Well folks, I got X-plane 9, here are some screens i took flying over the nearest city to my house...

one thing you'll notice is that the scenery isn't as detailed in some aspects as FSX. The main problem with the scenery is that the airports have little if any buildings at them, even at LAX. Also there are no landmarks in X-Plane, both of these are caused because the guys who made it, it's only like a 5 person operation, not a freaking 200 person group like ACES.

Now on to the shots:







my one discrepancy i saw there that really stood out though was, THERE IS NO IKEA IN THAT CITY!!!!

all in all, FSX and X-Plane are good to be together, but you can't recommend one over the other, as X-Plane is better at flight modeling, and FSX is prettier and has a bigger community.

oh also, no these are not maxed out, as i didnt want to fly in a slideshow.

An excellent example of the disadvantage of using "VFR Photographic Scenery"....

All you see is a perfectly "flat" photograph of the ground.... ...!

...which is why I abandoned using it it many years ago.. ...!

I much prefer Microsoft's automatic 3D Autogen Scenery... ...!

It may not accurately represent your area, but at least the scenery doesn't  appear as a flat, "blurry" mess at ground level... ...!

Paul...G-BPLF....FS 2004.... ...!

actually, that is the default scenery, as far as the objects though, if I were to crank it up a bit more, the whole ground would be bursting with objects, but when I do that, my flight becomes a slideshow, I'll try to show you guys some higher settings in a little bit, but right now I want to see if I can get some other stuff for it. Also, one thing to note is that X-Plane has a program out there that can convert MSFS 04 and possibly FSX scenery files in to X-Plane, and it is capable of putting in the MSFS addon scenery both payware and freeware and even the default stuff. The reason I don't do that is mine is still a pretty clean install, as I only just got it. As far as the settings, that is about medium on the autogen and maxed as far as ground res. I suspect that the reason the ground is blurry is that to be honest, X-Plane isn't about graphics or storyline missions, and it doesn't have very good AI planes (you wont see them taking off, landing, or taxing, they had this in v7 but when you see the space shuttle making a touch and go at a grass strip, yeah) X-Plane is more based around the actual simulation. The way things are done in X-Plane are not focused mainly on pretty graphics, but are more focused on realistic handling of flight. It's a case of what's more important, pretty graphics, or having birdstrikes that affect your aircraft. Some guy posted on one of the X-Plane community sites a pic of him flying a 747 and a bird struck his windshield and you could see the windshield cracked and the gore on the windshield. That is the uniqueness of X-Plane, not that the sim is pretty, but that it models the more subtle nuances of flight.

That is a big jump from X-Plane 8 to 9