Do I need the flightsim of the Century?  Skimming through this morning's news I found an article on the upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator.  I read it and it certainly looks inviting.

But I already have two flightsims of the century for the last century, FS9 and FSX, and two flightsims of the century for this century, P3Dv4 and P3Dv5.

FS9 contains all the California Classic retro 1961 airports and ai propliners.  I fly the MAAM DC-3 on it.

FSX is my military simulator for MAIW and I have a stable full of transports, trainers, fighter, and bombers for it.

P3Dv4 has only the TrueEarth sceneries for Washington, Oregon, and Northern California.  I fly only my Quest Kodiak in it.

P3Dv5 contains the entire Orbx world and since I now know how to start my Kodiak in it I fly it and just a handful of other aircraft.

I'm asking myself, "Do I really need another simulator?"  Well, not now.  Let's see how the new latest and greatest works first.  What will people tell me it does that my existing four don't.  Most of all will it accept my Quest Kodiak?  If not then forget it.

Another question is do I have to go online to fly it?  I can't imagine I have enough disc space to hold everything it's reported to have scenerywise.  And if it is an on-line program will there be a one-time cost or will have to subscribe to it?  

Noel 

I would say this very much depends on the flight modeling. You can have P3D or FSX or XPlane look pretty good. Certainly good enough to be visually pleasing and whilst comparisons with the visuals of the new MS sim when seen side-by-side do tend to make the others look a bit lacklustre, taken on their own, this is less of a problem when you are busy driving your aeroplane in the older sims.

Hell, I still choose to fly First Eagles 2 for a bit of WW1 flying action, and that looks like it's off a SEGA Megadrive compared to Rise of Flight, but that's not the point of why I do so, I choose First Eagles 2 over the prettier Rise of Flight because it is a better and more enjoyable WW1 combat flight sim in spite of the visuals.

But... and it is a big but, the new MS sim has a new system for flight modeling, which uses many more criteria for its depiction of flight. Now I'm not in the beta test, so I've not flown it, but I've seen enough videos to observe that it does appear to simulate air mass and turbulence better than either FSX, P3D, AeroFly FS2, or XPlane, and this is really what you should be asking yourself if you are interested in simulating flight, particularly in a smaller GA aeroplane as it would appear you are.

Sure the visuals are a bonus, but it looks to me like the real bonus is a better depiction of flight, and this being the case, I would suggest the answer to your question is that maybe you don't need it, but you might find that you'd want it if it is doing a better job of simulating what you are attempting to simulate.

Edited July 30, 20205 yr by Chock

Chock, for all my flying I never fly at night or in bad weather.  My clouds are set to 2/8 cirrus at 40,000ft.  Minimal turbulence.  I have lots of traffic so I can see airliners at the gates of major airports.  I like closeup scenery which I do not really get with TrueEarth.  I am not a fan of photoreal.

I had enough experience with night flying and turbulence and weather when I was flying for real.  Now it's just to fly in ideal conditions and enjoy the scenery.

But I am not ruling out the new MS Sim.  I want to see what everyone says about it first.

Meanwhile I already have plenty on my plate with the four simulators I already have installed.

Noel 

Yea...I am more and more thinking that for right now I am not going to move to that world. As stated above, I too have been watching how the planes appear in flight and it just does not look right to me. To me they look even worse than the Carenado stuff. I have mixed feelings about the scenery. I do low and slow and can imagine that the tube jocks like the sort of 30,000 ft view. One of the reviewers this morning sort of politely said that they have kind of messed up the ATC from earlier versions as hard as that is to believe. Statements like when the scenery and AI traffic work they are great but things are pretty bad when they don't itis a bit of a mess. I think many of us will in the end be flying a lot of P3d and X-Pain at least until MS has a chance to get some more work done. I just hope the Addon Dev's will continue to support P3d once all the Ms Magic Dust settles back to earth. 

Xbox gamepass is $1 so you don't need to "buy" it, get gamepass trial for a month and then try it out.

So many threads expressing the same expectations and fears that have accompanied every release of a new sim since whenever. Regardless, I'm all in with this one, after 20+ years of flightsims, particularly given the intentions of PMDG, A2A, FSL, VATSIM and others to support it. The atmosphere, scenery, and performance exceed anything out there (yes, I'm privileged...). Will it need work? Of course, just like every other sim platform we've come to know and love/hate. But it's already a beauty that runs fine on my machine (i7 8700, RTX 2070).

And at least some of the default planes exceed Carenado offerings in both looks and guts, IMHO based on some hard experience and expense. I'm looking forward to this!

I need it.

I can't handle flying in FSX or P3D any longer.  I feel like I've been flying in the same sim for over a decade now.  Sure it's improved some but to me P3D still feels like FSX, and I've grown weary of it.

I need a new generation of sims, something which feels and acts modern, and MFS seems to be it.  I need it.

Hehe.  What's your system specs?  I fly a lot of GA and the new sim is going to be great for me!

If you don't want to let go of the investment you put into the technology of yesterdecade or embrace the changes that come with technological advancement, then no, you don't need it. If you're all for a much needed reworking of flight simulators which lacked progress for 14 years in exchange for having to let go of the investment in your current platform for a new platform thats not mature yet, then you should get msfs

or..

If you want the latest game, get it, or not!

It's not an investment, it's a purchase.If something better comes out & you dump that you had before.. how can it have been an investment!

On 7/30/2020 at 12:31 PM, birdguy said:

Do I need the flightsim of the Century?  Skimming through this morning's news I found an article on the upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator.  I read it and it certainly looks inviting.

Noel 

No, you don't need it. But you will try it, and then you will want it. People were reluctant at first to replace their horses and buggies with gasoline-powered autos, but they did (and rapidly, once Henry Ford came up with the Model T that a working man could afford).  We are entering an amazing new era in flight simulation that renders everything preceding it obsolete.

1 hour ago, cobalt said:

But you will try it, and then you will want it.

That's what they told about TrueEarth.  I got it.  I don't care much for it.  I fly around San Francisco a lot and TE Northern California San Francisco Bay Bridges look like they were made of Leggos.  The scenery looks great at 10,000 feet.  But if you fly at 4 or 5000ft AGL the photoreal doesn't look real at all.

I have it on P3D4 and fly in every once in a while.

11 hours ago, Wobbie said:

It's not an investment,

Isn't it?  I've spent over 3,000 dollars US on Orbx Scenery alone.  I haven't yet tallied up how much I've spent on payware aircraft.  It might not be an investment if you only buy the simulator.  But when you add up the addons then yes, it becomes and investment and not something to be discarded lightly for the next shiny object.

Noel. 

I'm ready to move on, especially after watching some videos today. I mean rain turning to snow in real time by moving the temp slider down 😮 Active pause with a drone camera, there are just to many mind blowing features to list. 

If you do stay behind.. have fun. I'm sure by the time CPU's hit 6ghz FSX/P3D will run the way we always wanted it to 😛 

1 hour ago, birdguy said:

I've spent over 3,000 dollars US on Orbx Scenery alone. 

Holy....! And I thought I was deep in the hole with DCS modules.

13 hours ago, Wobbie said:

or..

If you want the latest game, get it, or not!

It's not an investment, it's a purchase.If something better comes out & you dump that you had before.. how can it have been an investment!

I was referring to those who spent thousands of dollars on addons and scenery for their sims. For them it may not be an easy sell as they would have to abandon their investment in the previous sim