FrankSalo

I'll second regis, when I got MSFS I looked at the aircraft and airport list and decided, ok, I want these aircraft and those enhanced airports (Steam gauge props, FACT, HECA) . The other aircraft and airports I'll pick up from my favorite developers when they get them ported over (eg 787, EGLL, EDDF) so I decided Deluxe was best for me.

The Saab 340, DO228 of the Fokker F50 would be great to have now we have proper visual representation of the Caribbean with this sim. I'd be down for those.

Yep, I just decided I'll try running the updater later this evening when I get back as I have to head out. We'll let the caching sort itself out. That's the thing with MSFS. The good is these products are in high demand, the bad is the newbies can be very vocal over these snags. In the end, this time next year we'll be enjoying the MSFS environment and this day will be water under the bridge. I'm just happy GSX is finally here making MSFS the dominant sim on my PC. (Thank you for your service Prepar3d. *respectful salute*). Now, Quality Wings where art thou?

I disagree. Macarena is timeless like "Can't touch this" and "Electric Slide".

MSFS and the Fenix have changed the game. PMDG had to update their cockpit animations, their upcoming EFB will have Simbrief integration. The community expects certain things to be standard now. I'm very sure PMDG is aware GSX integration will have to come. Not sure when but its a demand they won't be able to ignore this time. That said with GSX coming out, I wonder if Quality Wings will pop soon to say something. I'd really like to have a proper 787-9 in the sim soon. Vatsim CTP is in October, the iniBuilds A310 isn't till November and the Aerosoft A330, who knows. I'd like a decent longhauler besides the headwind to rock with now that GSX is just about here.

True, but seeing those old birds shiny bare metal skin and smokey engines in the MSFS environment would be an experience for sure.

Yes they addressed it, if you purchased the NGXu when it released you'll see a $99 credit in your account.

Delete the V4 folder in the app path. That's what addons look at when installing to see what version you're running. As always, backup your registry before editing as precaution.

Could be a Windows registry entry that didn't remove during the V4 uninstall. Check if you have these registry paths HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Lockheed Martin \ Prepar3D v4 \ SetupPath HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Lockheed Martin \ Prepar3D v4 \ AppPath

The premise of the QW 787 was one of the deciding factors for me getting the Deluxe version instead of Premium. $30 for a default 78 and a few airports I'd get the payware versions of anyway didn't seem worth it. Hopefully with SU10, Heavy Division can go all FBW and give us a great rendition.

I was on P3D 5.3HF2 until June 2022. In the meantime I had been taking advantage of MSFS upgrade discounts for my various sceneries and kept AIG up to date for both platforms. When the PMDG 737-700 came out in May I was able to do a like for like comparison. NG aircraft, FlyTampa, LatinVFR, Flightbeam, ORBX sceneries, AIG model matching on VATSIM. Day and Night, real world weather. With the same addons and conditions between the two, MSFS pulled ahead in performance and visuals. Don't get me wrong P3D is a very stable platform and I appreciate the LM team for contributing to keeping the hobby alive the past decade, however unless you have the latest Nvidia 3K series or high end 2K series, very cloudy weather and night flying can be less than stellar unless you dropped texture quality down. And those prices until recently did not help at all. And the last few sim updates for MSFS have helped the platform considerably. With my Ryzen 3900X, 32GB DDR4, M.2 and SATA SSDs and GTX 1080, MSFS gave me what I wanted from P3D. When I had to do a Windows reinstall in June, I decided to go MSFS only until P3D 5.4 drops as I now had the Fenix for a good Airbus experience. So to answer you OP, yes you'll be fine with MSFS, and when GSX is released along with sim update 10 this will solidify MSFS as the enthusiast platform. Heck, airports I haven't seen anyone attempt since back in 2011 for FSX are being released now with astounding quality. So imagine my satisfaction. Now let me address the biggest concern most simmers had, being that Microsoft dropped FSX back in the day and cancelled Microsoft Flight. My IT people remember Zune, Kin , Windows Phone and their streaming platform that competed with Twitch. There is an inherent distrust of Microsoft's longevity in certain areas and rightfully so. However, in their partnership with Asobo, Microsoft has given a level of transparency and engagement with not only the community but developers as well, contracting them to create first party content for their sim and world updates. It was rocky at first but they've come along nicely. And MSFS continued development is assured by two things. First it is an ideal showcase for their Azure technologies and potential global platform. Commercial Sailing training (Ship Sim)? Driving Training (Driving sim)? Who knows what's being discussed with interested parties behind the scenes. Secondly, in sim Marketplace. This is a big one. For the first time Microsoft can get a cut of the sales of third party content. Given this is the only way to get content on Xbox and many PC users like the centralized experience, it is a good revenue stream that is proper incentive for continued development. That all being said, yes MSFS is a good place to start and you're jumping in after majority of the teething pains have been worked out. Hope you enjoy and see you in the skies.

I you're a PMDG veteran from FSX/P3D you'll fall right in. When I purchased the -700 I did the setup just as I did in P3D, flew landed and all is well. The only lacking is weather and terrain radar coming next month in Sim Update 10. You may also have to adjust your throttle sensitivities depending which throttle hardware you have. There are a ton of those tutorials on YouTube for the popular quadrant sets. Its flying the PMDG into LatinVFR and Flytampa scenery with AIG models on VATSIM that gave me the like to like comparison Between MSFS and P3D that decided where I am mostly sim today. Once Fsdreamteam releases GSX, the path is solidified.

OH YEA.

Let us know your results, it shouldn't but I'd like to know any anomalies before I get it.

Given the state of the market my thoughts are either they are working hard to make 5.4 the biggest and most stable point release in P3D history or they've fully committed to the 6.0 development branch and rolled all the features beta testers were trialing for 5.x into that. Yes it is very stable, but it can be better. Truesky still needs work with cloud layers and types, night lighting and texturing still need optimizing and VRAM management can still use work. (I tested PMDG, LatinVR-ORBX-Flytampa sceneries, AIG models and live weather, day night between P3D 5.3 and MSFS) The reality is, the other platforms are pushing innovation, Xplane, MSFS, heck, even Infinite Flight is pushing forward. I am grateful LM kept innovating the ESP engine for us to enjoy these last 10 years (I've used 2.5 to 5.3) even though we aren't the target demographic. However the silence on their forums and one of their beta testers, a prominent in the community, not just stepping away from flight sim but selling his gear does not give me much hope for their direction. Either way I still keep a look out on the forums because I'd love to see what 5.4 would offer. If not, well that's the nature of life and I'll continue with the other platforms as my favorites continue to release for them. Either way, let's all enjoying flying these virtual planes and having these great chats with each other. Cheers!

That could work but its in the MSFS store and the FBW isn't. It says for PC and Xbox. Hopefully someone will post a video soon. Found one:

I'm wondering myself, I started MSFS and checked the store, it does look nice and have alot of liveries showcased but it doesn't show ANY cockpit screenshots which is a red flag for me. Maybe someone will take the dip and report back on it.

It's all coming together. My hope is that by the release of SU 10 this is out so that I can have the awesome end to end experience I've enjoyed for years in P3D. Looking forward to Fenix integrating them as well as FSLabs did.

I'll echo the folks here, I pay for the yearly sub which works out to less than $8 a month. I get charts in my browser, in sim, in sim aircrafts tablet, updated navdata across all aircraft, sims, utilities and simbrief. Flying regularly its made sim life a whole lot easier with things in a central location instead of having to get the same result across different sites and excess searching. A worthy investment in my eyes.

Lockheed Martin is a customer on Microsoft Azure so business wise, they both would benefit from this arrangement.

I agree. Microsoft solved the problem of Flight Simulator that caused them to stop development in the past. 1) In sim marketplace let's them monetize addons sold by third parties which contributed to continued development and maintenance. 2) Leveraging the talent of third parties (ORBX, Gayasim, iniBuilds etc) to add value/marketing to the base product 3. Showcasing their core technologies such as Azure AI that will reap commercial sales for the Azure platform. 4) Xbox and its game pass makes for wider market reach, especially the in game store. As for the commercial training aspect, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if Microsoft and Lockheed Martin are behind closed doors negotiating on LM integrating code to create products for commercial applications as per their previous agreement with ESP. Either way, what a time to be alive.

Starting with the release of the 146 and MD, MSFS is on "Take no prisoners" mode for 2022. Asobo collaborating with Flight Sim Stalwarts to bring value to the base sim (scenery and aircraft) was a genius strategy. Well played Asobo-Microsoft, well played.

When I upgraded from Windows 10 to 11 last year everything worked fine. If P3D asks you to reactivate, I'd select no, restart the computer and run P3D again as admin. That worked for me with major updates. PMDG 737 was fine for me as well. As a habit I always restart the PC twice after a major OS upgrade to make sure everything is settled in.

In all fairness I think this could be managed if PMDG said "You know what? If you purchased the 777-200ER expansion, we'll upgrade you to the MSFS 777-200 version for free." That I think would salvage the situation. It would be tough but still easier to swallow like the NGXu upgrade.