Microsoft Flight Simulator

[Cody]

Lovely clouds!
Oh, you wrapped me up in a leather coat
And you took me for a ride
We were drifting with the tail-wind
When the runway came in sight
The clouds came up to gather us
And the cockpit turned to white
When I looked the sky was empty
I suppose you never saw the landing-lights

[sscadmin]

Looks like closed beta starts 7/30, looking good. I might have to do some pc updates to play this at max settings
[url]https://www.flightsimulator.com/july-9th-2020-development-update/[/url]

[sscadmin]

Looks like some reviewers are starting to post some footage of the beta here is a nice one:

[D.C.Elington]

And a "hands-on" preview at Ars Technica: [url]https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/07/ms-flight-simulator-our-yoke-on-look-at-new-features-gorgeous-flights/[/url]

[sscadmin]

I will be definitely be paying attention to the reviews, I will be most interested in peoples test systems and how good it plays. Because this game has a lot of detail and I most of it will be streamed in from bing maps too so I definitely want to see this thing in action because if I can play without a system upgrade I might just purchase some flight sticks  
Yeah this game may seem boring to some but I look at it as relaxing 

[CaptainKal]

@sscadmin
X-Box game pass is your friend!! You can try it for yourself!!

[sscadmin]

Yeah I thought about that too, was waiting for the consoles to come out to see how they do. I paid for playstation pro for the longest time and got free games every month for years. But the xbox game pass is even sweeter deal with 100+ games for a $5-10 fee a month thats not bad at all especially if they put AAA games in there

[sscadmin]

Here is a video that shows off all of the planes and airports in all the different versions of the game

[D.C.Elington]

MSFS 2020 Installation steps:
1. Install launcher (easy peasy)
2. Wait for launcher to download 100 GB
(20+ hours for me, and had a few glitches. Could be coincidental but running the app "as admin" and putting it in the AV's trusted list seems to help)
3. Poke at all the settings for a few hours to find the soft spot for your machine
(my [Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB, GTX 1660 S] can run the beast smoothly in medium-high settings at 30% CPU + 50% GPU loads with the frame rate locked at 30 fps through the NVidia driver settings)
4. Go to a place you know well with live weather (may induce some drooling)
5. Make a fool of yourself by sending lots of "you live here!" screenshots to friends and family

OK now you're ready to fly

[sscadmin]

Haha, I hope to pick this up during the winter steam sale... hoping that the price of the premium edition drops a little by then. @d-c-elington did you just buy the base version what is your thoughts on the content provided in that edition? And 100GB download does that also include the downloading of maps they talk about in the video or is that done while you play?
Think maybe I will buy a new gfx card soon if I can  
So where is your house in the game?

[Cody]

Posted by: @sscadmin
downloading of maps

I believe those maps use Bing Maps, which sometimes contain amusing errors!

[Geraldine]

Bing Maps...pah! I still do plenty of flying in FS2004 and FSX! No need for online connections and the scenery is fine.
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[D.C.Elington]

Posted by: @sscadmin
did you just buy the base version what is your thoughts on the content provided in that edition?

Must admit I got into full "frak this" mode and got the "deluxe premium" version... won't make a big difference with a near-zero hourly cost in the long run anyway!
But the base version is certainly the rational choice and offers already many planes with wildly different characteristics. Also compared to the previous FS iterations the models are much better. For instance the "default" TBM-930 easily compares to some existing 30+$ 3rd-party add-ons IMO.
And to sum-up my general feeling: that reminds me of when I changed my old 24" 720p TV for a 48" Full-HD one...

[D.C.Elington]

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You'll see much nicer screenshots but maybe the most impressive are the not-so-special ones! So that's a medium-size French town (Caen - Normandy, where I live) a few minutes ago from about 800 ft. The buildings are synthesized but I can recognize all of them for what they are, same for the roads. The neighborhood at the front is in the shadow of a cloud
And so everything is "default" (scenery, plane and weather), running smoothly in 1920x1080 on a reasonable 1660 S locked at 30 fps. These are medium-high settings with about 55% reported load on the GPU (I like my machine to run cool and with some reserve power).

[sscadmin]

Wow, even at medium settings and 1920x1080 that shot looks really impressive @d-c-elington. I will definitely be getting this in the next few months, I usually wait a bit while the patches role out. But impressed with visuals from the hardware you listed that your setup has. And 30fps is plenty for a simulation like this because it is not a twitch based game.

[D.C.Elington]

@sscadmin I'd call these "high-where-it-counts" settings
That is the view distance, trees, buildings, reflections... are in 'high' and I scaled down to 'medium' on the shadows and some of the post-processing (that did not make such a difference TBH).
But you're definitely right to wait a few months for more patches, that will make the experience even better!

[D.C.Elington]

MS Wallpaper Generator 2020 over Alaska
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[sscadmin]

Damn, that is one pretty screenshot.... the lighting and clouds in this game look amazing. I didn't pick this up yet because I spent too much money on the kids and family but I will I hope this year during the summer sale. How has the game been playing for you @d-c-elington, any game or immersion breaking aspects so far?

[D.C.Elington]

Posted by: @sscadmin
I will I hope this year during the summer sale

Sounds like a perfect timing! It was clearly released too soon as they are still adding major features at the moment, including to the SDK for the legion of eager 3rd party devs. But then again that's already a marvel... good times ahead for the flight-simming community!

[sscadmin]

So with the SDk release modders will be able to add features or alterations to systems (ie: weather, clouds, lighting, new planes, adding birds and other aircraft to the skys) that would just make the game so much more lived in.