12 hours ago, Ident said:

Today was my 1st day flying MSFS2024 as I would somewhat normally. I spent yesterday getting Axis and Ohs setup for the Black Square Duke Piston and prior flights in 2024 has been checking out Career Mode.

My plan this morning was to visit so addon airports in So-Cal. Its interesting that some airports will port over and others wont. You can always tell if the airport is going to work in 2024 by seeing the star next to the field from the top down view when setting up a free flight.  So the airports today were going to be KSBP San Luis, KSBA Santa Barbra, KVNY Van Nuys, L70 Alga Dulce and KSZP Santa Paula. The weather had me flying IFR for some of it and then the weather broke and turned into a beautiful VFR finish.

With no GTN750, I was flying via pilotage and using my Garmin Pilot App connected to the sim via XMapsy.  I was happy to have the Saitek Radio Panel allowing me to go old school using VORs and DMEs. Its honestly the first time I've every really used it that much as usually my go to is the GTN750 which takes care of Com1, Nav1 and the Xpnder. It honestly felt great to fly to intersections using Nav1 and Nav 2 but the icing on the cake was how well Black Square models the needles on the Century NSD-360 (HSI), Collins RMI-30 (RMI) and Bendix/King KI 206 Localizer. My normal setup uses the G5 (which depends on Air Manager & Pop Out Manager) so I really have never seen these needles in use prior.

OMG, what a series of wonderful flights. Just how far simming has evolved.  The ah-ha moment for me was landing at L70. It was a short hop from Van Nuys in the Duke and I finally really got a true understanding of why someone would model this airport. This is what it looked like to me when it was 1st introduced by Orbx going way back to P3D days.

This looks nothing like what it does in MSFS2024 (sorry no screenshots) using the freeware addon found here: https://flightsim.to/file/47354/agua-dulce-l70

The surrounding foothills have so much more detail in MSFS2024 and the fence line blends so well. As I was flaring on my landing seeing the waves in the runway as if followed the terrain I noticed something about mid field between the runway and the taxiway. As I got closer and passed it, it was a herd of deer relaxing and grazing. As I taxi back towards them on the taxiway, they got up on all fours and started running away towards the hill crossing the runway! These were not part of a freeware addon, this was what we can now expect to see at times. 

I get out of the plane after shutting it down and walked around to explore a bit. I can hear my engines cooling down and as I walked away that sound faded as birds were chirping and the sound of my foot steps changed as I walked from the asphalt to the grass. The grass was blowing in the wind. 

I get back in the plane and go to start it back up. I get vapor lock and have to google how best to deal with that. I didnt want to flood the engine either and the battery was heating up. That is just so dang realistic. No more are addons being developed were the engines just are always going to turn over on a dime. I remember my 1st solo cross country where I did a full stop and taxied back to immediately take back off bc I was so worried about what would happen if I shut it down and couldnt get it started again. 

For my flights Im using Say Intentions and talking like normal, I'm seeing the world in the most realistic manner, theres no more repeating textures and the detail in the ground and terrain blended with the lighting and feel of atmosphere is crazy realistic feeling. When I landed at Santa Paula I noticed the asphalt had a small bubble in it that was casting a shadow from it like a root had pushed it up. Something I've seen so many times on the tarmac from the heat and cold. Then later at Santa Barbra as the sun was low in the sky and the shadows were long, I could see a thin shadow from the thick yellow paint of the taxiway line just like what you see on roads. The edge of the asphalt did just blend into the grass but there was a height difference there to giving yet another thin shadow. I know I'm detailing a lot of eye candy but the plane and the feel of the plane have just as equal the amount of detail and realism as well.

Sorry, guys, I just had to share. 

Hi, Ident,

Thank you for your post. I'm glad that the excellent Vincent Bazillio sceneries are compatible with MS2024.

I'm very happy with the news, and very happy for Vincent, too!

Regards

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

It amazes me how quickly some throw their toys out the pram.  Launch day was truly a disaster, but MS/Asobo have owned up to that.  Day two wasn't much better, but from day three onwards the sim is much improved.  Today, it is running smooth and looking superb.  2024 is quickly showing itself a worthy advancement over 2020 (which itself remains a great sim).

This. I've already had experiences in MSFS 2024 that felt amazing and that I would not have gotten in MSFS 2020:

• An approach to Frankfurt in the A330 through layered clouds, with little wisps of fog clinging to the terrain when I broke out. I've never seen this kind of cloud variety in 2020.
• Crossing the alps in a Beaver in one of the career missions. This would have been possible in 2020, of course, but the career made me actually do it. (Check out the Beaver by the way if you haven't yet - the engine sounds are great!)
• Landing a helicopter in a field, seeing the stalks being pushed around by the rotorwash and finally being able to judge height accurately because of the ground detail.
• Flying a Guimbal Cabri from Farmingdale to the Manhattan heliport at 500 feet. I was awestruck. 2024 is an amazing sim for low-level flight.

24 minutes ago, Ident said:

There are legit bugs and some infrastructure issues Asobo will need to work out but from my understanding a majority of the issues seem to lye with the user and not the sim. I spent almost 7k USD on my computer and pay to have high speed internet. I also decided against treating MSFS2024 as an update to MSFS2020 and treat it like a completely new sim thus not selecting to use the key bindings of a different sim because I didnt want to learn the new keystrokes and use the keystrokes of a sim I will no longer use in probably 3 months from now. I also used the career mode which seems was their introductory into learning a bunch of the new keystrokes for moving around, looking around and getting in and out of the plane.

The UI and some aspects of flying at night are the weak areas of the sim. I kinda get why the UI is the way it is, in which I feel is to make it easier for Xbox users to handle. Xbox users to me are causal simmers but I'm willing to bet they bring in a whole new user base which equals to revenue but also could turn them into hardcore simmers down the road. Thus I highly support that move if thats the case as its only a win win for us.

The overall take away is that giving the sim a chance by treating it like a completely new sim, using a computer designed for todays gaming needs on a good internet link MSFS2024 shines bright with some shortcomings that can be tuned. I'd much rather of them released the sim now then let it bake longer to have fixed any bugs bc now all the 3rd party developers can start to code for it and help build it better. Alpha, Beta, Final release...who cares what you call it, it works great, it shines bright and now we all have our hands on it to start customizing it to our needs with the support of addon developers being able to finally contribute to it.     

Well said! The issue with servers is much better now than last Tuesday. If people are able to get in and fly, it seems like people are experiencing fewer CTDs than the first few days of MSFS 2020? I remember for MSFS 2020 in the first few days, people who were able to download it were also generally able to spawn and fly, but once they were flying, there were CTDs galore. From watching live streams, reading forums, and my own experience in MSFS 2024, it seems like you are less likely to CTD if you can spawn in and fly.

So if it’s true that the percentage of players are experiencing fewer CTDs in MSFS 2024 compared to the first few days of MSFS 2020, and the servers are in a much better state now, I support them releasing MSFS 2024 last week, as it will just speed up their fixes and speed up the 3rd parties porting their add-ons over.
 

Yes, we are playing the part of beta testers for the first few months of MSFS 2024, but we were also playing beta testers in the first few months of MSFS 2020. And to be frank, despite the CTDs and avionics blacking out mid flight in the first few months of MSFS 2020, those first few months of MSFS 2020 were the most enjoyable for me, because I was experiencing a generational leap in flight simulation technology. And so far, I am having a blast with MSFS 2024!

Edited November 25, 20241 yr by abrams_tank

34 minutes ago, John Fields said:

Hi, Ident,

Thank you for your post. I'm glad that the excellent Vincent Bazillio sceneries are compatible with MS2024.

I'm very happy with the news, and very happy for Vincent, too!

Regards

If you like his airport L70 (I'll have to look for his others he does) then you will certainly enjoy flying in and out of L70. For the first simming I felt that an area was actually scenic. 

Frankly, its unfair to compare V's freeware to anything, really. They make payware look bad.

I just looked, yes I have all his So-Cal airports as of recently and have been exploring them in MSFS2020 out of Carlsbad KCRQ making for some great short hops.

17 minutes ago, Sonosusto said:

Frankly, its unfair to compare V's freeware to anything, really. They make payware look bad.

You're right. So I just sent him some funds as a thank you.
 

Edited November 25, 20241 yr by Ident

After another day where most things have been working properly (apart from plane sounds on my second flight), I am more and more impressed with 2024. The colours, lighting atmosphere are just fantastic to my eye. Being able to land a bush plane somewhere and walk about, enjoying amazing, beautiful vistas and then fly off as a weather system rolls off nearby hills - it's just incredible. 

I used 2024 three times on Sunday Nov.  24 and all times got in the sim without a hitch. Long wait times of 2020 are a thing of the past.

23 minutes ago, riverreveal said:

 Being able to land a bush plane somewhere and walk about, enjoying amazing, beautiful vistas and then fly off as a weather system rolls off nearby hills - it's just incredible. 

I've got an Xbox controller for PC coming in the mail just for purpose where I wont have to use the keyboard to explore with.

7 hours ago, martinboehme said:

with little wisps of fog clinging to the terrain when I broke out.

I had a quick dusk flight in northern Pakistan last night and those fog wisps in the valleys of the mountains were just stunning. Especially when the setting sun caused kind of god rays in them…

It’s an amazing sim no doubt about it… I’m big into airliners but all weekend I haven’t been near one, just been flying in the vision jet heading north from southern Arizona and taking in the sights.. all in real time/real weather… absolutely stunning… love it!👍