This sim is MAGNIFICENT

[duckbilled 310]

I've been pretty critical of the sim, but I have strung together several uneventful flights over the past 2 weeks or so. The last couple versions of the FBW package have been really good/stable, and the only issues I'm having these days involve cleaning up the flightplans once they are imported. Since I almost only flew the PMDG NGX and the QW787 in P3D, I attribute most of those issues to my growing pains with the Airbus MCDU. Still, if I create a flightplan in Simbrief, and import it into Navigraph charts and MSFS, I'm getting a few differences in the waypoints included. Not sure what the issue is, but it seems like the waypoints in Navigraph and in the MCDU should be identical. I do recall FBW saying that Navigraph could cause issues, so I'm not sure if the issues are do to that, user error, or that things are WIP. Certainly not a show stopper.

Still, no one is off the hook until I see worldwide tropical water masks. Without the water masks, GA is pointless in the sim for me. It is like flying in the Rocky Mountains, but all of the ground textures are summer grass.

[Noel 4,507]

49 minutes ago, speil said:

Meanwhile, P3D v5.1 is my simulator of choice.

P3D is really a fantastic piece of work, at least by the time GSX I/II, ASN, SkyForce, and FSCaptain are on board.  After flying MSFS 95% of the time since release I've really been enjoying P3D again, at least for a few times a week.  I find as long as I fly from dusk til dawn P3D really shines, or glows as it were.  All of the features in P3D I really enjoy, which is of course tied to the rituals of following procedures and being 'graded' by FSCaptain.  What I've discovered is I can dial back sliders very far from the prior incessant desire to make P3D look decent and with it the need to stop and adjust when in the dense metro terminals, because w/ dusk<>dawn flying scenery doesn't matter, at all!  This, I have found, is very liberating.  In fact, if I were just getting into flying airliners (fav is PMDG 777, f/b NGXu) I would simply avoid the added costs of Orbx regional scenery and go w/ default.  I can see add-on airports as they matter in flying passenger jets.

I don't see it the way this comment implies:  "and it still has a long way to transition from game to sim."  In my mind, turning MSFS into a more complete 'sim', is really the truly easy part:  FSDT & PMDG are certainly saying they are onboard when the SDK permits.  And here's the reality:  all of this has already been done in FSX & P3D so no need to innovate, though I'm certain MS/A will if the rest of MSFS is any indication.   The really hard part is creating what MS/Asobo already has done, and done shockingly well, for what it is, and for how long it has been available post-release.  Just think about what you see in nearly the entire world.  It's truly astounding from not only the photogrammetry but all of the airports themselves including nothing-burger rural airports all over the world, and how much improved they are over anything out of default P3D.  The atmospherics, ground vehicles, everything.  And really, it's just getting started.

So yes, one gets a real bonus by NOT trying to make P3D compete visually w/ MSFS, and use it for what it does so very well:  simulate airline cockpit operations.  It is really a pleasant change to be able to fly into my home terminal KDEN-HD and have ample CPU/GPU headroom and liquid smooth operations now from taxi to arrival gates no matter where we are--very liberating!

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

3 minutes ago, Noel said:

So yes, one gets a real bonus by NOT trying to make P3D compete visually w/ MSFS, and use it for what it does so very well:  simulate airline cockpit operations.

And GA cockpit operations..  I love getting back into my personal Baytower RV7A and taking it for a flight.

No terrain spikes, no funny coast lines, no avionics mishaps.. 🙂

[Tuskin38 6,532]

22 hours ago, Greazer said:

Well Asobo are game developers, and it still has a long way to transition from game to sim.

It's more of a sim than FSX was without addons.

[Wewk584 137]

Ive decided that folks  can call MSFS whatever they want to. Avsim beat me down a long time ago. If people want to call this a game..  call it a game... they can call it a rock.. a bird..  I wont stop anyone.. have at it.  ..  i just know  i fly  this 'game' the same why I fly when Im in x-plane.. I just enjoy when i look out the window alot more.  

 

 

[derekG-1 4]

1 hour ago, Wewk584 said:

Ive decided that folks  can call MSFS whatever they want to. Avsim beat me down a long time ago. If people want to call this a game..  call it a game... they can call it a rock.. a bird..  I wont stop anyone.. have at it.  ..  i just know  i fly  this 'game' the same why I fly when Im in x-plane.. I just enjoy when i look out the window alot more.  

Yea, got to agree with this. I let the autopilot do the hard work so that I can spend more time checking out the great scenery down below. I have Littlenavmap running on a remote computer and it tells me the names of all those towns, villages, rivers, lakes etc down there. Really good stuff.

[Noel 4,507]

10 hours ago, derekG-1 said:

Yea, got to agree with this. I let the autopilot do the hard work so that I can spend more time checking out the great scenery down below. I have Littlenavmap running on a remote computer and it tells me the names of all those towns, villages, rivers, lakes etc down there. Really good stuff.

Ironically I'm 'hand-flying' far more than I ever have, but that is largely because it's manageable since one isn't quite as busy readying the cockpit, PAX loading, anti-ice treatments in the PMDG 777.   I hand-fly the TBM930 at least until I reach ToC then resume hand-flying much earlier during approach.  Great to have LNM to understand what I'm looking at I really enjoy that as well.  It will be amazing to have planes from PMDG & Majestic in MSFS it will be hard to pry me out of this seat!  FSDT is going to develop GSX for MSFS too which will be fabulous I'm sure.