Republic DC9

To @ryanbatc ’s suggestion, I run both MSFS2024 and XP12, and am running XP12 in “all default” mode at the moment. There are certainly nice add ons, but (for you or another reader), much fun can be had with only the default install. Last night I came sliding in for a landing at KBFI in the default 737, those curvy vapor trails swirling off the wingtips and condensation puffs in front of the engine - it was marvelous. I also like having at least two flight sims to enjoy for “fun redundancy” if something should happen to the other one.

I own the 727-200 and the L-1011. Of the two, the 727 is by far my favorite. Very smooth FPS, nice smoke out the back, etc. Be sure to get the nice liveries people have posted for the 727 as the stock ones are “meh”. L-1011 seems fine, but I rarely fly it vs the 727.

Like @jcomm , I’m really enjoying the latest beta. Nice and smooth 47 FPS on my 10900 and 3060 12GB, but I do use Lossless Scaling for extra smoothness. I keep trying to use that other sim, but keep coming back to XP12, and though I have XP12 add ons, I stick to the default everything. I am going through a midlife crisis/hobby of simplifying and decluttering my entire existence (or trying to), though, so take my lack of enthusiasm for pretty add ons with a grain of salt. There is always a bit of the jcomm of old “uninstaller” in me, too. I was taking off in the default 737 at LAX at dusk and even told my wife “Look how good this looks, all default, no add ons!” She said “yes…”, obviously very impressed! 😂

I’ve encountered military blurries, but this area near Milwaukee is just a bad tile or some other error on Asobo’s part. I’ll send them a bug report.

Ok thanks guys. @John F confirmed he’s seeing a Milwaukee area issue too. I’ll stop chasing it and have turned off photogrammetry for now.

In your virtual travels, has anyone encountered a boundary within a photogrammetry area where the ground textures are just terribly blurry? There’s an area just to the west of KMWC in Milwaukee within the photogrammetry where I encounter flashing blue (like water) “seams” and on the other side of the seam is unusable blurry textures. I tried deleting the shader cache (problem persists), and flying without photogrammetry (no texture blurriness, but it returned once I switched photogrammetry back on). This is the only case I’ve found so far, but a bummer as I like flying in this area. Any ideas are welcome - I don’t believe I have any add on airports installed. Thanks…

There’s much to love about this update! I’m really struggling to make myself boot up that “other sim” lately.

This update has been great for me so far - I increased the new cache up to 10GB. Some stutters at first - there’s a way around this at the other site’s forums, but when I re-created my takeoff a second time there were no stutters. Skies/clouds looked great in my testing so far.

Never mind I found it - changed “free look reset” to “manual” in Cockpit Camera under Settings.

Somehow, I’ve managed to make my inside virtual cockpit camera keep returning to a “looking straight out the window” view - if I look left or right or down and release my hat switch, it returns to the straight ahead view. In my external spot view, if I pan a certain way it holds that view until I move it with the hat switch. I’m stumped on how I can make the internal virtual cockpit camera keep the chosen view (looking out the side window or down at the throttle or whatever). I had this situated, swear I changed no settings, and suddenly it does this. I don’t believe it’s a “null zone” issue as the hat switch works just fine in other views. Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks…

Let us know how you progress! I like your gritty/real comment - and I keep coming back to XP12 for that reason. I came flying in on final approach in another sim past completely melted photogrammetry then the plane, despite a good flare and speed, booped down the runway at some impossible angle before recovery. No, no, no - I did the same landing in XP12 and it was just much grittier and felt very real, just without photorealistic scenery (though as noted above, there are ways to enjoy that in XP12 too). Enjoy!!!

The idea of getting a baseline at a simple place with few or no scenery impacts is interesting. I have two flights I do often - KSEA to KBFI, landing over downtown Seattle and KBUR over to KLAX past the LA downtown - if I can take off, fly, and land with zero stutters then I know I’m dialed in for any other flight I might want to do.

Awhile back a post on this forum led me to experiment with running MSFS2024 (and XP12) in “all default” mode - no add on scenery or planes (but I did allow liveries). Here are my observations- 1) It was hard not to cheat - day 1 that @dfflyer fellow came out with an update to his Milwaukee scenery (added the Brewer’s stadium) - I HAD to try that (and its marvelous) 2) There is plenty of fun to be had running an all-default sim, and both sims include some nice add on aircraft (by my standards) - the new 707 fortunately was “default” for me 3) Having fewer choices reduced update maintenance, fewer chances for conflicts and issues, less decision fatigue, and I enjoyed the planes I had access to - I think there’s an element of the “jam experiment” here - fewer choices can counterintuitively lead to more satisfaction and enjoyment. 4) In my case, plane purchases are often good for a brief dopamine hit, then as the newness wears off and hedonic adaptation kicks in I fly them less (except the A2A and JustFlight fleet, so very high quality and performance are worth it). Smooth FPS and good textures are important to me in default planes or addons 5) Time for flying is scarce and easily interrupted, so fewer choices and spending time on updating or figuring out issues helps with this 5) Why doesn’t the freebie Piper Dakota we all got have a rotating beacon on the tail - or maybe mine fell off? I adore this plane otherwise. 😂 Anyone new to this hobby or those with limited means should hopefully find this all very encouraging, as well as anyone looking to try a new sim - if one has an OK-ish PC, for a limited investment, there is much fun to be had a simplicity is great* *this is the same guy who has to box up over 250 die cast airliner models to sell to a dealer this week and has embraced the original “black box” NES Golf, so take my ramblings about the joy of simplicity as those of a 51 year old dude that may be confused but is, in general, sick of “too much”

Welcome to XP12! I run MSFS2024 as well, but find I love the feel and look of XP12 far more, despite the terrain not being orthophotos (though there are ways to get that too). Some suggestions I have are to install the latest beta (box on the installer) when installing XP12 and maybe keep it to default only until you get everything configured - there are plenty of default planes that are very nice and I think you’ll find adjusting settings and key assignments very intuitive vs MSFS2024. Depending on your PC, you may or may not want to use some sort of frame gen for extra smoothness if needed (I use Lossless Scaling off Steam). Once you start looking at add ons, the free Zibo 737 and LevelUp 737s are very nice (and all free). I don’t have that many payware jets, but do have the ERJ-175, BAe-146 and 757 for XP12 and enjoy them all. I’ll let others advise on scenery enhancements as I find the closer I can keep my sim to default the better (same concept as an empty community folder in the other sim).

Great thoughts, guys - since I wrote this post I've been enjoying my low and slow(er) flights very much, even in photogrammetry areas. Still need to buy the 114!