X-Plane Multiplayer Formation Flying (How To in Description)
Decided to test out the multiplayer in X-Plane today with 505Assassin. We started out on RWY 08 at the KABQ airport, then transitioned over to KAEG for a few ILS approaches. The whole time we took advantage of the simulator and maintained some VERY close formation flying! Enjoy.
X-Plane 11 P2P was relatively easy to set up, once we knew what we were doing. It did take a bit of tech background to figure out, so here are some instructions on what we did.
1. Note down your public IP address. You can get it from https://www.whatismyip.com.
2. Note down your private IP address. You can get it from command line, Windows command is ipconfig.
3. This is the hardest part, you'll need to enable port forwarding on your router to allow X-Plane data to properly route to your computer. With the same ipconfig command, you can find out your routers IP address, it will be listed as the gateway address. Take that gateway address and open it in a browser (Something like http://192.168.0.1). If it asks for a log in, you can usually find it on the bottom of the router. You are now looking for a WAN or Internet tab and then something like Firewall or Port Forwarding. Every router is different. What you are looking to add is a port forward rule that has port 49000 being routed to your computer's private IP address from step 2 (target). Save that configuration.
4. Now go to X-Plane settings, Network. There's an area to connect to multiplayer machines. Enter your friends public IP address and make sure your computer role is Master (You and your friend will both be Masters). You know it's working if you see communication out to that IP address listed in the X-Plane Network tab as 'Just now'. Once your friend connects in the same fashion, you'll see incoming communication showing as 'Just now' as well (and it should appear with your friend's public IP address).
Troubleshooting tip #1: If you have trouble seeing the incoming or outgoing traffic, try disabling your computer's firewall and antivirus temporarily.
Troubleshooting tip #2: If you both show as connected and you cannot see each other, try disabling any added plugins.
FYI, you need to be on the same version of X-Plane as your friend and have the same aircraft installed. Your X-Plane will not know how to show your friends Boeing 787 if you don't have it installed as well. We also got our custom liveries to work by trading them and placing them in the liveries folder.
Hope this helps!
Equipment:
NaturalPoint TrackIR for 3D head movement
Logitech Extreme 3D Pro Joystick
Logitech G35 headset
PilotEdge on iPad Mini connected to X-Plane
Rig:
EVGA GTX980