First off is the way the sky looks with or without weather. This alone keeps me flying everyday even without Cirrus.  Skyline are stupendus.

Second is how my plane feels when flying.  It actually moves with the currents so no more flying on rails. Makes landings all the more fun.

Lastly but not least is all the support this sim gets paid or otherwise.  I can't ask for a better sim support.  IOW just if I have problems I'll wait and things will get better.

Thanks to all

sp

1. The real satellite ground cover, Especially over the Southwest US.  Even with ORBX global FSX/P3D doesn't hold a candle to what we have now.

2. The water.  The currents, the wind effects, the differing textures.  I was flying into LAX one morning at sunrise in real life and my random though was man MSFS nailed the water.

3.  The crisp reflections on PBR surfaces.  I'm always wowed when I can count the windows on the wing reflection or read a decal from an adjacent surface.  I love to replay just to look at the under belly of the plane when landing at night.

The clouds at Dusk or Dawn are just amazing.

I flew the Fenix out of ORD a few months back, it was overcast and rain, I hit the top of the layer around 6,000' over Lake Michigan and the sun wass just coming over the horizon and I honestly felt like I was there. 

I've been simming since 1995 and I've never been that immersed. 

1: The fact that it's obvious that the developer has a strong committment in furthering and expanding the hobby in all directions and has the resources to that. Previous developers were content with flight simulation staying a declining niche and at times have actively worked against expansion. Microsoft has brought flight simulation back into the AAA space and gave this community the new blood it sorely needed. 

2: The fact that (partly as a result of 1) the community is so lively. There literally has not been a day since MSFS's release that there has been no news about the sim either from Microsoft or third-parties.

3: The immersion. This is the first sim I try that I find truly immersive. It goes far beyond the graphics. It's everything combined.  

Edited January 13, 20233 yr by Abriael

The ambient occlusion and lighting in cockpits

The dreamy looking cloud coverage

The VR performance is amazing

1. Ongoing development by Asobo. 

2. Ongoing development by Asobo. 

3. Ongoing development by Asobo. 

All of the above. It's just breathtaking..........................

In no particular order:

1. High FPS with high graphics fidelity
2. High speed flying at -500ft over satellite-imagery and zero texture blurs.
3. Lighting, ambiance, cinematic feeling

1. Asobo's commitment to the simulator.

2. The scenery - I actually am there.

3. The optimism.

 

Clouds

Scenery

VR

Great Topic and its difficult to put only 3 things down but here are my 3.

1. Scenery in general, I doubt very much if anything soon will ever rival the complete global coverage we have. I have flown in so many areas that I would not have done so in any other sim.

2. VR is absolutely breathtaking in most circumstances, once they iron out the DLSS and DX12 anomalies. I very rarely play in monitor mode anymore.

3. 3rd party aircraft are getting better by the month as well as the default Asobo content, particularly the CJ4 and Longtitude. Once the long haulers get into the sim, not sure there is any going back.

 

I want to apply for the day to be longer as I certainly do not have the hours that I really want to explore the whole planet.

There are plenty of other positive points but to keep to the OP brief these are my top 3.

1 hour ago, bvdboomen said:

High speed flying at -500ft [...]

Isn't it very dark down that low? 😁
You're right about the zero texture blurs. No longer have to press pause and wait for scenery tiles to fully load.
 

1. How incredibly realistic it can be.
   Lighting, World (land and water), weather (at times) all fantastic. Sometimes it's easy to forget it's *just* a sim.
    
2. Asobo releasing, and still adding to, a feature rich base platform.
   There's no need to stuff dozens of add-ons into the sim. [Looks sheepish] I do, but only because I want to do justice to the sim.
    
3. How the flight sim arena has been reinvigorated.
   New developers both payware and freeware are delivering outstanding work and pushing the boundaries.

The screenshots

The videos

The lively customer base

1. The ease and consistency of getting the simulator configured for a flight. In FSX and P3D, I always had multiple external applications and add ons to startup or load to get ready to fly. Sometimes I would forget one, one wouldn't load, or one would stop after I started it requiring me to re-start the whole process of getting set up for the flight all over again. This rarely happens in MSFS since whatever ends up in the Community folder (I use the linker) usually starts and runs fine every time. I rarely have to restart due to a missing or failed add on.
2. The look. It feels crisp, modern, and real. The reflections off of metal and glass objects are beautiful. Dusk & dawn lighting is spectacular. Sometimes, even the default ground textures look amazing.
3. WASM. This is the best thing since sliced bread. The PMDG 737s are living proof. What was formerly compiled into .dll files, and loaded and executed out side of the sim is now compiled into WASM modules that execute within the sim's sandbox. The ability for devs to leverage their existing C or C++ (and probably C# as well) code is a Godsend. Good code never goes bad. Good code that has been refined for years is even better. When you fly the PMDG 737s, they feel like they are part of the simulator. Just like a default aircraft. When Asobo & MS get WASM going on Xbox, I think we'll start seeing even more devs pushing it's limits. I'm really looking forward to seeing what this brings us.

But my absolute favorite thing has nothing to do with the actual simulator. It is the new life that was breathed into our hobby. I can remember being on here 3 or 4 years ago reading all of the arguments about the need for a "new engine" (that none of us knew was actually being developed while we were typing). Many were rightfully concerned about the lack of progress or innovation in flight simulation and who would invest the time and money in our little "niche". For the past 2 years, we in the sim community have had quite a few "Christmas mornings". New features, new add ons, Fenix, PMDG (4 times!), beautiful new airports, performance improvements, X Plane! (just kidding 😄). Life is good. Flight Simulation is mainstream again.

The wild blue yonder is a brighter shade of blue now. And it's fantastic!   

That Asobo is French 😇.

No, I'm kiddin', seriously :  

- a more than decent world cover, I love to be able to fly in Peru,Tajikistan, Greece, everywhere !.

- the aptitude to run smoothly on a weak machine like mine with high settings

- the continuous search for a better flight modeling with convincing results