Microsoft Flight Simulator? Or X-Plane? Which To Use?

"Should I get Microsoft Flight Simulator or X-Plane?" Now you'll be asking yourself if you should get X-Plane 12 or X-Plane 11 probably....

I had the same question so i get it.... This video will clear up some pros and cons of each platform...

Make this decision early in your flight simming buildout as everything you add from here on out will need to be compatible with your flight sim software AND your operating system.

So choosing your flight sim software will kind of dictate the rest of your journey, yea, no big deal... :-)

Choose wisely, and let me know what questions you have!

Chapter Markers

Intro: 00:00
Microsoft Flight Simulator: 00:21
X-Plane: 01:40
Overall Thoughts: 04:20
Outro: 05:40

#flightsimulator
#flightsim
#xplane11

Links to the items discussed in this video:

[davidshahin]

I have flown both x-plane and MSFS for over 20yrs. I am a retired airline pilot and here is my 2 cents: x-plane is more aerodynamically accurate, much easier to work with, comes with more features and the major thing that x-plane offers but MSFS does not: I can do whatever I want with x-plane aircraft, EG move, add and delete engines, change the shape of the wings and fuselage, add and delete components, design your own aircraft from scratch and fly it the same day. I have downloaded and flown NF-104 to space and back many many times. The end results are very close to NASA's documents. I built all the lifting bodies (M2F1, M2F2, M2F3, HL-10, X-24C) and flown them too, results are very close to what NASA advertised. I have flown Classic 747, 747-400, KC-135, B-720 on 3 engines and 2 engines. I had to tweak some of the numbers to make them fly like the real stuff. MSFS won't let U do any of the things I mentioned. Don't kill the messenger plz.

[maltimoto]

X-Plane for airliners, MSFS for sightseeing

[slehar]

I tried both. MSFS is increasingly game oriented. A lot of fun, if you are into that. As an actual pilot, instructor, and aviation geek, I’d go with XPlane without hesitation. The devotion to REALISM is paramount in XPlane.

[richavery]

One other important thing for people to consider when choosing a flight simulator is the kind of flying they want to do. I fly VFR and used to use X-Plane 11; however, that sim needed me either to make my own ortho files (which was very time consuming) or to buy ortho products (which was very expensive). The upshot of this was that I was limited in the areas I could practice true VFR navigation using real-world charts. Microsoft Flight Simulator gives me ortho of virtually the whole world and, to be honest, the flight dynamics in MSFS are now so much improved that it made sense for me to stop using X-Plane and fly solely in MSFS.

[GetOffMyyLawn]

I have over 400 hours in VR using MSFS. As a "casual" flight simmer, vr has been a game changer. You don't need 3 monitors, control panels, etc... all you need is a hotas, some pedals and a headset. You still need a powerful pc with a high end graphics card. I have only purchased some seasonal foliage add ons and a few stol planes. Again, I am the kind of player that only wants to fly in interesting weather, explore interesting terrain and airports etc. MSFS gives you a good bang for the buck for more casual flying.

[craigozancin]

I am running on a Mac. The answer was only choice. So far, it runs very smooth and fast.

[johnpritchard]

FS2004 all the way for me. 60fps all the time- every time, near instant boot up, lots of good content, and runs on my potato PC like a dream

[nicholasdir]

In my opinion, MFS is for gamers and Xplane is for simmers

[johnporter]

I've used both. Currently sufferring with MSFS 2020. Load time is 5 min. plus, from a solid state card. I do love the graphics and ability to explore the world. The biggest piece of advice is if you want training and to master the operation of planes, use Xplane. If you want good simulation of planes, but primarily want scenery, use MSFS 2020. Both are good sims....

[WilliamBugeaterSimpson]

Good informative video. I fly MSFS2020/XP12 and DCS. All three are good for different types of aircraft and all three are improving as time and tech get better.

[megabitegaming]

Everyone is different I enjoy both but my preference is xplane 12 that's why I love the choice

[JeffBishopVEEFR]

I run X Plane 12 on a Ryzen 7 2700x, 16 GB DDR4, GTX 1070, 1 TB NVME SSD running Linux Mint 21.2. Very happy with the performance. I run medium to high settings and am getting 30 to 45 FPS the majority of the time.

[dominicsmith]

Excellent video, highly informative, many thanks!

[nicholaiivanitsky]

I've been in all this for 25 years. If you are a young person, you'd better go with MSFS. Because you should visit thousands of airports all around the globe. It is an exploration of the whole world. However. It will always be a July day (January in the Southern Hemisphere.) There are no seasons in the MSFS. You can "make up" snow. But it won't be real weather.
X Plane creates an atmosphere. There are great mountains there, the right major roads, and coastlines. But it is not photo-realistic. It's not supposed to be.
Some default airports are good (like LTFM/IST.) Some others (like HECA/CAI) are very basic. However, runways and taxiways are all right.
Aircraft models are completely different. In my view, they are more realistic in X Plane. Not perfect (not enough inertia, for example) but more realistic.

[davidclark]

I bought both because they were cheap enough. It seems I get to actually fly a lot more in X-plane because in MSFS I spend most of my time in settings trying to figure out why the throttle doesn't work, or the trim, or the mixture settings stopped. Very frustrating in MSFS.

[EmeryE]

I honestly prefer MSFS for a few reasons, VFR, I can’t do VFR in Xplane as well as I can in MSFS, weather, I’ve had a better experience with weather in MSFS than Xplane 11, and because I genuinely enjoy it more that Xplane 11, that being said, I still fly in both sims, better physics in Xplane so I will find myself flying Xplane whenever I want to fly a floatplane or do realistic maneuvering, I enjoy and respect both sims.

[yamahog]

MSFS has live weather as well as whatever weather setting you want...not justy july day...windy as hell in my home airport all the time...

[unwokeneuropean]

As a guy who only loves small props... MFS 2020 is the only way to heaven.

[JohnPyle]

Im a private pilot. For GA scenery go with xbox.

[TheTuckster]

Love X-Plane BUT ... MSFS has them beat with VR. What I really want is both ... combined ... LOL