7 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

so  the buyer doesn't have to fiddle with the software to get it to look halfway decent? 

To be fair, I tweaked the hell out of 2020 to try and make it decent.  What about the poor weather after SU5?

11 hours ago, Noel said:

I did a night lighting comparison at LOWS yesterday and it was clear to me the main issue is all is too bright in MSFS even out to the sky which is a dark grey as if my display's backlight was showing, whereas in XP12 it was pitch black.   This suggests to me a minor tweak would get them close enough to make them highly comparable.  

Just did a night check under clear conditions in MSFS2024 and found a starlit sky with a nearly black background over Montana, and still fairly dark in Pennsylvania about 50 miles from downtown Philadelphia -- both, in my judgment, close to real life in those areas. Anyone seeing a "pitch-black" sky on a real-life flight must be inside heavy clouds. As all pilots know, there is always a night glow in the sky under clear conditions. Check your settings in MSFS2024 and in your video driver. 

Edited June 13, 2025Jun 13 by cobalt

2 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

To be fair, I tweaked the hell out of 2020 to try and make it decent.  What about the poor weather after SU5?

Amen.  I think everyone forgets the status of 2020 even after the first year.  It was a total pile.  I think people just forgave the devs because it was such a change from anything we had... and everyone desperately wanted a new sim.

2024 has also changed dramatically from 2020 but many don't see it that way.

Fine with me, I'll take my 2024 server bandwidth.

1 hour ago, cobalt said:

Just did a night check under clear conditions in MSFS2024 and found a starlit sky with a nearly black background over Montana, and still fairly dark in Pennsylvania about 50 miles from downtown Philadelphia -- both, in my judgment, close to real life in those areas. Anyone seeing a "pitch-black" sky on a real-life flight must be inside heavy clouds. As all pilots know, there is always a night glow in the sky under clear conditions. Check your settings in MSFS2024 and in your video driver. 

Agree - the only time I've seen pitch black at night was during a new moon over extreme rural north dakota or over a large body of water with the same moon.

1 hour ago, cobalt said:

Just did a night check under clear conditions in MSFS2024 and found a starlit sky with a nearly black background over Montana, and still fairly dark in Pennsylvania about 50 miles from downtown Philadelphia -- both, in my judgment, close to real life in those areas. Anyone seeing a "pitch-black" sky on a real-life flight must be inside heavy clouds. As all pilots know, there is always a night glow in the sky under clear conditions. Check your settings in MSFS2024 and in your video driver. 

Must have been a side effect of HDR as the XP12 night sky was not cloudy as stars were very visible, but I guess it was not HDR though I do have autoHDR enabled, and HDR is enabled in 2024.  But it wasn't just the night sky it was all the city and street lights were brighter in 2024, probably differences from HDR.

The there is this

 

16 minutes ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

Then there is this

 

Yes, there will always be some people having stutters, in any sim. I have maybe 5% of the stutters I had in 2020 in 2024. 

I have just done some flying in the Grand Canyon in both MS2020 and MS2024 in a small amphibious plane, landing and taking off on the Colorado River several times, following the same route exactly in both sims.  In 2020, this provides a pleasant, enjoyable flightsm experience. But in 2024 it is mind-bogglingly real.  The difference of course is in the textures, which in 2020 feature pastel-colored canyon walls with smooth rounded tops, while in 2024 the colors are far more true-to-life (I've been there in RL) and the rocky faces and cliffs are sharp, well-defined and much more realistic. The Canyon affords a useful comparison between the textures in the two sims, especially for those who think that ground textures don't matter much when you are flying. Well, in places like this they do, and emphatically so!

Edited July 5, 2025Jul 5 by cobalt

Even though Grand Canyon is one of the super detailed areas in 2024 there is a large difference in cliff structures in 2024 vs 2020 which I love.  2024 generates realistic looking cliff faces on any flat edge texture... so it really goes away from that nasty look in 2020.  

@Bert Pieke Well I'm staying with MSFS 2024 (2020 left the virtual building) a lot more to come and happy with SU3 1.5.13.0 🥰smooth as butter... Always some stuff to wish for...  

I just purged 2020 from my system today actually.  I've got enough 2024 addons or 2020 ports to enjoy for a while.  Plus I've been painting 2024 addons almost since it was released.

I think we are witnessing the golden age of flight simulator. With Rex Atmos and fresher look and smoothness of SU 16, and the promising tendency of SU 3 Beta, we have two great options. One day, I will resurrect my XPlane 12 from Steam Library when they work on the ground eye candies, but the two platforms alone have written a new milestone in history.

Those three sims run very well with a humble set up, like the cheap yet surprisingly able i5-14600K and the old RTX 3070 + Lossless Scaling, which both cost us less than a brand new 4080.

 

 

Edited July 6, 2025Jul 6 by History

Vanilla Live weather in both sims...

XP12

MSFS 2020

Edited July 6, 2025Jul 6 by blueshark747

Just previous week I finally decided to get the 2024. I fly in VR only. The settings are high mostly, in some cases ultra. The performance is good. No complaints. I just did some test flights so far. But yesterday I did a night flight from Hong Kong to Tel Aviv. What can I say, cities night lights look terrible in 2024... I did not like it. Right after I finished my flight I fired up the 2020 and looked around. Was much better. At least that is my impression. Yes, the night sky in 2024 looks a bit better for me, but the land looks terrible...

Edited July 9, 2025Jul 9 by zorro747