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x-plane

iPhone X-Plane review

by mark.avey on September 13, 2008

I make no excuses for making a fuss about X-Plane being released on the iPhone today. Read on to find out why.

I had to purchase X-Plane for the iPhone as soon as I heard it had been released and, WOW! (Update: here’s a direct link to the app on iTunes).

I’m hugely impressed with what has been achieved here. Although the graphics are superb and the fluidity is amazing, it’s really the control system that shines. Tilting the iPhone and using the accelerometers to control the aircraft is one of THE most realistic sim experiences I’ve ever had.

As you can see from the screenshot above, you’ve got a choice of 4 aircraft to play with. They’re all beautifully modelled and the detailing is incredible considering the device it’s running on.

The scenery area provided is the same as for the desktop version of X-Plane, i.e. Innsbruck in Austria. The terrain mesh is fantastic and I’m having tremendous fun hugging the ground flying over the mountain tops and down into the valleys.

Whilst flying, you tap the top of the screen to access the menu, where you can change your aircraft view, and access the application settings, where you can alter the time, wind speed/direction, sky conditions, plane type and weight.

You control the throttle and flaps by sliding/pressing the controls on either side of the display. It all works very intuitively.

I’m amazed that they’ve managed to achieve what they have with the sim. To be honest, the experience is incredible. Fly X-Plane on the iPhone and you get the impression that you’re witnessing a giant leap forward in what can be achieved on a handheld device.

Quite simply, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and even the slightest interest in flight simulation, go buy it now. In fact, even if you have no interest in flight simulation, buy it anyway just so you can show all of your friends what can be achieved on the device!

You can purchase it from the iTunes Store for $9.99/£5.99.

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X-Plane released on iPhone!

by mark.avey on September 13, 2008

Well, it seems that Austin’s previous announcement (see this post) that an iPhone version of X-Plane wasn’t possible was his little joke, as he’s now released it (update: you can read our review here).

Here’s his announcement of the launch:

As you SHOULD have been able to guess from my last email, X-Plane is now here for the iPhone, and it is FUN!

The iPhone is not QUITE as powerful as a Quad-Core desktop , so I had to really scale it down to a perfect little ’slice’ of X-Plane.

You can choose from the Cirrus Jet, Columbia-400, Cessna 182, and Piaggo Avanti, with flight physics that are about 95% as accurate as X-Plane for desktop, so the flight modeling is really just amazing for a little device of this size.. really just stunning.

You can drag the throttle up on the left, the flaps on the right, gear and brakes on the bottom, and just tap the screen anywhere around the center to bring up the menus. (One reviewer write that the app needs to have settings… umm.. it DOES… he just did not tap in the center
of the screen to SEE them!)

Tilt the phone left, right, up and down for yoke control!

How such a tiny little device as this could run a sim like X-Plane, I can hardly imagine, but it does, and running this sim is like having a teeny little window into an alternate universe where a little mini Cirrus Jet is zooming through the mountains of the Innsbruck, Austria, as you tilt the little frame that shows you a windows into this little virtual world.

And, indeed, here it is on iTunes.

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No iPhone X-Plane - yet!

by mark.avey on September 10, 2008

X-Plane’s creator - Austin Meyer - has published a detailed response to many requests for an iPhone version of X-Plane.

As Austin explains, it won’t be happening in the short term, but who knows what the future may bring?

A number of people have suggested that X-Plane could be a fascinating port to the iPhone.

I am sorry to say, but I do NOT see this as a possibility.

The screen size, lack of mouse and keyboard, and inability to plug in peripherals, combined with certain CPU and RAM and video card limitations that I cannot discuss specifically simply do NOT make it feasible for us to port as advanced a program as X-Plane to such a device.

Now, don’t get me wrong: With the accelerometers in the iPhone which can detect which way the phone is TILTED, it would be VERY fun to tilt the phone around in your hands to fly the plane! As well, the little displays on the iPhone and iPodTouch are so bright, crisp, and hi-res that X-Plane imagery would look just WONDERFUL on such devices!

As well, the lure of being able to hold something as small as an iPodTouch or iPhone in your hands, watching the X-Plane world zoom by on the little screen as you tilt your phone to fly through touch and gos, take-offs and landings, and zooming through the terrain of Innsbruck would be very attractive to many… are you stuck in the back of an airliner for 2 hours with your iPhone on you, wishing you were flying instead of being stuck back in coach? NO PROBLEM! You could pull out your little iPhone or iPodTouch and fly X-Plane right in your seat, tilting the phone around to fly the plane!

So, I am very sorry to say that due to various technical reasons I cannot get into here, we do NOT think it is possible to actually DO such a port, so we will have to settle for running X-Plane on our big, bulky laptops when we travel for the foreseeable future.

It is a nice idea, though… a VERY fascinating idea, so let’s hope that at SOME POINT in the future these little devices get strong enough to run a sim like X-Plane! I will let you know when this happens for sure, and port a mini version of X-Plane to that device for sure! (Though it will still be quite a few years before this happens, according to our best projections, so please do NOT expect this any time soon).

Update: It seems this was Austin’s idea of a joke! Well, it was a pretty good one, cos I fell for it Anyway, there really IS an iPhone version of X-Plane. You can read the announcement here and a review here.

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X-Plane Nav Data Update

by mark.avey on September 3, 2008

Robin Peel has released the latest official Airport and Nav Aid data for X-Plane.

New data is available for X-Plane. This is data cycle 2008.08 and includes many new global airport details.

Different versions of the data files are available for X-Plane 8.10 - 8.60 and for X-Plane 8.61 and later (including the latest release, X-Plane 9.20). Please make sure that you download the correct version.

As always, get the new data from my website.

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RealScenery announces State of Florida for X-Plane

by mark.avey on August 14, 2008

RealScenery have released their State of Florida scenery package for X-Plane.

The new Florida scenery is available as two separate scenery packages for X-Plane 8 & 9, North Florida and South Florida. This is a scenery extension to X-Plane and allows you to fly over the actual terrain for a realistic flying experience. The new Florida scenery also supports the new “texture paging” capabilities of X-Plane 9.2 offering great performance for custom scenery!

Movies, image gallery, and downloadable demos are now available.

The State of Florida is home to many flight schools, airports, and aviation companies and provides great flying with X-Plane. We are now accepting orders. Please visit http://www.realscenery.com/ for more
details.