MS Flight Simulator 2020

[Octavious]

And I just got a rift s for my bday. I know it won't be supported right away, but it sound alike it will in the not so distant future. For now I'm going to test out some other racing and flying games. I have like a zero space for other types of games so it's a good thing I'm into sims.

[RunningMn9]

Playing this in VR would be insane.

[Octavious]

Playing this in VR would be insane.

Being able to run it in VR would be insane. I have no expectations that this will not set my computer on fire. I did get to try it for a few minutes in Elite Dangerous and it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen in gaming. I mean it legit feels like you are in the ship. I thought it would be cool. I didn't think it would be holy shit this is batshit insane cool though.

[Paradroid]

The only VR headset I have is the Playstation one. The very first thing I did when I got it was fire up Elite: Dangerous to try it out - but PSVR isn't supported. I might have had a little cry about that one.

[Octavious]

Not going to lie, it's f'n amazing sauce. Just wish I had a good HOTAS, but I'm sure as heck not buying one right now.

[gbasden]

Not going to lie, it's f'n amazing sauce. Just wish I had a good HOTAS, but I'm sure as heck not buying one right now.

Elite Dangerous with VR and a HOTAS is just unbelievably cool. I've got the good Thrustmaster stick and throttle and once you know where everything is the immersion is just off the charts.

[Paradroid]

So, apparently Microsoft has signed a deal with some company called Navblue to provide up to date AIRACs to all players. I have to wonder how long the deal will last though. Surely they aren't going to pay for all players to receive the latest AIRACs for the lifetime of FS2020? It's a good marketing move to get players interested though.

Currently I'm subscribed to Navigraph. The Jeppesen charts are awesome and the Charts software is really, really nice. It would be a shame to cancel my subscription because of FS2020, but I suppose I have no idea yet how much my time will be split between it and X-Plane 11.

[Unagi]

So, if a new airport is made in 2021, will FS2020 be updated to include it.

(and for how long will they do that)

With the inclusion of real air traffic, it seems like they would need to have that real air traffic land at this new airport.

And if they do that, they would need to keep everyone’s AIRAC information at least in synch with those updates to the simulated physical world.

Right ?

[Paradroid]

Exactly. I give it a year, tops. It must cost a fortune to buy monthly AIRAC cycles for potentially millions of players. Unless I'm missing something, I don't see how Microsoft would possibly do that for very long.

[Isgrimnur]

So, if a new airport is made in 2021, will FS2020 be updated to include it.

Probable.

Remember that part of the preorder stuff is paying for actual modeled airports.

[malchior]

Not going to lie, it's f'n amazing sauce. Just wish I had a good HOTAS, but I'm sure as heck not buying one right now.

Elite Dangerous with VR and a HOTAS is just unbelievably cool. I've got the good Thrustmaster stick and throttle and once you know where everything is the immersion is just off the charts.

Yep. If you are extra crazy also embed desktops/windows in the VR. So let's say I was flying around exploring, I could look up and watch docked virtual desktops in the VR playing video.

[Octavious]

Not going to lie, it's f'n amazing sauce. Just wish I had a good HOTAS, but I'm sure as heck not buying one right now.

Elite Dangerous with VR and a HOTAS is just unbelievably cool. I've got the good Thrustmaster stick and throttle and once you know where everything is the immersion is just off the charts.

Yep. If you are extra crazy also embed desktops/windows in the VR. So let's say I was flying around exploring, I could look up and watch docked virtual desktops in the VR playing video.

I was watching youtube on a gigantic screen. Even that is freaking amazing. Who needs tvs anymore? I was able to clear enough space for the kiddo to play beat saber without murdering herself or the house. So it's been a win all around so far. I fear I will need to upgrade my computer to make this game worth really playing in VR, but we'll see.

[RunningMn9]

I guess it’s time to dust off the Saitek X-52 FCS and see if it still works!

[RunningMn9]

Well that was unfortunate. The X52 still seems to work, but running Microsoft Flight Simulator X immediately blue screens my computer. That is sub-optimal.

[Isgrimnur]

Video drivers up to date?

[RunningMn9]

Video drivers up to date?

As far as I know, but I will check that.

[Paradroid]

Well, the important thing is the stick still works, right? FS2020 will be here very soon.

[RunningMn9]

Well, the important thing is the stick still works, right? FS2020 will be here very soon.

True. After rebooting, I have been able to play through several tutorials to get used to the controls again.

[Paradroid]

By the way, apparently Navblue is an Airbus company, for whatever that's worth.

Anyway, I was wondering which external tools you guys use to plan your flights? I'm still subscribed to Navigraph for now, so I'll use that to sketch out a rough idea of a flight plan. Then I'll go over to simbrief.com and create a thorough procedure. The resulting OFP is absolutely vital for programming the FMC and it's a nice, intuitive website. I'm sure any hardcore simmers here are already well aware of it though!

During the flight I'll keep Navigraph up because it's tremendously useful to be able to flip between charts, and also rather handily has all the comms frequencies too.

[Paradroid]

So the CEO of Navigraph just put out a video on Youtube explaining why he thinks people should continue to subscribe to their service. It largely boils down to: do you want consistent data across not just MSFS but all plugins? Basically he says their API is available to everyone, especially plugin developers who need consistent data. He also emphasised that they use Jeppesen charts which is the most-preferred and largest set in the world.

I mean, fine, but this rather relies on the MSFS API being tricky to use, or otherwise unavailable to third party devs, and I can't imagine that being the case. Nobody in their right mind would make a flight sim these days without an easy to use API for plugin developers. The video has attracted loads of comments to the effect of "your service is too expensive and MSFS will provide everything I need". So I guess we'll just have to wait and see what it's like once the game releases.

[Octavious]

This is the most excited I've been for a release in a long time. The videos I've seen are just mind blowing the detail. I saw someone fly over Nasau and after being there just last year and instantly recognized the areas it was at. That's freaking nuts.

We plan on flying over my wife's old towns in Europe and I want to try all the crazy airports around the world. Plus it's included in the Xbox gamepass which is awesome sauce.

I'm going to preinstall it today. Xbox shows it the 17th but I'm guessing that's midnight. We shall see.

[Paradroid]

We plan on flying over my wife's old towns in Europe and I want to try all the crazy airports around the world.

I highly recommend landing at LOWI (RWY 08). I just did it myself yesterday in a Cirrus SF50. It's a beautiful descent into a canyon - literally - with the Austrian alps all around you. It looked amazing in X-Plane; I can't wait to see how it will look in MSFS!

[naednek]

do we know if it's going to be included in the xbox game pass for PC?

[Octavious]

do we know if it's going to be included in the xbox game pass for PC?

It sure as heck is! That's where I'm downloading it from tonight to preload.

[Octavious]

We plan on flying over my wife's old towns in Europe and I want to try all the crazy airports around the world.

I highly recommend landing at LOWI (RWY 08). I just did it myself yesterday in a Cirrus SF50. It's a beautiful descent into a canyon - literally - with the Austrian alps all around you. It looked amazing in X-Plane; I can't wait to see how it will look in MSFS!

Bosnia and Germany are my first stops. That sound awesome and I will try that as well. I never got into the old flight sims as the landscape was so boring. To think they have mapped the entire fn world is nuts. I know it won't be perfect by any means but who cares?

My guess is that it won't pickup my house as it's really in the woods but we'll see.

[Carpet_pissr]

Curse whoever started this thread. I've spent countless hours watching Youtube videos of people playing this, mesmerized! Just...wow. I seriously doubt my old flight stick will work with a modern Win 10 system. I wonder what the bare minimum requirement for a decent, modern but not $250 flight stick would be? Is there even anything out there for less than $50 anymore?

[hitbyambulance]

I seriously doubt my old flight stick will work with a modern Win 10 system.

third party drivers - if a controller had any sort of following back in the day, someone's likely made a Win 10 driver for it. cursory internet search...

[Octavious]

I'm just rocking a extreme 3d pro. I have a hotas in the shed somewhere but it's super duper old by now. 3d pro should be fine for now for me. I also use it as my handbrake when playing rally sims.

[Hrdina]

I seriously doubt my old flight stick will work with a modern Win 10 system.

third party drivers - if a controller had any sort of following back in the day, someone's likely made a Win 10 driver for it. cursory internet search...

I am still using my CH Products controllers that I bought over 15 years ago, and they've worked fine with Elite Dangerous at least (stick, throttle, & pedals). I haven't used the Flight Sim Yoke in a long time, though. The toe brakes on the pedals are not working, but I think that's a HW issue and nothing to do with Win 10.

I'm in a weird spot with FS. Like Carpet_pissr, I've been spending a lot of time watching videos of this, and I am definitely interested in getting back into simming. I dug up my old log files, and my last flight in FS was from Houston to Galveston in a Bonanza A36 back in 2006.

The two downsides are a shortage of time and a 6-year-old PC that probably isn't up to running it well. I've got an i7-4770 (16 GB RAM) with a GTX 1650 (4 GB VRAM). Worse, I don't have a disk with enough storage for this thing! The specs that MS posted say you need 150 GB of space.



I looked into getting a huge secondary SSD, but because my motherboard is old (Asus Z87 Deluxe) I'm not even sure if any currently-available SSDs will work with it. I do have one USB external drive with more than enough space, but that sounds painful. Maybe it's time for a new PC, but I've been reluctant to make a purchase like that with everything going on, despite my wife suggesting it.

[Paradroid]

I looked into getting a huge secondary SSD, but because my motherboard is old (Asus Z87 Deluxe) I'm not even sure if any currently-available SSDs will work with it. I do have one USB external drive with more than enough space, but that sounds painful. Maybe it's time for a new PC, but I've been reluctant to make a purchase like that with everything going on, despite my wife suggesting it.

Christ, if your wife actually suggested it then bloody do it! I wouldn't have even blinked before clicking buy.

Above all else though, don't run games from a USB disk. The USB interface will be a massive bottleneck, and there's no way you'll be able to run MSFS.

In other news: I am so ready for this game now. I'm having absolutely tons of fun in X-Plane 11 but I keep running into game-breaking issues. For example, I just had to hand-fly a 737 into VNKT Kathmandu Tribhuvan International (which is basically in a crater within the Himalayas - highly recommended) because halfway through the flight my autopilot went mental. I couldn't do a thing to fix it.

I'm running the beta version of 11.50 so I can't complain because I'll just get told "it's a beta, what do you expect?" But the thing is, Vulkan is only available in the beta currently, and without Vulkan I can't play the game at all. So I just have to suck it up. I'm sure when 11.50 fully releases it will be amazing, but god knows how long that will take.

So...bring on MSFS!

[Hrdina]

I looked into getting a huge secondary SSD, but because my motherboard is old (Asus Z87 Deluxe) I'm not even sure if any currently-available SSDs will work with it. I do have one USB external drive with more than enough space, but that sounds painful. Maybe it's time for a new PC, but I've been reluctant to make a purchase like that with everything going on, despite my wife suggesting it.

Christ, if your wife actually suggested it then bloody do it! I wouldn't have even blinked before clicking buy.

In a normal world that is exactly what would have happened.

Above all else though, don't run games from a USB disk. The USB interface will be a massive bottleneck, and there's no way you'll be able to run MSFS.

Yeah, I knew that. I really need either a big new disk or a new PC.

Does anyone have suggestions about an SSD that I can add to my Z87 Deluxe? What's in there now is a Crucial M500 SSD - 240GB (SATA) - this, I think.

[Blackhawk]

I'm actually really tempted to do this. I haven't spent time with a sim since... Flight Simulator X? And I haven't spent real time since Century of Flight. But the thought of trying to get my CH HOTAS and pedals installed and configured under Win10 makes me shudder.

[hitbyambulance]

The toe brakes on the pedals are not working, but I think that's a HW issue and nothing to do with Win 10.

i think if you can unscrew the case, it might be an easy fix for a broken connection.

But the thought of trying to get my CH HOTAS and pedals installed and configured under Win10 makes me shudder.

if CH Control Manager doesn't work, try RS Mapper: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=205492&page=28

also:

1) Open Device Manager in Windows
2) Find the CH Products list and expand it
3) For every device listed:
A) Right click, then click properties in the window for the device. 
B) Click the Power Management tab, if there is one.  If not, just close the window and move to the next device
C) UNCHECK the box that says “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”
4) restart PC

[Octavious]

I'm actually really tempted to do this. I haven't spent time with a sim since... Flight Simulator X? And I haven't spent real time since Century of Flight. But the thought of trying to get my CH HOTAS and pedals installed and configured under Win10 makes me shudder.

I have a feeling it won't be as difficult as you think it will be. I've plugged in a lot of older stuff and it works fine.

[DOS=HIGH]

Curse whoever started this thread.

This game went from Alpha to release pretty darn fast. I want to see some benchmarks before I bite. I think I'll be fine at 1080p, but my monitor is 3440x1440. I'm also curious to see how well this actually runs in VR.

[Carpet_pissr]

In other news: I am so ready for this game now. I'm having absolutely tons of fun in X-Plane 11 but I keep running into game-breaking issues. For example, I just had to hand-fly a 737 into VNKT Kathmandu Tribhuvan International (which is basically in a crater within the Himalayas - highly recommended) because halfway through the flight my autopilot went mental. I couldn't do a thing to fix it.

Is it even considered to be a game at this point? (I guess at any point in its history, but it just seems to be very far in the actual "sim" category at this point with the hyper-realism and true to life controls, etc).

[Octavious]

Didn't start to preload on the xbox store before I left for work today. I downloaded 1 gig yesterday and went into a holding pattern. I was really hoping they might unlock it at midnight, but I'm guessing that's not likely. As luck would have it I do have off Wednesday to give it a proper go. I have a huge bucket list of things I want to try. One of them is to land a sea plane in the big lake near my house.

[coopasonic]

In other news: I am so ready for this game now. I'm having absolutely tons of fun in X-Plane 11 but I keep running into game-breaking issues. For example, I just had to hand-fly a 737 into VNKT Kathmandu Tribhuvan International (which is basically in a crater within the Himalayas - highly recommended) because halfway through the flight my autopilot went mental. I couldn't do a thing to fix it.

Is it even considered to be a game at this point? (I guess at any point in its history, but it just seems to be very far in the actual "sim" category at this point with the hyper-realism and true to life controls, etc).

If it's on GAMEpass it has to be a game!

[Paradroid]

Is it even considered to be a game at this point? (I guess at any point in its history, but it just seems to be very far in the actual "sim" category at this point with the hyper-realism and true to life controls, etc).

Well, even though I'm totally capable of flying a 737 in X-Plane, I would hazard a guess that I wouldn't be qualified to do it for reals! So as far as I'm concerned, yes, it's a game. But you're right that it's considered extremely realistic; apparently it's even used in commercial settings.

[malchior]

Didn't start to preload on the xbox store before I left for work today. I downloaded 1 gig yesterday and went into a holding pattern. I was really hoping they might unlock it at midnight, but I'm guessing that's not likely. As luck would have it I do have off Wednesday to give it a proper go. I have a huge bucket list of things I want to try. One of them is to land a sea plane in the big lake near my house.

It appears Steam/MS store doesn't have a real pre-load on this. I'm going to start it at midnight when it unlocks and check it out in the morning. There are some good live streams going right now. It's looking real solid.