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I will review X-Plan 11 by Laminar Research. X-Plane 11 and Microsoft Flight Simulator X represent the two best realistic flight simulators available to the general public, as such I enjoyed playing it. This type of flight simulator will not appeal to most game players as they may find it lacking in action for periods of time. I greatly appreciated the realism of the graphics both inside and out side (terrain) the cockpit. I flew the Cessna 172, a plane I have actual experience in, and found reactions to user input as shown by the instruments and out of cockpit displays completely accurate. This represents the closest I can come to flying a real plane as I can afford.
I found X-Plane 11 to excel in the following three testable aspects of the game: Correct display of flight instruments in response to user input, realistic depictions of views from the cockpit and changing the flight characteristics in response to changing atmospheric conditions, such as wind, altitude, temperature and humidity.
I could not detect a difference between that the instrument display to my input and my experience, the tachometer and egt gauges showed correct response to simulated throttle input, the air speed indicator, turn and bank indicator all matched my experience.
The outside views view have come a long way due toteh increase in video processing power. I tested it at 4K resolution and found it smooth and realistic, I noticed no ‘scrolling’ effect in tight turns or change in level of detail as I approached complex objects, such as flying close to the ground or other planes at the airport.
The plane reacted correctly to changes in ‘density altitude’ the air density as a function of altitude, temperature and humidity. When the density altitude decreases to a certain point the plane cannot fly, as the plane approaches its ‘service ceiling’ its flight characteristics change dramatically few flight simulators model this change as well as X-Plane 11.