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The advanced flight simulator X-Plane 11 [Steam, Official Site] is now available and the developers put out day-1 Linux support.

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It does look pretty good and simulates a ridiculous amount of things at once. I love the way you see the heat coming off the engines, looks fantastic. A game that would probably be immense with the right flight stick setup, can't imagine it being as fun on a mouse and keyboard.

It's not cheap at £44.99, so unless the developers plan on getting in touch it's not one I will personally cover in any more detail. It does have a demo though, so you can properly try it before buying. The demo can also update to the full version, which is neat.

Features
  • A completely redesigned, intuitive user interface that makes setting up and editing your flight a breeze.
  • Consistently usable 3-D cockpits and stunningly high-resolution exterior models for all included aircraft.
  • A new effects engine for lighting, sounds, and explosions.
  • Realistic avionics: all planes are IFR-ready right out of the gate.
  • Busy, “living” airports with pushback tugs and roaming fuel trucks, able to service both your aircraft and the simulator’s AI planes.
  • New buildings & roads to better simulate European cities
  • And more!


Will any of you be picking up a copy? Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Simulation | Apps: X-Plane 11
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31 comments
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lucifertdark Mar 31, 2017
I had one of the older versions before Steam was a thing, never could get past crashing on take-off so I'll probably give this a miss & NPC passengers around the world heave a sigh of relief.
haagch Mar 31, 2017
The beta worked on radeonsi, but you had to fix some shaders and the performance was not good:
https://i.imgur.com/gED2AOM.png

Gonna try this too after it downloaded the demo.

edit:
Thread 1 "X-Plane-x86_64" received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x00007fffed6966da in ?? () from /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
(gdb) bt
#0  0x00007fffed6966da in ?? () from /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
#1  0x00007fffed56c895 in ?? () from /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
#2  0x00007fffed358ee1 in ?? () from /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
#3  0x00007fffed31a3ec in ?? () from /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
#4  0x00007fffed31a859 in ?? () from /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
#5  0x0000000001236f35 in res_3d_class::res_3d_plot_per_frame(float const*, xcam_class*) ()
#6  0x0000000001231b06 in wxr_display_class::wxr_display_shad_per_frame() ()
#7  0x0000000000dddd4b in setup_cloud_shadows() ()
#8  0x0000000000cdbed1 in WORLD_scene_per_render(rendering_pass, float, float, float, float) ()
#9  0x0000000000ce0623 in WORLD_scene_per_frame(xplane_window*, int, int) ()
#10 0x00000000005b5495 in APP_update() ()
#11 0x000000000094cf98 in MACIBM_post_event_proc() ()
#12 0x0000000001246eca in WIN_run_app ()
#13 0x00000000005b65bf in main ()


edit2: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=97909

edit3: So with MESA_EXTENSION_OVERRIDE=-GL_AMD_pinned_memory ./X-Plane-x86_64 --force_run it runs fine. All shaders compile, no real rendering errors I can see. It seems to be capped at ~30 fps even though I have vsync disabled in the graphics settings. Settings are medium
+ Maximum textures: https://i.imgur.com/wx6VpSp.png


Last edited by haagch on 31 March 2017 at 10:11 am UTC
Mountain Man Mar 31, 2017
Quoting: lucifertdarkI had one of the older versions before Steam was a thing, never could get past crashing on take-off so I'll probably give this a miss & NPC passengers around the world heave a sigh of relief.
Do you mean a program crash, or you would crash the airplane?

If it's the latter, I'll say again, X-Plane is not an arcade game, it is a flight simulator intended for real-world pilots and flight simulator enthusiasts who enjoy a realistic experience. The software now includes some basic tutorials for "newbies", but my advice has always been that the real X-Plane manual is a pilot training handbook and operating handbook specific to the aircraft you want to fly. Basically, you're going to have to spend some time learning to fly a real airplane in order to get the most out of X-Plane.


Last edited by Mountain Man on 31 March 2017 at 2:04 pm UTC
lucifertdark Mar 31, 2017
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: lucifertdarkI had one of the older versions before Steam was a thing, never could get past crashing on take-off so I'll probably give this a miss & NPC passengers around the world heave a sigh of relief.
Do you mean a program crash, or you would crash the airplane?

If it's the latter, I'll say again, X-Plane is not an arcade game, it is a flight simulator intended for real-world pilots and flight simulator enthusiasts who enjoy a realistic experience. The software now includes some basic tutorials for "newbies", but my advice has always been that the real X-Plane manual is a pilot training handbook and operating handbook specific to the aircraft you want to fly. Basically, you're going to have to spend some time learning to fly a real airplane in order to get the most out of X-Plane.
Definitely plane crash not program crash, that's why I won't be buying this one, I spent hours & hours poring over the manual, familiarising myself with the controls only to crash the plane, so I'm not going to be a pilot.
obedlink Mar 31, 2017
Doesn't work with mesa stack :(
Shmerl Mar 31, 2017
I saw some commented it's using compatibility OpenGL profile. That's too bad, no one should be doing this today.
saildata Mar 31, 2017
Quoting: lucifertdark
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: lucifertdarkI had one of the older versions before Steam was a thing, never could get past crashing on take-off so I'll probably give this a miss & NPC passengers around the world heave a sigh of relief.
Do you mean a program crash, or you would crash the airplane?

If it's the latter, I'll say again, X-Plane is not an arcade game, it is a flight simulator intended for real-world pilots and flight simulator enthusiasts who enjoy a realistic experience. The software now includes some basic tutorials for "newbies", but my advice has always been that the real X-Plane manual is a pilot training handbook and operating handbook specific to the aircraft you want to fly. Basically, you're going to have to spend some time learning to fly a real airplane in order to get the most out of X-Plane.
Definitely plane crash not program crash, that's why I won't be buying this one, I spent hours & hours poring over the manual, familiarising myself with the controls only to crash the plane, so I'm not going to be a pilot.

That's what I like about the ultralight. It's so easy to fly even I can do it.

Give me a 737.. "Folks, this is your captain. I can't figure out how to turn this thing on."
Mountain Man Mar 31, 2017
Quoting: lucifertdark
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: lucifertdarkI had one of the older versions before Steam was a thing, never could get past crashing on take-off so I'll probably give this a miss & NPC passengers around the world heave a sigh of relief.
Do you mean a program crash, or you would crash the airplane?

If it's the latter, I'll say again, X-Plane is not an arcade game, it is a flight simulator intended for real-world pilots and flight simulator enthusiasts who enjoy a realistic experience. The software now includes some basic tutorials for "newbies", but my advice has always been that the real X-Plane manual is a pilot training handbook and operating handbook specific to the aircraft you want to fly. Basically, you're going to have to spend some time learning to fly a real airplane in order to get the most out of X-Plane.
Definitely plane crash not program crash, that's why I won't be buying this one, I spent hours & hours poring over the manual, familiarising myself with the controls only to crash the plane, so I'm not going to be a pilot.
I can't imagine why you had so much trouble. The Cessna 172 is so easy to fly that it practically takes off by itself. You ought to at least give the X-Plane 11 demo a look.
saildata Mar 31, 2017
Quoting: Mountain ManI can't imagine why you had so much trouble. The Cessna 172 is so easy to fly that it practically takes off by itself. You ought to at least give the X-Plane 11 demo a look.

I agree 100% - download the digital demo (not sure if the Steam version has a demo?). Anyways, it should give a good estimate of whether your hardware will support it. As noted before, this is likely one of the most demanding "game like" applications on Linux. I say "game like" because obviously running something like make -j8 to compile the kernel is right at 100% CPU while keras (Python library for deep learning) is extremely GPU heavy. But for stuff that's discussed on this site - it's one of the most demanding ^_^

Looking at the Steam pricing and http://www.x-plane.com/product/steam/ I would recommend running it outside of Steam. The digital app can be run just fine without Steam, and is supported by the original team, not a third party. There is a limit on the number of installs that can be used, so that is something to consider. I guess the Steam version would allow you to install multiple times like other products in your Steam library.

Also, I'm not sure if you'd have to jump through any hoops to get it to truly use all 64-bit native libraries. One thing is for sure - it would be compiled/linked against libsteam_api.so, which likely adds a layer of logging and overhead. So check out the demo from their site http://www.x-plane.com/desktop/try-it/ and consider the benefits/trade-offs of running from Steam.

Food for thought :)
Mountain Man Apr 1, 2017
Quoting: saildataAs noted before, this is likely one of the most demanding "game like" applications on Linux. I say "game like" because obviously running something like make -j8 to compile the kernel is right at 100% CPU while keras (Python library for deep learning) is extremely GPU heavy. But for stuff that's discussed on this site - it's one of the most demanding ^_^
Indeed. If you have a top-of-the-line PC and want to push it to its limits, this is the software for you.
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