alsoknownas
some bloke
Shit as in 'spectacle of devastating impact on humanity and nature in general', or shit as in 'low poly-count mesh rendering'?
Next Microsoft flight simulator looks astonishing
- Thread starter Steel Icarus
- Start date
editor
hiraethified
Embedded for you.
The graphics are amazing. I've zero interest in flight sims but I could imagine myself enjoying a few hours flying around cities.
platinumsage
HaveMyPassword123
Shit as in looks nothing like it whatsoever.
platinumsage
HaveMyPassword123
Im tempted but suspect a steep learning curve. It took me years to able to dock in Elite without computer help.
editor
hiraethified
I refuse to go anywhere near the latest Elite as I know I'll never leave the house again.
alsoknownas
some bloke
Yep. Same here. Terrifies me.
That said, I am leaning towards getting this.
In terms of difficulty - flight sim stuff is not a game. In order to do it even proficiently you need to invest some time into it. That said, with a bit of guesswork, a lot of settings on auto, and a bit of frustrating effort, you can get a (small) plane into the air and mess about with it (then likely crash). Which is a lot of fun.
Supine
Newt Member
elbows
Well-Known Member
I'm in a similar boat, and I intend to get this as soon as its released. So I will try to provide you with my impressions and a guide for those who dont care for the sim bit, once I have actual experience with this.
And then I'm supposed to go further by getting the HP Reverb G2 VR headset when its released, since my attempts to sort my life out by developing stuff for VR have tended to be curtailed by me being fussy and unimpressed by the screen resolution with VR headsets so far, but this one seems like a reasonably nice mix of features and sufficient resolution to maybe satisfy me. But that VR headset is due a month later than this sim comes out, so I wont let this distract me from offering advice for those who want to pootle about looking at pretty scenes.
mauvais
on reddit or something
You need a joystick and ideally HOTAS - hands-on throttle and stick, basically a two piece control set. Without this it's a pretty horrible experience.
It's never going to be super accessible but you can fly low powered planes easily enough if you're willing to get stuck in.
When I said this:
It's never going to be super accessible but you can fly low powered planes easily enough if you're willing to get stuck in.
When I said this:
I meant stuff like how, just like in a real plane, the cockpit obscures the majority of your view and you can't exactly zoom around like in a fun game. It's all a bit serious business. Like real flight you spend a lot of time just basically waiting and supervising stuff.
elbows
Well-Known Member
Its got external camera and drone camera stuff in it, that much I have determined via some long videos.
mauvais
on reddit or something
It does but neither is particularly conducive to just flying the plane.
You can probably hide the cockpit but I didn't figure out how.
Buddy Bradley
Pantheistic solipsist
I have a joystick (Thrustmaster T16000M) coming today, ready for launch. Not going for the full HOTAS set up just yet. Planning my first flight though - Cambridge airport then heading out into the Fens for a fly-by of my village/house. 
alsoknownas
some bloke
Supposing one was thinking about indulging in a bit of both Flight Sim and Elite Dangerous (who needs real life anyway, right?) - is there much difference in the HOTAS requirements?
I'd be inclined to go for a sci-fi type number like this:
But will they also work with Microsoft Flight Sim? Any compatibility issues?
Also - foot pedals - still a thing?
I'd be inclined to go for a sci-fi type number like this:
But will they also work with Microsoft Flight Sim? Any compatibility issues?
Also - foot pedals - still a thing?
AKA Its an expensive copy of a 40 year old tankbuster's controls
Its probably a great stick for pretending to be tiny tom cruise in top gun, I did have an earlier stick by the same company and although expensive it's action and sensitivity was rubbish, they get over - hyped by american wannabee fighter jocks beacause they are claimed to be made in America
Saitek make decent stuff for realistic prices, I use seperate rudder pedals but the modern PC sticks can twist about the vertical axis and use this to operate the rudder
I still sometimes use a simulator for keeping up with procedural stuff especially during this recent lay-off down to the Virus
I have ben using X-Plane 11 though, as FSX doesnt utilize the power of modern graphics cards, I might give 2020 a go but have no illusions that its going to improve over X-Plane in anything but visual eye candy.
No consumer simulator to date realisticly simulates actual handling of an aeroplane
(Someone earlier on mentioned FSX Not working under Win 10, it can be made to work but takes some messing)
Its probably a great stick for pretending to be tiny tom cruise in top gun, I did have an earlier stick by the same company and although expensive it's action and sensitivity was rubbish, they get over - hyped by american wannabee fighter jocks beacause they are claimed to be made in America
Saitek make decent stuff for realistic prices, I use seperate rudder pedals but the modern PC sticks can twist about the vertical axis and use this to operate the rudder
I still sometimes use a simulator for keeping up with procedural stuff especially during this recent lay-off down to the Virus
I have ben using X-Plane 11 though, as FSX doesnt utilize the power of modern graphics cards, I might give 2020 a go but have no illusions that its going to improve over X-Plane in anything but visual eye candy.
No consumer simulator to date realisticly simulates actual handling of an aeroplane
(Someone earlier on mentioned FSX Not working under Win 10, it can be made to work but takes some messing)
Buddy Bradley
Pantheistic solipsist
There's a list somewhere from MS with all the HOTAS models that they recommend or are compatible with.
Foot pedals are definitely still a thing with the real hardcore sim nerds.
Foot pedals are definitely still a thing with the real hardcore sim nerds.
souljacker
innit
Works fine for me. Didn't require any messing at all.
Yes SJ, its a bit hit and miss and depends on what edition of FSX (ordinary/gold/SE) and what your Win 10 install has running, Graphics Drivers, yada yada.
I had to fiddle a bit but in the end went over to Xplane as it made use of my Graphics card, FSX was always CPU dependent even for most of the visual stuff and didnt get updated to utilize the power of today's graphics processors so always dropped frames or stuttered even on high end machines
X Plane is far better in this regard though 2020 might change that.
I don't buy the superior flight model arguement that X-Plane fans always spout though, none of the consumer sims have anything like realism when it comes to the hands on flying aspect.
I had to fiddle a bit but in the end went over to Xplane as it made use of my Graphics card, FSX was always CPU dependent even for most of the visual stuff and didnt get updated to utilize the power of today's graphics processors so always dropped frames or stuttered even on high end machines
X Plane is far better in this regard though 2020 might change that.
I don't buy the superior flight model arguement that X-Plane fans always spout though, none of the consumer sims have anything like realism when it comes to the hands on flying aspect.
alsoknownas
some bloke
Thanks for the info. I haven't researched this gear yet, so the pic was just to give an idea. There seem to be two flavours - sci-fi spaceship type affairs, and more realistic yoke controls. Obviously I'm not gonna end up getting both, so I just wondered if there's any inherent disadvantage in going the sci-fi type route.
alsoknownas
some bloke
What are the most poorly reproduced elements? Handling? The omission of haptic feedback / sense of movement through space?
Supine
Newt Member
Depends how old you are! I'd feel like a bit of a knob with a sci fi type
Serious pilot business only I reckon
Yep largely that, but also actual aircraft performance and handling behaviour is never near right, I can only speak when comparing to aeroplanes that I have flown in real life which are few, but others who have flown different types will tell the same story.
I think it might be in part limits of computing power, to simulate complex fluid dynamics in real time you probably need something more powerful than a PC so the Simulator companies just take shortcuts in the modelling so it runs on home equipment
Worth noting that even big aircraft designers/producers still use wind tunnel models to finalise designs as they know even with limitless Computing power they can't perfectly reproduce reality
alsoknownas
some bloke
Depends how old you are! I'd feel like a bit of a knob with a sci fi type
Serious pilot business only I reckon
It's not so knobbish when you're actually playing Elite or whatever, but yes, I won't be winning many coolness points at the local Aviation Club should I ever be invited (which I won't be).
alsoknownas
some bloke
Interesting. You are slightly rekindling my long, long dormant interest in piloting an aircraft
.
alsoknownas
some bloke
I mean, I know some people are taking their Elite-playing a little too seriously, but still...
(Apologies for slight derail)
(Apologies for slight derail)
souljacker
innit
With Elite there is a LOT of buttons, just like flight sims. So anything with a bunch of switches can help so you aren't fumbling around trying to remember the key combinations for your landing gear before you crash into a high G planet.
elbows
Well-Known Member
As part of my promised irregular series of posts about how easy it is to cut all the corners on the sim side of things so we can mostly just enjoy the view, I can now report that I've seen a video where the flight began with the plane already in flight. I was already planning to treat landing as a luxury I could do without if I couldnt be bothered, now it looks like I can do the same for takeoffs.
Likely I will eventually get round to investing enough time into being able to learn how to do these things with a very small and simple plane, but I'll still do the corner cutting stuff so I can stare at the scenery in the meantime, before I bother to learn the plane and how to do stuff other than work the camera and not crash straight away.
If anything scuppers your plans to have a go with this thing, it will probably be hardware. I didnt check back on the thread to see what sort of machine you have. But as far as controllers go, I initially intend to try to get away with an xbox one controller plugged into the PC. I wont be looking at a proper flight sim joystick etc unless I really get into the whole flying thing, and I will also wait to see what sort of control scheme they've gone for in VR mode.
alsoknownas
some bloke
Disapprove! I think everybody should have to work it out like I did as a teenager. It was kind of like a puzzle game (flaps? trim? mix?
) that led eventually into arcade-style thrills. The payoff seemed huge doing it like that!
elbows
Well-Known Member
Disapprove! I think everybody should have to work it out like I did as a teenager. It was kind of like a puzzle game (flaps? trim? mix?
I'm not really looking to repeat the befuddled experience I had as an 8 year old with a ZX Spectrum flight simulator! I'm not sure if I ever managed to takeoff in that thing in the end or not.
I dont think I'm cheating if I treat the 2020 flight sim as two different experiences in store for me, one where I'm only interested in the views and another where the sense of achievement actually counts for something.
