@omarsmak30, I hope you're right because it's a major put-off for many people I'm sure. Those programs that are hacking into the sim might be a start but a proper interfaced program from experts like Hi-Fi would make a big difference. Show me one element of any sim that hasn't been improved by third parties.

 

8 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

@omarsmak30, I hope you're right because it's a major put-off for many people I'm sure. Those programs that are hacking into the sim might be a start but a proper interfaced program from experts like Hi-Fi would make a big difference. Show me one element of any sim that hasn't been improved by third parties.

 

Sooner or later, I am pretty sure Asobo will give a proper SDK for weather system, maybe not this year maybe in next year, who knows :). In meantime, I recommend you Ray is try MSFS, even only for GA, with the game pass you have nothing much to lose and at least you get some glimpse on what is possible and what is not possible :).

1 minute ago, omarsmak30 said:

Sooner or later, I am pretty sure Asobo will give a proper SDK for weather system, maybe not this year maybe in next year, who knows :). In meantime, I recommend you Ray is try MSFS, even only for GA, with the game pass you have nothing much to lose and at least you get some glimpse on what is possible and what is not possible :).

I need a faster internet connection first. Full fibre is coming and at that point I might try it. But forced updates are a real put-off and with P3D v3 and v4 I really don't want another sim just yet until Concorde is released for P3Dv4 and I can dispense with v3. Too much maintenance! ☹️

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Only when the sim has matured. That's still some way off.

Huh? It's a buck to try out. See what you like and don't like. No harm no foul. I don't see the rationale of not trying it out for a month.

4 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

Huh? It's a buck to try out. See what you like and don't like. No harm no foul. I don't see the rationale of not trying it out for a month.

All in good time. Now is not it. Out of interest is the supplied user manual sufficient or are there 3rd party ones you would recommend?

Edited February 3, 20215 yr by Ray Proudfoot
Additional info

15 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

All in good time. Now is not it. Out of interest is the supplied user manual sufficient or are there 3rd party ones you would recommend?

I highly recommend the guides in the official forums, they cover everything essential: https://forums.flightsimulator.com/c/guides/165

Edited February 3, 20215 yr by omarsmak30

2 hours ago, micstatic said:

There is always a market for premium products in flight sim.  You get what you pay for. 

It is much like saying that there is no market for a Bentley or a Roller.

I have spent countless hours cruising the flight levels in P3D with all the top notch terrain, textures etc addons.  In my view it simply doesn’t compare to the view from cruise in MSFS, not even close.  I actually find myself spending more time “in the cockpit” during cruise in MSFS because I actually want to watch the scenery go by.  In addition it can be very immersive watching the weather transition as you fly over cold fronts, to clear skies etc.

The feeling of flying over places in the world that are all unique in their own way is fantastic, as opposed to textures and vector data that while decent, are generic and are a far cry from feeling like you’re looking down at the real thing.

Approach and departure are a similar experience but magnified.  Case in point, I recently flew two flights into YYZ on the approach for 24L, an approach I’ve flown many times as a passenger.  In P3D I let out an involuntary (ugh) on final as I saw the poor autogen buildings and generic textures, vector roads that don’t line up well with ground textures etc.  Did the same flight in MSFS and it really felt like I was flying over the city I know so well, so much more immersive.  And while the P3D flight was in my favourite P3D aircraft, the FSL Airbus, my MSFS flight also featured an excellent aircraft, the FBW A320 mod.

So to each their own, but MSFS has significant benefits for tube liner pilots too. Sure many aircraft are yet to come, but on balance for me MSFS is still the better experience.  I should note I’m one of those “study level sim” pilots that flew all the hardcore aircraft addons in P3D and loved them all.

 

Edited February 3, 20215 yr by regis9

The only thing I miss from P3D (well, kind of..) is Ray's voice in my Radar Contact. 😄

2 hours ago, regis9 said:

So to each their own, but MSFS has significant benefits for tube liner pilots too. Sure many aircraft are yet to come, but on balance for me MSFS is still the better experience.  I should note I’m one of those “study level sim” pilots that flew all the hardcore aircraft addons in P3D and loved them all

That is exactly my position.

 

6 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I'm coming at this from a slightly different angle. Let's fast forward to the day when PMDG has released a 737 / 777 for MSFS. When you're up at FL350 and streaming the scenery just how different will the Earth look compared to P3D with FS Global, FTX Global and UTX Europe / USA Ultimate?

Individual buildings are not going to be visible in MSFS. Rivers will be but then again they're visible in P3D with those addons. Detailed coastlines will be virtually the same. So what big difference will MSFS give over P3D? I'm struggling to work that out.

The downsides are no historic weather and if it's a night flight you're downloading Mb of data that is virtually invisible. Only if you fly that route in daytime will the cached scenery be useful.

And will the flight engine in MSFS be significantly better than that in P3D? It seems to me that MSFS is a superb VFR simulator but has no huge advantage over P3D for IFR.

To me, it's very simple: I don't have to pay extra for something like FS Global, FTX Global and UTX Europe / USA Ultimate. The amount of features we get from the stock sim is just amazing and a huge pro in my opinion. In my book that is the big difference.

9 minutes ago, futurebreadmachine said:

To me, it's very simple: I don't have to pay extra for something like FS Global, FTX Global and UTX Europe / USA Ultimate. The amount of features we get from the stock sim is just amazing and a huge pro in my opinion. In my book that is the big difference.

Fair point. What is the resolution of the terrain in MSFS? A shot of the Matterhorn south-east of Geneva, Switzerland on the maximum terrain setting would be intersting. I have a shot of it somewhere taken in P3D v4 with all those addons you mentioned.

14 hours ago, Jetman67 said:

This Sim is not ready for pmdg from a performance perspective

Dont help if you use intel pentium 2.

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Fair point. What is the resolution of the terrain in MSFS? A shot of the Matterhorn south-east of Geneva, Switzerland on the maximum terrain setting would be intersting. I have a shot of it somewhere taken in P3D v4 with all those addons you mentioned.

Does it not bother you that you have to have gigabytes or terabytes of worldwide mesh data installed on your computer on older gen sims?

Considering, with MSFS, the mesh data is streamed. And the onus is on the data provider to improve mesh data locally, rather than us to store tons of redundant data locally on our machines. If the mesh sucks, I can raise a stink until it improves. (And that’s exactly what’s happening on public forums).

 

EDIT: not to mention everyone gets the same benefit, not just the ones asking for the finer mesh resolution.

Edited February 3, 20215 yr by amahran

The real problem is that we need more competition in the realm of Boeing addons. Maybe the ifly team will come through with something.