Core sim improvements in MSFS 2024 & Phil Spencer interview

[Krakin 5,841]

1 minute ago, TacomaSailor said:

"the trees look so good now"

I don't know about that - I've spent a lot of time in mid-latitude mountains at that elevation and cannot remember seeing a deciduous tree such as depicted in the upper image.

I won't get into whether or not those trees were placed in the correct spot but I think the point is that graphically speaking, the trees do look so good now and that was consistent throughout the trailer.

[lwt1971 7,456]

14 minutes ago, jarmstro said:

To make a fortune from XBox types instead of a pittance from PC simmers? You are right though. I need to wait for more info before spouting off.

So even if they wanted to do that (i.e. "make a fortune from XBox types"), what is the point of *removing* deeper sim features that's *already* there? It just makes no sense right. And why can't a sim be capable of delivering on the "casual/fun" aspects of aviation as well as the deeper simulation? I'm not understanding why many around here believe it has to be an either/or.
 

Edited June 14, 2023 by lwt1971

[AnkH 2,282]

1 hour ago, mrueedi said:

Here is a comparison between new and old. It shows significant changes how the landscape is rendered. Improved are e.g. the too large trees in MSFS2020, which create this too grainy appearance. Images of the real place are here click:

What I see on this comparison is that the novel sim uses the same old satellite imagery as clearly indicated by the whitish cloud remnants on the green photoground texture tile on the slope on the left side of the valley. and that the rendering distance of the trees seemes to be higher in the old sim, might be true due to the too large size. At least the lighting in general looks slightly more reaslistic in the new sim. 

[abrams_tank 7,471]

1 hour ago, Tuskin38 said:

the trees look so good now

I would like more tree variation. That would be a nice improvement, and reflect closer to what it's like in real life.

[jarmstro 2,405]

15 minutes ago, lwt1971 said:

So even if they wanted to do that (i.e. "make a fortune from XBox types"), what is the point of *removing* deeper sim features that's *already* there? It just makes no sense right. And why can't a sim be capable of delivering on the "casual/fun" aspects of aviation as well as the deeper simulation? I'm not understanding why many around here believe it has to be an either/or.
 

The reason why people are concerned is because Asobo haven't made it crystal clear. I don't want to be negative at all but we are expected to have blind faith.

Edited June 14, 2023 by jarmstro

[Tuskin38 6,635]

25 minutes ago, TacomaSailor said:

"the trees look so good now"

I don't know about that - I've spent a lot of time in mid-latitude mountains at that elevation and cannot remember seeing a deciduous tree such as depicted in the upper image.

I was talking about the graphical quality of the trees.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Tuskin38

[Krakin 5,841]

I got a chuckle out of Matt Booty saying he always tells them (The MSFS team) that not everyone is an aviation nerd in relation to how messaging gets across lol. Gives some insight into the mentality of the MSFS team and why MS chooses to announce things the way they do. I suspect Jorg would have been very happy to open up with a 30 minute deep dive into all the cool upgrades we can expect to see but general audiences would be bored and obviously, you can't take up all that time from the showcase.

At the same time, Matt understands what is important to hardcore simmers and as the head of MS Studios, that is a very very good thing for us hardcore folks. The fact that he could talk about advanced weather systems and improved flight models to a publication like GiantBomb speaks volumes. I am not worried about 2024 catering to our needs at all.

[Tom_L 558]

4 hours ago, lwt1971 said:

And then he specifically mentions graphics, weather, and flight dynamics as areas that received big improvements.

Here's what I don't get in their communication "strategy":

Sep. 21 - Jorg Neumann announced SU7 and a further, “spectacular” weather update for 2022/23, which didn’t happen,and no further information was given since.
Nov. 22 - he announced talks with Meteoblue about data resolution, WXradar API and “future features” and promised to inform about the outcome in early 2023 - also never happened.
May 23 -  vague statements hinting at opening the weather API for third parties, which was sacrosanct from the beginning.
June 23 -  “New” Sim announced with a trailer showing content, content, content.

I get it that marketing wants to hype the consumer base, but there's a lot of adults playing this game, and if much needed improvements for Live weather are planned and I would have been properly informed, I would be hyped now instead of feeling taken for a ride.

[MarcG 3,031]

10 minutes ago, Tom_L said:

Here's what I don't get in their communication "strategy":

Sep. 21 - Jorg Neumann announced SU7 and a further, “spectacular” weather update for 2022/23, which didn’t happen,and no further information was given since.
Nov. 22 - he announced talks with Meteoblue about data resolution, WXradar API and “future features” and promised to inform about the outcome in early 2023 - also never happened.
May 23 -  vague statements hinting at opening the weather API for third parties, which was sacrosanct from the beginning.
June 23 -  “New” Sim announced with a trailer showing content, content, content.

I get it that marketing wants to hype the consumer base, but there's a lot of adults playing this game, and if much needed improvements for Live weather are planned and I would have been properly informed, I would be hyped now instead of feeling taken for a ride.

Jorg also said in early 2022 that he'd talk more about VR "next time" and that there was something happening for VR (big thing or a feature, I forget) that he was excited about.....also never happened. Hence I take everything he says with a very large pinch of salt, he may mean well but he's clearly playing the marketing game in those Q&As, smiling pretty and saying what people like to hear not want to hear.

[dikkeduif 56]

I think it's the opposite really. If anything, I think Jorg is very down to earth, and enthusiastic and is not playing any marketing games during the Q&A. I think he says things he probably shouldn't be saying and people afterwards blame him for it 🙂 I think he wants to squeeze in as many features as possible, but I'm guessing his hands are tied. Plans change (datasets not available, bugs taking longer to fix etc etc). I never get the feeling we're being lied to.

[edpatino 1,976]

I can imagine millions of posts about this from now, to possibly more than a year in 2024 about the pros and cons of the new sim, and how good is expected to be compared to MSFS2020.

Why don't just wait to gather more evidence and enjoy flying the current simulator as much as possible?.

It's just what I'll be doing.

[lwt1971 7,456]

26 minutes ago, Tom_L said:

I get it that marketing wants to hype the consumer base, but there's a lot of adults playing this game, and if much needed improvements for Live weather are planned and I would have been properly informed, I would be hyped now instead of feeling taken for a ride.

In this case, for the XBox event, MS's marketing wanted to hype that event's audience.

Yes, as far as the serious simmer community is concerned, this was not at all the ideal way to announce or tease the coming release of MSFS 2024. But given the timing of two major events, and MS's understandable desire (like all other sim developers and 3rd party devs) to save the info/details/news for FSExpo, and given that the XBox gaming event was a week prior to FSExpo, I'm thinking it transpired in the way that it did. One choice they could've made was to not talk about MSFS 2024 at all at the XBox event and wait till FSExpo, which is also not good since then the XBox audience will not pick up on MSFS 2024... I think the only blunder (if any) they made was not to have a FAQ ready right with the XBox event answering some of the basic questions they surely should have seen coming from the "serious simmer" community and still not reveal the juicy parts until FSExpo (they should also know by now the ultra emotional nature of a part of the serious community :s)

In any case, it's also fair to say that we as "serious simmers" with common sense abilities (at the least), should realize that there is no need to scream the end of the world is coming, or feel like "being taken for a ride", or whatever other histrionics, until more concrete information and facts come out.
 

[Bert Pieke 7,591]

3 minutes ago, lwt1971 said:

In any case, it's also fair to say that we as "serious simmers" with common sense abilities (at the least), should realize that there is no need to scream the end of the world is coming, or feel like "being taken for a ride", or whatever other histrionics, until more concrete information and facts come out

Watching the interview leaves me with a sense that the team felt that there were significant improvements to the sim to be released in 2024, and that a new release could be justified.  They mention that this will be the new  "base line" going forward.  Sure reminds me of past FS releases, each improving on the previous release.

Better graphics, better flight models.. all sounds OK to me, as long as I can run it on my current PC 😉.

[threexgreen 3,156]

4 hours ago, lwt1971 said:

I'm trying to focus on what is known or has been shown, and especially Phil's & Matt's interview above.... oh, you also have this neat ability to not click on the thread if it annoys you. But thanks anyways for stepping in here to tell us what not to talk about 🙂 

I think flight simmers are just very confused right now.

Edited June 14, 2023 by Nixoq

[Mace 1,955]

1 hour ago, Tom_L said:

Here's what I don't get in their communication "strategy":

Sep. 21 - Jorg Neumann announced SU7 and a further, “spectacular” weather update for 2022/23, which didn’t happen,and no further information was given since.
Nov. 22 - he announced talks with Meteoblue about data resolution, WXradar API and “future features” and promised to inform about the outcome in early 2023 - also never happened.
May 23 -  vague statements hinting at opening the weather API for third parties, which was sacrosanct from the beginning.
June 23 -  “New” Sim announced with a trailer showing content, content, content.

I get it that marketing wants to hype the consumer base, but there's a lot of adults playing this game, and if much needed improvements for Live weather are planned and I would have been properly informed, I would be hyped now instead of feeling taken for a ride.

I think Asobo determined that the planned improvements (weather API etc. )  were so significant that they've decided to simply call it a new sim (2024) rather than make it a SU (Sim Update).

So I don't see it as any type of downgrade at all.  All of the WT stuff, etc. would be there, just as if it were a regular ol' sim update.  

If I'm wrong about that, that is another matter.  But I don't think I will be.   I share your concern about "content content content" -- as I don't really care much about content (Top Gun and Dune are neat, and I like that, but I'm more interested in core improvements) --  but I see a continual progression there and it doesn't raise any alarm bells with me.   The trailer is made for the convention audience and mass appeal.  We're not the mass, we're just a fraction of total simmers, but we DO drive the narrative to some extent, and have influence a lot larger than our numbers would indicate.  If you think that isn't true, then the advances we've seen wouldn't have happened.  We would have a bunch of mass-appeal DLC and that would be most of it.