Last night I finely experienced a somewhat reasonable test flight and for the first time I actually found myself enjoying FS2024.  I was able to boot the sim in about 2 to 3 minutes flat and the UI was no longer a clunky and stuttering mess.  Well, the UI is still a mess but at least it was working.  It was a quick flight in the Beech 18 from Reno to South Lake Tahoe with a quick circle of downtown Reno thrown in.  Downtown Reno looked much the same as the alpha test with maybe a bit more detail but its hard to say?  Performance was pretty solid this time around!

Some minor issues like even though default weather was set up I was just getting generic clear weather.  That is until I started hugging the mountains climbing my way up to Lake Tahoe.  About halfway up the mountains all of a sudden I go from clear weather to low viability and snow flurries.  I was flying 500' above the mountains and the level of detail was pretty solid.  The assortment of trees was a lot more than what we get in FS2020 and the ground texturing was a level higher I would say.  Physics around those high hills and mountains was pretty amazing.  During the winter blast halfway up I was not actually sure I was going to maintain flight and a few times I was being sucked into the crevasses and little hills.  Luckily I managed to climb up to Lake Tahoe.  Came in on the south side overflew the lake from 200 to 500' up.  Blasting down the lake in a Beech 18 was a fun experience!

Water detail looked at least a level higher than FS2020.  As I got closer to downtown South Lake Tahoe I over flew the town and the casino area.  Still generic looking but at least I was slightly more complete than the tech alpha.  It almost looks like someone at Asobo decided to spend a bit of time and make at least a few custom buildings for the area.  However it was random stuff like grocery stores and strip malls and maybe the ski lodge but interestingly the hotel zone is fully generic.  I did a quick turn and landed at TVL.  TVL airport is now a hand crafted airport whereas the tech alpha it was a generic airport.

Performance on my now lower mid level machine was actually pretty solid even hugging the the mountains up into Lake Tahoe.  The Beech 18 hand flew very nicely and was rock solid and it held its composure even when the wind and thermals were hitting me hard.  Only bugs I experienced was the delayed real world weather and the sound occasionally would come and go.  I also decided to try and open the window in the Beech 18 and instantly it said something like "Crash".  Screen went dark and a few seconds later reset and I was flying normally again!

I still don't think FS2024 is anywhere near ready for prime time and still plagued with bugs but when it works it looks pretty amazing!

 

I agree. When MSFS 2024 works, it is amazing. 

They got to fix the bugs and solve the issue with the servers. But you can see the potential of it when everything is working well.

It may not be ready for prime time but it's in prime time notwithstanding. That's ok because it's slowly coming into form. I've flown some IFR flights with the MAX, flight planning and all, and it's gone relatively well. ATC is worst than previous incarnations so just not using it. Animation on the co-pilot is top notch though when he handles the comms.

A big gripe for me, I thought they learned something is AI traffic. Wrong! It is the same meshpit all over again.

Feel bad for aig and fsltl devs. Really.

I too have been enjoying some stable flights and its got potential oozing out of it.  Give it time, just like 2020 remember we 4 years down the line.

Although I'm not crazy about the now known issue around all the default aircraft are encrypted because they are streamed 100%.  This is a kick in the teeth for the modding community, be interesting to see if this changes once the marketplace opens with possibility of downloading aircraft to your local PC.  

1 hour ago, Piotr007 said:

A big gripe for me, I thought they learned something is AI traffic. Wrong! It is the same meshpit all over again.

Feel bad for aig and fsltl devs. Really.

You know what I dont get? The sad state of ai traffic. I dont know how long you have been here but back in the FS2002( omg! 22 years ago) we had a somewhat aceptable AI traffic system. We had Project-AI (No relation to the AI stuff of now), something similar to AIG and you could accelerate the ATC voices to speak faster. If you combined both you could have packed airports with ai traffic behaving somewhat properly, taxing, doing go arounds and stuff waaaaaaaay better than today. You could see the "ladder" of airplanes landing one after another at busy airports.

To me its inexcusable that today we have this sad excuse of AI. Seems like something hacked together in a weekend

1 hour ago, longhaul747 said:

the sound occasionally would come and go

Are you using bluetooth headphones by chance? I also get sound stutters, and I use wireless bluetooth headphones. Haven't bothered with my wired headphones but wondering if this is driver or sim related. If you're on wired headphones or speakers I'm guessing it's the latter.

3 minutes ago, xender said:

back in the FS2002( omg! 22 years ago) we had a somewhat aceptable AI traffic system.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the main difference is it's now based on real-world (real-time?) data, whereas in the pre-2020 days all the traffic was generated in-sim.

13 minutes ago, Funky D said:

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the main difference is it's now based on real-world (real-time?) data, whereas in the pre-2020 days all the traffic was generated in-sim.

Well, not only that. Im sure there's more to it because even if you use it fully offline (Like I do with AIG) the ATC and traffic system in the sim is not as robust as it was 22 years ago. For instance, there's no way currently to make the speech faster. Also the LOD is waaaaay too agressive. I can see airplanes without landing gear, just floating because Im just far enough to trigger the LOD but close enough to notice the missing landing gear.

The ground textures and effects are amazing. Touching down on dirt and other textured runways makes me want to now do a lot of GA low and slow flying especially with that camping gear I bought in 2020. Just watching multiplayer on iamblugames it's spectacular. When you land in a farmers field you can now see  the plowed fields texture. The possibilities now for making neat hunting, fishing  fly-ins at some remote lodge are endless. 

Also, remember all those stretched mountain and hill textures? Much of it has now been addressed 2024.