August 22, 2019 Update

[AviatorMan 253]

On ‎8‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 4:55 AM, dtrjones said:

Well I would say X-Plane scenery is good a night when the lights make things believable enough for your 'mind' to fill in the gaps!

Why all of this discussion of X-Plane? This is a discussion of MSFS 2020.

Edited August 26, 2019 by n4gix
REMOVED EXCESSIVE QUOTE!!! Please stop quoting the entire post you are replying to!

[ca_metal 2,037]

30 minutes ago, AviatorMan said:

Why all of this discussion of X-Plane? This is a discussion of MSFS 2020.

Because FSX/P3D/X-Plane/Aerofly are the sims we currently use. They can serve us as benchmarks for what we want/don't want on the MSFS2020.

[andyjohnston.net 620]

On ‎8‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 4:09 AM, simmerhead said:

Fun fact. Never knew that FS was used to test computers 🙂

Yes I've only read about it, wasn't involved,) back in the days when there were the IBM pcs, and the "compatibles," flight sim was used as a tool.  If the computer in question could handle running the software, it was considered fairly good.

[Paraffin 2,197]

47 minutes ago, andyjohnston.net said:

Yes I've only read about it, wasn't involved,) back in the days when there were the IBM pcs, and the "compatibles," flight sim was used as a tool.  If the computer in question could handle running the software, it was considered fairly good.

Yep, my first computer was one of the early clones, a Sanyo MBC 550 that could run flight sim, and was a heck of a lot cheaper than the IBM PC. 

[Deleted 250]

Intentionally light this week as we prep for a larger update next week.

I'm so excited. What will come?

[ca_metal 2,037]

3 minutes ago, Pitbull2504 said:

Intentionally light this week as we prep for a larger update next week.

I'm so excited. What will come?

According to their roadmap, they will talk about the Build Program. It's usually how they call their Beta Test program. They will probably present it to us. That's my bet why this update will be larger.

But I could be wrong and they planned to show things that are out of the roadmap preview. They will also release a roadmap for the general public (non-insiders), and it will be probably a more definitive one.

[dtrjones 356]

13 hours ago, AviatorMan said:

Why all of this discussion of X-Plane? This is a discussion of MSFS 2020.

I was providing some context about what Microsoft 2020 and it's predecessors did well over its competitors, sometimes it’s easy to forget what you have in the rush to look for things you desire which to some may not be as important.

I also think the technical comparisons are valid as Microsoft have themselves stated that this will be a class leading simulator so I think to quantify and ask questions of Microsoft then it's fair that we discuss all aspects of the simulator in relation to what currently classifies as a class leading sim, apologies I'm paraphrasing slightly but hopefully you know what I mean!

[dtrjones 356]

7 hours ago, ca_metal said:

According to their roadmap, they will talk about the Build Program. It's usually how they call their Beta Test program. They will probably present it to us. That's my bet why this update will be larger.

But I could be wrong and they planned to show things that are out of the roadmap preview. They will also release a roadmap for the general public (non-insiders), and it will be probably a more definitive one.

We've all be dazzled by the preview clips so far, but I think we should soon see some verified in-game footage soon (not sure when). That's something I'm very much looking forward to in particular I'm hoping to see how clouds and aircraft reflections are rendered. I just need to know what's likely to included in the delivered product what is somebodies pie in the sky tech demo.

[Airboeing 87]

On 8/24/2019 at 11:55 AM, dtrjones said:

Well I would say X-Plane scenery is good a night when the lights make things believable enough for your 'mind' to fill in the gaps! However lets be honest X-Plane scenery out the box isn't great even with good OSM data in north America and Europe, 7 wonders of the world forget that - there is literally nothing to see apart from a few generic US cities. Even the recent city updates are severely lacking compared to FSX when it released.

That again shows just how differently people perceive things.

When I switched from FSX/Prepar3D (I think it was v2.5 back then) to X-Plane 10, it was a no-brainer descision because of two things: how easy it was to get great visuals and fps without needing to do fine-tuning or editing config files, and because of how great the scenery looked out of the box compared to my FSX/P3D setup with Orbx Global and Vector.

And I don't even fly at night, so I don't care about better night lighting at all.

I also use (or have used) P3D v3 and v4, but it always just felt like FSX with a boob job when it comes to scenery.

 

Judging by the previews, MSFSXX is the first sim that again gives me that "wow" factor, so I'll happily switch sims again if they can live up to my expectations.

Edited August 27, 2019 by Airboeing

[G-RFRY 1,744]

Reading the threads I don't know why XPlane users are bothering with this nothing will match their expectations.

[Airboeing 87]

6 minutes ago, rjfry said:

Reading the threads I don't know why XPlane users are bothering with this nothing will match their expectations.

Well, as I wrote, I'll happily switch to the new MSFS if they can provide what they promise with their preview videos and screenshots.

Just because Prepar3D can't match our expectations doesn't mean that MSFS won't. 😉

[F737MAX 5,817]

6 hours ago, Airboeing said:

Just because Prepar3D can't match our expectations doesn't mean that MSFS won't. 😉

Here's hoping.

As Ray identified however, there seems to be an expectation by some that the new MSFS needs to be 'the next XP' for current XP users to be happy enough to switch. That's an entirely unrealistic proposition and will only lead to disappointment.

There are elements from both XP and P3D that are useful to use as examples of what works well. But, there's so much improvement to be had over both of these sims. It would be disappointing to create noise and try to encourage Microsoft to look at 'what works well' in current flight sims, rather than looking at where the wider gaming market has gone and try to bring the performance, visuals, leveraging of current hardware and user experiences in gaming into our hobby.

It will take some kicking and screaming, but flight simming desperately needs to be dragged into 2019 / 2020.

[soloraj 38]

On 8/24/2019 at 4:09 PM, simmerhead said:

Fun fact. Never knew that FS was used to test computers 🙂

I didn't climb aboard until FS98. I found the early version to be absolutely terrible. So much more fun to play LHX, Chuck Yeager's, Fighter Bomber, F-19, Interceptor, Red Baron, Wings, ATP etc. 

I remember back in the day, PC's were marketed as being "Fight Sim compatible" to certify thier power credentials.

[vortex681 806]

15 hours ago, dtrjones said:

We've all be dazzled by the preview clips so far, but I think we should soon see some verified in-game footage soon (not sure when).

And when they do, they need to tell us the specification of the system it's running on. To often in the past, game developers have shown live capture of games but have failed to mention that it was running on something that the average user could only dream about.

[Superdelphinus 718]

Partly that’s because it’s a bit irrelevant what unoptimised code is running on I think, and could cause more trouble than it’s worth.