X-Plane 10 Regional: North America - Mac

Well, where to start... Let me show you the last email I sent to support at Graphsim..... begin support email.....I bought your regional version of X-Plane 10 for the Mac from Amazon.Since I couldn't get your version installed, I bought a global version from your competitor, Laminar Research, that can be installed on a Macbook Pro via download.Don't the people at Graphic Simulations know that Macs don't have DVD drives and haven't had them for several years? Wouldn't it make sense to either provide a downloadable version or provide the software on a USB thumb drive?I'm not in the software business. It escapes me how professionals could be so blind to the fact that they are selling DVD installation disks for use on computers that don't have DVD drives.I'm out $40. I'm not angry. Honestly, I've spent more on a bad meal trying a new restaurant. I'm more baffled....... end Graphsim support email...So they ship this software on DVDs and modern Macs don't have DVD drives. Thusf you have a Mac without a DVD, it can't be installed as shipped.It turns out that X-Plane 10 is sold by more than one company. The logos are the same, the packaging is nearly the same. If you go to X-Plane.com as I did, assuming that's where the support is, it will take several emails over the better part of a week, then you'll be told that it isn't really their product so they don't support it. Mind you that website is run by Laminar Research and they presumably wrote the software. Still Graphsim Entertainment sells the software. Or so it seemed. It turns out Graphsim sells the "regional" package, while Laminar Research sells the full "global" package. LR will upgrade the Graphsim package, though, to the "global" for a fee. The support fellow at Laminar Research is Randy "S". He helpfully prints his name at the end of each email and under it is "X-Plane, Customer Support". It's not "customer support only for 'global' versions" which would have been a little more accurate. It took him several days for him to get around to telling me this wasn't really their software and to contact Graphsim. But let me show you his email to me, that's much more entertaining."Hello, Sir. I see that you purchased one of the various “Regional Editions”, which hare stripped-down versions of our normal and full “Global” program. That version was done by a company called “Graphic Simulations” and there is no way I can exchange it for a digital copy of our Global edition, Sir. You can just use that version you purchased until X-Plane 11 comes out in a few years or perhaps try and return it to Amazon and then just buy the regular thing from us, either on DVD or as a Digital Download."Yup, he's been told in every email the whole problem is that I cannot install DVD software on the DVD-less MacBook Pro, yet he suggests I just use this program on DVDs for a few years, or perhaps I'd like to buy his DVDs.So the information you need...1. This Amazon version comes on DVDs. If your Mac doesn't have a DVD drive, you cannot install the package.2. The packaging doesn't tell you the enclosed media is DVDs. You have to open it to see. Opened software isn't returnable. That's a $40 "gotcha"3. The packaging doesn't list a DVD drive under "minimum required"4. There's some sort of ill defined arrangement between Laminar Research and Graphsim. I haven't figured it out and they're not saying.5. The Laminar Research guys won't lift a finger to help anyone who's bought the Graphsim version, even though Laminar Research made the software.5. Finally the support people at the X-Plane website don't support the regional version sold here on Amazon.I did buy the $60 global download package from Laminar Research. The software is pretty amazing, no problems there, well except for the program crashing after an hour or so with a Mac OS "program crashed" box. Otherwise it runs well on my 15" retina MacBook Pro. An hour or so with the flight sim is plenty. I bought the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick ($32 here on Amazon) and the CH Pro Pedals. I'd buy both of them again. They work well with the program.

This is a product that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Having owned and flown X-Plane 9 for several years, I had high expectations -- most of which were not met. X-Plane 9 has its quirks and you pretty much need to be an active IFR pilot to use it to its capability, but it does many things well. Importantly the controls are relatively easy to use and accessible via basic mouse and joystick commands. X-Plane 10 loads incredibly slowly. Assigning joystick button commands was OK but took several tries in some instances. I would have thought the some of the global commands such as a keyboard command for "tower" view or "chase plane" view would be the same as X-Plane 9, but alas, not so.Most annoying, however, is that many of the cockpit views are virtually unusable. Radios and FMS input heads are located out of view and, even if you can figure out how to scroll over to see them, they are so distant and at such a bad angle that changing radio frequencies or entering FMS data is hard or worse. Maybe I am clueless, but it was simply not worth the effort to try to crack the X-Plane 10 code. X-Plane has never been particularly user friendly despite the many interesting features it has. I was hoping that X-Plane 10 would take all the feedback from X-Plane 9 and be a product that would not require a degree in computer science to use easily.My original X-Plane 9 disc was so heavily used that it finally corrupted. Having tried X-Plane 10 for a week, I gave up and went back and ordered a new X-Plane 9 set.

Great flight simulation program. However, only gave it 3 stars because if would not operate properly on my iMac. There was little published about the amount of RAM and graphic card speed necessary for proper operation.I have been an x-Plane user since the old 7.x and 8.x days. Currently, I am using X-Plane 9.70 and am very happy with the performance. When I installed x-Plane 10.x all sort of things started going wrong. Screen freezes, inability to load certain operating criteria, i.e., weather systems. After several emails to X-Plane, I eventually received an apologetic response saying the speed of my installed graphics card was too slow and that I didn't have enough memory installed - apparently, 4 Gb was not sufficient for X-Plane 10.x.I couldn't justify a $1,200 purchase for a new iMac - so, I am using, and enjoying, X-Plane 9.70. Much of this could have been avoided if the operating criteria and requirements were clearly published.

Instructions are a bit too scant (lots of small tips left out that would speed setup and usage). Insufficient buildings on/around airports - lacks some realism in that respect. While the sim may be flown without rudder pedals the auto-coordinate feature should be applied/adjusted. I have yet to get the ATC voice to work - may be one of those missing tips. Be prepared to spend some time just setting up your aircraft/controls, especially if you're a beginner. Software runs fine on an iMac but does cause a minor problem on shutdown of the system; iMac thinks the software is still being installed but was interrupted and gives a message to that effect. In flight scenery is highly detailed, sounds are realistic, and flight controls are all in place - although a bit touchy. I would buy this product again even knowing what I know now. It is a learning experience.

I bought this for my son. He is 13 and into planes. This is a flight simulator. This is not a game. Know that going in. I have 2 complaints with this flight simulator.I wish there were more tutorials and scenarios built into it. Basically, you load it and you can fly. However, there is really no tutorial to learn controls or understand the flight mechanics of the simulator.Second, and this is VERY IMPORTANT, you need a joystick to use this program. I believe the box says it is unnecessary, but we could not figure out how to operate without it. We ended up buying a cheap joystick and it is fine. But know going in you need a joystick.

Works well on my Mac mini with inferior Intel graphics hardware, very realistic scenery and physics. I would give it a five beyond a few bugs1. The ATC is crap2. No collision detection3. Large planes keep parking on me at rampsBeyond that, it's quite good. The selection of free aircraft could be far better. I hardly want to pay this much for a game and then pay just as much for a single add-on aircraft. And another $30 for the full world scenery is asking a bit much, don't you think? It's a game.Still, it's a good game. Given that Mac's have no joystick calibration capabilities (umm, Apple?) I'm glad this has it built-in. BTW Apple, you can calibrate a joystick on a Linux box. Sad.I love the aerotow take off for soaring, landing on aircraft carriers, and trying to re-enter in the space shuttle (take off would be nice). Fun overall.

Runs well on my Mac with no issues, joystick requires a lot of calibration but that could be my joystick which is 4 years old.

Not as feature rich as FSX, but the modeling is great and there is lots of free add-ons available at x-plane.org.

ok

No instructions on how to operate the planes. No good to you if you can't strart the damn planes.Really stupid!