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Best/Most Realistic Flight Simulator?

Q

Qigongdoctor

Junior Member
Hi All.... I have installed and flown in the following Flight Simulators:

Lockheed Martin Prepar3d v2 and v3 Pro Plus
Microsoft Flight Simulator X,
X-Plane 10 (Global)
DCS World,
and FlightGear 4.3

(I'm a USMC Disabled VietNam Vet, and I don't get out much)

Of all of what I have, there are a crapload of add-ons of Aircraft and Scenery.

There's Megascenery Earth,
FTX Central,
Ultra-Mesh (World),
Aerosoft,

Most of which are Payware.....😱

So my question is this: Which is the best/most realistic Flight Sim, AND... which Scenery (and aircraft) add the most to the experience??

Bring it!!
 
Lurk much?

Oh, and Flight Sim X is still the best, especially with all the DLC.

Sometimes Steam has the game and DLC on sale for like 90% off. Good times.
 
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If I were you, I'd go see what free stuff you can find at flightsim.com. They have an absolute ton of free aircraft and free scenery. Nearly all of it is for FSX and it's "younger" siblings, but they may very well have added some files for X-Plane 9 and 10 in the last few years.
 
I worked in the military aviation industry and used "real" flight sims and ground base programming and I've always liked flight sims starting with Combat Flight Simulator II. I have not used civilian training simulators because they are too expensive to "play".

I lean toward military aircraft, so I would say the most realistic flight sim for "normal" use would be DCS World. Thing is, it's like real aircraft operation in the sense that it takes ten minutes just to get the plane airborne. It's not a "start the sim and start flying around shooting and bombing" kind of deal. You'll have a lot more respect for pilots if you use(I hesitate to say "play") DCS World.

I find other sims like Flight Simulator X to be more like a game, way more forgiving and much easier than DCS World, but there's nothing wrong with that. If I want to fly around while I'm drinking a beer and shooting the place up, I'll play War Thunder or remember the good old days of combat flight sims with CFS II.

I'm also a former Marine of your vintage and I salute you for your service.
 
It depends what type of experience you are after. If you are looking for the most authentic overall civil flight experience, FSX is it. X-Plane has superior flight modeling, but falls flat in other areas. FSX is as much about role playing as it is about flying around. PMDG, Level-D, and Flight 1 to name a few provide top to bottom aircraft simulations for FSX that X-Plane simply can't come near to at this point. FSX took 3D clickable cockpits to a whole other level. It's extraordinary how weak XP10 is when it comes to the quality of their cockpits compared to FSX.

For military, DCS is king.
 
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