I have seen numerous posts here and elsewhere by users who have selected the ‘Legacy’ flight model option in the Options menu without understanding that it was intended for use with aircraft imported from FSX and would severely degrade the flight models of the stock aircraft.
This also makes it very difficult to diagnose problems people may be having.
This is essentially a developer mode option. The aircraft files should specify which flight model an aircraft uses external to the sim. The aircraft developer/maker should be the one specifying this, not the end user.
If there has to be an option to change this in-sim for some reason I am not aware of, there should be an ‘are you sure’ pop up clearly explaining the option (see edit below), watermark in-flight, or some other protection against users setting this setting and then leaving it set to ‘Legacy’. Maybe make it so it can only be changed from what the aircraft specifies in dev mode?
Edit 10/31/2020: It seems there is a pop-up when you change this option, but it just says that changing this option might make things “less realistic”. It doesn’t indicate that it will break things in the flight models of aircraft intended for MSFS, and the the legacy option is mainly intended for converted FSXa aircraft. A lot of people seem to think this is a “difficulty” type option (especially given the greyed out sliders that become enabled when it is set which look like “difficulty” sliders). Also, since it’s in the General menu, not in the Assistance part of the menu, people are likely to see this legacy setting and the sliders before they see the actual assistance options when they are exploring the menus for the first time.
I did a quick search of the forums and in the day alone there are 10+ threads where people had this option set incorrectly and it was negatively impacting their gameplay experience.
This is causing a lot of confusion for people, hurting their experience of the game, and really needs to be a priority to update to improve the signal to noise ratio on these forums and allow people to enjoy the game.
Not everyone posts on the forums, so there is likely a much larger population of users who have played with this option out in the world who aren’t on the forums.
No please don’t move any setting into the xml files…
If these users don’t read info about their settings, I don’t have any hope for them.
If you enable the legacy mode, you already get a pop up message warning you that you are dumbing down the flightmodel.
My interpretation of the legacy flight model was very much to allow the user a familiar FSX flight experience if they didn’t enjoy the more systemic weather/terrain behaviour of the modern flight model.
I don’t know if this is sustainable going forward though - I tend to agree there shouldn’t really be a need for this in the UI. At some point I feel practically speaking we should be using a single model and at best this would only be switchable from the developer mode and/or aircraft configuration where it has the most benefit.
Instead of ‘less realistic’, the result when used with the stock aircraft is more like ‘broken’
The wording is confusing and implies that maybe the option makes things ‘easier’ somehow. It does not. It makes the aircraft in the sim basically unflyable, because they have not been turned to this flight model. It’s really only useful if you’re importing FSX aircraft. The autopilot math is also not tuned for this flight model.
Several time a week I see people mention in threads that they set this option by mistake and left it set. They have all kinds of complaints about the controls and the auto pilots and then when they set it back to Modern they go away.
Hello everybody. Please think: Does Asobo test the “legacy” flight model the same as they test the “modern” flight model? I think the answer is: They only test the modern flight model.
I see in FS2020 version 1.10.7.0 that the modern flight model has improved. The quality difference between modern and legacy will become larger and larger. This is my reason to vote for “no more legacy option”.
Another detail: I convert FSX models to FS2020. And using a converted FSX airplane together with modern flight model is no problem in my opinion.
Even if you are a genius and never decided wrong because of confusing description, please accept that not everybody is as clever as you!
I updated the OP with some more information and a list of >10 threads in the last day alone where this setting has been set to legacy and hurt people’s experience with the sim.
Hoping we can get some more votes to get the devs attention on this. I may create a Zendesk ticket as well.
IMO, the biggest problem with legacy mode right now, is the noise it creates from people who think the flight model is broken, not knowing that they are using Legacy mode or not knowing what it was intended for. I would hate to see issues with the Legacy model inadvertently becoming “fixes” to the Modern model due to confusion and lack of clarity.
Just to continue to highlight this issue, I’ve searched for new topics in the last 6 days (which was the last time I looked) and collected up 10 more posts about this, I’m sure there are a ton more.
Just thought I would resurrect this topic, as I have a question re Legacy mode , and specifically AI imported traffic.
I currently have my sim set on legacy mode (AI-OFFLINE). ALL my AI Aircraft are imports (mainly FAIB FSX Models). I have disabled ALL the generic Jets, props, GA and Airliners and have been having quite a bit of success, and am adding FP’s and models very slowly
I do notice tho, that all the aircraft depart on time, and don’t mis-behave, but tracking an AI inbound, using LittleNavMap, I notice on most occasions (99%), the said AI lines up with the runway, but is waaaaay too high, like FL 30 or something ridiculous like that…It flies over the runway and then promptly disappears
Can I assume that this is because its a FSX converted aircraft? Or is it because the sim is in legacy mode? or simply that the aircraft.cfg file needs a “Modern” section for AI operation, and that the aircraft in question (many of) simply don’t know what do with the AI engine? or is the AI engine broken/can only deal with MSFS native models?
I had thought of copying the NEO’s relevent bits that are listed in the AI section of the aircraft.cfg file, and applying it to say the FAIB FSX A320 conversions, to see if the aircraft actually lands at the correct altitude.
The flight model should only be affecting your plane, and should only be used if you’re flying imported FSX mods yourself. If you’re flying stock MSFS aircraft (or any freeware/payware aircraft designed for MSFS2020) it should be on modern.
The flight model should have nothing to do with AI aircraft behavior (I say should, because I could be wrong, but I don’t expect I am).
AI offline has nothing to do with the flight model.
How importing FSX models for AI aircraft affects this all, I have no clue. But the flight model setting should have no effect on this. I would guess that something in the files you’re importing into MSFS for AI traffic is not gelling with the sim, resulting in weird altitudes.
Yes, this post is really just referring to AI OFFLINE operation. I havn’t attempted to fly them, as they dont have a panel to start with (Having said that, I did try a flight with an FAIB 738, a (blind) takeoff, and a fly around, and it seemed to respond well to yoke inputs, flaps worked, gear worked etc
It’s a lot of a grey area, as of course, these imports are not native. Knowing what the 'converter" actually changes/adds to the aircraft parameters would be handy to know, I guess
(Having said that, I did try a flight with an FAIB 738, a (blind) takeoff, and a fly around, and it seemed to respond well to yoke inputs, flaps worked, gear worked etc