b737800

Kind of feel sorry for the organisers. The event will have been booked a while ago (likely before the first MSFS announcement) and I can imagine that, unless things change very quickly) many people will not want to spend the time and money to go to an Expo where many of the major questions cannot be answered. $80 per head seems a bit steep too, although I've not been to an FS expo for 14 years and I think I paid in camels.

I guess this is what leprosy feels like, just with all my fingers and toes.

The third in a series of threads about emails received (or not) inviting you to participate in the Flight Simulator test program. This thread is ONLY for ALPHA, which was originally known as Tech Alpha 2. Emails are due to be sent all this week (w/c 20th Jan). For those of us (ME! ME!! ME!!!) that didn't get an invite on the previous 2 invite batches.... here we go again.

😉

Mine only shows this:

Got an email when registering for the forum but not for registering for Tech Alpha. The only other one was on 17th September stating: Greetings Insiders! Our first Tech Alpha build is just about ready for testing! If you are interested in participating in the upcoming Tech Alpha release, please be sure to go to the official Microsoft Flight Simulator website, sign into the Insider Area, and follow the registration link to the survey. When filling out the survey, please be sure you completely fill it out and submit. Failing to completely fill out the survey will greatly impact your chances to be in our first round of Tech Alpha testing. Please keep in mind that we will do our best to get as many people in as possible, but signing up does not guarantee that you will be selected. Reminder - you will need to use your Microsoft account to access the insider hub, if you do not have a Microsoft account you will need to create one before you can fill out the survey. Account creation link. For more updates and information on the technical alpha be sure to check out our next developer update on September 19th, where we will be releasing more information on the Tech Alpha build goals and release timeline. Thank You! The Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

They could have given some indication as to what those requirements are. I have more than one PC that would happily run the sim and I could have registered with the one that was closest to their needs. A little miffed, but still positive.

Do you realise what you've just done? I was about to go to bed!

Thanks Still only 10:15am in Seattle. Not that I think there is someone there manually sending out emails. I'll give up in the morning when I wake up and see the usual crud in my inbox.

Congrats. How many hours ago did you receive it?

Never thought of that. Probably why I'm on wife #2. VERY nice feature. Been using it since I can remember it first being available.

It's really easy. You wear headphones and have only ATC sounds sent to it and everything else to speakers. Personally I don't like simulated muffling of noises when the alternative is at least as easy and very realistic - because it's real.

Oi, get in the queue! Welcome to my world.

Almost brand new i9 9900K, 64GB RAM, RTX 2080Ti, 2 * 2TB M.2 NVMe drives, 100mbps internet (actually 300mbps but not in reality, as per my comments on another thread). Part of the problem might be that I initially registered with a lower spec (actually VERY high spec for the time... ) initially and then changed the DXDiag file on the first day of TA2 reg.

Good question. It's already noticeably looser than other keys and it's only a few months old. Decent British layout keyboards are expensive to come by where I live - this one cost me a tad under $300 and has a life expectancy of about 1 year. If no email received today i'll go back to my old keyboard (which doesn't have an F5 key!) for next week.

It's called RAM for a reason 😉

Received my email from Microsoft earlier.... It was my bill for Azure services! I've checked my spam folder. Plenty of offers to improve the length and width of things (and Lord knows I need that) but I'm still hopeful... with 1 day left... to see the wonder that is TA1. Looking on the bright side, TA2 initial emails are due to start going out of Monday, so I can start the painful process of waiting all over again.

Well I'm positive that I've still not received my TA1 invite email which is making me think negative thoughts about Microsoft. Come on Lionel. We're 90% through the sending of the invites (both waves combined) and you've still left me out 😉

Opinions? Here? Never... (i) is there a natural progression of planes to learn? That's the beauty of a simulator, you can jump straight into a multi-engined turbine and it doesn't hurt when you mess up. If you want to learn to fly from almost scratch it might be an idea to simulate what you'd do in real life. Start with something like a Cessna 172 and go from there. You get to enjoy the scenery more than you would in a big jet too. When I first started I was also taking flying lessons, but I'd recommend buying the PPL course books anyway, or at least have access to an online version. (ii) Which is the best commercial airliner to learn that would give the best overall understanding of ALL the major airliners (big difference between Boeing and Airbus I assume?) There isn't one that gives you an understanding of all. In terms of main current jets you have Airbus which is "almost" the same across the board and uses a sidestick rather than a traditional yoke. Then you have Boeing, which still all have control columns / yokes but are mainly split between old school (non fly by wire) 737 and then all the rest. Airbus was very much first with the ethos of commonality between all cockpits,.so where pretty much knowing one Airbus and you know "most" of the others, this is not the case with a Boeing. A 737 feels VERY different from an A320 (and is better / worse is different ways). I prefer to fly the 737 because it actually feels like I'm in control, where as an Airbus is enjoyable in different ways. (iii) Will Microsoft's flight sim support Bombadier private jets? No reason why not. Might well need a 3rd party developer to create it though - we just don't know yet. (iv) Will it support fighter jets? Is that even allowed? I would think so. No reason why it's not allowed. Default MSFS is civil, not military (perhaps with the very odd exception). For mil jets I'd probably look at a different sim (DCS, XP) if I wanted fuller immersion that MS has provided previously. (v) How about helicopters? They were (poorly) simulated in MSFS before. Asobo have said that helicopters will not be in the new sim on release, but that might change (as other things already have by the looks). Very simple overview, but maybe it helps.

Forget what it's like in a year, just send me the word not allowed TA1 email so I can see what it's really like TODAY!

It would be absolutely typical if I have leapfrogged the requirements. When TA1 started I had an i7 5820K / 24GB (32GB but one stick not showing) / 2 x Titan X / lots of old tech SDD and created the DXDiag file on that. THEN I decided (I'd been thinking about it for a while anyway) to upgrade so built myself an i9 9900K / 64GB / RTX 2080Ti / 4TB NVMe M.2 SSD and updated the DXDiag file on the first day of TA2 reg. If my original specs were too low and my new specs are too high then I will laugh all the way to Dignitas.

Congrats and thanks.

Superdelphinus said "There is not a chance this is going to need 32gb ram to play."

Has anyone received emails either yesterday (Tuesday) or today? I'm aware some people said they received theirs on Monday.

A laptop is always a compromise when it comes to performance. I bought a DELL Precision M4800 about 5 years ago (16GB RAM, almost 4k screen, best GEFORCE mobile card available). It worked wonders for my development stuff but was always beaten by a middle of the range gaming PC. It set me back around $5K all in. Could have bought one hell of a PC for that.