Overview:
I haven't spent a lot of time with the game, so this is an initial opinion. But I wanted to detail how the install process went and how easily it works under Linux.
I like playing flight simulators. The realism is a neat aspect, but so is trying to land jumbo-jets on freeways. I was really interested to see that X-Plane uses Google Map data to generate roads with traffic. Thats right! Cars and trucks moving down accurate roadways. So what is the first attempt once X-Plane was installed? 747 landing on busy freeways. I know you are probably all tingling with anticipation to find out how awesome it was, but you, as well as I will be ultimately disappointed to find that there is no collision detection with cars (or trees). You can drive on the roads with your favorite planes, but do not expect awesome crashes.
Installation:
This game costs 80$ USD, which might seem like a lot, but keep in mind you receive 8 DVDs... The full installation taking up 75GB. I did something around the default install and ended up with around 20GB of space used. Installation is a snap- all I did was download the installer from the website per their instruction and mounted the media under /mnt . When it asked for another disc, simply unmounting and ejecting the media worked easily. The installer would immediately pick up on the new disc after it was mounted and carry on. It was a slow process. Just for the 20GB I had to use 7 of the 8 DVDs. There is a basic form of DRM and that it requires the first DVD to be inserted and mounted for the game to work. Also, last bonus of the installation: it installs in a single directory, so no root permissions needed.
Running:
The game loads incredibly slowly. I have a dual core i5-480M with a Crucial C300 SSD drive, and I still had to wait a long time before I could play. The game comes with 30 planes which are fun to play with. I am not sure why, but it comes with a bunch of very incomplete planes as well. Included is a plane designer so if you are so challenged, you could try your hand out in plane design. I feel like the options could be organized better. The game is far from bug free, as well. There is a plus, though- purchasing the game includes all 10.xx updates(in .01 increments). X-Plane 9 went to version 9.70, which is quite a few updates. The game will definitely get better as I learn to use the interface. Having used the MSFS series for a very long time, this is quite a departure from that. It comes with an integrated joystick calibration tool, making use with a joystick a breeze.
Graphics:
The graphics are amazing, if you watch the demo videos. If you are subject to gaming on laptop, the graphics are not very good. I have a AMD 6550 with 1GB of vram, and I thought it would look better than it did, but increasing the graphics just in small bits resulted in a very low frame rate. However, the physics are pretty solid which still makes for a fun game.
Final thoughts:
It is pretty buggy, but with a track record of many, many updates, I think its a great value. Especially with 8 DVDs. For Linux flight simulators you don't have much of a choice, but if there was only one, this would be great to have.
For more information visit www.x-plane.com Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I haven't spent a lot of time with the game, so this is an initial opinion. But I wanted to detail how the install process went and how easily it works under Linux.
I like playing flight simulators. The realism is a neat aspect, but so is trying to land jumbo-jets on freeways. I was really interested to see that X-Plane uses Google Map data to generate roads with traffic. Thats right! Cars and trucks moving down accurate roadways. So what is the first attempt once X-Plane was installed? 747 landing on busy freeways. I know you are probably all tingling with anticipation to find out how awesome it was, but you, as well as I will be ultimately disappointed to find that there is no collision detection with cars (or trees). You can drive on the roads with your favorite planes, but do not expect awesome crashes.
Installation:
This game costs 80$ USD, which might seem like a lot, but keep in mind you receive 8 DVDs... The full installation taking up 75GB. I did something around the default install and ended up with around 20GB of space used. Installation is a snap- all I did was download the installer from the website per their instruction and mounted the media under /mnt . When it asked for another disc, simply unmounting and ejecting the media worked easily. The installer would immediately pick up on the new disc after it was mounted and carry on. It was a slow process. Just for the 20GB I had to use 7 of the 8 DVDs. There is a basic form of DRM and that it requires the first DVD to be inserted and mounted for the game to work. Also, last bonus of the installation: it installs in a single directory, so no root permissions needed.
Running:
The game loads incredibly slowly. I have a dual core i5-480M with a Crucial C300 SSD drive, and I still had to wait a long time before I could play. The game comes with 30 planes which are fun to play with. I am not sure why, but it comes with a bunch of very incomplete planes as well. Included is a plane designer so if you are so challenged, you could try your hand out in plane design. I feel like the options could be organized better. The game is far from bug free, as well. There is a plus, though- purchasing the game includes all 10.xx updates(in .01 increments). X-Plane 9 went to version 9.70, which is quite a few updates. The game will definitely get better as I learn to use the interface. Having used the MSFS series for a very long time, this is quite a departure from that. It comes with an integrated joystick calibration tool, making use with a joystick a breeze.
Graphics:
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The graphics are amazing, if you watch the demo videos. If you are subject to gaming on laptop, the graphics are not very good. I have a AMD 6550 with 1GB of vram, and I thought it would look better than it did, but increasing the graphics just in small bits resulted in a very low frame rate. However, the physics are pretty solid which still makes for a fun game.
Final thoughts:
It is pretty buggy, but with a track record of many, many updates, I think its a great value. Especially with 8 DVDs. For Linux flight simulators you don't have much of a choice, but if there was only one, this would be great to have.
For more information visit www.x-plane.com Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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