Hi. Recently, I've been playing X-Plane instead of Microsoft's flight simulators. Captain Sim's products are amazing, and I was just wondering if there is a chance that there will be any X-Plane Captain Sim airplanes in the future?

I don't believe. I think CS will keep all their products in the future based only on the FS platform. But who knows?

I agree with Pinatubo, but after reading this interview, things really don't look good for the future of MSFS (if you don't want to read the interview, it's basically MS saying that Flight will never be a simulator, and there's only a small chance that MS will revisit FS11), so like Pinatubo said, who knows?

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, that whole MSFS issue is one of the reasons why I've migrated over to X-Plane. Another reason is because the flight dynamics in X-Plane are much more accurate than in Microsoft's flight simulators.

There is a well-known developer that is making a transition over to X-Plane, but I would like to see Captain Sim make the transition, as well, because I know that Captain Sim does a much better job, regarding the details and accuracy of exterior models, than the other developer.

kstango wrote on Mar 29^th, 2012 at 2:24am:

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, that whole MSFS issue is one of the reasons why I've migrated over to X-Plane. Another reason is because the flight dynamics in X-Plane are much more accurate than in Microsoft's flight simulators. There is a well-known developer that is making a transition over to X-Plane, but I would like to see Captain Sim make the transition, as well, because I know that Captain Sim does a much better job, regarding the details and accuracy of exterior models, than the other developer.

I think when you say "transistion" it is a little misleading.  No developer of MSFS that I know of is dropping FSX for XP10.  Some of the other well known developers are testing the waters of XP10.
It doesn't matter to me if MS never screws with FSX again.  Let them keep busy making a farse out of McFlight.
FSX is mearly the dirt.  The developers like Captain Sim are the ones that produce the real crop.  They are the ones that will continue to make FSX interesting and exciting. MS jumped ship, but it really doesn't matter at all.
Actually it is better this way because now developers have an unchanging and predictable base to work and expand from.
X-Plane 10 really needs some top-notch developers like Captain Sim because most of the aircraft produced now for X-Plane are at FS2000 levels of quality.  I believe most of the developers in X-Plane have no operating capital to bring their products to FSX standards.

FSX has some fantastic products coming out in the future. Not just from Captain Sim, but a lot of other developers too. So I believe it has quite a bit of life left FSX. Now that modern computers can finally give FSX the performance we want/require for FSX AND at a cheap enough price for many to be able to purchase them, it looking quite good right now.

Although I can't answer for Captain Sim and what their plans for the future are, especially towards X-Plane, but with the imminent release of the 737-100/200 and Expansion Packs, the 777-200 and Expansion Packs AND the redoing 757 (v5.0) and 767 (v2.0) being mentioned, the workload by the small team required for those, I can see many resources left for development for products for X-Plane.

I could be wrong. So unless Captain Sim say something, my guess is as good as any other guess! ;)

By "transition," I meant that other developers started making products for X-Plane, too. I don't want Captain Sim to just stop making products for FSX, I was just wondering if they can also make some products for X-Plane.

To me, Microsoft's flight simulators are more of a game than a simulator because they use known performance values to try to imitate aircraft flight behavior; X-Plane, on the other hand, uses aerodynamic formulas to try to predict aircraft flight behavior. This means that, with X-Plane, you can expect accurate aircraft behavior for any flight situation. With Microsoft's flight simulators, you can expect accurate aircraft behavior only for flight situations that have been tested in real life.

I'm not trying to bash Microsoft's flight simulators, I'm just trying to provide my reasoning for why I think that Captain Sim should start developing for X-Plane. I think that I understand the business aspect of this decision, though, so the decision is with Captain Sim. I just wanted to make suggestions.

people are starting to move to Prepar3d now or run a dual set up of P3D and FSX and i am one of them, this way i get to keep all my fsx addons, with more and more fsx developers saying they plan to support it, it cant be a bad thing.

I have been testing the 757-200, and 727 in P3D and it runs so much smoother for me than in fsx.. i even get a few more frames in the cockpit

Please remember my testing of addons in P3D is just that and i can not share how i got them to install at this time so please dont ask.

As the P3D platform is almost the same as fsx i hope captain sim will support it :)

Prepar3d $$$

Unless I'm missing something... the graphics look like FS 2002.

I'll just stay put for now.

I didn't see any enhancement in P3D over FSX. As Ghandy said, the things are very much the same, with P3D adding some commercial features and benefits and another interface.
So my framerate and image impression wasn't changed at all and, after the trial month, I would have to spend at least 50 bucks for just another FSX. Not to mention the need for extra installers or the one on copying over FSX addons and hoping for a flawless operation.
Some devs offer separate installers and support, others will reject any support issue arising from running their soft in P3D. So be aware of the extra work needed and also keep in mind that some stuff may not be worth the time invested. For the tweak and fiddle folks, this may not be a downside though.

Maybe P3D 2.0 will change vital parts, really improving e. g. performance and some wonky FSX glitches and flaws, but as long as P3D is that close to the 2006 (2008) FSX, there may not be a good reason for a change. However, if that trial month is still available, maybe you folks can try and test. Even with the strongest faith, I couldn't see a difference here.

I'm ok with FSX. We both grew old together, so to speak.  ;D I've bought XPlane though as it really offers something new. Seems like a sim to watch for me. Not replacing anything on FSX (for me) yet, but looking really nice and offering a great support and feature set right out of the box.

Fun thing so far is that one is not familiar with the dev names there. So it would be nice to see CS at least doing some experimental release, just to check on the market value of XP releases. There are some established devs in that small XP market and they don't offer a real XP10 model yet, so you currently only see enhanced XP9 versions. However, e.g. that CRJ they are running there does look very nice.
So maybe CS sees it as a test bed of some sort when converting something like the 727 into XPlane.

One thing that I forgot to mention, regarding X-Plane's flight dynamics, is that they depend on the shape of the aircraft in order to calculate the aerodynamic forces on the aircraft. This is another reason why I think that Captain Sim's aircraft are perfect for X-Plane because their exterior models appear to be flawless (707, 737 and 777). This means that, since the shapes of Captain Sim's aircraft (707, 737 and 777) are very accurate, their flight characteristics will be simulated to be very accurate, as well.

Weapons for X-plane would be cool.