I was going through my pre-flight routine yesterday and I found myself reflecting on just how many 3rd party mods I’m using to get what I want from the sim:
HiFi Active Sky to give me the weather I want;
FSLTL and a GA traffic mod to give me the air traffic I want;
Navigraph to give me the navigation data I need and IFR flight planning tools;
//42 Flow to give me the in-flight UI I want;
Hi-fidelity 3rd party aircraft to give me the aircraft I want to fly;
FS Realistic to give me the sounds I want to hear;
SPAD Next to let me control my devices how I want;
Little Nav Map to give me situational awareness and too many other awesome features to list;
Volanta to give me flight tracking and log books
Pushback toolbar to let the aircraft safely make it to the taxiway…
Air Manager to display my steam gauges so I can actually read them;
Flight Replay V to give me camera controls that work;
And innumerable to payware and freeware scenery mods to make the sim look even better on the ground and when flying VFR.
No doubt I’ll be adding other ATC and VFX mods in the near future too…
Now the point of this isn’t to cast shade on Xbox users who cant run all these bolt-ons or brag about all the mods I’ve splurged on over the last 4 years. I think the base sim still offers a great experience (the bush flights are still some of my favourite things in the sim) You don’t need any of these 3rd party mods, but for me, and the type of simming I like, they all help contribute to an awesome experience. Sure, there are a few duds out there that I’ve uninstalled, but on the whole the quality and variety of 3rd party developed mods when layered together makes the sim something quite special.
So thank goodness for the 3rd party devs and what they bring to this hobby…
…and how many of these additional functions will become core functionality in MSFS2024? Who knows, but there will always be a 3rd party dev making pay or freeware that will enhance the sim.
So how many do you run and what couldn’t you do without? Or for the Xbox users what are the functions you’d like to see become core?
I believe the large 3rd party modder Community combined with a strong and modern platform (flightsim.to mostly) is one of the most important contributing factors to MSFS’s popularity.
Even with old titles since about FS5 - especially with FS2002/FS2004 and FSX) there has been a strong Community. But the sheer amount of really good quality stuff being released daily for MSFS is astonishing.
Especially mods like We-Love-VFR and Project Lifts add so much immersion for VFR flying and all the tools, default aircraft modifications and corrections improve the default sim significantly.
The We Love VFR mods are just awesome. This sim with those mods has made me a VFR /bush flying addict! And so cleverly coded they have almost nil impact on performance.
So, core addons. Not planes or scenery. Background apps, global enhancements etc. yeah I got a ton. But I tell you something…
I have realised that although they are all incrementally adding good things to the experience, actually there are none that I could not live without. Since getting VR I have really struggled to get consistent smoothness. Weird thing is, in Safe Mode it’s all fine, more than fine, it’s totally smooth in VR even flying low level in the stock F-18 in heavy scenery and multiplayer.
So it’s something I’ve added but I can’t narrow it down. Thinking it’s just a tipping point. However it made me realise that BY FAR the most important thing for enjoyment is fluidity, no hitching and consistent frame rate.
In the end though, the aircraft are the most important. I could not live without the Wilga by Got Friends, Bell 206 by Fly Inside and Comanche by A2A. That’s all!
However in my current setup where I do have all these mods, the MOST VALUABLE to me is Aircraft Manager by SonicViz that swaps my control profiles for me and lists my aircraft in the order I’ve defined with tags (favourites).
On top, I suppose I need XP Force to activate the force feedback on my joystick (mainly for LESS force for helicopters). Everything else is not that important if VR works lol.
My HF8 haptic seat is awesome though. Really feels like something major missing if I forget to turn that on, so software for that needed too!
I used to rank FS Realistic highly but it’s less and less crucial now and I’ve found myself disabling more and more of it for most aircraft.
I know what you mean about FS Realistic. I’ve disabled quite a few of the effects too. But I still like the touchdown and ground effects as these give me important feedback.
When I first got MSFS2020, I ran no mods whatsoever and just flew on my gaming laptop with my 20 year old Logitech joystick. No stutters or CTDs at all. Then I discovered this thing called the ‘community folder’. I think the first mod I put in was GAIST shipping…and lo I had my first stutter!
Smoothness is very important, especially in VR. I’m looking forward to the promise of multi-core performance in 2024.
You’ll see some with comments that say "No longer using, using X instead) if a better replacement came out.
I use Addon Linker to build profiles for each aircraft with all of the base I would use every flight, then enble the scenery, etc for the flight I am doing.
I also have several exe.xml files built with things enabled or disabled depended on plane then built a batch file to swap them out with the associated buttons on my Streamdeck.
I try and only run what i need for any given flight.
I didn’t put Add-on Linker in my list, but of course it is the Ur-add on. The meta add-on. The add-on of add-ons that makes the use of all other add-ons so much easier to manage.
In FSX I bought darn near every addon available and flew almost daily with a private group of 10-15 and it was a blast…for MS2020 I haven’t purchased a single thing and I barely fly it now…lost interest even after buying new controls and PC just for the sim. I keep hoping the spark comes back but it just isn’t there. The group I flew with is long gone and ‘solo’ just doesn’t cut it. Maybe MS 2024 will do it!
That’s a shame. It’s a far superior SIM, but from what I’m reading the issue was the lack of a social aspect for you as life had moved on…
This highlights the single biggest issue with flight sim. It can be very solitary. Even without a group it can be hard to sustain an interest without some underlying purpose. I’ve tried all of the main 3rd party career mods currently available and there is a reason I didn’t list one in my op…I don’t find any of them especially good or rewarding. Just spreadsheet sims really… Let’s hope 2024 with it’s native career functions offers something rewarding and I do hope that includes a multiplayer ability of some kind.
In the meantime there are great group flights to be had and new friends to be made. My pal @Baracus250 does some amazing fun races / bush flights. An absolute hoot. Sometimes you just have to take the plunge, login and say ‘hi’ to a bunch of total strangers - but strangers who will all share the same love of flightsim.
I haven’t actually run any for a while. Seriously since getting VR nearly all my time has gone on getting it to behave, but I will pick it up again soon!
In the meantime, @PPSJAY there are flights literally every day, for any flavour or sub-interest you have or want to try. If you want, ping me and I will send you some notes about the ones I join currently and you can see if there is something you’d like to come along to also!
