X-Plane 12 vs Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 & Why I Can't Leave X-Plane
Steve | G-LOC MEDIA
Flight simulation enthusiast and YouTuber
In the X-Plane 12 vs Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 debate, both sims are genuinely brilliant but at completely different things - X-Plane wins on flight model depth, home cockpit integration, and the way it feels alive through force feedback hardware, while Microsoft Flight Simulator dominates on scenery, modern hardware performance, and native multiplayer. For serious cockpit builders and hardware-focused simmers X-Plane 12 remains the platform of choice despite its visual and performance shortcomings. But if Laminar Research can close the scenery gap, modernise the UI, and overhaul the multi-threading architecture, the migration could start flowing the other way.
Microsoft Flight Simulator has a bigger budget, a bigger team, and a much broader feature set. So why is X-Plane 12 the simulator I just cannot leave alone? I run both sims. As a hardware reviewer running motion platforms, force feedback yokes, triple monitors, and a fairly in-depth home cockpit setup, I have a genuine daily use perspective on both. And after spending serious time with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 I can tell you clearly - both sims are brilliant at different things, BUT they're moving in different directions, and X-Plane simply will not go away.
There's a reason real world pilots, flight schools, and serious home cockpit builders keep coming back to X-Plane 12. Five reasons actually. And some of them are things you don't normally hear talked about. I'll also cover where I think Microsoft Flight Simulator is heading and what I'd love to see in X-Plane 13 - if we ever get one.
Reason 1 - The Flight Model Is Built Differently
X-Plane doesn't simulate flight from a lookup table. It calculates the actual aerodynamic forces on every part of the airframe in real time - every wing element, every control surface, every prop blade. That's called blade element theory and it ties directly into something else we'll cover shortly.Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 appears to use a blend of blade element theory and lookup tables, which may explain why it can feel slightly more mechanical and forced in the air by comparison. This is a genuinely complex topic so if you have insight or a different perspective please drop it in the comments on the YouTube video - I'd love to hear from people flying big jets across both sims too.
The bottom line for me is this. When flying smaller GA style aircraft there's a tangible difference in the way the plane feels and handles. X-Plane has a more lifelike, living and breathing quality to it. Taking off, flying, and landing just feels more satisfying in a way that's hard to fully articulate until you've felt it through force feedback amd motion hardware.
Reason 2 - Triple Monitors and Home Cockpit Integration
If you're building a serious home cockpit, X-Plane 12 is the platform. It's not even close to a contest.Triple monitor integration in X-Plane works exactly the way you'd expect - easy to set up, it has fractional offsets, adjustments visible in real time. If you have triple screens and a physical avionics panel you can set the main UI to appear on the left or right monitor. That means your interface is never covered by your avionics panel, which eliminates a whole category of frustration that cockpit builders running Microsoft Flight Simulator deal with constantly.
Configuring a new yoke in X-Plane takes under 60 seconds. Microsoft Flight Simulator isn't dramatically different but the UI can be overwhelming and complicated. If your sim rig has 20 USB connections, three OLED panels, and a physical avionics setup, X-Plane is the only choice that genuinely respects what you've built. That's the consistent lived experience from the cockpit builders I speak to.
Reason 3 - With the Right Hardware X-Plane Feels Alive
This one is hard to explain unless you've felt it and it's probably the most important reason on this list for hardware-focused simmers.With a motion platform, force feedback yoke, and force feedback rudders, X-Plane 12 feels like a living airplane - not a graphical representation of one. Every gust loads the controls. Every flare pushes back through the yoke. Ground effect cushions you on the way down. Crosswinds lift the upwind wing. The hardware and the sim feel genuinely connected in a way that's difficult to describe and impossible to forget once you've experienced it.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 closed the gap on the flight modelling significantly - there's no question about that. But it still doesn't feel as alive through the hardware as X-Plane 12. And I think that ties directly back to the blade element theory flight model we covered in reason one. The physics are feeding into the hardware in a fundamentally more detailed way.
Reason 4 - It Just Works
Drop an aircraft into the folder - it shows up. Drop a scenery package in - it shows up. The open development ecosystem is genuinely powerful and in most cases frustration free.The caveat is that the open nature of plugins and scenery can introduce problems if you overcomplicate things. Too many add-ons can start causing issues. Manage the sim sensibly, don't pile on too many plugins, and in my experience you'll have a very stable and frustration free time.
Reason 5 - Mac, Linux, and Offline Support
This one isn't directly applicable to my setup but it matters to a meaningful segment of the community. X-Plane 12 runs on Mac. It runs on Linux. And it runs completely offline - no fast internet connection required to get the basics working.If you're running X-Plane on Mac or Linux I'd genuinely love to hear why in the comments on the YouTube video - I think it's an undertalked aspect of why X-Plane has such a dedicated and diverse user base.
Where Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Wins - And It Wins Big in Three Areas
This isn't a one-sided argument. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 does things that X-Plane 12 simply cannot compete with right now.Scenery and VFR Flying
The photogrammetry scenery in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is completely unmatched out of the box — no add-ons required. You can navigate by your actual neighbourhood. The Bing satellite data, the photogrammetric cities, the tessellated ground detail - it's genuinely beautiful and sometimes outright mind-blowing at low altitude. I've thrown Sim Heaven, XWorld Ortho, and XP Map Enhancement Pro at X-Plane 12 and I'm still not close unless I get above around 10,000 feet. If you fly low and slow and you want the world to look like the real world, Microsoft Flight Simulator wins this decisively and will likely own it for a long time to come.Performance on High-End Hardware
Running a 5090 with a 7900X3D, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is using the hardware properly - 90% GPU utilisation, smooth frame rates with DLSS in performance mode. X-Plane 12 by comparison can see the GPU sitting at 60% utilisation with cores idle while the frame rate drops. The Microsoft Flight Simulator engine is more modern, more multi-threaded, and more in tune with what 2026 hardware can actually do. X-Plane has made meaningful improvements here in the last year but right now the performance advantage sits firmly with Microsoft Flight Simulator on high-end systems.Multiplayer and Live Traffic
Microsoft Flight Simulator gives you shared skies on day one - live real-world traffic and live flights without any additional setup. X-Plane needs VATSIM, SayIntentions, or similar external tools to get anywhere close. SayIntentions recently released an update with a shared living sky between all SayIntentions pilots across sims which genuinely closes the gap, but the social layer is still bolted on the side rather than native. Microsoft Flight Simulator just handles it out of the box.One broader observation worth noting - Microsoft Flight Simulator is more gamified than ever before, largely due to its console expansion. That's great for flight simulation as a whole in terms of growing the community, but I do think it comes at some cost to the serious simmer. Whether that's a fair trade is worth a comment below.
Three Things That Would Change Everything for X-Plane
If Laminar Research addressed these three things the migration would start flowing the other way.1. Close the Scenery Gap
Not to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 levels - just to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 levels. Getting the scenery to that standard would be an absolute game changer. Laminar have hinted in interviews that they're working on AI generated world textures and streaming scenery. That would require X-Plane to be online which opens a whole separate debate, but the moment X-Plane closes that visual gap the flight model combined with proper visuals would put it in an incredibly strong position. This is the single biggest unlock remaining.2. Modernise the UI
Don't redesign the structure — the simplicity and speed of the current UI is actually what works. Don't touch the menu architecture. But the 2015 aesthetic needs to go. Modernise the typography, the spacing, the visual polish. Make it look and function like a 2026 application while keeping the speed, the clarity, and the ability to configure a yoke in under 60 seconds. Just make it stop looking like Windows Vista.3. Use All the Cores
Running a 5090 and watching one thread max out while other CPU cores sit idle is genuinely painful. Laminar has improved multi-threading in recent updates but the architecture is still bottlenecked. If X-Plane 13 isn't built around a major threading overhaul the high-end audience that has supported and built this platform for decades will start drifting away. This is the one improvement that has to come from Laminar - it can't be fixed with plugins or third party tools.Final Verdict - X-Plane 12 vs Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
X-Plane 12 is not going anywhere. Not because it's perfect but because the things it does well - the flight model, the hardware integration, the open ecosystem - are things Microsoft Flight Simulator structurally cannot replicate. For serious home cockpit builders, force feedback hardware users, and anyone who wants a flight simulator that feels genuinely alive through proper peripherals, X-Plane 12 remains the platform of choice.Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is spectacular at what it does. The scenery, the performance on modern hardware, and the native multiplayer are genuine advantages that X-Plane can't match right now. For casual simmers, VFR flying enthusiasts, and console players, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is the obvious choice.
But for the serious simmer with real hardware? X-Plane 12 stays on the rig. And if Laminar fixes the scenery, the UI, and the threading - I think the conversation changes significantly.
Now I want to hear from you. Am I right? What's keeping you on X-Plane? Or what pulled you to Microsoft Flight Simulator and made you stay? Drop it in the comments.
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