49 minutes ago, P_7878 said:

I may not be as discerning a sightseer in MSFS2024 as you are with an eye for the minutest details in scenery ...🙂...but this one above I can certainly vouch for...

I forgot where exactly... alongside a river, in the vicinity of a big city, I wished to capture a few shots of these oil tanks (via Drone Camera). As I drew near, I could not stand the ungainly sight of these objects...some are kind of round, but look rather abnormal and strange...clearly AI generated...

It does puzzle me, because I would have assumed that identifying a large circular object at a port as an oil tank would be easier than identifying lots of different shaped houses and buildings (which the AI engine seems to do quite well).

5 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

the AI engine is still useless at rendering circular oil tanks. I have seen a few places that look OK, but these could be hand placed objects. Elsewhere, I still see square shaped buildings plonked down on clearly identifiable circular tank images at oil terminals. I was expecting that to have been sorted out by now 

Well, the AI is of course only as good as the available data.

I'm not sure exactly who might have coordinates, heights and dimensions of all the worlds storage tanks....... 

I have assumed that the AI learns by identifying familiar objects (or associations of objects), and then adds the relevant 3D models. I am not sure quite how AI works in this scenario, but presumably it needs to be provided with information to work out what goes where? If that is the case, then feeding it information regarding oil terminals and the associated circular tanks seems to have been overlooked. Surely AI does not need to know the precise locations of all of these tanks? The point of AI is to automate a process that would take forever if done manually.

Edited January 2Jan 2 by Christopher Low

25 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

I have assumed that the AI learns by identifying familiar objects (or associations of objects), and then adds the relevant 3D models. I am not sure quite how AI works in this scenario, but presumably it needs to be provided with information to work out what goes where?

Ever noticed how the AI occasionally sees a round place in the scenery and places a round building etc? I think places like Blackshark and others pull together multiple sources to give an educated guess on what to place where, with oil tanks being a good edge case where the AI can often go belly up.

Then you have people like Mamudesign that pull available data to place things like Marinas, Ski lifts, Powerlines and Solar Farms..... And even then, data can vary as in the situation where the Orbx powerlines (I believe) have no actual lines strung between them, whereas mamudesigns use either extrapolation or more detailed data to actually string the lines.

EDIT: I've always regretted that Xplanes artificial world can place actual physically modeled streetlights facing in the correct direction into its cities and roads, while even something as sophisticated as MSFS (I suspect due to lack of data) has to settle for directionless floating blobs instead.

Edited January 2Jan 2 by HiFlyer

I actually uninstalled MSFS about a week ago. I wasn't using it because I spend all of my time in XP12. I may revisit it in the future, but for now, MSFS has kinda lost its appeal after 5 years. 

Am I missing something, or are the marshaller's signals incorrect in MSFS 2024?

Edited January 8Jan 8 by Christopher Low

I have been a very vocal critic of MSFS 24, but after a year plus of crashing and frustration I can confidently say that it is in pretty solid state today. No crashes anymore on my end, and that was the main reason I stuck with MSFS 2020. 

I have never been a critic, but I just knew that "it takes some time to get into working form". Happy MSFS2024 camper now.

Edited January 9Jan 9 by G-YMML1

still don't see a compelling reason to go from 20 to 24 in all honesty

17 minutes ago, EGLD said:

still don't see a compelling reason to go from 20 to 24 in all honesty

If we were talking about a totally different standalone sim with no compatibility with the addons.  Yeah perhaps.  But to me it's a paid upgrade that easily covers its cost.  There is a reason you don't hear about many people switching back to 2020 after getting 24.  

As to starting in the cockpit. I think there should be a option in the menu and a global settings to start in the cockpit and also have the quick pre-flight performed.

I personally like the walk-around most of the time so I don't mind that its the default.

I stated previously I was waiting for the PMDG 737-700 to come out and I guess I should add the DC-6 to that. I have heard the 2020 DC-6 works fine in 2024 but I haven't tried it yet.

I recently bought the FlightFX Citation X, the A2A Aerostar, and the 2024 update to the AzurPoly C-160 Transall. So 2020 and the 737-700 and DC-6 have barely seen any use since around November.

I'm planning a MotoGP tour in 2026 with the 737-700 so I hope its out in 2024 by then.

 

1 hour ago, EGLD said:

still don't see a compelling reason to go from 20 to 24 in all honesty

It's not a compelling need. You can stay in 2020, or P3D, or even FSX.. not like those have stopped working. 

1 hour ago, EGLD said:

still don't see a compelling reason to go from 20 to 24 in all honesty

As you are no doubt aware, it took me a year to decide to upgrade to MSFS 2024. My decision to purchase a new PC made this choice a lot easier, although I had already concluded that the release of SU4 seemed to have lifted MSFS 2024 to a point where it was good (and stable) enough to be worth the risk.

I discovered that setting up the controls for my PMDG aircraft was easier than I had expected. I noted the significantly faster load time to the main menu, and the lightning fast load of my selected aircraft/airport combination. I was able to install everything that I had been using previously (including MSFS 2020 only addons) with very few problems. This was in part due to me taking the time to go through the list of all of my addons, and check to make sure that MSFS 2024 versions were available. MS Marketplace addons that did not have MSFS 2024 versions were "imported" from my MSFS 2020 account, and these only had to be enabled (and downloaded/installed, since I wanted everything on my local Nvme drive). For everything that did not have these options, I made sure to keep copies of the installed folders in the MSFS 2020 Community folder, and then simply copied them across to the new Community folder.

The only addon that does not appear to be working is GAIST, but this seems to be a universal problem that has little to do with my installation. To date, I have not suffered a single CTD or loading problem of any kind. There are a few small issues at certain airports (low resolution taxiway sign or vehicle textures), but these are few and far between, and actually occur mostly at airports that have been confirmed as "MSFS 2024 compatible".

The graphics are better than MSFS 2020. There is no debate about this. They just are. Better lighting, more realistic trees (and tree height/density), not a single one of those annoying "land bars" in sight, improved DEM data (particularly for certain small islands and coastal cliffs), improved vector data (there were plenty of black lakes near EFIV Ivalo in MSFS 2020, but these are no longer a problem in MSFS 2024), and better integration of water features in the landscape. What I mean by this is that lakes and ponds just seem to "fit" better in the landscape. It is a bit difficult to describe, but the water in MSFS 2020 has a tendency to look like vector data added to the scenery. In other words, the edges never seemed to quite blend with the surrounding terrain. After having used MSFS 2024 for the past month, I just feel that the water blends more naturally. Maybe it is an illusion, but it sure feels like that.

With respect to the overall atmospheric lighting, there is just something that feels more correct about it. Again, it is hard to describe, but every time that I look out of my aircraft window, my brain "sees" the lighting effects across the landscape, and simply accepts it as realistic. Not a very objective conclusion, but that is the only way that I can describe it. Dawn and dusk are also better, because that horrible thick red band at twilight in MSFS 2020 is now much more subtle and pleasing to the eye. Oh, and the horizon line is no longer visible through mountains.

I am very happy with my decision to upgrade to MSFS 2024, and that is exactly what it is......an upgrade. That may not have been the case a year ago, but it most certainly is now.

EDIT: It is also worth remembering that support for MSFS 2020 will diminish as the year progresses. Fewer addons will be made with MSFS 2020 compatibility in mind. We have already seen this with payware aircraft, but it will not be long before the same happens with addon airports. I have seen comments of this kind from various developers, and I suspect that the figures revealed by local Discord "polls" will be making them think hard. I wanted some addon airports that have only been developed for MSFS 2024, and it was getting harder for me to ignore them!

Edited January 9Jan 9 by Christopher Low

Yes, individually speaking, there is no compelling need. After all, I didn’t find a compelling need for myself to leave FSX/SE (that I loved) for many years.

But I constantly felt the (gradually) sinking feeling…🙂…that on-going developer support, introduction of new products, the (once) thriving user-base were all (slowly) disappearing in front of my eyes.

Still, I was fully content with my (pre-existing) aircraft (some of which, I don’t even have now in MSFS2024), my scenery etc.

I know, here, it has been just over a year for MSFS2020, not 5 years, as was the case for me in FSX. So, there is no compelling need (yet), if you are content with what you need from your SIM and what you now have…in MSFS2020…

I went from not using 2024 at all to using it 50% 2020 and 50% 2024 since SU4 released, yes it is easy to acknowledge the graphics advantages and faster loadings of 2024, and despite the good hardware, 2024 is still struggling in certain scenarios with complex airports, maybe something related to the preloading of the scenery, something very well acknowledged in other threads in these forums, something not present in the early SU4 betas and present on final SU4. Let's see with SU5 soon to start the betas. So in my case: 2020 liquid fluid performance in ultra 4k and 2024 just a little better graphics and faster startup loadings in general.