Microsoft Fiight Sim is back......in 2020

If it works well I’d love to install it and get a yoke and pedals again, great training tool.
 
So...is this the core for an FAA approved simulator?
 
I'm looking forward ot seeing it when it comes out. Probably will get a computer to run it on when it does. I never went from FSX to Prepar3D or X-Plane.
 
I had MSFS ("X", I think) and Xplane at the same time; for IFR practice, the Xplane 172 was much better, and I stuck with it. And the Xplane GPS is essentially a G-530, as in our airplane, and for practicing flying in the clag and doing approaches, it beat MSFS hands-down. It integrates with ForeFlight on my iPad, just as I use it in the airplane, via my home network - FF thinks i'm really flying. . . .I download the approaches from the FAA site, and the geo data from Aerosoft.

Maybe for playing with VFR flying, or goofing with exotic/different aircraft, MSFS could be better? I don't know, since I don't have that use case/need.
 
Ugh, how much money do I have to now spend for a mega computer to run this thing lol The wife is going to be ****ed.
 
TipTanks said:
Ugh, how much money do I have to now spend for a mega computer to run this thing lol The wife is going to be ****ed.
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Maybe you could just add a quality graphics card, and not necessarily a super-high end one, either? I added a GTX 1070 to a very pedestrian desktop and I get very good performance with settings toward the high end of quality display. Again, I use it for IFR, but the graphics quality seems fine when I "break out" at minimums.

I've got a mid-low range Acer; had to buy a second power supply to drive the GTX-1070 and also hang the card outside the case, since it wouldn't fit inside; also bought a Thermaltake cable for the card, and so I have a real ghetto rig. But it performs very well, with excellent frame rates. I'm pretty sure I was all in for less than $400? If you have a better desktop than mine, with a full-size case, you won't need the second power supply or extra and expensive cable.

I already had cheap CH Products yoke and rubber pedals, again, not at all expensive. Trimming for straight and level can be a PITA, but otherwise it's all good. You can get in a LOT of practice approaches in a relatively short session. . .
 
I'm betting it's going to take a LOT of processor horsepower to do the kind of aerodynamic calculations they are talking about, as well as loading in the scenery
 
Jim K said:
I'm betting it's going to take a LOT of processor horsepower to do the kind of aerodynamic calculations they are talking about, as well as loading in the scenery
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From the article here, maybe not.

The computers were described as upper-, but not top-, end machines with GeForce RTX video cards, and the internet connection feeding the scenery tested out at about 25 megabits.
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Jim K said:
I'm betting it's going to take a LOT of processor horsepower to do the kind of aerodynamic calculations they are talking about, as well as loading in the scenery
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Not really. Processors are a lot faster than they were in the late 1980s, but Microsoft's flight models hadn't advanced very far past the single-point coefficients used for early computers. This is just catching up with where other sims were 15 years ago. If it's slow, it will be from rendering or myriad other calculations for animated scenery, vehicles, aircraft systems, etc., not just from the flight dynamics.

I'm really curious if they'll get the ground handling right. Nobody does a good job on that right now, especially with lighter aircraft and taildraggers (that includes X-Plane and FlightGear). It's a whole different set of physics, and gets all the more complicated when it's interacting with the flight physics (e.g. the plane is rolling light on its wheels, there's a rotational moment applied by a crosswind on the vertical stabiliser, etc. etc.).
 
Just saw today that MSFS 2020 is being officially released Aug 18. There are also a lot of 3rd party add-ons available, as well.
 
Every trailer I’ve seen so far doesn’t show any Garmin GTN avionics, seems like “2020” is stuck in 2000.
 
bnt83 said:
Every trailer I’ve seen so far doesn’t show any Garmin GTN avionics, seems like “2020” is stuck in 2000.
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Every video I've seen has been G1000 glass panels everywhere. 2020 is in 2020, but im stuck in 1978. I just hope there's some round gauge airplanes.
 
Jim K said:
Every video I've seen has been G1000 glass panels everywhere. 2020 is in 2020, but im stuck in 1978. I just hope there's some round gauge airplanes.
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They have options for the steam gauge versions of the 172 in the Deluxe version. In the standard version, you have several steam gauge including the C152.
 
Jim K said:
Every video I've seen has been G1000 glass panels everywhere. 2020 is in 2020, but im stuck in 1978. I just hope there's some round gauge airplanes.
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you aught to be able to build your own panel in the aircraft you choose. Garmin G5, G3X, GTN, GNS, GNC, GNX, GFC500, Aspens, Dynon, GWX Radar, WX500, XM weather, G500Xi etc.
 
That would be sweet. Even just being able to switch the gps between a gtn, gns, or avidyne would be very helpful. Seems like it shouldn't be that hard. Also seems like the avionics companies would be smart to support something like that. I would be more likely to buy a GPS I can simulate at home. I suppose the actual pilots who want to replicate a real panel are a small minority of the sim market, though.
 
I clicked the icon this morning, and it started up and I thought 'Microsoft, you wizards, you pre downloaded out for me!'

Then I got to this screen. Really looking forward to playing with it. Thursday or Friday...:sigh:
20200818_084158_copy_2048x1536.jpg
 
Oh, oh, oh...TODAY is the 18th!

I've got a second GDU bezel that just arrived, I need to get all that set up.
 
Looks like my download is going to take about 6 hours at 100Mb/s. A gigabit card would be nice ;)
 
Let's see...I've gotten 5 GB in 3 hours, so looking like Thursday evening....
 
I was able to get it downloaded in about 3 hours last night through Steam. Might head out of work early today :D
 
I thought there were "download it all ahead of time" or "download as needed" options. Is the 'as needed' d/l that big or are you grabbing everything at once?
 
CJones said:
I thought there were "download it all ahead of time" or "download as needed" options. Is the 'as needed' d/l that big or are you grabbing everything at once?
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I wasn't given any options. I've seen other people reporting the 91GB as well. I'm guessing (hoping) that later I will get an option to download even more, as obviously my internet just meets the 'minimum' spec.
 
So I'm up to 12. It's been downloading the detailed airport files since at least noon, so they must make up a significant part of the install.

Watched a YouTube video today that showed the process for downloading scenery. Looks like you can download detailed scenery for any area you choose. I cleared 400 GB for this sim, I hope it's enough. I suspect I might have a 1TB SSD in my future.

Anybody know how to get in on the Starlink demo?
 
Sorry if this has been mentioned. Is there a demo download as there is with X-Plane?
 
midlifeflyer said:
Sorry if this has been mentioned. Is there a demo download as there is with X-Plane?
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Haven’t looked into it myself but someone above or elsewhere mentioned a six hour trial via Steam if you’re familiar.

Problem is, they needed two hours just to download it via their fat internet pipe.

YMMV. I assume the six hours is a Steam refund thing.
 
denverpilot said:
Haven’t looked into it myself but someone above or elsewhere mentioned a six hour trial via Steam if you’re familiar.

Problem is, they needed two hours just to download it via their fat internet pipe.

YMMV. I assume the six hours is a Steam refund thing.
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Thanks Nate. Yeah I'm familiar. Not particularly interested in the Steam route.

It's interesting. My issue is graphic card. From a memory/CPU/etc standpoint I'm fine. As I mentioned, XP 11 works well enough for my purposes even though I don't meet its minimum graphics card specs either. So I may see what I can come across and perhaps take a chance. Surprised tough, they don't have a demo like X-Plane.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Thanks Nate. Yeah I'm familiar. Not particularly interested in the Steam route.

It's interesting. My issue is graphic card. From a memory/CPU/etc standpoint I'm fine. As I mentioned, XP 11 works well enough for my purposes even though I don't meet its minimum graphics card specs either. So I may see what I can come across and perhaps take a chance. Surprised tough, they don't have a demo like X-Plane.
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There's hope, here's someone running a minimal graphics card and they're able to run FSX 2020.

 
midlifeflyer said:
Thanks Nate. Yeah I'm familiar. Not particularly interested in the Steam route.

It's interesting. My issue is graphic card. From a memory/CPU/etc standpoint I'm fine. As I mentioned, XP 11 works well enough for my purposes even though I don't meet its minimum graphics card specs either. So I may see what I can come across and perhaps take a chance. Surprised tough, they don't have a demo like X-Plane.
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Nvidia is now worth more money on paper than Intel ... graphics cards are the hot commodity. CPU is not even much of an issue in high end gaming rigs anymore. It’s amazing.

Easy to spend way more on the graphics card than a brand new high end CPU. And it’ll need more cooling than the CPU too.

Of course the graphics cards are backed by numerous folk using them for crypto work of all sorts besides actual.... graphics. Massive growth market.

And then Nvidia announced that they want to buy ARM...
 
SoonerAviator said:
Started on MSFS back when it was available for Win 3.1. Grandmother actually got me my first copy. I probably logged several hundred hours by the time I was 13. Once I began my flight training, I used it to practice scans/flows/checklists and plan out cross countries. I would even run through the PTS maneuvers like entrance to power-off/on stalls and such. The idea wasn’t to simulate the feeling of flight so much as ingrain the procedures so that I wasn’t having to think when up in the air during a lesson, I could focus more on flying the aircraft. Passed the check ride with 41 hours TT. Flight sims have their place for me, and I’ll definitely be interested in the new MSFS. I think it would come in handy if I ever get around to getting the Instrument rating as well.
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My experience is different (wasn't 13, got PPL first, etc) but agree completely that there is a lot of value add in using sims as you've described. I flew the Airventure arrival a dozen times on the sim before flying for real. Used Google Earth overlay so I could pick out Rush Lake as I approached from Chicago, I knew where the train tracks were and fly several of the different OSH approaches. The level of comfort that provided was real and meaningful. It was still stressful as we circled Rush a few times with what seemed like 100 other planes, but I could actually recognize the different landmarks, knew what freq to dial in, etc. I've done the same with several other long cross countries as I built hours and find a lot of value in what you laid out above.
 
Jim K said:
So I'm up to 12. It's been downloading the detailed airport files since at least noon, so they must make up a significant part of the install.

Watched a YouTube video today that showed the process for downloading scenery. Looks like you can download detailed scenery for any area you choose. I cleared 400 GB for this sim, I hope it's enough. I suspect I might have a 1TB SSD in my future.

Anybody know how to get in on the Starlink demo?
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Jim are you still on dial-up? :eek:
 
flhrci said:
Jim are you still on dial-up? :eek:
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Might as well be. I'm paying for 5Mbps. I can usually get that or better on a speed test, but the latency is terrible, and the signal drops occasionally. When it rains heavy I get nothing. I'm on the very edge of the range of the transmitter, and had to practically beg the guy to sell me service, as it was my only option.

For the most part it's fine...the kids stream movies in the house while I watch YouTube in my office and we all get good quality, usually HD once it caches for a bit, but big downloads take FOREVER. Averaged over the time I've had it running looks like I'm getting about 1.5mbps.

Sitting on about 53 GB now.... over half way!
 
36770f9785d9521cb8eac554ed13f741.jpg
 
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