X-Plane and Ortho4XP

[ATAG_Highseas]

So... I was idley clicking bout the interweb looking for a way to fly over part of Cornwall (Isles of Scilly to be precise) and found GeoFS which is rudimentary as a flight sim (as it it isnt a flight sim as we know it here).... and then I clicked a bit more... and stumble on X-Plane 11 and an add on called Ortho4XP which imports saletile imagary to the game so you can fly over a more realistic looking terrain...

sounds interetsing i thought.

Anyone have any experience of this?

Be good to geta bit of reliable feedback before I start looking in the piggie bank for an X-Plane licence....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-bgtLuKdlU kinda looks interesting !

[Seafar]

Hi Highseas, xplane 11 with the free addon ortho4xp is very good and very life like ,only downside is the photographic tiles can be many gigabytes depending on the detail level you choose.

[Kayo]

Hi Highseas,
I have used X-plane 11 before I discovered Cliffs last year. I haven't used ortho4xp due to my system would not be able to cope with it.
But what I can say about X-plane 11 is that it works very well. I did both flying heavies (my favorite is an excellent add on by JRollon, a CRJ-200 regional jet) and light aircraft (my favorite there the Beaver of SoulMadeSim).
Concerning the heavies IFR-procedures and so on worked quite well and it is a lot of fun to feel like a airline pilot, planing your route, programming your FMC, calculating fuel, doing an approach in nasty weather down to the limits and then the runway pops up at the last moment etc.
You can also add a lot of immersion if you join for example Vatsim and get real human controllers and other traffic.
On the other end flying around with the Beaver on floats or wheels can be a great experience. As said I did not test orthe4xp but I downloaded a nice scenery-enhancement of Norway. I cannot use rather high detail settings but anyhow it was a good experience doing a sightseeing trip around the fjords just with help of terrestrial navigation.

There were at that time som bugs concerning the handling of prop-airplanes on the ground (swinging heavily into wind and torque effects), do not know if that is changed now.
What is good is that you find a lot of airplane-add-ons from small to really complex stuff. But it is not cheap on the other hand.

A good site with much information and user comments is x-plane.org, but I guess you already discovered that.
For example about ortho4xp: https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/forum/322-ortho4xp/

Okej, why did I leave X-plane then?
Well, I was so much attracted by Cliffs and this community and found my fantastic mates at FG28 that I want to spend as much time with Cliffs and ATAG that there is simply no time left for my X-plane career as a flight captain on the CRJ-200 shuttling between ESGG and ESSA all day long.

[ATAG_Highseas]

It does look amazing...

Just a bit freaked out about sheelling out almost £60 for the game....

I suspect I'd use it for sight seeing only...

[Kayo]

It does look amazing...

Just a bit freaked out about sheelling out almost £60 for the game....

I suspect I'd use it for sight seeing only...

Yeah, if it is only for sightseeing it is a lot of money. And after a while you really want another plane than the standard C172. Or at least the reality-pack so it feels more real.
Or better a Beaver with this cool big radial. Or a AN-2. Not not OR. AND a AN-2. And of course you need this Twin-Otter or at least a Bonanza for little traveling to France. Better take the Beech 18, 2 engines are always better than 1. Yes, the new DC3 seems amazing, ......
It never ends. And I guess it is fun. As said, I stopped with owning only 2 planes, the CRJ-200 and the Beaver, but only because the lack of time. Otherwise I am sure I would have bought this Tornado and doing the Mach-loop by now :P
But realy cool is when you as in Cliffs can share the experience with others and I think that is mainly when you fly IFR with real controllers, not so much on VFR-flights maybe.

By the way, Highseas-tours in Tornados would be fun:-) The whole Tour 1 in under 30 minutes?

Hope there are others with some experience that can give you some more advise or share some thoughts!