Q&A is Live

[rocketlaunch 614]

I am pretty sure Asobo will manage the transition to DX12 much better then LM did with P3D. This is exciting stuff. 2022 should be a vintage year for MSFS. 

[RobJC 2,069]

[TuFun 437]

Ops!

Edited September 29, 2021 by TuFun
Ops!

[VFXSimmer 1,310]

5 minutes ago, RobJC said:

Indeed, LR could really use the help...

Thank goodness MS has him.

[abrams_tank 7,426]

9 minutes ago, RobJC said:

They said they are increasing the max LOD from 200 to 400. And they said the FPS and resources are still impacted when you go up to 400 LOD, but the impact is still reasonable.  So the graphics and detail for MSFS will be raised once again. 

XPlane 12 was just announced and XPlane 12 looks to be a huge graphics upgrade over XPlane 11.  But at the same time, MSFS is moving the goal posts further ahead.  I feel bad for LR, they are trying to catch a moving target and the target keeps moving forward, lol.

Edited September 29, 2021 by abrams_tank

[fogboundturtle 2,708]

4 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

They said they are increasing the max LOD from 200 to 400. And they said the FPS and resources are still impacted when you go up to 400 LOD, but the impact is still reasonable.  So the graphics and detail for MSFS will be raised once again. 

XPlane 12 was just announced and XPlane 12 looks to be a huge graphics upgrade over XPlane 11.  But at the same time, MSFS is moving the goal posts further ahead.  I feel bad for LR, they are trying to catch a moving target and the target keeps moving forward, lol.

by the time XP12 release, MSFS will be 100 miles ahead but you wont' convince Xplane fanbase that MSFS is getting good these days. They like their ecosystem and they won't change. 

[Bdub22 1,612]

I just hope they fix the tree draw distance and the scenery popping. Oh, and the sim has been washed out since SU5 as well. Either way, I'm incredibly happy with this sim. I have several "pinch me" moments during every single flight.

[Jeff Nielsen 1,386]

6 minutes ago, Bdub22 said:

I just hope they fix the tree draw distance and the scenery popping. Oh, and the sim has been washed out since SU5 as well. Either way, I'm incredibly happy with this sim. I have several "pinch me" moments during every single flight.

Watch the first 30 minutes.  After the aerodynamics, it's the first thing they talked about.

[abrams_tank 7,426]

21 minutes ago, fogboundturtle said:

by the time XP12 release, MSFS will be 100 miles ahead but you wont' convince Xplane fanbase that MSFS is getting good these days. They like their ecosystem and they won't change. 

There was that one guy who said there is no use for photogrammetry in a flight simulator.  I then responded that photogrammetry works very well for me (I have a good internet connection) for parts of metro Seattle that I have experienced (ie. the residential areas) in MSFS.

When photogrammetry works in MSFS, it works really well.  And photogrammetry isn’t just good for metro Seattle in the residential areas, but Jorg also got good photogrammetry data for some German cities in WU6 and the buildings in those German cities look amazing in WU6.

That same poster was trying to convince us that a picture of a helicopter in MSFS vs XPlane 11, looked better in the XPlane 11 version and several people had to tell him no, the MSFS picture looked better, especially with the grass in the MSFS picture.

XPlane is doomed if Austin only listens to people like him.  Fortunately, MSFS knocked some sense into Austin and now, Austin is shoring up the weakness of XPlane in XP 12. 

Edited September 29, 2021 by abrams_tank

[Fielder 3,681]

1:10:33 unlock deluxe and premium files (unscramble them so the user can read and modify them).

Jorg: One reason is data on two planes comes from Boeing and Boeing will not allow some parameters to be broadcast to the general public. The other reason is theft of the plane (plane available online free at illegal sites).

The good news: Jorg says that MS now realizes the flight model and other simple paratmaters are mainly what users want to access and he sees no problem if simple files like that are unlocked. He thanked for the feedback provided of what users want unlocked, and said MS is very agreeable with unlocking simple files for example the flight model (I would guess flight_model.cfg).

It sounded like we users are soon going to be able to at last get at some of the files that now we cannot.

[sd_flyer 6,049]

25 minutes ago, RobJC said:

LM can't afford. No money no honey!  LOL

[fogboundturtle 2,708]

3 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

There was that one guy who said there is no use for photogrammetry in a flight simulator.  I then responded that photogrammetry works very well for me (I have a good internet connection) for parts of metro Seattle that I have experienced (ie. the residential areas) in MSFS.

When photogrammetry works in MSFS, it works really well.  And photogrammetry isn’t just good for metro Seattle in the residential areas, but Jorg also got good photogrammetry data for some German cities in WU6 and the buildings in those German cities look amazing in WU6.

That same poster was trying to convince us that a picture of a helicopter in MSFS vs XPlane 11, looked better in the XPlane 11 version and several people had to tell him no, the MSFS picture looked better,

XPlane is doomed if Austin only listens to people like him.  Fortunately, MSFS knocked some sense into Austin and now, Austin is shoring up the weakness of XPlane in XP 12. 

There is the Austin Meyer cult. A year ago, someone mention ambient sound in MSFS and of course Xplane fanbase go up in arm across the forum claiming that ambient sound was just stupid. Now that XP12 has announced significant ambient sound, it's the most amazing features. Whether Ambient sound in the sim is a good thing or not. It's not relevant here. What is relevant is whatever LR says, it's cool.. Whatever MS does is bad. 

Personally, I am rooting for LR to do some good thing to their platform so it keeps MSFS honest. An healthy competition is always a good thing.

[pmb 5,137]

42 minutes ago, Ianrivaldosmith said:

How do you do it? Does it cause stuttering? 

Locate the file UserCfg.opt in the MSFS configuration directory, in my case (Steam) under

C:\Users\[your profile]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator

The "{Graphics" block has two entries

    {Terrain
        LoDFactor 2.000000
    }

and

    {ObjectsLoD
        LoDFactor 2.000000

(given you set them to 200 in the UI). You can raise them (or one of them) to whichever value you want, 400 would correspond to 4.000000.

Keep in mind:

- Make a backup first

- Do NOT make the file write-protected, as some people suggest.

- Instead, change the preset entry to "Preset Custom", otherwise the entries may be overridden.

- The "{GraphicsVR" block has similar entries for VR, don't use these (unter VR I can't go higher then 200).

Finally: This is by no way my invention, you will find it in several threads. I can't guarantee it works and has no side effects, but I have been using it with several different values for weeks now myself. 

No stuttering in my case, if I don't go higher with the values. I tried higher values, too, but at a certain value (I think GPU memory-dependent) fps start to tank indeed and stuttering starts.

Kind regards, Michael

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

3 minutes ago, pmb said:

Locate the file UserCfg.opt in the MSFS configuration directory, in my case (Steam) under

C:\Users\[your profile]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator

The "{Graphics" block has two entries

    {Terrain
        LoDFactor 2.000000
    }

and

    {ObjectsLoD
        LoDFactor 2.000000

(given you set them to 200 in the UI). You can raise them (or one of them) to whichever value you want, 400 would correspond to 4.000000.

Keep in mind:

- Make a backup first

- Do NOT make the file write-protected, as some people suggest.

- Instead, change the preset entry to "Preset Custom", otherwise the entries may be overridden.

- The "{GraphicsVR" block has similar entries for VR, don't use these (unter VR I can't go higher then 200).

Finally: This is by no way my invention, you will find it in several threads. I can't guarantee it works and has no side effects, but I have been using it with several different values for weeks now myself. 

No stuttering in my case, if I don't go higher with the values. I tried higher values, too, but at a certain value (I think GPU memory-dependent) fps start to tank indeed and stuttering starts.

Kind regards, Michael

I’ll give it a try tomorrow and report back, thanks! 

[Fielder 3,681]

1:03 Microsoft knows when a user online CTD's in the sim. They keep stats. Right now (Seb says) telemetry shows that there are fewer CTD's happening now than at any other time since MSFS release. Jorg says CTDs are their top priority and some of their best devs are working on reducing them.