kerosene31

I used the freeware Gees for a long time. I bought the 2.0 version. I mean I don't think you can go wrong for the price. I fight with the replay controls a little bit, but it works (might be user error on my end). The popup window works great. Shows you what you did and then disappears after a set time. There's also a record of all your landings. For around $10 (depending on conversion and tax), I am very happy with it. You can still grab the freeware 1.0 version. The freeware works fine, just lacks the bells and whistles.

I can only speak for their TJSJ, but there's basically roller coaster taxiways by the active runway, bushes in the middle of taxiways all over, etc. I'm seriously worried about damaging the plane getting to the active. I'm not one of those sticklers for detail. I'm happy with most sceneries I buy. I don't go over every texture, but things like taxiways that require full throttle to "climb" is something that should not get launched, or un-patched for this long. It is the only commercial scenery I've actually thought of uninstalling and going back to default.

I go through the MS Store, so not sure how Steam matters. Note that it took a couple of days for the ticket to be addressed, so it wouldn't hurt to get one out there. They handled the issue easily, but it took them awhile to get to it. Do you have the option to buy anything else? I know when I had my issue, the "buy" option was removed from everything. It was like my account was stuck in a pending transaction.

You'll probably need to open a ticket with MSFS support (not the vendor). I had my store get stuck once and they fixed it. https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015781359-How-to-contact-support

I bought an F-16 off the MSFS sale, and I had downloaded a freeware Nellis AFB (which is very nice, but very FPS heavy). I take off and my FPS (normally in the 50-70 range, depending greatly on where I am and what I'm flying) dipped down into the 30-40 range. I didn't even have the FPS counter on, but I instantly noticed the massive drop. This isn't a placebo, I didn't even have my shift-z stats mod displayed, and I wasn't even thinking about FPS. All of a sudden a nimble fighter jet was handling like someone strapped busses under the wings. It feels like there's now more delay between the controls and what happens on screen (I'm guessing that is actually mostly an illusion, I doubt it really impacts your inputs, but it feels like it does). And no, this wasn't just the initial drop in FPS (which is clearly going to make things choppy), but I stayed consistently at 30-40 around that immediate area. At that point I did turn on my FPS counter and things were not erratic, but pretty consistent. For my eyes, 30 fps will never, ever be smooth. Now, can you fly a heavy commercial airliner at 30fps? Of course, a fighter plane is an extreme example. Obviously the goal is to fly an airliner realistically and smoothly, so you are a lot less likely to notice the FPS. I remember back to the old days of MSFS getting 20 fps on final approach into busy airports.

A lot of modern content moderation is done by bots. I doubt there's any real human ever involved. Weirdly random things can trigger AI. They might even just remove anything with the word "military" in it. Not defending their process (official forums are always like this), but just saying I doubt any human at MS actually did anything. They don't hire people to sit and moderate their forums, they set an AI routine loose and be done with it.

Buffalo is right in the sweet spot for viewing as well, except of course for our sketchy weather. We just don't see a lot of sun in April (not until the summer months). 60-70% of our days in early April are cloudy.

I absolutely can tell 30fps from 60. It is super noticeable in things like action video games. Although, I do have friends who either can't tell or don't notice. I can't even play those action games on 30 fps, it is just too slow, especially any game that requires timing. I was a decent athlete back in the day, including a lot of time as a hockey goalie, so maybe there's something to the reaction time thing. Even now that I'm older, I still have very good reaction times. My body has slowed way down, but I don't feel like I've lost much in the way of reaction time. I'm no worse at video games now than I was in my 20s. I know that top tier first person shooter players want to run 240fps. I think you get into diminishing returns the higher you get, but I still think there's a definite difference.

I fail to see what that article has to do with MSFS? The video game industry as a whole is going through some major turmoil, basically companies investing heavily in live service games that nobody wants, causing a lot of very high end "flops". Games that cost years and tons of money to make that don't even come close to getting their money back. Microsoft made that big (and controversial) purchase of Activision/Blizzard, and then were forced to fire some staff (around 8%). That's the kind of thing Phil is talking about. Even with the massive growth of MSFS, it is still a niche in that big pond. Phil is talking about games like Call of Duty, not MSFS. There have been tons of layoffs in those studios.

There's a guy who says he's a real world heli pilot who says they are good. Flyinside does the A2A thing where they have their own custom flight dynamics, but I notice they never go on sale (or I missed them). At normal price, the Cownasim stuff is a little steep, but at sale price I've picked up a few. I think they are a good deal on sale for those of us who just want to casually check out helicopters. Granted, I can barely fly the things even in MSFS 2020 (but it is rewarding once you start to figure it out).

I never asked for a graphic representation of engine details, or ever thought about it. Then I saw it in use in an aircraft and realized I totally need that! 😎 It is cool and that's what is most important to me.

As someone who doesn't have a lot of time (or much memory for this stuff), I find having a good sim checklist is key for keeping up with complex aircraft. As a long time GA simmer, I don't think I ever used a checklist before. Back in the day, even complex GA aircraft were pretty simple, and you could get by with just clicking around. Obviously a really bad habit that many of us sim only pilots learn. I find there are a lot of good sim checklists to download from .to. I put those in a cloud drive so I can access them from a tablet or phone easily and have them handy. I avoid the real world checklists as often those have a lot of things like "check your seatbelt" and "brief passengers" that can be skipped. The common problem is that I learn to fly an airplane, then set it aside for weeks, then come back and not remember anything. Going through a checklist usually fixes that. It is definitely more rewarding, but I also totally get the "I just wanna get up and flying".

I definitely grabbed it at this price. So glad I did!

I think light products can be great. I mean, I don't need a study level F86. That's the kind of thing I'd mess around with here and there, and I think the light products fit that. I really enjoy the depth of an A2A Comanche (my most flown plane by a wide margin), but I don't need every aircraft to be that.

For me? When 2024 launches, I'll be playing 2020, all while scrolling here to see how things are going. Will I move to 2024 eventually? Of course. Maybe it will be a week, a month or a year. I'll migrate when it makes sense. I don't have the disk space for both sims, so I'll let all the early adopters test the waters for me. Honestly, I don't get the huge fuss over 2024. Seems to have some nice improvements, but nothing that screams "buy me on day 1!!!". Again, I'll get it at some point. However I'm not going to uninstall a working sim to jump into the unknown on day 1. I assume add-ons will need patching, and who knows if they all get an advanced copy. Just an example, will add-on planes fly properly when 2024 changes the flight model? Compatibility is one thing, but will the planes fly the way the developers intended? All these questions are going to be answered by everyone jumping in on day 1. 😀