X-Plane is a series of very complex and complex flight simulators, characterized by ultra-realistic control and faithful representation of popular flying machines. Microsoft Flight Simulator games are an obvious competitor to Laminar Research’s products.
The described edition 4.0 was released on the market in 1998. It has mainly added support for hardware acceleration based on OpenGL technology. The World-Maker module, used to design your own scenery, has also been changed – the tool now allows you to use photorealistic textures, and the player can add many famous constructions and monuments to the environment, such as the Statue of Liberty, World Trade Center or Empire State Building.
The manufacturer has put at the player’s disposal several dozen different flying units, including light avionettes, large passenger aircraft, transporters, gliders, helicopters, military fighters, vertical take-off planes (including the popular AV8-B Harrier), and even space shuttles used by NASA on a daily basis. Using the principles of propeller theory and thus realistic representation of flight dynamics, different for subsonic and supersonic machines, this simulator perfectly reflects the behavior of all machines, from the Bell 206 Jet-Ranger helicopter or the small Cesna 172 aircraft, to the supersonic Concorde or XB-70 Valkyrie reaching speeds of up to 3 machines.
Each of the available aircraft has several dozen operational control and navigation systems, whose tracking and skilful reading plays an important role. Interestingly, on-board instruments can break down at random, making orientation difficult, making the machine difficult to maintain in the air or complicating the landing process. Realism affects not only the physics of flight and aircraft models, but also weather conditions, visibility, turbulence, winds, and even the so-called “holes” in the air.
The game allows you to fly on large maps consisting of many thousands of airports and covering areas such as the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan. An important feature of X-Plane games is that each version is regularly developed, both by the developers and the players themselves. New updates include, among other things, additional airplane models and improvements in the operation of the game. The development of the game is supported by specialized World-Maker tools (designing your own sceneries) and Plane-Maker (creating new planes).
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