice the maneuvers, learn the instrumentation and handle your X-Plane aircraft with a high degree of proficiency when you first walk into your local civilian airport and sign-up for your Private Pilot Certification course as opposed to the person that walks in the door cold and requests flying lessons? I'm sure your training will take much less time than that of the complete novice. And as you know, time is money. With X-Plane under your belt, it's like you've done all your homework before even stepping into a class.

If you really want a super trainer to fly, just Google Jason Chandler. He has created some of the most beatiful and accurate planes for X-Plane on a payware basis. I purchased his Cessna 172S SP for about $10 and absolutely love it. It's far better than the Cessna 172 that comes preloaded in X-Plane.

As for instructions on using the various pieces of equipment in X-Plane, do a little searching on the web in terms of actual equipment used on the planes, checlists, airpot directories etc... With a little bit of common sense diligence, you'll find everything you need.

Someday (in the not too distant future I hope), I will sign up for those flight lessons and will be thorougly prepared to pass the course requirments thanks in large part to X-Plane!

P.S. Over the years I've tried Microsoft Flight simulator and Fly! on a PC. They are over-hyped and just plan suck!

But if your running X-Plane 8.6 on a new Intell DuoCore Mac, you are in for treat. This is the best consumer-grade flight simlator on the planet. Period.

Many thanks to Austin Meyer and his team for their phenominal work!

Conclusion!!!! There is no good flight sim for Mac --IF YOU JUST WANT TO FLY A PLANE ON YOUR COMPUTER. X-Plane is a great software if by next year you hope to be earning your living flying. This is a very complicated program and there is no way to just fly and enjoy. I have a G5 dual core Mac with the large 20" display -- and you can only use a protion of the screen to get the right display to see the entire cockpit etc.
The developers are great people and will assist you in anyway -- but you will spend more time gathering information and "fixing" things than flying. ABSOLUTELY GREAT SOFTWARE FOR A PERSON WANTING TO REALLY LEARN TO FLY -- but I want to sit at my computer and just have a simple take off and landing experience. Thinking of buying a PC again just to get back to Microsoft Flight Sim. -- And Fly II? I bought it twice over the years and didn't take me long to throw them in the trash.

This program is just too much work to be fun. Unless you have a ultra high end computer with a massive amount of RAM and a massive amount of video RAM save your money. I have an iMac Dual Core with 2GB RAM and 256MB of Video RAM and had trouble getting this program to run with any of the high end scenery and graphics touted on the box. I returned this program as well as the joystick I bought. I wanted to have fun and enjoy some flying. I already have a full time job. I don't want to have to change all of the settings on my computer every time I want to run this sim. Nothing on the outside of the box gives the user any warning about the troubles of achieving the great graphics it touts. I feel just plain misled. It is very promising but the computers necessary to run it properly are just not all that common. In the end I am very disappointed.

One BIG advantage of X-Plane is I can get a MAC version and play it on my MAC. I can't use FSX. I was thrilled to get X-Plane 8 and it plays smooth on my 2009 mac mini, (2.26Ghz CPU with 2GB memory), WHEN using 1024X768 res, plus medium texturing and details. My memory gets used up so it would work a little better with 4GB memory. X-Plane is the best game for the latest mac mini.

Have used this product for two weeks now, with CH Products Yoke and Rudder Pedals, and have found it erratic in operation. Constant need to recalibrate controls (often while in the middle of a flight), the ILS instructions will inexplicably change to another airport, often hundreds of miles away, the online charts are cluttered, some control knobs can be difficult to discern (and I am on a 20" Imac), the fixed window size (about 60% of my usuable screen area) seems unreasonably small, and ATC instructions will sometimes seem illogical and contradictory. This product appears to be seriously flawed, but that probably has as much to do with the complexity as anything else. It seems to try to do a lot of things, and accomplishes this poorly, instead of doing a few things really well. Just my opinion, and admittedly there might be "workarounds" for these items. If so, I haven't found them.

X-Plane customer service is horrible. Contrary to their web site, the free lifetime customer support is support with an attitude. No one there wants to talk to you, no one wants to believe that their product might have problems, basically, they don't care about the customers. Beware customer - Beware!

I am a single engine pilot, but haven't flown for 20 years. I think the Simulator is easy to understand. I am having problems using the joystick so tried the mouse. When I click on the windshield and pull the arrow down it has no effect on the plane. Maybe as I become more familiar with the computer, I will do better. I am anticipating many joyful flying sessions when I get this mastered.

When I got it from the factory. All I got it the DVD in a plastic holder and that's it. No box, no instruction book. Nothing.

I had to get into the program and find out how to fly planes (X and otherwise) on my own. All I got this game for wa to train actor on Boeing 777 on a Mac, before we got them in flight simulators up in Seattle. But this game turned into much more.

If you can run up a B-52, take-off, circle and land; you can fly anything. I've landed a B-52G twice. But think crash. Not don't crash. What does the load vectors do. Will it take-off with four engines. What if all engines shut do on take-off? Crash land. Anyway. That's $100,000+ flight training at Alteon in Seattle (a private flight training company) for $50. Which you want to pay?

Some of the flight sims are a pain, like the X-15. Even if you load Edwards AFB or even Denver, you end up over water or desert that I have no idea where I am. The Space Shuttle is even worst.

But the MOST DIFFICULT plane to fly is the Cessna 172. You end up side ways, when you an at V1. And by the time you at V2, you're screwed. Commit, pull up and take-off. You're in the air or you've crashed.

Mike Rossi

Have fun!!!!