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I think this is the most important and only complicated part - which old folders?

Am I the only person that thinks this is absolutely insane? I frequently work with AI - but holy cow - the visual recognition and the quality / clarity of instructions here are amazing. What a great way to learn. Almost as good as John and Martha King, but not quite:

Ha! I literally hit refresh and that announcement was on the homepage, along with instructions for current users to download the new version for free. Nice.

I *think* they might be in the process of launching it now: ChasePlane I don't recall MS2024 version being available to add to cart before. I don't see a way to upgrade from MS2020 version or a way to download the 2024 version from the customer portal for those that previously bought the 2020 version yet.

I love the fact that the desktop is running Flight Simulator 1.0. Also, the phone number at the end works - call it.

At least we now know the release date for SU4: next Tuesday, 12/9. Best case, like the Maverick add-on for 2020, this might also include some functionality enhancements that can improve other aspects of the sim (e.g. more advanced mission triggers that can be leveraged in career mode missions). Worst case it's a shallow and not very interesting marketing promo that might get some people interested in MSFS. No harm in either case IMHO.

Is that a real photo or a screenshot at the top? I think it's a real photo based on the URL, but the fact that it took me 5 minutes to figure out, and that I'm still not 100% sure one way or the other shows how insanely far MSFS graphics have come. Sounds like a fun adventure and a good way to meet other simmers!

This would tie the record for the lowest pressure at landfall, held by the "labor day" storm of 1935, which had a storm surge so high that Islamorada was completely submerged. Image of the FEC railway below, which was 30 ft above sea level: If there's any good news, it's that during this same storm, the max sustained winds in Key West, just a few dozen miles away, were only 45mph (vs. 200mph in the eye wall)... So perhaps Kingston will similarly be spared the worst of Melissa's wrath.

Quite the contrary - the central pressure is one of the lowest ever recorded in a storm in the Atlantic @ 896mb, and will be the second lowest ever recorded at landfall if it maintains that intensity. List of Atlantic hurricane records - Wikipedia I think the pressure map you showed simply doesn't have the resolution to show just how deep the pressure goes in the eye. Here's some great footage of the eye - beautiful / terrifying:

If you like trains (and honestly, who doesn't?) check out "Derail Valley". Despite being smaller in scope, it's much more immersive in many ways. It's a bit like the "Flight Unlimited" of train sims - if you are old enough to remember that title. The trains feel more tangible - they have more of a sense of momentum, and they require more knowledge and thought to operate. TSW, for all of its dev resources and scope, always felt very shallow to me. Just one example - unless I'm missing something, there's no way to configure a device like the alpha bravo or other throttles to act as a controller. It also doesn't "feel" like I'm in a 10,000 ton vehicle. DV lets you configure any axis on any controller to reversers, throttle, etc... Will definitely check out TSW 6 - always curious if they'll move the ball forward...

EV batteries are extremely recyclable. The process recovers between 90 - 99% of the lithium, nickel and cobalt contained in the original battery, and those materials can be recycled an infinite number of times. More facilities are required to handle the volume of batteries that will need to be recycled, but those are already being built - just like we built facilities to recycle the metals from regular cars as they became popular decades ago. If you could go back in time to 1910 and tell Henry Ford that there would one day be 300 million cars on the road in the future, I'm sure even he would say that's logistically impossible: "there isn't that much fossil fuel - how would we manufacture that much rubber for tires (1.2 billion+ tires!), etc.. etc.." I think the same is true for EVs - some things seem like roadblocks now, but the market will find a way to overcome them. Here's a quick video on the process: BTW - Talking about science, technology, vehicles, manufacturing, etc... that's what hangar chat is all about! I mean, what better to chat about in a hangar than geeky mechanical stuff?

Resizable BAR - it's a setting (usually in BIOS) that allows the CPU to access larger chunks of GPU VRAM at a time. It results in better frame rates in most situations - but worse frame rates in some cases.

To further clarify, I'm using the xbox game pass standard edition. I was able to purchase the upgrades with the 2020 xbox game pass standard edition and paid the difference in price instead of the full price. With 2024, the upgrades are "not available separately" even though the base game is installed. Just bumping this to see if anyone has either encountered the same problem, or has an answer yet.

With FS2020, you could simply purchase an upgrade edition and pay only the difference between the base price and the upgraded edition. For example, if standard was $60, and deluxe was $100, you'd pay $40. With 2024, the upgrade editions are listed in the MS Store, but are "not available separately" even though the required base game, FS2024 is already installed (via game pass). I'm assuming this is a bug - anyone else encountering this? Any workarounds?

That makes perfect sense and is definitely the logical way to go - good to hear that it's a painless process. I'm going to go against logic and keep both installed for a bit - just so I can compare and contrast improvements. Does the lighting really look better, or is it just my imagination / placebo effect? Jump back into 2020 to find out... Not because I doubt there's an improvement, but because I want to admire / appreciate the improvement that was made. Does it make sense to keep 500GB+ tied up on an SSD and risk conflicts just for this purpose? Absolutely not 🙂

Great video - factual, well researched, well presented, good theme to tie the story together and well produced. The quality of content produced by creators like this amazes me (this guy has less than 3k subs!). [Edit: correction - excellent video. Still watching it and learning things I didn't know about Asobo's evolution and how they came to produce the FS series]

I'm sure younger folks look at the first few versions and wonder how someone could possibly think that was entertaining or immersive - but let me assure you, it was an incredible experience. You felt like you were on the forefront of what computers were capable of - and despite the 1FPS, it still managed to teach you about avionics, control surfaces, approach angles, etc... The scary thing is, I'm sure someday people will look back at MSFS2024 and wonder how people thought it was entertaining or immersive, compared to what will exist 30 years from now. Can't wait.

Hi Roy - unfortunately no, there is no way to upgrade the RAM in most (if not all) GPUs. You should still be able to run MSFS, but you’ll need to spend some time tweaking GPU memory intensive settings like texture resolution. I recommend leveraging the Xbox game pass subscription as a way to test and find out if you can run it smoothly. Hope this helps…

Hi there - yes, MSFS 2024 will run on your machine. In fact, your specs are fairly close to those of the XBOX One X, which MSFS is optimized for. You are going to need to set most graphic options to medium, turn traffic to low or off, and/or use resolution scaling, but it should be possible to get 30+ FPS consistently and have an enjoyable experience. If you have xbox game pass, you can install and experiment with MSFS to see how smoothly it runs before making any commitments. BTW - you can see the recommended specs here - your machine is well above minimum, and just below "recommended" due to your GPU and RAM. Hope this helps...

Two thousand four hundred and ninety-nine dollars. The same amount of money can buy: 5 good quality 75 inch televisions (TCL S4 w/ Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, etc..) 1,481 Gigabytes of DDR4 RAM 10 ultrawide 21:9 34" monitors (LG 3440x1440 w/ HDR10. Freesync, etc...) 42 Raspberry PI 5s 5 PlayStation 5s A low-mileage, late model 350cc motorcycle (e.g. 2022 Royal Enfield Meteor) It's interesting how RAM, CPUs, SSDs are all basically the same price they were 5 years ago - but GPUs have gone into the stratosphere. Lack of competition, AI and crypto mining have all taken their toll. At this rate, the 6090 will be $10,000. Also depressing that the 5080 is intentionally lame, so that the 5090 seems like a deal / value. MOST depressing is that I'm still thinking about buying a 5090. Argh.

Ahhh that may be true, BUT - will they replace the plane for free if it ever crashes, an unlimited number of times? Heck, PMDG will even provide you with a fresh factory new plane simply upon request! Those yucky real world planes just sit there and depreciate - and if you crash you have to buy a whole new one! As if that’s not enough - PMDG even provides free repositioning services and will transport your plane to any airport in the world. Stuck in a snow storm? No problem - PMDG will transport your plane anywhere for FREE! $325M is the deal of the century!!

Three hundred and twenty five million dollars is very reasonable for a 777. The average price for a real 777 is around $375 million. You are saving over $50 million dollars, plus you get free delivery, fuel, and maintenance for the life of the aircraft! They’ll even repaint the plane for free as many times as you want - certainly a better deal than Boeing! Besides, I’m sure PMDG has financing options available.

I'm late to the party - finally watching the presentation for the first time, but I'm so dang excited. Little things like the visuals for props being modeled vs. canned animations (@ 32:30 in the presentation) are huge. It's interesting - MSFS is in the "uncanny valley" where things already look SO real that shortcomings stick out way more than they ordinarily would. So when you notice that props are just a series of static animations, it temporarily snaps you out of the "suspension of disbelief". The new prop visual is much more realistic - no part of it is canned - and that makes the experience of flying ALL prop aircraft a bit more realistic. The CFD wake effect from helicopters - amazing. You can call it "eye candy" - but to me modeling physics - both of physical objects and the air around them is the core of what a simulation is. To be able to actually see the effect of wake turbulence on the world around you helps you understand it, learn about it, and experiment with it. They seem to be committed to simulation and emergent effects and outcomes vs. pre-scripted effects and outcomes. Definitely a lot to look forward to here.

Fun fact: MicroProse was founded by Sid Meier (of Civilization fame, one of MicroProse's first titles) and Bill Stealey - who was an A-37 pilot in the Air Force and was the driving force behind most of their military sims. Although the company shut down in 2003, the rights to the name were acquired in 2019 by a former Bohemia Interactive developer (Operation Flashpoint, the ARMA series, etc..) and Bill Stealey is involved in the project. So I'd say this reincarnation of MicroProse has some serious credibility to it. I do miss the more scripted and story-like missions of Combat Sims in the good old days and it sounds like some of the upcoming titles will be a return to that form. I also like the idea of an easy to use world-building tool to support the creation of additional content by the community and other devs. Easy to see how someone from the ARMA universe would see the importance of that. Fingers crossed that the reborn MicroProse becomes another quality publisher in this space along with Eagle Dynamics, 1C Company, etc...

Well, just to continue our good spirited debate on an otherwise slow Friday afternoon... I would absolutely say that the modern versions of the 757 and 767 share more in common with a 737-800 from a technology and systems perspective than the original 737-200 does. The original 737-200 literally does not have a computer of any kind on board. Its first flight was in 1967 - well before men walked on the moon. The most popular shows on TV at the time were all in black and white! Other than moving the yoke and rudder pedals - almost nothing about taking off and landing in a 737-200 is the same as the 737-800. There was no flight director - the auto pilot was completely incapable of following any kind of route other than a straight line. The engines weren't high-bypass. There was no auto throttle (!!) and the engines could be easily damaged. The 757 and 767 have an FMS, they have a modern MCP with a flight director - you can fly SIDs and STARs. They have an auto throttle system. The engines, airframe, electronic systems, fuel management systems, and automation ALL have much more in common with a 737-800 than the 800 shares with the 200. If you told a modern 737-800 pilot (other than you - heheh) that they had to fly the original 737-200 on their next flight - with no training whatsoever - no rational person would agree to that (not with passengers on board anyway). Yes, the knobs and switches on the overhead panel are similar - and the throttle handles are the same, and the seat cushions look pretty similar too, but they are about as different as a 1967 Corvette and a 2020 Corvette.