Which Flight Simulation software do you use?
We are using MS Flight Sim X on our desktop PCs with basic flight sticks. Falcon BMS 4.32 on the combat simulator and X-Plane 10 on the main simulator. We are moving away from MS FSX and towards X-Plane at the moment as it isn’t as resource heavy on the older machines.
X-Plane is cracking!
Compared to MS Flight Sim (certainly up until I stopped using it) X-Plane had far more invested in the ability to be a good simulator.
Much better flight models; easy to split tasks (visuals, flight data, instruments, instructor console, &c) over a network of PCs; easier to interface with motion control, &c.
In my opinion the choice of X-Plane is key to creating a true ‘Flight Simulator’ as opposed to a simple monitor, pedals, yoke ‘Flight Trainier’.
XP10 and FSX - it’s be years before XP10 looks as good as FSX can.
We use XPlane and FSX
The visuals I’ve got on X-Plane 9 are as good, if not better in some cases, than the visuals that were running on the Lynx simulators at Middle Wallop when I was up there with THALES some years back.
Microsoft FSX might be very pretty but what turned me to X-Plane was that it was less resource hungry and more practical.
I wasn’t interested in fancy visual exteriors on your own aircraft, 3D cockpits, or “flight challenges”, which is what FSX seemed to be throwing their development at. I wanted something that was the basis for a well featured and technically sound simulator.
I still think that X-Plane wins in that regard and the fact that I could run it on an older PC (that MSFS barely even attempted to run on) and it still looks good and runs smoothly was cracking.
I’d never heard of it until i was searching for flight sims - anyone used it?
It looks pretty.
Though, I’m always wary of any project whose name has to be explained. 
[quote=“wdimagineer2b” post=18419]It looks pretty.
Though, I’m always wary of any project whose name has to be explained.
It looks pretty, but in practice offers no visual advantage over FSX… Although it is more realistic in terms of systems, a lot closer to a real cockpit than FSX. The physics are no better, and as such a long way from real life.
a new version has just been released with volumetric clouds and some other shading.
it a much more stable platform than FSX is, and most addons can be converted to work. A lot of 3rd party developers (Carenado, IRIS, PMDG, REX, Orbx etc) have started developing native P3D addons.
It’s likely the leading Sim of the future - however its currently only got the Commercial and Developers licensing from the Studio that Microsoft bought it from - there’s no Entertainment license - so they can’t sell on the consumer market - you need to apply for a license I believe to use it.
[quote=“DeltaAlphaNovember” post=18421][quote=“wdimagineer2b” post=18419]It looks pretty.
Though, I’m always wary of any project whose name has to be explained.
It looks pretty, but in practice offers no visual advantage over FSX… Although it is more realistic in terms of systems, a lot closer to a real cockpit than FSX. The physics are no better, and as such a long way from real life.[/quote]
Prepar3D is FSX but being developed by Lockheed Martin.
They are developing in specifically to be a Flight Training Platform, rather than a bit of fun for hobbyists.