MSFS hands on review at X019

[Baber20 1,438]

A member of a closed facebook group of MSFS was fortunate enough to try MSFS at X019. He also uploaded his screens of him simming at their booth. So its legit. This is what he posted:

 

MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2020 review and opinion 

So today I was fortunate enough to be invited down to XO19 and given a complimentary ticket (thanks to the team if they’re loitering I’m this group) 

Below I have summed up 8 main points and my overall opinion of what I went for, which was to get my hands on Microsoft flight simulator 2020.

Bare in mind I am no mainstream reviewer and I don’t write but find my own experience of the sim below and points I took away from it.

I had 4 total main goes and spent quite some time chatting to the team also.

1 go on free flight over Italy in the 172
1 go on free flight over Renton  in the 172
2 goes at the robin mission to land at courcheval. 

A mixture of weather was thrown to me as I requested, from clear no wind, to major rain and pitch black with strong wind.

The overall take away was that this is a completely different beast from what we are used to, but we all already know that.

The guts have already been leaked and they also freely told me what they were hiding behind the solid black locked boxes.

- RTX 2080 Ti
- 32 GB ram 
- Intel i7 but didn’t get the model, I assume a 9700k 

As you can see in the picture also, we were given a few patches with sticky backs to take too so that was a lovely touch from them.

It was very enjoyable seeing so many different people try the sim, what you expect to be the underdog at XO19 because it’s not so mainstream actually had the biggest queue while I was there. It was incredibly popular and the team were loving the positive feedback from everyone.

The setup was the thrustmaster pedals, along with saitek throttle quadrant and the honeycomb yoke.

Thank you to Shaun who sneakily took some pictures of my ugly word not allowed self while I was on the sim.

Sadly those are the only photos I got as I was so busy And overwhelmed and talking so much that I didn’t take any.

Please read below for some further detail.

1. Graphics

The sim was running on 4K monitors, having tried all 3 scenes in different weather and lighting I can safely say the preview videos such as the trailer do not do it justice to what it really is.

It was noted to me that we were of course as you can guess running on the highest detail, and it really did show.

My favourite part of the entire thing was actually the lighting on the ground and the clouds from below.

The detail was the highest I’ve ever seen across any game or platform and the detail really was in the small things.

2. Dynamics

Having only flown the 172 and the robin there, the aerodynamics were quite honestly on point, very lifelike the aircraft is never still as we expect from the FSX/P3D rail system. It was a constant battle on the hard dynamic preset to keep the aircraft in a straight line much like in real life.

Having only flown a pa28 and Cessna 152, plus an xa42 for real, the dynamics were all close enough to understand anyway comparatively.

The way the aircraft behaves in all weather systems was quite mind blowing because we really aren’t used to that at all.

You can absolutely feel the different points at which the aircraft is hit by wind etc.. and so it affects that section of the aircraft only as was explained to us.

One point to mention also is the use of ground effect and wind which was demonstrated to me very very well.

I was told to aim for 65 knots on the courcheval approach and they said wait for it.. so I approached at 65 on approach and over the trees, now on reaching the trees the wind actually fully threw my wing over and at such a low speed this resulted in a full crash into the ridge line of course, there was no possible recovery which is part the reason they said why this airport is of course so dangerous.

3. UI

Not much to say here of course except it’s crisp and clean and was still the same as in the screenshots that were released from the Seattle trips. 

The same goes for the slider to select weather.

4. The live weather slider

So this to me is one of my favourite additions to this sim, although still only a very early build the slider to select time of day works very efficiently although does lag at points on their 2080 ti machines but this will of course be optimised as expected.

On this section also above the slider comes a preset selector, this one is for weather to be live fed, the presets as I remember were rain, clear, cloud, live data I can’t fully remember them all.

On switching these though, the aircraft will react instantly to the change and will at this point be quite an issue to some as it throws the aircraft about quite abit (this should also be fixed).

5. Missions 

Now, we can’t say much on this of course because we know they will be coming, however the Courcheval landing challenge was definitely set out as a mission and had a very good scoring system.  

The devs stated to me that it will score FPM on descend, touch down zone placement, landing rate fpm, speed.

It also had a leaderboard there showing everyone’s scores built in and that was quite nearly displayed.

6. Cockpits 

All cockpits were fully functioning, the devs stated for example the G1000 was fully functioning however I didn’t get to use all of it at the time.

A nice feature I don’t think I’ve seen is in fact the swinging of the compass and misalignment actually occurred also at one point I noticed compared with my DI.

7. Sounds 

Although the sound was at a fairly low level (gotta protect the younger ears of course) I could clearly hear the dimensions of rain hitting the aircraft at different points of the aircraft and a mixture of the sounds together for example the glass and aluminium surfaces have different pitches and this was distinctive. 

8. Overall opinion 

I BLOODY LOVE IT

p.s I’m still shaking the adrenaline off and I mean that! My excitement levels have never been so high and my expectations have never been shattered so much as today. 

I can’t wait for this to be in everyone’s hands (machines)

[Sartanius 399]

Thanks for your hands-on review, Baber.  One more positive experience for the community to assess.  And thanks for the PC specs.  No doubt high end so everyone's experiences at the show could be crisp and smooth.  Pretty exciting stuff!

[Baber20 1,438]

21 minutes ago, dmiannay said:

Thanks for your hands-on review, Baber. 

Hi dmiannay,

I think you misread. I am just sharing someone else's experience. 

Regarding performance, he also confirmed in an answer to someone's question that the sim was running at a locked 4k 60fps. 

[Sartanius 399]

4 minutes ago, Baber20 said:

Hi dmiannay,

I think you misread. I am just sharing someone else's experience. 

Regarding performance, he also confirmed in an answer to someone's question that the sim was running at a locked 4k 60fps. 

Yep, I sure did misread that.  Thanks for clarifying.  Being locked at 4k and 60 fps is going to get a lot of attention.  Thanks!

[MatthewS 761]

2 hours ago, Baber20 said:

I could clearly hear the dimensions of rain hitting the aircraft at different points of the aircraft and a mixture of the sounds together for example the glass and aluminium surfaces have different pitches and this was distinctive. 

This is great!

I hope also the intensity of the rain is represented both visually and aurally. 

I would think that, in a light plane, flying at 200 KTS in heavy rain would be deafening, compared to doing a preflight, engine off, in light rain.

[speedyTC 194]

I'm assuming that the 2080ti was plugged in because of the 4K aspect of the demos. Wondering whether a "lesser" card would do if one limits themselves to 1440. Not everyone, however much we'd like to, can afford a 4K setup.

[Baber20 1,438]

16 minutes ago, speedyTC said:

I'm assuming that the 2080ti was plugged in because of the 4K aspect of the demos. Wondering whether a "lesser" card would do if one limits themselves to 1440. Not everyone, however much we'd like to, can afford a 4K setup.

I am quite positive you will be able to do 1080p 60fps on mid range gpus like Rtx 2060, Gtx 1070ti. 4k 60fps is insanely taxing on a gpu. For example a friend of mine who has 2080ti can do 4k60 on new call of duty while my 2060 easily does 70+fps at ultra settings at 2560 x 1080 res. I am guessing the hardware scales the similar way in msfs. Similarly 1440p 60fps should  be achievable on something like Rtx 2070 super.

Edited November 16, 2019 by Baber20

[Nedo68 533]

4 hours ago, Baber20 said:

5. Missions

It also had a leaderboard there showing everyone’s scores built in and that was quite nearly displayed.

First thank you for the Interview!

I really love the Missions stuff, something we online racer have allready for years, not everyone but the few choosen one will have fun 😁

[Quasimodo 505]

Sounds very promising indeed. Especially the 60fps. I'm making my return to VR this black friday after a 5 month absence with a HP Reverb even if its not discounter. I hope MSFS is VR ready when its released. Its gonna be amazing but if there is no VR I'll be sticking with P3D for now. At some point there will be VR if not from day 1.

[SierraHotel 974]

4 hours ago, MatthewS said:

This is great!

I hope also the intensity of the rain is represented both visually and aurally. 

I would think that, in a light plane, flying at 200 KTS in heavy rain would be deafening, compared to doing a preflight, engine off, in light rain.

"7. Sounds 

Although the sound was at a fairly low level (gotta protect the younger ears of course) I could clearly hear the dimensions of rain hitting the aircraft at different points of the aircraft and a mixture of the sounds together for example the glass and aluminium surfaces have different pitches and this was distinctive."

[MikeT707 1,181]

10 hours ago, MatthewS said:

I would think that, in a light plane, flying at 200 KTS in heavy rain would be deafening, compared to doing a preflight, engine off, in light rain.

That would really add to the immersion. 

[jpc55 185]

At 48 sec. into the X019 trailer there is a 172 cruising up what looks like a tributary, does anyone recognize this location?

Thank you, I hope someone does.

[highflyer2020 607]

On ‎11‎/‎16‎/‎2019 at 12:31 PM, Baber20 said:

8. Overall opinion 

I BLOODY LOVE IT

p.s I’m still shaking the adrenaline off and I mean that! My excitement levels have never been so high and my expectations have never been shattered so much as today. 

I can’t wait for this to be in everyone’s hands (machines)

 

Well I that does nothing to get rid of my excitement for this new simulator! 

Edited December 10, 2019 by n4gix
REMOVED EXCESSIVE QUOTE!!!

[sightseer 895]

17 hours ago, jpc55 said:

At 48 sec. into the X019 trailer there is a 172 cruising up what looks like a tributary, does anyone recognize this location?

At 49 seconds, from inside the cockpit -- To me it looks like the Darrington/ concrete area and its one of the shots I pulled out as a picture.  I dont really know where it is though...just a guess.

[jpc55 185]

4 hours ago, sightseer said:

I dont really know where it is though...just a guess.

I think you are right, I will do some comparing.

Thanks again!