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From X-Plane Wiki

The X-Plane 9 installation discs began shipping on 30 November 2007. Two different sets of discs have been shipped out from the X-Plane.com site so far. The first discs were the so-called “Beta” discs. These came as a set of eight DVDs. On the other hand, the discs currently being sold are the version 9.00 to version 9.22 discs, which come as a set of six DVDs. The installation procedure is quite different between these two. Instructions for installing the six-disc set are found in Chapter 2 of this manual; instructions for the eight-disc set follow.

Additionally, Graphsim Entertainment, X-Plane’s retail distributor, sells the X-Plane version 9 six-disc set. Unlike the discs available on X-Plane.com (which have gray labels), the Graphsim discs have yellow labels. These discs use a proprietary installer from Graphsim and are for Windows and Mac OS only. For customer support regarding these discs, please email amy@graphsim.com, or call (214) 884-5571.

Note that the end result of installing and updating from any of these X-Plane distributions is the same; installing from the Beta discs, then updating to version 9.22 is exactly the same as installing from, say, the v9.10 discs, then updating to version 9.22.

Installing X-Plane 9 from the Eight Disc Beta Distribution

The set of eight “Beta” installation discs were shipped before the final release of the X-Plane v9.00 set of six discs. Installation is quite different from v9.00 and later (described in Chapter 2), but the end result, after updating, is the same.

1. Insert the master DVD (Glider on grey label) into the computer’s DVD drive. This is the disc with a glider on the gray label. If the installer window does not appear automatically, open up My Computer (or the Mac Finder, as the case may be) and navigate to the disc. Once there, double click on the appropriate installer to open it.

2. Select where X-Plane is to be installed. Look at the Destination box to see where the installer will automatically try to install the X-Plane. Click on the Destination label to cause a browser window appear for selecting the desired destination. Double click on this location to cause it to be placed in the Destination window.

3. Be sure to install X-Plane to an easy-to-find location, as the simulator, as well as Plane-Maker, Airfoil-Maker, and etc. will all be launched from here. The Desktop is always a good choice. It may be best to write this location down. On a Mac, avoid the C:\Applications folder.

4. Click the Install button, to begin installation of the simulator framework and scenery control files. (This will use about 2.5 GB.)

5. After the X-Plane code is installed and verified to be working, install Scenery from disks for areas you wish to fly over. Each scenery DVD (seven total) has the map highlighted on it highlighted with the scenery contained on that disc. It is not necessary to install all the scenery DVDs, and scenery not needed can be easily deleted later from the X-Plane Resources folder to recover disk storage.

For reference, the version 9 framework plus United States scenery will take up about 10 GB. Of course, these scenery areas are not divided politically, so one will have to also install some Canada scenery in order to get all of the US.

6. When the installation finishes, put the X-Plane master disc into the DVD drive. Plug in any flight controls, then go to the main X-Plane folder and click on the X-Plane executable file. The simulator will load over the course of a few minutes. When it finishes, configure any flight controls, set the desired rendering options, choose an airplane and location, etc.—all per the rest of this manual.

At this point, users may also want to create a shortcut to X-Plane on the Desktop. Additionally, be sure to update to the latest version as per Chapter 2.