Is anyone else gonna take the plunge?

[Brian Wilber/Ozark CEO]

The chances are pretty good that I am going to be stuck at home for the foreseeable future, so I have ordered the parts and pieces to enable my machine to run MSFS 2020. I will likely buy Xplane 11 as well. See y'all in the skies.

[Pam Brooker]

Yeah. I'll probably pick up FS2020 on the first. Already Own X-Plane.. I cant recommend X-Plane enough as far as the simulation goes.  And I cant recommend FS2020 enough as far as eye candy goes..  So far, FS2020 is having it's birthing problems. No VR, Stutters, Poorly optimized. It has issues. X-Plane isnt innocent. There are few developers, It's gorgeous but it isnt MSFS level of eye candy and not everything works quite the way it does in the MS based sims, as Austin never did really open up about the internals of the sim.
I'll be honest. Ive watched over twenty hours of videos on FS2020 and darned if I know anything still.. Seems most people are too busy tripping over their tongues with the way it looks to actually get serious and start dissecting it. OH yeah, and from what I gather, you cant as yet use your FSX aircraft in FS2020. MS states that they are busy working on conversion tools, but for now, wisywig.

[Charlie Ford/TWVA-CEO]

I don't have anything to run it yet but my dad bought a new computer just to operate FS2020. This simulator is unreal from the limited exposure I've seen over there. I can't wait to see how things progress.

[Marty Barnes / TWVA-KLAX]

I got selected at the end of July to participate in the "closed beta".  My system motherboard is a 7 year old ASUS Z87 with an i7-4790K processor and 32gig of RAM.  With the Corsair water cooling system on the processor I can overclock the processor to 4.7Ghz.  Video card is only a couple years old .... GEForce 1080GTX 8gig EVGA card. 

I was surprised that it ran the sim pretty smoothly between the mid and ULTRA settings even with the 3 monitor 5850x1200 resolution.  However, I can foresee an upgrade to get it where it needs to be.  I was gone to Boston last week to visit my son and his family and to meet my new granddaughter who was born July 7th.  When we returned the Beta had expired with the official release on Aug 18th.  After about 4 days of hem hawing around, I pulled the trigger and purchased it Saturday.  Having been around flight simulation since the first issue by Sublogic I figured why stop now.   

Since am no longer bound to the beta Non-disclosure Agreement, here are some 1st impressions:

- A good internet connection will be needed ... initial install is a little over 95 gigs.
- Installs thru the Microsoft Store as an app, so you will need a Microsoft Live account.  Install is a little clunky.  It popped up a window and said it could not find a "registered device" to install on with the only button being cancel.  Hit that and it goes back to the Microsoft Store and indicates it is installed.  Saw some forum posts later that indicated their is an option to install in a custom location which might be something to look at.  The default install puts files in unusual locations ... ie %appdata%
- Took me 4 hours to unmap the controls the program guessed I would use with my controllers and to find / map the ones I needed for basic functionality.
- There is no built in screenshot key at the moment ... so the Windows Key + Print Screen key will save a shot to your pictures folder.
- Pete Dowson has released a beta version of FSUIPC7 that runs as a separate exe .... not an embedded dll within the sim.  I tested it and found the same issues others in the MSFS forums found .... it turns the sim into a slide show.  From the forum posts I've read, seems the SDK that developers need is not complete.  There was also a reference to an update on Aug 27th that might fix it. 

- This last one is an assumption on my part in which I hope is totally incorrect.  I don't think you will see the "freeware" options that were with the FS9/FSX/P3d products.  The program menu has a "store" function in it .... presumably for installing aircraft , scenery, and add ons.  It gives me the impression that they have adopted the Apple model of requiring everything to be run thru their store.  Maybe how their business model expects to generate revenue ... taking a cut from everybody who develops something for the product ... (again conjuncture on my part).   Liveries maybe different, as there is a site:  https://www.msfsaddons.org/ that is offering liveries and the convoluted method of installing them.  Right now there are only 3 jet airliners .... A320, 747-8i, 787-10

[Brian Wilber/Ozark CEO]

Thanks Marty.

Overall, is it worth the upgrade? Is FSUIPC necessary, Also, is the live weather any good, or have you had a chance to check that out?

I am upgrading to about the recommended hardware with the vid card being the exception. That will be an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 w/8gigs VRAM. Memory will be 16g Crucial Ballistix 3600 with CAS Latency at 16 clocks. I don't expect to be able to run the settings maxed out, but I hope to get a decent experience out of it.

[Marty Barnes / TWVA-KLAX]

I am early on in checking everything out.  Have yet to complete a "full" flight .... (found out last night that 'active pause' ain't really a pause) 

FSUIPC support is needed for kACARS and most ACARS programs.  Not sure if they are developing their own internal to the program or if it is a back burner thing with what I expect is a mountain of bug reports on their plate.

That was one of the many things I liked about XP11.  You can download the full program and run it in demo mode to get a feel for and test out the product.  It limits you to a 15 mile radius of KSEA and to 10 minutes at a time.  I did a lot of take off and landings for about 2 months checking it out before buying.  Once I found a freeware add-on ATC module and an online flight planner that would export files that can be loaded by the default XP FMS, I pretty much quit flying P3d.

[Jim Sims/TWA2144]

I'm planning to get it, however, I'm going to wait a few months so all the bugs can get fixed.

[Marty Barnes / TWVA-KLAX]

I'm planning to get it, however, I'm going to wait a few months so all the bugs can get fixed.

In hindsight ... think that is wise.  Waiting for a "patch" next week to hopefully stop the program crashes when entering a new scenery area.  It is amazing though to go thru the official forums and look at all the "this worked for me" posts.   

[Pam Brooker]

I downloaded it through XBox GamePass, and at one dollar all i could get was the base package. So I've only got the airbus.. What I have flies on rails. There's very little turbulence, no P-Factor, nothing. I call it the Millennium Snowflake edition because it does so much hand holding you start to wonder if it ever gets real. (It doesnt). I have some very mixed feelings over all, but at least it means I'm no longer alone, and that means all the world any more..

[Marty Barnes / TWVA-KLAX]

After several days of adjusting graphic settings, regular mode vs developer mode, and so-on-and-so-forth .... finally completed an IFR high altitude airways flight from KLAS-KSFO.  Some very crude and un-retouched shots with very low anti-alias settings and middle of the road sliders:

Taxi out of KLAS:


Downtown KLAS: not one of their "hand crafted airports":


Climbing out over mountains:


Live Weather Foggy KSFO ... notice the fisheye effect with the uber-wide 3 monitor setup .. another setting to research:


This was taking during an early evening flight a few days ago when settings were still set pretty high:


Has potential.  Will have to look at some hardware mods and maybe getting away from the uber-wide setup.  Still lots of work for MickeySoft to do.  Autopilot is on crack or something .... 

[Pam Brooker]

I havent used the autopilot yet, but then you guys know I prefer to hand fly the airplane and not use it.. I'm not really sure I agree about the potential of it either.. It's like being married to Melania Trump. She cant cook, cant clean, cant sew but Oh my god is she gorgeous.. My first night flying this game I had to go back and do a flight in X-Plane just to wash the taste from my soul.. I Think MSFS is a step in the right direction, but as long as MS refuses to expand beyond fsx and directX it's going to be hobbled by the superiority of competing platforms ( Vulkan ) which have  proven themselves to be beneficial and effective across multiple hardware platforms ( Intel, AMD ).
Not wishing to contradict myself, I still must say that there is a very good reason why MSFS is just a new version of FSX. I have personally spent several thousands of dollars on FSX ( Aircraft, Scenery, Utilities ), and I'm far from the only one. Thousands of us poured our lives into that sim. Many are now invested in developing tools to convert FSX aircraft to MSFS it's that pervasive ( Join the discussion at www.sim-outhouse.com ) But because I want to fly my P-61, or someone wants to fly Manfred Jahns C-47 or another aircraft, Microsoft cant actually move forward; at least not without chancing losing a significant part of their customer base, at a time when even they dont know if anyone wants flight sims any more or not..
When I moveed to X-Plane, it was with the realization that I couldnt fly anything from FSX in it.  It's been difficult ( and expensive ) building a fleet since then, and perhaps it even cost me some of my enthusiasm; a commodity far more priceless than any aircraft. But it's a direction Microsoft will need to go, if it truly wishes to make a top of the line simulator, instead of a five year old's game with pretty backgrounds..