Talk me out of it

[jrohland]

I have been tempted to get the Phoenix sim. Even more so since I read the review on TRexTuning yesterday. The trouble is, Reflex XTR has many more users and, more importantly, developers making models for it. That means I have a much higher chance of finding a model I want to learn on the sim.

I am bothered that XTR appears not to have ongoing developement of the core program. Of course, that could mean it is as close to perfect as a sim could be.

Phoenix:
+Developement is ongoing. There is a chance to get problems fixed and better tuned physics.
-Limited number of models and little or no current 3rd party model develpement.

Reflex XTR:
+Many models and an active model developement/tuning community.
+Many users means problems have already found solutions.
-Core program is locked. As such, not much chance to get physics or other problems worked on. At least not in the current version.

I am leaning strongly towards Reflex. The reason is the shear amount of support knowledge available. Also the number and quality of models simulated.

jrohland

[kgfly]

If you don't already have Reflex then go for Phoenix. It's the latest in sim bling :D

Certainly I thought the trextuning review was very positive. He found the Trex-like model pretty realistic, what more do you need ?

Reasons to buy Phoenix instead of XTR:

1) It's cheaper.

That may mean you get a fantastic sim for less. Alternatively, it may mean that if you want to swap, you are less in the hole than if you had gone for XTR first and wanted to change to Phnx.

Of course you should find a ready 2nd hand market if you want to unload either of them. More vibrant for XTR today, but if Phoenix is as good as it looks to be, the market for XTR could soften while that for Phoenix will strengthen.

2) If it lives, it is likely to evolve rapidly. If the trextuning review is accurate, then you will have enough heli models to play with for a while and keep you busy until others start to appear.

3) It has some form of multiplayer which XTR lacks and many G3 owners love.

4) It will run better on lower end hardware than XTR.

XTR pushes my Dell D600 laptop (1.8Ghz PentiumM, 2GB ram, ATI9000M graphics) to the limit. Runs very nicely on my desktop (AMD3000+, 2GB ram, ATI9800Pro128 graphics).

If you don't have a powerful PC already then XTR will force you to upgrade, which makes it a lot more expensive.

=============

Nah, just go for it, order Phoenix coz it's sexy, new, shiny, apparently works at least as well, will evolve rapidly (or die) and so you can be our crash dummy :D Besides, how far wrong could you go for the money ?

[Icenum]

I did a search and couldn't find these in the U.S. for sale. Sounds interesting and reasonable enough.

[Pinecone]

I ordered it from the UK. It should be waiting at home when I get back end of the week. :)

[n1lul]

I just got my Phoenix sim today. It only took 3 days to get here(Maryland) from the U.K. I ordered it right from the Phoenix web site with standard shipping.

Set-up was a piece of cake, I was flying in about 5min. after I had it installed.

I am a beginner so I can not report on the 3D physics, but from my experience it is very realistic and the graphics are INCREDIBLE!

Phoenix now have the Trex 450 and 600 available for download.

So far I love it, I'll let you all know if I find any glitches.

Ray

[Ade_Law]

hi guys. i did a lot of the heli dynamics for phoenix. i can honestly say it is a far better buy than XTR, even if you ignore the fact that the dynamics are better the other features such as the fact that it is leading the way with fixed wing dynamics too. This is something no other sim has done, put realistic heli AND fixed wing dynamics in one package.

then you have that fact that the customer support is fantastic there have been many suggestions for improvements a lot of these were included in the 1.02a patch that came out about 2 months after initial release the rest will be added as time allows in following updates, examples of this is the Aircraft developement kit (ADK), online multiplayer and a tx to be included in the sim for those that want it.

There are a lot of models in developement both heli and fixed wing as well as improving the current ones

[Ghostrider]

I have all three. G-3, Reflex, and just got the Phoenix. In my opinion, I would rate the G-3 the best but the most expensive because you have to pay for all the upgrades. The G-3 also comes with it's own controller and is literally plug and play which is great for newbies. I fly everyday on sim and I get irritated having to charge my radio because I have been using it for sim practice.

Phoenix and Reflex require you to use your own controller and can be difficult to set up if you are a newbie.

As far a graphics go, the Phoenix blows everything else away. I think Overall the Phoenix is the best value and very close to the G-3 in everything else. I just feel that the G-3 is the most realistic or has the closest flight dynamics compared to the real thing but Phoenix is very good just slightly behind G-3.

I would rate the Reflex 3rd. In my opinion it does everything good but nothing great.

If you are just starting out and have a decent budget go for the G-3. It will grow with you and is very easy to get set up. No programing the radio, switches, throttle curves etc... If you are on a budget, I would definitely get the Phoenix. It will do everything you need it to do but you will need a little help setting it up to fly.

:D Just my two cents.

[kgfly]

Well so far I am disappointed with Phoenix :(

It runs like a dog on my laptop (PentiumM1.8GHz/2GB RAM/Radeon 9000M 32M) even at 800x600 fullscreen and the lowest scenery resolution. There is so much lag and the framerate is so low that it's almost unflyable. At least it runs OKl on my desktop (Athlon 3000+/@GB RAM/Radeon 9800Pro 128M) but that's not where I want it to run.

The TRex450 doesn't fly anything like my real one and both the T450 and T600 sound terrible, what's with that ?

For me, XTR ran, looked and flew much better. In fact the latest version of ClearView (which is only $30) runs, looks and flies better.

I am getting a new laptop at the end of the year so will wait and see how it runs on that, I really hope it is usable.

[Pinecone]

Try turning off the smoke. That helped some others on another board. It seems teh smoke takes a lot of CPU power.

[kgfly]

Pinecone thanks for the suggestion, but there is no smoke on an eHeli! I'll try turning it off anyway, who knows, maybe it's wasting cycles rendering invisible smoke.

[Pinecone]

Just passing on a tip I had heard. You never know wha's going on behind the scenes. :)