This !
Back in 2020, I was so hyped about MSFS, I couldn’t wait to try it. I got into X-Plane 11 to get acquainted with a flight simulator and absolutely loved it. Maybe a week into it, I realised it was VR compatible which, just thinking about it I knew it would absolutely blow my mind, so I dusted of my old Rift and, it did indeed absolutely blow my mind.
Touch controller support is spot on, responsive and natural. 4 years later I still don’t have a dedicated flight controller hardware and can fly most aircraft from the simplest to the most complex with only touch controllers (yes even programing the FMS of an airliner feels easy). There are a few exceptions with a few third party aircraft having a bad implementation of touch controls for which you can find workarounds from the community most of the time.
So a few lockdown months pass, I spend hours upon hours in X-Plane VR while the hype for MSFS keeps growing, with a few surprises, the first of which is that Asobo never planned for VR but acknowledges the feedback and announces it will work on it for a later version. I’m starting to feel like they never tried the other simulators available themselves, which is a bit concerning.
August arrives, I try MSFS for the first time and while I have a blast for a week, I’m a bit disappointed with the state of the game (not calling it a simulator from now on). I go back to my usual X-Plane flying until VR is out.
Around december I think, the VR update comes. I fire MSFS again and notice that the state of the game is still way off and while VR is there, there is no VR controller support. I do a few flights with the help of a gamepad and quickly give up. Let’s go back to X-Plane until touch controller support is there.
A good few months later (the timeline becomes fuzzy as I don’t care much anymore about MSFS), touch controllers support is out ! Great, finally ! I fire up the game again, half of the cockpit is still inop but now I can see my touch controllers. Wait, I can see them but I can’t do anything with them. Right ! Touch controllers support is there, not touch controls support.
Thanks Asobo, back to X-Plane.
Maybe a year later I gave it another go and now there were touch controls, although they’re barely usable. The results you get trying to manipulate anything is completely random. Try to adjust the mixture from low idle to high idle on a turboprop ? You have one in two chances that you’ll cut off the fuel supply instead. Any two way switch is a gamble.
That’s for Asobo aircraft. I thought maybe third party developpers would care and do the job properly. They’re even worse and I never bought one of them for that reason.
And that’s the way it’s been ever since. I stopped caring, Asobo stopped caring.
TLDR : I got hyped by MSFS in early 2020 and ending up falling in love with X-Plane instead.