Random thoughts on Microsoft Flight Simulator

[Charl]

Ahh the penny just dropped for me.
The internet in NZ is presently broken sporadically, and Spark have no explanation.

The explanation is: Microsoft and its new Flight Simulator!

[AdrianPetford]

Is the Logitech gamepad recognised and mapped to views automatically or do you need to do that manually?

It just worked.

Good to hear you are up and running Rob. I use a Logitech 710 Gamepad as a controller on multiple platforms and have always been happy with it.

This thread has been very useful and enlightening so far. I don't have the new sim just yet but how NZ is rendered is, of course, one of the main purchasing factors for me.

I always imagined I would be on P3D permanently from now on. Strange times indeed to think I have held off buying v5 in favour of a new Microsoft Flight Simulator instead.

Has anyone tried MFS with the Thrustmaster T-16000M and TWCS Throttle HOTAS yet as that's my usual setup? Fully expecting to have to rebind everything to my liking as usual. Fortunately, I have all my preferred flight controls for the various simulators on a very long spreadsheet!

[deaneb]

After a long break from FS (mainly due to work) I have just installed FS2020 and I'm very impressed. This is a game changer. I can't believe I can run it with all settings at high and get great frame rates.
Sure there are some obvious issues, like lack of NZ landmarks and trees which are far too big. But once the design tools are understood these will be able to be fixed.
Its awesome, and I can't wait to see this sim mature.

[FlyingKiwi]

Yesterday I went for a quick flight around the Pukekohe/Mercer area and I was super impressed to find that almost all of the unpublished airstrips (Drury, Pukekohe East, Patumahoe etc.) that I'm aware of out there in real life show up correctly in FS! Some of them even have buildings that correctly resemble hangars. Even the agricultural strips show up with the concrete bins visible. (although I think the bins might be flat surface textures rather than 3D, I haven't landed to check)

I noticed a couple of problems too - the Pukekohe race track seems to be half old satellite data and half new data, and the bridges over the track appear as flat textures on the track surface. Ardmore itself looks a bit weird, mainly because of the significantly oversized trees (see below) and there are a few small facility inaccuracies where real life access roads show up as taxiways, but overall the scenery has exceeded my expectations which I'll admit were already quite high based on what we had seen in previews.

Also note that there is a method for reducing the size of the autogen trees, see here: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/ho ... FO0KrHZazo

A couple of other random observations from experiences so far - I reduced the ground vehicle traffic density dramatically, otherwise small airfields like Ardmore and North Shore have far too many trucks and busses and so forth whizzing around, and the default control sensitivities are way too sensitive, but once I turned those right down the flight model feels much better.

[tanken2]

Was looking at flight plans on Simbreif that I use for X Plane 11 and saw that MSFS 2020 is now supported , tried it out and yes I can download and upload my old briefings in the World page. Developers are onto it already

[deaneb]

Also note that there is a method for reducing the size of the autogen trees, see here: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/ho ... FO0KrHZazo

Thanks for that link. I can't get into flightsimulator.com, (typical Microsoft) but when its back up I will check it out

[ardypilot]

After quite a few years out the loop, I'm also getting back on the bandwagon with the FS2020 release. I've just ordered a new PC to be able to run the beast, just wondering if there are any particular advantages to installing through Steam vs Microsoft Store?

[Naki]

Latest download had the same result. Have deleted the sim and started all over again. When I left it to go to work it was downloading a lot faster. Third time lucky?

Did you get it working? Although it sounds like you've read about the potential issues, I did notice when I downloaded it that it got "stuck" for quite long periods of time at certain amounts downloaded with seemingly no progress. I just left it going overnight and it was done by the early hours of the morning.

I think I have finally! - it got stuck on an update several times but last night I went through some more fixes I read online and it started again and it was on its way. Was about 80% when I left for work so should be all done when I get home, touch wood. Its been about week of attempts.

Good to see some old faces! - ...its like old times when FSX came out.

[toprob]

After quite a few years out the loop, I'm also getting back on the bandwagon with the FS2020 release. I've just ordered a new PC to be able to run the beast, just wondering if there are any particular advantages to installing through Steam vs Microsoft Store?

Welcome back, if I knew you were coming I'd have tidied the place up a bit...

For me it was simple, I went with MS because I had the alpha/beta, which installed via the MS store. I do like Steam for its convenience, but in this case I think that there have been a couple of extra wrinkles with those who chose Steam. Hopefully these solved now.

I've never had a problem with Microsoft, I'm always maintained that you should only sell your soul once, and I gave mine to MS a long time ago.

[FlyingKiwi]

I use Steam for most of my games, but I just went through the MS store for FS since I figured it was the most 'direct' way. Had a couple of issues with the install but they were related to my MS account (turns out I was signed in with the wrong email address), once the installation actually got under way I didn't have any problems. Just note, as I said above, you can expect it will get "stuck" at certain points during the download and appear to be doing nothing, but it is still working.

[NZ255]

After quite a few years out the loop, I'm also getting back on the bandwagon with the FS2020 release. I've just ordered a new PC to be able to run the beast, just wondering if there are any particular advantages to installing through Steam vs Microsoft Store?

Hey mate,
Yeah I don’t think either way matters. The one advantage I’ve seen for the steam version is it’s a tad easier to add the -FastLaunch to the exe to skip the intro videos.
https://amp.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftFligh ... logos_set/

[Charl]

I run AFS2 on Steam and it's been quite painless.
Only consideration might be for aftermarket addons: Steam takes a hefty cut and so developers first release outside Steam, and after the first rush is over, to Steam users.
Also, can freeware be loaded into a Steam install directly?

[toprob]

I run AFS2 on Steam and it's been quite painless.
Only consideration might be for aftermarket addons: Steam takes a hefty cut and so developers first release outside Steam, and after the first rush is over, to Steam users.
Also, can freeware be loaded into a Steam install directly?

Does the inbuilt Marketplace work on Steam? There's still a lot I don't know.... but yeah, developers may pick and choose where to release, and when

Yeah I don’t think either way matters. The one advantage I’ve seen for the steam version is it’s a tad easier to add the -FastLaunch to the exe to skip the intro videos.

Since the alpha I've used the FSdevmodelauncher.exe which comes with the SDK, although I still get the 'press any key', dammit.

[ardypilot]

Cool thanks for the tips guys- think I’ll go with the MS route for the addon/mod accessibility.

Couple of other questions- has anyone got screenshots of the real time AI in action? I’m guessing it’s just generic livery airlines flying around based off the flightaware data rather than Koru and Jet* tails etc?

Also what’s with the live streaming scenery for each flight? Due to the massive filesize installed locally, is it just the land class type files that are being pulled from a Bing maps server with the textures files kept on ones own computer?

And is there any info in terms of the res of the mesh NZ gets? The orbx stuff for FSX seemed pretty good, would be interested to see how the our the box base scenery compares for NZ.

Cheers!

[toprob]

At the moment the real-world traffic is few and far between, for some reason, otherwise I'd pop in and get a screenshot. I did have a quick look, and all I could see was an Aero Club Piper landing at NZCH, a low-res generic model. I'm pretty sure that liveries will come, but at the moment I think that there's only one real livery -- United?

If you don't use data streaming, you will see landclass textures pre-installed. If you stream, you'll see the photo scenery and photogrammetry in supported areas. I must admit I've never seen the landclass.

The elevation mesh is not great at the moment, there are no pointy bits at all in the Alps, for instance. We are waiting on SDK support for mesh, and I can't wait to see it improved in places! Considering we have the resources to remesh the whole country in Prepar3d, X-plane and Aerofly FS2, this is one area which MFS doesn't yet match. (The elevation tools are in the works, and shouldn't be long...)

[Timmo]

I'm also awaiting the terrain part of the SDK docs and tools....my current laptop barely runs FS2020 but I've been playing around with Blender and Blender2FS2020.
There's definitely some small tweaks which would go a long way to making NZ more like NZ: The tree size is a common complaint, but also the species definitions don't seem particularly accurate (i.e. no plantation pine!)

[deaneb]

I'm also awaiting the terrain part of the SDK docs and tools....my current laptop barely runs FS2020 but I've been playing around with Blender and Blender2FS2020.
There's definitely some small tweaks which would go a long way to making NZ more like NZ: The tree size is a common complaint, but also the species definitions don't seem particularly accurate (i.e. no plantation pine!)

Hi Timmo, I have done a bit of playing around and have found the following with regard to trees:

• The trees are controlled by XML files located in [wherever you installed MSFS]\Official\Steam\fs-base\vegetation

• 10-asobo_biomes.xml specifies the species types and percentage distribution, by country areas.

• 10-asobo_species.xml specifies the tree types and there spawn sizes. I have reduced mine down a bit as some trees are 30m high.

I have not had a lot of time to play with it, but see how you go. From what I can see our area names are New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Fiordland, Chatham Island and maybe and Rakiura Island

[Timmo]

hmm ok, so distribution of species is controlled, as are areas...I think we can add custom biomes so maybe that's the way. The biomes need to be quite accurate, spatially, as plantation pine is essentially a mono culture not a distribution.
...its hard to get to grips with how it all comes together without full documentation