I will go into further detail how this is done in my next article. The rest of the graphics in X-Plane kind of follows the mild feeling of disappointment you get from the aircraft visuals. The scenery is your basic terrain mesh with textures on top. The default scenery looks good, but not better than that. I can t really explain this.
Objects are sparse, as in most flight simulators.
Sounds are nothing to get overly exhilarated about. They do the job, but leave much to be desired. You have noises for wind drag, engines, gear movement, flap movement, touch down, etc. Luckily for us, there are quite a few that are good at doing their custom made sounds. So once again we have to look to third-party developers for the best sounds.