2 hours ago, edpatino said:

In my opinion, starting with MSFS2020 would be the best option for you and then, when things are sorted out with 2024, you can purchase it and keep both versions installed if you wish.

This is good advice

Thank you for all your replies.  I will be diving into 2020:)

IMO you were right when you thought to start with 2020 and go to 2024, if and when, esp as like me you are not interested in career mode.

I have had 2020 since it's launch, and as others haver said, it is a mature and complete sim. There's lots of advice on here, and online about how to make 2020 run well and look beautiful. There are hopefully also a few more years of it being supported. It is a really great place to start without you having to be an alpha tester for Asobo for 2024, and then not be able to really get up and running with the planes you really want. 

All the planes you need are here and having tried 2024 myself as a seasoned 2020 user, it was difficult to say the least. My feeling is if you want least hassle to get going, stick with 2020 for now, but try 2024 if you want, with a Microsoft Store Game Pass  - £1 for 2 weeks and thereafter £9.99 a month ...

Hope this helps.

I have both versions installed. After some teething troubles with 2024 I am successfully using "Free Flight" mode in 2024, however, there are still some serious issues that need sorting. For now, I'm using 2020 along with the Frame Gen mod and MSFS AutoFPS (I have an Nvidia 3060), which gives me a constant 40/50fps no matter where I fly. I have also noticed vast improvements with scenery, weather and clouds, I think they are adding improvements with every update because the scenery in 2020 looks almost as good as in 2024. If you are into airline flights I also highly recommend BATC (They are adding LLM in early January which will bring BATC on par with Say Intentions i.e. you will be able to talk to ATC as you do in SI) and Flight Sim First Officer, which is the best co-pilot I have ever used and also includes RAAS and a company option similar to "A Pilots Life"

I have both, but haven't used 2020 since 2024 released.

Contrary to what you will be led to believe online, I've had a mostly positive experience. Yes it did get off to a shambolic start, but most of the major issues left now are concerning the Career system, which it doesn't sound like you'll use much anyway. If you're flying in Free Flight with an add on aircraft like the Fenix Airbus' then there isn't a lot of difference between 2024 and 2020, except 2024 has better lighting, clouds and scenery.

3 hours ago, Tom Wright said:

I have both, but haven't used 2020 since 2024 released.

Contrary to what you will be led to believe online, I've had a mostly positive experience. Yes it did get off to a shambolic start, but most of the major issues left now are concerning the Career system, which it doesn't sound like you'll use much anyway. If you're flying in Free Flight with an add on aircraft like the Fenix Airbus' then there isn't a lot of difference between 2024 and 2020, except 2024 has better lighting, clouds and scenery.

For flying tubeliners,I can't see any advantage to 2024, and a whole list of negatives. 

 

 

26 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

For flying tubeliners,I can't see any advantage to 2024, and a whole list of negatives.

According to a lot of real life airline pilots, the inertia is better in MSFS 2024 than MSFS 2020. You can check out the flight dynamics thread:

I'm not a real life pilot so I rely on the reports of the real life pilots concerning the flight dynamics.  But for me at least, I love running replays for landing when I fly the PMDG 737 or the A320.  From a replay perspective for landing an airliner, it looks better in MSFS 2024 because the patches of land look more realistic, and the trees look more realistic than MSFS 2020, especially for the metro Vancouver area when landing at CYVR.

Having said that if you are mostly concerned about flying at 30K feet and above, MSFS 2020 is probably better than MSFS 2024 for airliners at the moment, because there are still an outstanding number of airliners that have not been ported to MSFS 2024 yet.  Over time though, as the airliners get ported to MFS 2024, and if some of the airliner projects are released for MSFS 2024 and not for MSFS 2020 (ie. unknown if Bluebird will release the 757/767 for MSFS 2020), MSFS 2024 may become better for airliners. But not at this point in time, I would say MSFS 2020 overall is better for airliners, because of the outstanding number of airliner projects not converted to MSFS 2024 yet.

Edited January 2, 20251 yr by abrams_tank

2020 is a stable, mature, and reliable sim, and has a wide variety of 3rd party airliners to choose from. 
 

2024 can look better, and perform better, but it has fewer 3rd party aircraft and is still in the “early adopter” phase. I think it comes down to your own personal feelings about being along for the ride as 2024 grows up. Some people are clearly excited to be part of the process, and they are happy to use the new sim now and watch it get better in real time. Other people don’t share that enthusiasm, and they tend to see 2024’s bugs and incompleteness as a collection of frustrations.

In sum:

You can’t go wrong with 2020.

Whether you would be happy with 2024 or not depends on how you feel about joining a project that still has some growing to do.

 

 

Edited January 2, 20251 yr by prolixindec

19 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

Too much of a hassle..

No hassle at all running both 2020 and 2024. I fly both trouble free.

I have been using 2020 version for quite some time and so far my experience has been spot on. It took some time to get use to with new interface and how it works (having used P3D before) but eventually I got there and today it is one of the stable sim available. MSFS 2024 has only been released for past 2 months and there are still tons of errors which needs to be resolved. Hopefully Asobo will look at in next couple of months. As per the addons availability - Most developers (PMDG/ifly...etc) are working to get their planes working on new sim but these things take time. However if you are airbus fan - Fenix is already available on 2024 along with few other addons from other developers. I personally will stay on MSFS 2020 for next few months and let MSFS 2024 evolve into bit more stable sim before considering a swap.

With regards to getting started on either 2020/2024 - depends on your needs/experience level. If you are already a flight simmer (Be it xplane/P3D/FSX) then you already have basic knowledge of how things work and what not, it just a matter of getting use to new UI. If you are new to flight sim - I always recommend starting in small piston and learn the manoeuvres (learn how to take-off/land. Etc) & trust me those skills will really help when you get on to Jets. 

Edited January 2, 20251 yr by CAP1234