GCBraun

41 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

I don't get it: wasn' the big thing with MSFS that you could see the live weather in the distance? Now we're back to hammering the sim with presets, just like in FSX and P3D? Except for historical weather, what does this bring to the table that REX Weather Force doesn't, and how does this improve the Live Weather experience in MSFS?

That's why I continue to view third-party WX Apps as a lateral move at best. I've purchased REX WF back then due to erratic behavior from the weather servers. However, with time, the integrated weather system has significantly improved, leading me to forego using REX for over two years now.

It's essential for simmers to weigh the advantages and drawbacks of each solution and make their own informed decisions. Personally, I prioritize features such as weather fronts and smooth transitions, both of which I find well-executed in the integrated system. The fact that the built-in solution is both free and effortlessly integrated is simply the cherry on top.

I would be willing to give ASFS a chance, but I just had a really bad experience with the upgrade process from XP11 to XP12. Even though I have used the new version in the timeframe I was supposed to, my license did not get upgraded and now I’ve found out that I am banned from the official AS forums. 

In any case, I am pretty happy with MSFS’s default weather. I like to fly from/to airports that have live camera and ATC coverage on YouTube and the experience is pretty immersive when using live traffic. Weather is usually spot on.  

I would also suggest an OLED TV, but it seems that your budget would not suffice. 

144Hz is indeed not needed, but limiting the frames with 30fps is also not necessary in MSFS. With a 4080 and FG you will probably not go below 60 fps, even in the most challenging scenarios. 

Perhaps you can aim for a 120Hz display and focus on getting more screen real state. For me 48” is just ideal.  

In my view, X-Plane shines with its optimal configuration (Ortho + Plugins and precise settings), presenting superior visuals compared to the competition.
 

Conversely, MSFS stands out for its reliability, albeit less frequently awe-inspiring, offering an overall more enjoyable experience.
 

It'll be interesting to observe if version 12.1 alters this landscape. 

3 hours ago, Dominique_K said:

About the « protectionism ». If I am not mistaken, two companies only have had difficulties in grafting their products on FS20 : RXP for the avionics  and HiFi. All the others are back in the game.

And today we have the TDS GTNXi Pro, which is now even offering Navigraph data, something RXP never did. I assume things are harder for HiFi when it comes to weather, but xEnviro seems to be working reasonably well and it's even offering historic weather. 

Drone view of the area:

Jürgen S. - Google Maps

4 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

My system is comparable to yours. You must have settings too high. I can maintain 30 at SimWings Heathrow with 150 Ai in an 80nm bubble. Most at Heathrow. How many Ai were present?

PSXT + RealTraffic up to a limit of 100 aircraft.

I probably could get it to be stable at 30 if I started fiddling with settings and cfg files. 

The thing is that, with three small kids, I am lucky if I get 3 hours a week to use my sims nowadays. With MSFS I can just fly in a performant fashion regardless of the add-ons…no need to tweak. 

3 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

With your system, performance wouldn’t be a problem. You say the platform is “outdated” but once airborne surely flying the aircraft would be just the same in MSFS as it is in P3D.

Could barely hit 30 with live traffic on major hubs. The overall lightning in MSFS is also much improved, so this should allow for a better experience when looking inside and outside of the flight deck. 

I don't see how I could justify purchasing yet another A320, no matter how good it is.

Perhaps the first FSLabs plane for MSFS would end up being indeed the Concorde? At least we know it is coming for MSFS. I have purchased it for P3D but stopped using a week later. The aircraft is amazing, but the platform is just too outdated. I am sure it will look/perform much better in MSFS...

5 hours ago, GoranM said:

Of course not.  X-Plane isn't made for XBox.  I can, however, run X-Plane on my 85" TV with an HDMI cable running from my MacBook Pro. The iPhone version is, as I said, meant for a little bit of time passing fun.  That's MY opinion.  Even though the mobile version is very, very close to the desktop version.  The limiting factor is external hardware.

Again, that wasn't my point.  We all have an opinion.  Just don't insult someone if their opinion is different to yours.  That's all.

For a 85" TV, you would definitely need to run XP in 4K. Having a Macbook M2 as well, I can say that the performance would be underwhelming, especially if you use advanced aircraft, plugins and ortho sceneries with it.

In any event, my response pertained to the comparison between Xbox and a phone. You at least can be a hardcore simmer on an Xbox. On an iPhone, that is just not possible.

One can use A2A or PMDG aircraft with a Throttle/Yoke combo on a 55" TV and good quality visuals using an Xbox for less than what a high-end graphics card would cost. Is this possible when using a phone?

28 minutes ago, GoranM said:

Steam numbers are a poor indicator of official numbers. X-Plane 12 was outselling 11 for the period in the first 3 months. 

Yes, but it should provide statistical/sample data for the overall user-base. I mean, I have uninstalled XP11 one week after purchasing XP12. It is so much better while retaining compatibility with most of my add-ons...

That is good news, but it makes even harder for me to understand why XP11 still has more active users than XP12. 

Very good. Can't wait to ged rid of X-Plane.org (awful support) and the gizmos of the world.

I've bought the A300 for XP11, XP12 and MSFS. What a glorious beast.

Only issue so far was a small incompatibility with my Honeycomb Throttle when IAS was selected on the knob.

One of the best purchases I've made for flight summing, alongside the SD XL. As I fly with many different planes using different sims, the Stream Decks offer a very reliable interface across the board.

2 hours ago, GoranM said:

MSFS is made by game developers.  Asobo ARE game developers.  Not an opinion.  It's fact. 

And that is precisely because it is so popular.

Even though I am also an XP12 enthusiast, using MSFS is a more enjoyable experience overall precisely because the latest gaming technologies were used. 

The foundation built by Asobo is extremely good when we compared to what we get with P3D and XP out of the box. 

Perhaps you don’t know this, but all main MSFS Devs got their PPLs before the sim was released. That is why, besides the virtual world, MSFS has also remarkable built-in capabilities in terms of flight planning, navdata, default aircraft and avionics. 

3 hours ago, uwespeed said:

So, I would call that young crowd "gamers" which came to flight simming during the last years. And the question is, how serious they are taking that. I assume, not very much ...

Not very much…yet.

Having young people becoming more interested in the hobby is great news.

I have been saying this all along, but it is really intriguing that some here still think that expanding the base of simmers is something bad. Some of those “gamers” will definitely experiment with X-Plane in the future. 

Regardless, this huge increase in popularity among youngsters would not have been possible without MSFS and Xbox. 

So, it seems that the sporadic users of MSFS in this forum are more outraged than the so-called "hardcore" fans of the platform. Why is that? Personally, this slight delay in receiving the update has not affected my temper at all.

11 minutes ago, GoranM said:

I just came across this post.

@Ianrivaldosmith @GCBraun 

This seems like a pretty serious bug to have with FG, and I'm one who would almost definitely turn it off or disable it if this was the case.

Genuinely interested in any thoughts either or both of you have.

This issue is not related to FG, but rather to Asobo’s DX12 implementation.

I have experienced this, but there are known workarounds to either get the textures back, or to not have them disappear at all in the first place. 

38 minutes ago, blingthinger said:

Every review I've seen of it very clearly shows and complains about artifacting below 60. Maybe that's less of a problem with a relatively low-action, low-detail title as a flight sim?

Yes it is. Only artifacts that I see are in the engines. The flight-deck experience is pretty much flawless.

6 hours ago, blingthinger said:

in order for fake frames to look good, it requires high FPS already. You need 60+ before artifacts really go away. 60 FPS is tons.

Absolutely not true. FG is a life-saver in scenarios where I would have less than 30 fps.

Taking off from EGLL, EDDF or KJFK with tons of AI traffic is much more enjoyable in MSFS compared to XP precisely because of FG. 

I do. If a more efficient GPU that delivers better performance than the 4090 is available, I would be interested. 

Being multi-platform does not mean that XP has to perform equally and/or have the same features on all supported platforms. You can get much better performance on PC for a fraction of the cost of a Mac. 

I think XP12 has indeed improved a lot in the last releases, so much that I have been using it more and more. Looking forward to the 12.1. version.

Nevertheless, I would like to point out that, even though proprietary to nVidia, Frame Generation is a killer feature that should make its way into XP.

MSFS is also multi-plaform (Xbox runs AMD hardware) and that is no excuse to not have DLSS/FG available on PC.

Many other multi-plat titles also offer DLSS + FSR, with DLSS (esp. V3) being much better than FSR.