Shack95

Aerosoft‘s Brussels EBBR is outstanding.

I haven’t checked out Santorini yet but yes, in general 2024 handles cliffs much better than 2020. They finally look like cliffs.

Is that only in the Caravan? I did the first skydiving mission in the 172 and there were no animated skydivers but I could hear them. Restarting the mission didn‘t help. weird.

I really like the rescue helicopter missions. I just wish they‘d make them more realistic. In one of the missions the rescue guy said I should get the chopper in the air as quickly as possible, what with it being an emergency and all, but then ATC - apparently mistaking me for a plane - advised me to taxi to the runway, backtrack it, and then take off. Of course I ignored that and just took off from the helipad. On the way back the same thing. Didn‘t they say they had been working with experts to make sure the missions were realistic? Anyway, it‘s still a lot of fun.

I had a lot of fun with the career mode today. I particularly like the search and rescue helicopter missions. VR comes in very handy here because you have to constantly search the surroundings while flying. It's very intuitive. I happened to see a documentary this morning about a rescue company in Zermatt in the Swiss Alps, which is what inspired me to give it a try. It's pretty impressive what these guys do every day. Anyway, I normally only fly airliners, but I have to say these missions are fun. They gave me Sim Copter vibes. If Asobo or 3rd party devs could refine them and make them a bit more varied and realistic, I could absolutely see myself doing this more often.

To my surprise I quite enjoy the career mode, especially the chopper missions. It‘s a lot of fun if you don‘t take it too seriously. But what‘s annoying is that the sim doesn’t seem to understand that a helicopter doesn’t take off from a runway. I‘m a bit surprised that they didn‘t get this right to be honest.

This could be another explanation.

This was a response to Fiorentoni who said that MSFS2020 didn't look like in the trailer back then. I said that I remembered it differently, i.e. that it actually looked like in the trailer. The screenshot I attached is a comparison between the MSFS 2024 trailer and MSFS 2024. As I wrote above, I assume that the main reason for the difference is that they changed the imagery for Switzerland after the trailer was made, plus maybe some server issues. Nowhere did I say that they faked it.

I remember checking out most of the locations from the MSFS 2020 trailer back then, and it pretty much looked the same as far as the scenery was concerned (apart from the clouds maybe). Of course the trailer was taken with all the settings maxed out and the angles very carefully chosen, but it still was the same as in the sim as far as I remember. This is the Verbier scene referred to in my previous post.

After a bumpy start (to put it mildly), it's working pretty well now. I still struggle a bit with the controls, but that's my problem. And I regularly have CTDs, especially when returning to the main menu from missions, but thanks to the much faster loading times I can live with that for now. As for the graphics, I'm still not sure if I've seen the sim in its full glory. I've set everything to maximum and it looks good, but when I compared it to a screenshot from the trailer, it was nowhere near that. This could be due to server issues, and/or because they „updated“ the imagery for Switzerland where I checked. Photogrammetry in LA looked unusually „melted“, so I guess it’s definitely something with the servers. Another annoying thing is that the mouse is sometimes unresponsive in VR and the toolbar menu has a life of its own. Oh, and in my helicopter license mission ATC had me taxi to the runway😂. Apart from that, it looks quite promising so far.

Just did my first flight in VR. Hard to say how good it can look with those server issues. Not exactly a wow experience, but I’m sure it’ll improve. Performance seems to be okay so far. The iniBuilds A320 was unflyable due to graphics issues (yellow lines flashing up every few seconds).

Download was quick. Installation/initial start up took about 20 minutes. The sim ran absolutely smoothly with all settings maxed out, which was a pleasant surprise. But since there was only one aircraft available, I decided to restart the sim. Big mistake. Now it gets stuck at 0% on every attempt to start the sim. I guess I‘ll try again tomorrow. What a disappointment.

It may be a silly question, but as an HP Reverb G2 owner, does it make a difference whether I buy the Steam or Microsoft Store version of MSFS 2024? I know that WMR is being discontinued and that I will have to buy a new headset at some point. With that in mind, does one platform make more sense than the other?

I think I‘ll just check out various places and the new features before I do a proper flight. One of the first places I‘ll visit is the Alps in VR.

I mostly fly tubeliners as well and I think the improved atmospheric lighting engine and the clouds alone are enough reason to switch.

I’m not so sure about that. If they only have to fix some terrain issues they might do this for free. They‘ve done that before when a new World Update introduced new DEM and they’ve never charged for it. But if they decide to overhaul their airports with other new features, then maybe, depending on the workload. But I hope not.

Here’s my impressions from the alpha. It’s basically just things that struck me and not a balanced review. Overall, I’m very impressed. Unfortunately, I only had 1-2 hours to test it, so the following screenshots aren’t the best. I’m fully aware that this is a technical alpha and not the release candidate and that things might change until release. Super fast loading times Performance was excellent without any stutters whatsoever. I’m not sure how it compares to 2020 though because I never use it in pancake mode. The new procedural cliffs and rocks look amazing. What a difference compared to 2020! The lighting engine is fantastic too. I’m glad roads are finally excluded from being covered in snow, and that water bodies no longer freeze as soon as there’s a bit of snow. However, the current implementation feels off. While rivers and lakes don’t freeze anymore, the surrounding land is often snow-free as well, which looks very odd. I’m not too optimistic that this will be fixed before release since improvements to snow and ice coverage have progressed at a glacial pace since it was first introduced. Mountain streams have always looked unrealistic in MSFS. It seems that they’ve attempted to address this. Unfortunately, the result isn’t that convincing. At ground level, the new 3D fields look very good. However, from higher altitudes, they look a bit weird because the few procedural fields stand out too much. I understand this is an alpha and that the final release will probably offer complete coverage for all fields and grasslands which will look a lot better (as demonstrated in the preview event), so for now I’m not too concerned about this. Countryside TIN is a groundbreaking feature in MSFS 2024. When the imagery loads in quickly, the countryside TIN looks incredible, and the new tree replacement tech is revolutionary. That said, there are still some areas where it doesn’t seem to be working properly. These are just a few observations from my brief testing. Overall, I think the improvements far outweigh the shortcomings. In many areas, the difference compared to the 2020 version is like night and day. I can’t wait to get my hands on the final version.

I don‘t know. I just had time to do a short flight from Meiringen up to the Aletsch Glacier and then for a quick visit to Zermatt. I won‘t be able to do more testing till tomorrow. But what I saw was very impressive. Mountains finally look like real mountains.

I just started the sim for the first time. I took the Hornet for a spin in the Swiss Alps and wow! The rocks as you get closer look so real now. I‘m gobsmacked. I wasn‘t expecting that. And hardly any terrain morphing. Is Switzerland countryside TIN or do all cliffs look that great now? I‘ve got to check out other places. And the lighting looks amazing too. What a great first impression.

This one has been confirmed by the devs.

Yes, I know, and the improvements look very promising. I was solely referring to the sepia mask system.

Thanks for the screenshots. The problem, as Langeveldt said, is that when you're flying in an airliner at cruising altitude, all you see are these blurry sepia blobs scattered around in the dark because the draw distance of the streetlights is so limited. If you look straight down, the blobs are much more defined and it's not so bad, but if you look towards the horizon, as you normally do, it's a blurry mess. The map in your second screenshot looks very similar to the current version. I hope I'm wrong, but that could be an indication that they haven't change the sepia masks. So unless they've revamped the streetlight LOD system, I guess we'll have to live with the blobs for a few more years. Apart from that, the night lighting looks very good, I agree. Especially at dusk/dawn the new sim looks absolutely spectacular. This has nothing to do with the lighting, but that space nebula or whatever it is in the first picture looks pretty menacing.

Unfortunately it wasn’t mentioned when they discussed night lighting in the last Q&A. And as far as I know they haven’t shown any high-altitude nighttime screenshots or videos. Maybe some content creators who were at the preview event and are here on Avsim know more?

The few nighttime scenes and screenshots I‘ve seen look very promising. I‘m glad they’ve improved this. Unfortunately they didn‘t talk about the infamous sepia masks. Does anybody know if they’re still there? I really hope they‘re a thing of the past.

That‘s one of my big question marks as well. I really hope so.