X-Plane? Prepar3d? Why not both? Got a new 'puter and happy with it. Some recent screenshots

Even when you don't factor in the financial investment aspect, there's just so much in terms of time investment that I couldn't possibly focus on multiple platforms and get any sort of enjoyment out of it.

Just setting up the controls when you've got an elaborate setup can be an arduous process spanning weeks or months before you get everything right. Even when everything is humming along, some payware plane doesn't use the sim's own control layout and it needs to be tweaked through FSUIPC. Oh boy, now you're juggling FSUIPC profiles which can be yet another can of worms.

Not to mention the time invested in the addons themselves. I mean, everything from downloading, backing up due to download limits, installing them can be a day's work. But you also have to maintain them, sometimes tweak them. Most addons don't have a fancy little launcher that will download the update for you or even tell you when there's an update -- Sometimes you barely know what version you have without looking through obscure folders to find logs or readme files. Then you need to keep yourself situated with your various addons, something that will slowly get more time consuming as your library grows.

And boy, hope you don't run into any compatibility issues or just issues in general with these addons, which some of them are prone to. That's just a troubleshooting session waiting to happen.

Don't even get me started on addons that are tweak or configuration tools, that open up a whole new can of worms for you to sink your teeth into.

I obviously know there's various steps of investment and how much you care about getting your simulator just right but I get an eye twitch whenever people suggest using both like it's the most natural thing in the world, like not using both must just be some sort of bias or not wanting to expand your horizon and then everybody joins in on that happy little circlejerk "Yeah I don't get it either, I use FSX, P3D, X-Plane 1 through 11, DCS, Flight Unlimited and Ace Combat". Stop, just stop it.

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