Preparation and Installation of X-Plane 10

=Preparation and Installation=

System Requirements
Given X-Plane&rsquo;s incredible capabilities and accuracy, it is not possible to run a current release of X-Plane on an exceptionally old computer. A good rule of thumb is that any machine built in the last 18 to 24 months will probably be able to run the simulator acceptably. Computers up to about 36 months old may be fine if they were top-of-the-line machines when manufactured. Even if they weren&rsquo;t, X-Plane may still be able to run, albeit with its rendering options turned down.

X-Plane 10 requires a computer with at least the following specifications:


 * A 2 GHz, dual-core processor,
 * 2 GB of RAM (physical memory),
 * a DirectX 9-capable video card with 128 MB of on-board, dedicated video RAM (VRAM), and
 * 10 GB of hard drive space.

However, for the best experience, we recommend the following:


 * a 3 GHz, multi-core CPU (or, even better, multiple processors),
 * 4 GB of system RAM (physical memory), and
 * a DirectX 10-capable (DirectX 11 preferred) video card with 1 GB of on-board, dedicated VRAM.

To find your computer&rsquo;s CPU speed and amount of RAM, Mac users can simply open the Apple Menu and click &ldquo;About This Mac.&rdquo;

For Windows Vista and Windows 7 users, you can open the Start menu and type System to search for the Control Panel&rsquo;s &ldquo;System&rdquo; item. Opening this will display the processor, its speed, and the amount of RAM installed. Windows XP users can get the same information by:


 * 1) Opening the Start menu,
 * 2) Selecting the Control Panel,
 * 3) Clicking Performance and Maintenance, and
 * 4) Clicking System.

Additionally, X-Plane 10 has been optimized for dual- and quad-core processors, as well as multiprocessor systems&mdash;some CPU cores can be used for the flight models of the simulated aircraft, others for loading scenery, taking input, etc.

Display Hardware
X-Plane can display on any screen, with resolutions ranging from 1,024 x 768 pixels to 9,999 x 9,999 pixels. It makes no difference to X-Plane what aspect ratio your screen has; if your aspect ratio doesn&rsquo;t match that of the instrument panel you are using, X-Plane will simply zoom or stretch the panel as appropriate to fill your screen.

X-Plane allows the use of any number of screens to depict anything you like. Multiple computers can be used to drive multiple monitors, thereby networking up to about 20 screens to show any combination of views imaginable. If your computer&rsquo;s graphics card is especially powerful, technology like AMD&rsquo;s Eyefinity (built in to high-end Radeon cards since 2009) or a video splitter (like the Matrox TripleHead2Go) can be used to drive three forward visuals with one machine. In that case, a second machine could be used to drive the cockpit display and/ or IOS, as described in the section &ldquo; sec:multi-monitor&rdquo; of Chapter. Of course, X-Plane only requires a single monitor to function.

Graphics Drivers
X-Plane, of course, needs a decent graphics card in the computer you wish to run it on. Essentially any modern, discrete (i.e., non-integrated) video card will do just fine, though a more powerful, more expensive graphics card will allow for higher detail in the simulator&rsquo;s graphics. Just as important as the graphics card itself, though, are the computer&rsquo;s graphics drivers essentially, the instructions that let X-Plane know how to use your graphics card).

On many systems the required graphics drivers will already be installed. However, it may be necessary to periodically update the computer&rsquo;s video drivers, either to fix a problem or to get the very best performance the system can deliver. Users of ATI/AMD video cards can download drivers from the AMD web site, and NVIDIA users can download drivers from NVIDIA&rsquo;s web site.

Before updating the graphics driver, we recommend installing and launching X-Plane (per the section &ldquo; sec:installing&rdquo; of this chapter) and seeing how it runs. If any of the following problems are experienced, the system&rsquo;s graphics drivers probably need to be updated:


 * a screen consisting only of splashes of color
 * a screen with horizontal or vertical bars running through it
 * random images of various pieces of the airplane or instrument panel

Additionally, if an error appears referring to a corrupt or missing &ldquo;.dll&rdquo; file, the drivers most likely need to be replaced.

Updating Graphics Drivers in Windows
A high percentage of Windows-based computers are operating with drivers that are out of date or that do not currently support OpenGL (caused by using the default Windows drivers rather than those of the manufacturer). If you conclude that your graphics drivers need to be updated, the following (general) steps should guide you through the process.


 * 1) Go to your video card manufacturers driver download page (ATI&rsquo;s site or NVIDIA&rsquo;s) and download the latest drivers, being sure to save it to a place that you'll be able to find it (for example, the Desktop).
 * 2) Uninstall your old graphics drivers.
 * 3) Click on the Start menu and open the Control Panel.
 * 4) Click either Add or Remove Programs (in Windows XP) or Uninstall a program (in Windows Vista and 7).
 * 5) Scroll down to either the Catalyst Display Driver (for AMD/ATI video cards) or the NVIDIA Drivers (for NVIDIA cards).
 * 6) Click the Change/Remove button. (This may be replaced by a Remove button only; it does not affect the process.)
 * 7) Follow the instructions provided by the uninstaller and reboot if necessary.
 * 8) After rebooting, find the driver file that was downloaded in Step step:dl and double click on it. The steps vary from here depending on the type of graphics card, but we will continue with a general outline for all companies.
 * 9) Choose a destination folder to extract the files to. Again, make it something easy to find like C:\video drivers\ and continue clicking Next, Install, etc.
 * 10) If the installer (which you just extracted in the previous step) does not run automatically, navigate to C:\video drivers and double click on setup.exe or a similar launch file.
 * 11) Agree to the license agreement, choose the &ldquo;express&rdquo; installation, and click Next or its equivalent) until the installation finishes.
 * 12) Reboot your PC and you&rsquo;re ready to fly!

Selecting Flight Control Hardware
While it is physically possible to fly X-Plane with only the mouse and keyboard, this can be cumbersome and unrealistic (for obvious reasons). While instructions for flying this way are included in the section &ldquo; sec:how_to_fly&rdquo; of Chapter, it is strongly recommended that users fly with at least a joystick for a realistic experience.

So which joystick should a user purchase? Every USB joystick and yoke made in the last 10 years or so will work with X-Plane, but, as with most things in life, you get what you pay for. Be leery of joysticks advertised for $29.95 at a local retailer. In our experience the cheaper hardware typically does not last as long or work as well as more moderately priced equipment.

Note X-Plane can only interface with USB devices. This covers nearly all the controllers manufactured in the last ten years, but if you have a non-USB device, an adapter will be needed to change it to a USB input.

Joysticks
Joysticks typically provide pitch, roll, and throttle control, as well as a few buttons that can be programmed to do different things. For example, you may program one button to raise and lower the landing gear, and two additional buttons to raise the flaps and lower them. Also, some joysticks can have their handle twisted left and right to control yaw movement. If the joystick being used does not offer yaw control, you will probably want a set of rudder pedals to provide realistic yaw control in the airplane. A joystick will be best for flying fighter or sport airplanes, or planes made by companies like Airbus, Cirrus, or Lancair, for the simple reason that those planes, in reality, are controlled with joysticks!

Yokes
A yoke consists of a steering wheel-like control that rotates left and right and also slides back and forth. These are the best option for users primarily interested in flying older-style general aviation planes, business jets, and non-Airbus airliners, since these planes are flown with yokes in reality.

Yokes are typically clamped to the user&rsquo;s desk for stability. They may have a built-in throttle quadrant, which will allows for independent control of the propeller, throttle, and mixture for a single propeller engine. Also, note that yokes do not control yaw movement (they do not twist left and right for yaw control like some joysticks), so rudder pedals are required for realistic yaw control.

Rudder Pedals
Rudder pedals allow users to realistically control the airplane&rsquo;s yaw by pushing the left or right pedal to turn. While in flight, the pedals control the rudder, whereas on the ground they&rsquo;re used to steer. The pedals also control the brakes to help the airplane stop or turn sharply while on the ground. (Push the top of the left or right pedal to activate the brakes on that side of the plane.)

If neither a set of rudder pedals nor the joystick is set to control yaw, X-Plane will automatically slew the rudder to try and keep the airplane flying true. This auto-rudder function, however, is not smart enough to take off or land properly in a crosswind, slip, or do various other things that rudders might be used for. For this reason, rudder pedals (or at least a twisting joystick) are highly recommended.

Please note that, when flying a helicopter, pedals must be used for the anti-torque controls&mdash;this can not be assigned to keyboard commands, simply because it is not practical to try to use the keyboard to fly.

Other Considerations
For added realism in certain situations, you may want an independent throttle quadrant. CH Products&rsquo; Multi-Engine Throttle Quadrant is perhaps the most popular and offers independent and variable control of six different functions. Normally, this would be set up to control the throttle, propeller, and mixture controls for each engine on a twin-engine airplane. This controller can also be used to control throttle and condition (fuel cutoff) for jet engines, allowing independent control of jet aircraft with up to three engines. A multi-engine throttle quadrant is recommended for users interested in realistically flying airplanes with more than one engine.

To purchase joysticks or other equipment, check out the CH Products, Logitech, or Saitek websites.

Each of the sites allows users to browse the available products and find where to buy them. Also, feel free to call or e-mail X-Plane customer support [mailto:info@x-plane.com info@x-plane.com] with any additional questions.

Note that instructions on configuring flight control hardware are found in Chapter, in the section &ldquo; sec:config_controls&rdquo;.

Installing X-Plane
In order to avoid confusion, be sure to delete any installations of the X-Plane demo before installing the full version from the DVDs. (Uninstalling the demo is as straightforward as locating the &ldquo;X-Plane 10 Demo&rdquo; folder and moving it to the Recycle Bin or Trash.)

Installation on a Windows PC
To install X-Plane on a Windows-based computer, do the following:
 * 1) Insert the first X-Plane DVD into the DVD-ROM drive and wait for it to spin up.
 * 2) If the X-System window doesn&rsquo;t open automatically, open My Computer and navigate to the drive now labeled &ldquo;X-Plane 10&rdquo; (usually the D: drive). If the X-System window does appear automatically, skip to step enum:installer_just_opened.
 * 3) Double-click on Installer_Windows.exe to launch the X-Plane installation.
 * 4) When the installer window appears, click Continue.
 * 5) By default, X-Plane will install to the Desktop. Though it can be installed elsewhere (by clicking the Change Destination button), it is strongly recommended that it be placed on the Desktop so that the folder can be found in the future. When an acceptable location has been selected, click Continue.
 * 6) Accept the user agreement and click Continue once again.
 * 7) Select the scenery that should be installed. Depending on the installer on the disc, either all of the world or none of it will be selected by default. An unselected tile will appear bleached in color, while a selected tile will have its full color.

If you are unsure what areas are currently selected, just click Select None to turn everything off. From there, select the individual tiles to install by clicking on them. Additionally, you can click and drag to select large areas quickly.

Note that for regions where no scenery is installed, only oceans and airports will be visible. When you&rsquo;re finished selecting scenery, click Continue to begin installing.
 * 1) The installer will begin displaying its progress. When the installer prompts you to do so, remove the current disc and insert the next. Note that installation may take anywhere from thirty to sixty minutes per disc, and that only one X-Plane disc can be in the system at once (the installer won&rsquo;t recognize a disc placed in a second DVD-ROM). Installing the complete scenery package will consume about 75 GB of hard drive space; doing so will take between five and six and a half hours.
 * 2) When the installation completes, reinsert Disc 1 and go fly!

At any point in the future, scenery can be added or removed by inserting Disc 1 and re-running the installer. When the X-System installer comes up saying &ldquo;You already have X-Plane 10 installed on this computer,&rdquo; click the Add or Remove Scenery button and proceed just like in step step:select_scenery above.

Special Considerations for Windows XP Users
Running X-Plane on Windows requires Microsoft DirectX 9.0c (or later) to be installed. Without this, X-Plane cannot interface with audio and joystick hardware. This free software can be downloaded from Microsoft&rsquo;s [LINK DirectX 9.0c Runtime Installer] page. All newer installations of Windows XP have DirectX 9 already, and all copies of Windows Vista and Windows 7 have DirectX 10 (which is more than sufficient) installed by default.

To find out which version of DirectX is currently installed in Windows XP, do the following:
 * 1) Open the Start menu and click Run, or press Windows
 * 2) Type &ldquo;dxdiag&rdquo; and press Enter.
 * 3) If a box appears asking if you want to check for signed drivers, click No.
 * 4) The lower half of the window that appears is labeled System Information. At the bottom of that list of stats is the system&rsquo;s DirectX Version.

Special Considerations for Windows Vista and 7 Users
Some of X-Plane&rsquo;s menus may render strangely when using the default Aero themes in Windows 7 and Windows Vista. For this reason, it is recommended that users switch to the Basic theme when running X-Plane.

To make Windows automatically switch to the Basic theme when you launch X-Plane (and switch back when you&rsquo;re done), do the following:
 * 1) Locate either the X-Plane.exe file (found in the X-Plane 10 installation folder) or the shortcut you use to launch X-Plane and right click on it.
 * 2) Click Properties from the menu that appears.
 * 3) Go to the Compatibility tab and check the Disable desktop composition box.

With that done, X-Plane will launch with the Basic theme and all menus will render correctly.

Installation on a Mac
To install X-Plane on a Mac, do the following:
 * 1) Insert the X-Plane DVD into the DVD-ROM drive and wait for it to spin up.
 * 2) Double click on the X-Plane DVD icon on the Desktop, then double click the &ldquo;Installer Mac&rdquo; app to launch the installer.

Note : If the buttons at the bottom of the X-System screen labeled Quit, Go Back, and Continue are not visible, then the system is probably running at a minimal resolution like 800 x 600. Using this resolution will not allow the computer to display the bottom of the X-Plane screen and you will need to force the installer to exit (via the Option + Command + Escape keys) and increase the screen's resolution to at least 1024 x 768.
 * 1) By default, X-Plane will install to the Desktop. Though it can be installed elsewhere (by clicking the Change Destination button), it is strongly recommended that it be placed on the Desktop so that the folder can be found in the future.
 * 2) Accept the user agreement and click Continue once again.
 * 3) Select the scenery that should be installed. Depending on the installer on the disc, either all of the world or none of it will be selected by default. An unselected tile will appear bleached in color, while a selected tile will have its full color. If you are unsure what areas are currently selected, just click Select None to turn everything off. From there, select the individual tiles to install by clicking on them. Additionally, you can click and drag to select large areas quickly.

Note that for regions where no scenery is installed, only oceans and airports will be visible. When you&rsquo;re finished selecting scenery, click Continue to begin installing.
 * 1) The installer will begin displaying its progress. When the installer prompts you to do so, remove the current disc and insert the next. Note that installation may take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes per disc, and that only one X-Plane disc can be in the system at once (the installer won&rsquo;t recognize a disc placed in a second DVD-ROM). Installing the complete scenery package will consume about 75 GB of hard drive space; doing so will take between five and six and a half hours.
 * 2) When the installation completes, reinsert Disc 1 and go fly!

Additionally, scenery can be added or removed at any point in the future by inserting Disc 1 and re-running the installer. When the X-System installer comes up saying &ldquo;You already have X-Plane 10 installed on this computer,&rdquo; click the Add or Remove Scenery button and proceed just like in step step:scenery_select_mac above.

Special Considerations for Mac Users
By default, Mac OS X versions 10.5 (Leopard) and greater are set to automatically back up the entire hard drive using Time Machine. This includes a user&rsquo;s X-Plane directory. Most people would prefer not to have this backed up, due to the fact that it requires a significant amount of space on the backup disk (for something already backed up to DVDs, no less) and the fact that it takes a great deal of time to complete the backup.

For this reason, it is recommended that users exclude the X-Plane directory from Time Machine&rsquo;s backup, either during or shortly after the X-Plane installation, by doing the following:
 * 1) Open the Time Machine preferences, either from the task bar (by clicking the Time Machine icon and selecting &ldquo;Open Time Machine Preferences&rdquo;) or from the System Preferences (by clicking the Time Machine icon there).
 * 2) With the preferences open, click the Options... button.
 * 3) Click the + icon to add a folder to the list of excluded locations.
 * 4) Select the X-Plane installation directory (located by default on the Desktop) and click Exclude.
 * 5) Exit the Time Machine preferences.

Additionally, some users have had issues with Time Machine creating a &ldquo;locked&rdquo; copy of their X-Plane discs. This can cause the X-Plane Disc 1 to appear in Finder as Disc 2, thus forcing X-Plane to run in demo mode. The issue seems to have disappeared in the latest versions of OS X. To correct the problem if it does occur, however, do the following:
 * 1) Download and install the version of the OnyX system utility appropriate to your version of OS X.
 * 2) Run OnyX and select the Parameters tab.
 * 3) Select Finder from the OnyX menu bar and then select Show hidden files and folders from the Misc Options section.
 * 4) Open Finder and click on &ldquo;Macintosh HD&rdquo; (or whatever your installation disk is called). The Volumes directory, which was hidden before, is now visible at the bottom.
 * 5) Go into the Volumes directory and delete the unwanted X-Plane volumes by moving them to the Trash.
 * 6) Eject the X-Plane DVD, empty the Trash, and reboot.
 * 7) After rebooting, the system should be ready to fly as normal using X-Plane&rsquo;s Disc 1.
 * 8) At this point, Onyx may be reopened to turn off the Show hidden files and folders option.

Installation on a Linux PC
For the most up-to-date instructions on installing X-Plane in Linux, please see [Category:Linux the Linux category on the X-Plane Wiki].

Launching X-Plane
Unlike many of the programs you may be familiar with, X-Plane does not create shortcuts to itself across your hard drive. We recommend launching X-Plane by opening the X-Plane 10 installation directory (located by default on the Desktop) and double-clicking the X-Plane icon. However, if you would like, you can create a shortcut (called an alias in OS X) by doing the following:
 * 1) Open the X-Plane installation directory (located by default on the Desktop).
 * 2) In Windows, right-click on the X-Plane.exe icon and select Create Shortcut. In Mac OS, right-click on the X-Plane.app icon and select Make Alias.
 * 3) Drag the shortcut wherever you wish to launch X-Plane from.