I've never understood this irrational fear of the controller set up. Yes, it was disappointing that it wasn't carried over from 2020 but there are so many more options now. I'd be very surprised if the whole thing took me an hour. 

On 7/19/2025 at 7:32 AM, CaptainQ8 said:

Hello there,

I frequently use Xplane 12 as well as 2020. I think both Sims have their advantages and individual flaws. However I am thinking about getting/upgrading to 2024. I am not interested in the best visuals.

I am looking for realistic Physics (Flight and ground) as well as weather and performance. I exclusively fly airliners (Fenix, FSlabs, PMDG). Is there anything 2024 offers over 2020? Would a upgrade be worth it?

 

PC Spec: 9800x3D, RTX4080, 64 GB Ram 

Add Ons: Active Sky, BATC

 

Thanks in advance and best regards 

 

I recently wrote up my first impressions of MSFS 2024 after taking a 2 year break from FS2020… 

 

Re 2024: the key assignments I have never satisfactorily figured out. It is for me a pita.

I've printed out the key charts so I know what asobo has assigned.

The sim I think otherwise is pretty good but due to this issue I find myself on 2020 much more.

4 hours ago, dbw1 said:

The sim I think otherwise is pretty good but due to this issue I find myself on 2020 much more.

It is less than intuitive and I struggled w/ controller setup for several hours.   But OTOH, once you have your controllers setup, you don't normally have to go back into it much.  I will tweak the hardware profile of a particular plane by being in the plane, creating a new profile opposite the lowest field dedicated to per plane profiling, then use the toolbar dropdown option for controllers (Xbox controller icon) and then you can select a controller and set its various hardware controller axes curves and they're autosaved I'm pretty sure.  This is while in the plane, not Esc to Settings.   So, if you got your controllers setup in 2024, why go back to 2020 on that particular basis?  I guess you're saying you never did get your controllers properly setup.
 

Edited July 21, 2025Jul 21 by Noel

5 hours ago, Noel said:

It is less than intuitive and I struggled w/ controller setup for several hours.   But OTOH, once you have your controllers setup, you don't normally have to go back into it much.  I will tweak the hardware profile of a particular plane by being in the plane, creating a new profile opposite the lowest field dedicated to per plane profiling, then use the toolbar dropdown option for controllers (Xbox controller icon) and then you can select a controller and set its various hardware controller axes curves and they're autosaved I'm pretty sure.  This is while in the plane, not Esc to Settings.   So, if you got your controllers setup in 2024, why go back to 2020 on that particular basis?  I guess you're saying you never did get your controllers properly setup.
 

In 2020 I have things set up in a fashion that I’m happy with. 2024 is anything but intuitive and almost appears, tongue in cheek, to be an attempt to change for the sake of change. If by some chance I ever attend another flight sim expo, next year it’s in *kmsp, I hope there I’d a training session offered to learn this.

* I’m in Winnipeg an easy eight hour drive.

On 7/21/2025 at 1:55 AM, St Mawgan said:

I've never understood this irrational fear of the controller set up. Yes, it was disappointing that it wasn't carried over from 2020 but there are so many more options now. I'd be very surprised if the whole thing took me an hour. 

I don't think fear is the proper word.  Asobo had a great idea with the changes in controller bindings from 2020 to 2024.  However the execution of the idea itself was not great.  If it was we wouldn't have so many threads and comments saying so.  

2 minutes ago, micstatic said:

I don't think fear is the proper word.  Asobo had a great idea with the changes in controller bindings from 2020 to 2024.  However the execution of the idea itself was not great.  If it was we wouldn't have so many threads and comments saying so.  

We've also had lots of comments where people have said that it wasn't nearly as complicated as they thought it would be, having read posts here with people tearing their hair out. 

3 minutes ago, St Mawgan said:

We've also had lots of comments where people have said that it wasn't nearly as complicated as they thought it would be, having read posts here with people tearing their hair out. 

Yeah. Moot point for me. I prefer spad next which allows me to keep aircraft profiles that can be used in either sim and backed up externally. But that’s me 

I literally took a video on my phone for al my key bindings in 2020, and copied them over to 2024. Took probably 30 mins to do it all

I just recently decided to try out the 2024. I fly in VR only. I am an airliner guy. To be honest, you will not feel a great difference from 2020 if you fly airliners. As it was mentioned above, the clouds look a bit better, but not that much. 2020 could draw a very nice combination anyways. The bing maps is updated in many areas. But I heard that SU16 will bring bing map updates. What comes to the ground in 20241, yes it looks amazing if you walk around. But if you fly up high you will never notice. Yes, you can observe cows on the fields (was suprised when I saw flock of cows ). The performance is good for me in 2024. But night lighting I did not like. I think that 2020 has better lighting. 

So, it is not necessary to upgrade to 2024 ASAP. You can easily live in 2020 and enjoy. 

 

5 minutes ago, Firmy11 said:

I literally took a video on my phone for al my key bindings in 2020, and copied them over to 2024. Took probably 30 mins to do it all

Ah, that's where I went wrong, I made a spreadsheet of my bindings and it took me nearly a whole hour to transfer! Next time I'll make a video 😉

Besides what everyone has shared, for me one of the biggest and best quality of life improvements is the fast loading time. It sounds like a small thing, but I find myself doing “just one more flight” a lot more with 2024 because it’s so rapid to go between the menu and ready to fly. 

1 hour ago, zorro747 said:

What comes to the ground in 20241, yes it looks amazing if you walk around. But if you fly up high you will never notice.

It's more than 'walking around' for me.  What I notice is somewhat hard to define/describe:  the gestalt view, the overall impression while on the ground, for example during taxi, is just more 'realistic', more photo-real, than is 2020.  But in general it's true, on high they are close to identical.  I find the skyscapes including clouds look more like the real world than does 2020. A long time ago pre launch of 2024 I had opined I wished the team put in my words, 'the lion's share' of the big increases in CPU performance via multi-threading towards improving clouds and atmospherics but alas most went to polygons on the ground as you're pointing out. I was surprised to find most replies to that thread sort of dissed that concept, that cloud depiction was already good enough or some such opinion. 

2 hours ago, St Mawgan said:

We've also had lots of comments where people have said that it wasn't nearly as complicated as they thought it would be, having read posts here with people tearing their hair out. 

Many comments on other forums, and discord, about the Control UI being a major step backwards from 2020. 

44 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

Many comments on other forums, and discord, about the Control UI being a major step backwards from 2020. 

In terms of user-friendliness, intuitive, etc, it is a major step backwards.  But it's also more flexible and powerful.  Once you understand it, it's totally fine.  And as said, it's not like you go in and out of controller setup often, if ever.  My sense was its primary author was 'on the spectrum', i.e., thinks very differently than most brains.