ricka47

Are you using the Vulkan beta? Jagged cockpit shadows are one of the known bugs (https://www.x-plane.com/kb/x-plane-11-50-release-notes/#Known_bugs).

I'm completing an XP11 flight now as I type this using the Vulkan beta. It's a night flight out of Reno and the views and lighting were great at sunset and now in total darkness. Yet, there is just so much in XP that needs serious work. I really hope that they step up and meet the challenge that MSFS will provide.

I'm trying to control my urge to upgrade until the new sim is actually released and new hardware (CPU, GPU) that is coming in the next few months become available.

This video (https://youtu.be/BWQGI7tffWM) on IFR leads me to believe that my goal of keeping add ons to a minimum may be realized. It appears that a decent map system, flight planning, and ATC may be built-in. Of course, there will still be add ons available to compliment these and add further detail. But, for a change, I want an out-of-the-box experience that just works.

After spending so many years buying, installing, updating, and tweaking add ons, I would love to just use this sim with stock scenery and stock aircraft. I'm sure the bug to buy more stuff will hit me sooner or later but I'm going to try to fight the urge.

Thanks - I may have to give it a shot!

Good point - thanks!

This my concern as well. I have a yoke, throttles, switch panel and a map on a second monitor. How does one deal with this in VR?

I'm wondering that as well. I generally have Intel's with the belief that speed is more important than cores. But, that may not be the case now because of the X-Box factor. I want to wait until the sim is actually out and the nVidia 3080 is available as well.

Once MSFS is out and the dust settles a bit, I will build a new PC. I've had Intel's for a long time but the AMD's are beckoning. Is there any logic to assuming that, since the new X-Box will have AMD components that the new sim will be optimized for those as well?

I'm not hopeful that XP will be able to respond to the challenge that MSFS will present. They may not even see MSFS as a challenge and just continue to go their own way and many will stay with the sim out of loyalty. I'll go with whatever is the best available and, unless many of us are wrong, that will be MSFS.

The last sentence is key for me. LR has made significant improvements in XP11 and I'm quite happy with it. But, P3D, and XP are starting to look and feel like "last year's model" compared to what I'm seeing so far from MSFS. If it really turns out to be the next-gen sim that we are expecting, I don't think that LR can really catch up although I hope that they try and are successful. Certainly, Vulkan is a big step forward. But, if they can't do that, I will make the switch to MSFS exclusively. I don't want two sims to keep up-to-date. As it is, I spend too much time "tweaking" and updating and not enough time flying.

Although you have made your choice, I'm still debating these two as well and am now leaning a bit more toward AMD due to PCIEe 4.0, more cores, 7nm, prices. etc. It's seems that Intel is still playing catch-up. But, I'm going to wait until MSFS is actually released and the new 3000 series video cards are out before plunking down $4k.

Do we know the reason that the new sim won't just be in DX12 in the first place?

Thanks for the responses. This is certainly something to consider before I do the next big PC upgrade.