Any PC Gamers Around?

[Atmo]

Downloading FS 2020 over a 660 Mb connection took under an hour directly from Xbox. Installation was easy, the app scans your system and sets defaults. My mid-range machine was set to High-End, a step below Ultra, but still stuttered slightly and randomly at 60 fps during night flight into one of their "hand made" airports. It's maybe due to spreading the screen over three monitors, the 7680X1440 resolution limit of my Nvidia 1080FE card. No issues in daylight flight though.

The terrain and urban detail is gorgeous, real time ATC and Wx that can be customized like pretty much everything else is another world. Even the outlying airport detail is far better than either FSX or P3D.

It takes about a minute to cycle through the splash screens before the game loads in another minute. And that's loading from an SSD with 24 Gb memory.

Running in Medium User Experience is more demanding than expected, partly due to adjusting to a new control setup that isn't fully mapped and trimmed yet. I already spun in twice turning base to final at my home field, destroying "my" Bonanza.

My main squawk is that there's no manual included that I know of so I'm discovering features and settings as I go along. It's going to be quite a learning curve but that's fine, everything about FS 2020 meets expectations. Hopefully I won't need to upgrade any hardware but might need to consider a video card if the occasional stuttering resumes after playing with sliders.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Atmo

My main squawk is that there's no manual included that I know of so I'm discovering features and settings as I go along. It's going to be quite a learning curve but that's fine, everything about FS 2020 meets expectations. .

Were you able to use the checklists to make up for this at all?

I'm looking forward to seeing the multiscreen setup. I'm hoping they retained the old version where you could have multiple windows then move the views around to where you wanted them, rather than having to use the OS functions for screen spanning, although I'm debating whether I will go multi-screen vs wait for VR to be working, which I would actually prefer as it would be more natural, but probably not as "pretty".

[Atmo]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Were you able to use the checklists to make up for this at all?

I'm looking forward to seeing the multiscreen setup. I'm hoping they retained the old version where you could have multiple windows then move the views around to where you wanted them, rather than having to use the OS functions for screen spanning, although I'm debating whether I will go multi-screen vs wait for VR to be working, which I would actually prefer as it would be more natural, but probably not as "pretty".

I skipped the checklists wanting to get airborne ASAP and have some Bonanza familiarity so dove right in. The actual plane is easier to fly and more stable than the virtual Bonanza. I'll use the checklists next time.

Not sure about the multi window possibility yet. I'm enjoying the screen spanning that looks realistic with no distortion. The view is tremendous with instant continuous fill to the horizon in all directions from altitudes below 5,000'.

Tonight I'll be focusing on dialing in the controls before anything else. Then maybe take a jet up to the flight levels and try an ILS approach once I figure out the autopilot.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Atmo

I skipped the checklists wanting to get airborne ASAP and have some Bonanza familiarity so dove right in. The actual plane is easier to fly and more stable than the virtual Bonanza. I'll use the checklists next time.

I've always found this to be the case, even the couple of times I had the opportunity to fly a full motion SIM. I've flown a couple Redbird sims for the C172 as well as the L1011 simulator at Delta Air Lines. The depth perception isn't the same and there is zero input other than visual. Even with the added motion, it was more of an "amusement park" motion feel then the real thing.

Originally Posted by Atmo

Not sure about the multi window possibility yet. I'm enjoying the screen spanning that looks realistic with no distortion.

The spanning may be good enough, if there is no distortion, will try it first chance. Past SIMs used only one camera so there was 3D distortion on the left and right. With multiwindow you get multi-camera so when you turn your head it looks right.

[Atmo]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

I've always found this to be the case, even the couple of times I had the opportunity to fly a full motion SIM. I've flown a couple Redbird sims for the C172 as well as the L1011 simulator at Delta Air Lines. The depth perception isn't the same and there is zero input other than visual. Even with the added motion, it was more of an "amusement park" motion feel then the real thing.

Trivia: The first CAT III landing I experienced was in an L1011 into BOS. At touchdown I still couldn't see a thing, even the runway lights were smudges flashing by in the fog as we slowed. The Captain had a sense of humor and announced "It's pretty foggy out there tonight folks, be careful driving home." I stopped to talk to him and said it was my first CAT III landing. He said "Me too, I've only done them in a simulator before now". LOL, gotta start somewhere.

[Dadhawk]

Only had a few minutes to play around with it, but the first thing I wanted to do is see how well it rendered the "middle of nowhere" airport I fly out of. It has ALL the buildings in location including the four rows of T hangers, the tiny FBO and even the "dip" at the end of the runway. In fact, the hangars are accurate enough that they have the right number of bays, and most of them have doors in the right places.

Not bad given this is generated from satellite data and not one of their "handdrawn" airports.

This is "me" sitting in front of my virtual actual hangar. The attached has a lot of artifacts because I've shrunk it to fit. Also, I'm only running at 1K HD, not 4K, a limitation of my current monitors.

[Captain Snooze]

*sigh* No hang gliders
It would seem to be an incredible piece of work. Pity as I'm only a little bit tempted.

Is it playable via keyboard and mouse?

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

*sigh* No hang gliders
It would seem to be an incredible piece of work. Pity as I'm only a little bit tempted.

Is it playable via keyboard and mouse?

Yea, I was surprised by that too, there had been one previously. I'm sure you will be able to get one at some point, if not from MS than a 3rd party. There's huge 3rd party support for these games.

It's very playable with mouse and keyboard, once you get used to it, but that's always been the case with MSFS. It's easy to forget that, like a real airplane, you don't have to constantly put in input to get a plane to turn, and that you have to correct back, not just go to center to straighten so you'll over correct.

I flew it last night for about an hour with just keyboard and mouse. I do find it easier to do in 3rd person thought (outside the plane) then in the cockpit.

The "flight lessons" will help with that.

Another screenshot. This is over the hospital where I work. What's interesting is that the "landscape" is a composite. The right side is accurate, including the "Y" in the back of the hospital.

On the left side, the architecture is a combination of about 6 months ago and 18 months ago. 6 months ago the construction area, and the large building just under the left wingtip were exactly at this stage. Even the curbs (white lines) in the dirt are accurate. Continuing on a direct line off the wings you'll see a 3 story building in front of the tree line. That is where I'm sitting right now typing this.

The long building running North/South just right of that building was torn down over 18 months ago, and the building in front of it about 8 months ago.
There is a large retention pond there now.

The short building directly in front of the left wing at the road has been torn down for 24 months. It was torn down before the building underneath the left wing was started and the large construction area existed.

The lake in the left background and the large buildings in front of it are the Southwire manufacturing plants. If you live in the US, there is a good chance that some or all of your home wiring came from those plants.

Everything is in the approximate right place for when it was there, it's just they didn't all exist at once. Multiple data sources I guess.

[Atmo]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

It's easy to forget that, like a real airplane, you don't have to constantly put in input to get a plane to turn, and that you have to correct back, not just go to center to straighten so you'll over correct.

I flew it last night for about an hour with just keyboard and mouse. I do find it easier to do in 3rd person thought (outside the plane) then in the cockpit.

The non-linear yoke roll calibration is taking some practice. The first 35° or so is normal compared to real control inputs. Then last 10° rotation to the stop at 45° roll suddenly equals full aileron deflection. I think that's why I crashed a few times squaring off the traffic pattern doing touch and goes at my home field. I'm going back to the joystick to fly the Cub tonight and see if response is more linear and predictable or if it's part of game controller overall calibration.


Yeah, I like chase plane camera view too. You get to enjoy the great scenery while navigating.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Atmo

Not sure about the multi window possibility yet. I'm enjoying the screen spanning that looks realistic with no distortion. .

Played with this portion last night. There is no multi-monitor (what multi window is actually called) option at this point. MSFS only supports the higher resolutions created by Eyefinity (AMD) and Surround (NVidia).

It wasn't "awful" but there was definitely stretching and distortion on the left and right monitor.

[Captain Snooze]

[rant]

I know it's still early days and there aren't that many games available displaying ray tracing capability but so far I am not convinced. Looking at these clips, especially the Crysis Remastered one, I see an improvement in the visuals but no improvement in the game. Crysis Remastered is still just Crysis. I'm suggesting that the game engine hacks that are available without ray tracing are good enough.
I mentioned how much I enjoyed Deus Ex Revision; the game superseded the lack of graphical fidelity. I want a game, not a photo realistic sim.

[/rant]

[Atmo]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Played with this portion last night. There is no multi-monitor (what multi window is actually called) option at this point. MSFS only supports the higher resolutions created by Eyefinity (AMD) and Surround (NVidia).

It wasn't "awful" but there was definitely stretching and distortion on the left and right monitor.

I looked closer and agree with you. Even with Surround enabled, there's still some distortion at the outer margins.

I really like how it automatically loads real time weather and air traffic. Even ATC is semi-realistic but calmer and easier to understand than most controllers.

I attempted to hand fly an ILS into PDX last night but strayed far enough off the localizer that ATC told a transport aircraft arriving on the parallel runway to go around!

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Captain Snooze

I know it's still early days and there aren't that many games available displaying ray tracing capability but so far I am not convinced. Looking at these clips, especially the Crysis Remastered one, I see an improvement in the visuals but no improvement in the game. Crysis Remastered is still just Crysis. I'm suggesting that the game engine hacks that are available without ray tracing are good enough.

With with you, pretty much on any remastered game in particular. If it was a great game, remastering doesn't really "add" anything unless it makes it playable when it wasn't. Taking an late 80's/90's game (lets say Sid Myers Pirates!) and updating the graphics so it plays better and looks better sure. Even the Halo remasters of 1 and 2 are OK, but I don't really enjoy them more and I think sometimes it doesn't look as good.

The one exception is flight sim. In that the more detail the better. In the end that really is the big improvement between versions is visual detail. Flight mechanics were, for the most part, nailed early on in those.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Atmo

I looked closer and agree with you. Even with Surround enabled, there's still some distortion at the outer margins.

Yea, since multimonitor mode lets you move the "forward" view whereever you want it, if the left and right monitors are setup correctly it looks perfect if you turn your head. It is basically the same view as if you moved that to your center monitor.

It also allows you to set up a separate monitor for your instrument panel that sits below your middle monitor in "just" the right position. I've never set it up that way but it would be great if you could

the pic here isn't very good (and its about 10 years old) but it is how I had MSFS X set up using multiple windows. the left/right monitor are angled, so when you slide up, they are on your left/right peripheral vision.

Ultimately what I want to do is get 3 50" TVS. Those are right at 40" left to right, which is the size of a Cessna 172 cockpit. But before i go to all that trouble I want to see what the VR is like when it is released.