XTR vs. Phoenix

[trvo]

Hey Guys.

I spent most of Sunday at Ade's place playing around with Phoenix and XTR side by side, then popped to the field, then back to the two sims so that I could get a real good feel of them vs real life.


I can honestly say that Phoenix is a lot better than Reflex, the models just handle so much more realistically, for instance, the cyclic lags behind your input on XTR and the stability of the heli in manoeuvres such as funnels is not realistic in the slightest, that's the tip of the ice berg. I've known about these errors sub-consciously for a while now, but I compared Phoenix to the 'real thing' and it is much closer to real life although still not quite there, but making XTR seem like a joke.


Phoenix seems to run a thousand times better on my laptop with no errors, XTR crashes my laptop 3 or 4 times in a row before I get to even take off, it's hit and miss from there on!!! Re-installing didn't help...I get healthy framerates on both the sims, above 200fps with Phoenix taking the lead...


I have also been talking to the guys at Phoenix about ADK, it sounds like it's going to be a lot easier to use than RMK. I've started putting the Aurora together ready for ADK.


The good news is that a lot of people that are selling Reflex on eBay after buying Phoenix and are getting more than what Phoenix cost them!


(PS. Anyone wanna buy mine???)


Trev

[ChrisB]

If we keep slagging XTR off in public then anyone thinking of selling theirs will be lucky to get a tenner for it

Phoenix is very good,XTR is very good

full stop

I say this because i may want to sell mine(XTR) that is

My personal preference is now Phoenix but others may disagree

They are both very good learning aids along with Aerofly Pro,G3 etc etc

[robgt]

Hi Trev,
Overall, I tend to agree that Phoenix is better than Reflex XTR.
I still find a few issues with Phoenix that bother me.
Example: If you climb out really high, then do a full pitch descent towards the floor, it's not right at all.

Gravity affecting the heli when it's already closer to the floor to start with works pretty well though - far better than Reflex in this area.

Hang time in Tic Tocs is unrealistic - the model should start falling out of the air sooner.

Auto performance leaves a bit to be desired, though inverted auto perfomance works quite well (better than normal, which is wierd). That said, the 90 heli (Synergy so far - can't wait for your Aurora ) seems to have better auto potential.

There is no possibility of buttoning the heli - get within an inch of the floor (or the water ) and it dies

Sounds are, well, erm, iffy... but I can live with it

The backgrounds are a worse in quality than Reflex (not that I'm that bothered as I fly the heli, not peruse the backgrounds - but it has been mentioned by others).
Some out of focus images, some poorly stitched in places.

Dpeth of field seems off too - take the lakeside scenery for example. Take off and fly to the right - follow the lake path to the trees - you'll hit the trees a bit before you were expecting to.

All that said, I still prefer it to Reflex as the flight characteristics are still better, even taking into account the above issues.

It loads a hell of a lot faster than Reflex - the initial load up - the change and restart of models and the change of sceneries - all much, much faster - always a bonus.

Night flying kicks ass! (I want to add night flying to the 90 models - The Synergy and your Aurora when it is ready!)

The user interface is dead easy to use.
The in flight tweaking is sweet - one feature they missed is a little close button on each panel so you still need to go into the prefs, find each thing you turned on and then turn it off again when you've finished tweaking.

Just niggles
For a first version- it's an awesome achievement.
Cheers,
Rob

[Smoothound]

I've played with both but for a few days only with Phoenix and feel they are very close in performance. Main difference I found is that I can't auto for toffee in Phoenix but I can get the bird down 9 times out of 10 in XTR

I thought it was a pretty poor show that most if not all the models contained on the CD for Phoenix were not anything I could relate to but this is being addressed now as models are appearing on the web site.

Other side of the coin I remember downloading the 1st version of the Trex for XTR and it was just a Raptor with a Trex skin on it, if you looked at the parameters it weighed around 5kg or similar

I'll probably keep both as my local slope is on XTR now so it's nice to be able to go there without getting out of my chair

[jamiem]

i love phoenis, its helped me out no end. ive tweaked the buzzard to behave very similarly to my raptor, im very pleased! one or 2 niggles/suggestions: 1. i spoke to ade about wanting to stop the camera moving around so much, and he suggested slowing the camera down, ive gone to both extents on the scale and it does nothing secondly is id like to see some more dynamic environments, some 3d landscapes maybe, which maybe changes the wind characteristics depending on where you are.

all in all, brilliant though!

[RCfan]

Hey guys,

Definitely agree that PxRC is going to be better that XTR. At the moment it's comparable to it, in some places being better and others not. I have to say that I would like to see better-looking models and reflections/lighting being reworked a bit. Sound needs some work, especially blade flutter (as in autos or agressive pitch changes). Some sceneries need to be fixed (stiching wrong, overlaps, etc.) Most (heli) models seem too bouncy when they land (or auto), landings that would cause boom strikes in real aircraft. Haven't tried tweaking any params though, so it may be a simple matter to fix that.

Overall, though, PxRC has already taken it's spot as my primary sim.

[blobman18]

any one used clearveiw

[Ade_Law]

had a play on clearview a while back. its cheap and it shows

bad value for money imo

Ade

[RCfan]

I used it for a couple of days. It's not up to par with the larger sim products, like PxRC. It's definitely cheap, but you do get what you pay for. Don't count on learning anything more than the most basic orientation with it.