MSFS2020 is so good I’ll wait a while

Discussion Hub General Discussion
, ,
1

I purchased MSFS2020 on Day One in August 2020 and it has worked mostly very well for me and my 5 year-old medium specs PC.

I did not rush to buy MSFS2024 this time around. The videos did not seem to show marked scenery improvements over 2020 and, as I don’t have games in my PC, the new 2024 sim seemed to be geared way too much toward gamers using consoles as opposed to hardcore flight simmers with PCs.

Now, almost a week after 2024 launched, I’m glad I waited. The number of glitches that plague the new version seems much higher than 2020’s teething problems. I know that the new sim depends on streaming much more than 2020 does and I realize the sheer number of MSFS2024 downloads probably overwhelmed the servers and that the initial situation should improve in days ahead once initial demand is satisfied. But I’m in no hurry to switch.

I’m an older simmer and what I enjoy is Flight Simulation. I love getting my Cold & Dark FBW A320 alive, entering a previously prepared flight plan in the MCDU and, when ready for pushback, following ATC instructions to the Active and taking off toward my destination, usually an hour or so away. I also thoroughly enjoy flying my Icon A5 off a small airport and flying it to a nearby lake or river, that’s just wonderful. I understand there’s a market for activities such as getting an injured person off a cliff by helicopter and wildfire fighting with Canadair’s amphibian or experiencing Career Mode but I personally have no interest in those new activities. I enjoy VFR flights and flying heavies. If I could have a say, there would be two iterations: A dedicated MSFS2024 for PC simmers with full graphics capabilities and a gamified version for Xbox. Not a one-size-fits-all sim/game.

I recently installed the wonderful new FBW A380 in MSFS2020; I experienced A.Floor problems with the 4K Dev version but I switched to the Stable version and it works very well for me. I also find MSFS2020’s graphics for aircraft and scenery to be frankly excellent for the kind of flying I do so, for now, I’ll stick with my trusty MSFS2020, thank you very much.

Please feel free to tag your post with either msfs-2020 or msfs-2024 if you would like to discuss a specific sim.

16 Likes
2

Where did you download the dev version for the a380? I can’t find it anywhere…

3

Not this again….generalistions…

Actually the gamified version would likely work better on a gaming PC than the Xbox

I’ve stayed with MS2024 on my XBox series X - I can’t afford a high end gaming rig like yours. Many Xbox users are like me and some of us have probably accumulated more hours in the sky than some PC players so please don’t assume we are all gamers.

I purchased the Just Flight Avro RJ instead of MS2024 and am very glad I did.

I’d rather MSFS stayed away from gaming too - I just can’t understand the obsession with a new career mode in MsFS2024 when fixing and creating an excellent ATC simulation seemed to me to be a more pressing thing to do.

I think perhaps MS/Asobo have their eye on a DLC revenue generator foe the future.

I can’t at the moment see a time when I’ll move to MSFS2024 - I personally doubt it’s recoverable from here unless there are some massive changes in its streaming and storage requirements.

2 Likes
4

I got it from FBW’s website.

5

I hope updates succeed in making MSFS2024 better. I suppose streaming is a good idea as I regret installing all the World Updates that came along and they’re probably slowing my system down a lot. I live in Montreal and find I fly in Canada and the U.S. most of the time. I occasionally enjoy flights between London Heathrow and Paris Charles-de-Gaulle for a change of scenery but I have not flown much in other parts of the world despite having downloaded all the updates. I would love to install 2024 eventually, I simply don’t think it’s worth it for me personally in its present condition. My 2020 sim works almost perfectly for me just the way it is.

3 Likes
6

You’ve saved yourself considerable headache by taking this approach. FS24 will be better than FS20 could ever be, but that is definitely not the case now.

3 Likes
7

I’ve taken the same approach. I only just now in the last month got 2020 to run in such a way that I’ve only begun to enjoy it even though I downloaded it the second it was released. It was a bad initial first taste for me and it kinda’ ruined sim flight for me to a degree. So with that in mind, I didn’t and still don’t want my first taste of 2024 to be negative.

I have no doubt that 2024 is going to be the most incredible flight simulator ever created, and it won’t take them long to get all this nonsense sorted and fixed. I’m eager for it, but that first taste needs to be good. So I’m waiting.

1 Like
8

Why in the world do you think PC fliers and Xbox fliers are any different from each other???
What a ridiculous idea. It would make no difference.

If it wasn’t for the Xbox contingent, we wouldn’t even have any of these iterations of FS. Last I heard, Xbox users made up half the user base.

1 Like
9

That could very well be the case. But, speaking for me personally, I’m inclined to believe gamers are drawn to XBox while flight simulator afficionados gravitate to PCs. I bought every new Flight Simulator since 1995, the 2020 version is my latest and I may be wrong but I believe graphics were better soon after the game came out in August 2020 than they looked like a year or two later. Some simmers blamed a discreet dumbing down of the original MSFS2020 due to XBox constraints. Is that the truth? I have no idea. All I know is I felt the sim’s graphics appeared to be not as sharp as they used to be.
I also know MSFS2020 works just fine for me. I presently fly the new FBW A380 and enjoy it tremendously. Who wouldn’t enjoy flying this beauty? Have a look as I’ve just lifted off Montreal’s CYUL Airport in cloudless weather.

MSFS-2020-FBW-A380-over-Montreal
MSFS-2020-FBW-A380-over-Montreal1920×1080 237 KB

1 Like
10

This is such a broken record at this point. All of the “gaming” features are very welcome to me, a PC simmer of over 30 years. And they are ALL optional. Don’t want it? Don’t click it. The core sim is still there, and better despite launch bugs that’ll get sorted. I’ve never owned an XBox in my life. The insinuation that the career mode was added purely for console gamers is silly. I’m grateful for it, blemishes and all. My play time speaks for itself.
image

That said, there’s no obligation whatsoever to buy FS2024. FS2020 is still supported. The world moves on regardless of which choice you make, and if everyone made a new forum post about their choice we’d have a server outage on the forums as well :wink:

3 Likes
11

You’re certainly entitled to your opinion, but a casual read of this forum alone will show how wrong that opinion is. But, if that’s what you want to believe, you’re welcome to it.

Be that as it may, it was the requests of simmers, even more than the gamers, who drove the features of 2024. In fact, it was the overwhelming request for features like careers and proper live traffic and so much more by BOTH simmers and gamers that brought these features to 2024. I’ve been asking for all the features being brought to 2024 since the '80’s, and used FS95 to help practice for getting my actual pilot’s license in 1996.

The complaint was NOT that Xbox was “dumbed down” in it’s ability to sim. The issue is the lack of memory in the Xbox forced Asobo to have to remove detail in the scenery to make room for more detail in the cockpit so people could properly sim.

As to your question, Me. I don’t have any real desire to fly the FBW A380. As a GA pilot myself, I’m much more drawn to the planes I fly for real, and the planes I’d like to fly like float planes, taildraggers, and warbirds.

The FBW A380 was not removed from Xbox because it needed to be “dumbed down”. It had to do with security and licensing. The open software license used by FBW can’t be applied ot software on Xbox legally. That’s the main reason. Secondly, FBW wasn’t all that interested in using any of the Xbox programming languages.

I mean, really? Despite the evidence that PMDG fully supports Xbox doesn’t show you complex aircraft can perform just fine on Xbox?

Before you jump to conclusions, you may want to study a bit more the real reasons behind certain decisions.

Personally, I’m not sure the available careers will be interesting to me. I fully believe that eventually there will be careers that pique my fancy.

Again, I’m still flying 2020, too. I have no issue with that decision. On my part, it’s largely because Aerosoft wasn’t just late in delivering the LCE’s to Europe, all of their product is delayed in the U.S., too, and I still don’t have the 2024 license I purchased in September. But also, like you, 2020 works great for me, and there’s clearly too many bugs right now. But I will try it when I get my license code, and will eventually transition.

I’m only discussing your derision of the Xbox user community. It’s founded on incorrect beliefs and not supportive of your conclusions. There’s lots of great reasons to decide to stay on 2020, for now or in perpetuity. The fact that MSFS was designed to run on Xbox and PC based on the illusion that the sim is being “dumbed down” because of it’s on Xbox is not one of those reasons.

(In fact, to me, another good reason I like it being on Xbox is it forces the team to be efficient in their coding. We’ll all be better off with that. There’s so many reasons I love that MSFS required it to run on Xbox.)

1 Like
12

I respect your opinion, of course. But you stated something about “The lack of memory in Xbox forced Asobo to remove details in the scenery in order to provide better cockpit visuals.” Therefore, it’s not just my imagination, there was indeed some reduction in image quality from the original August 2020 MSFS visuals. Maybe said reduction was minor and it’s possible most simmers might not have noticed the changes but I did. My PC monitor is a 70-inch screen and because I still have very good vision despite being an older fella, less sharp visuals at some point become quite noticeable.

Don’t you think this fact might validate the idea that separate sims for PC gamers and XBox users would be preferable? I know this is probably not a workable proposition from a business point of view; the Microsoft XBox user base is said to be many times the number of PC owners who installed a Flight Simulator edition on their rigs since 1982. Microsoft are in it for the money and that’s perfectly fine, of course. But I know that given a choice for, say, $100 Xbox-compatible Flight Simulator and a $200 full-fledged Flight Simulation meant for highly specced PCs only, I’d buy the PC edition without hesitation.

1 Like
13

You’re mixing up a whole lot of visualization adjustments Asobo and Microsoft have been making across the board. Both Xbox and PC struggle with 2020 because of the way 2020 works. Hence, one of the major changes they made to 2024 that can’t be back ported to 2020.

Yes, the Xbox folk are complaining about visualization reductions for THEM that make it worse than what we see on PC. But Visualization has been reduced on PC for different reasons, one of them is the black screen avionics, too. Even though we have more memory, 2020 still uses it all, Xbox or not.

So, you’re right, visualization quality has reduced on PC. Not because of Xbox.

Essentially, over the years, more and more addons have been developed for many different functions. Things like FSTL eat up memory and trigger visualization reductions on PC, things like a billion glass panel displays showing different maps for planes like the A380. PC people complained that LOD distance was too short, so in order to increase LOD, they decreased the local visual quality. Again, nothing to do with Xbox.

That’s the whole point of the scenery and object LOD change Asobo made for 2024. It wasn’t just for Xbox, it affects PC, too. In 2020, I believe it’s true that all LOD’s are installed for all objects, even objects you can’t see like AI aircraft that are way out of range. Hence the problems FSTL caused people with their scenery disappearing on arrival, increases in Live traffic, really complex airports that weren’t in 2020 when it was released. Now in 2024 they are much more careful about which objects they load so they use a lot less memory overall. Of course, that only works if developers create all the different LOD levels of models that 2024 requires. Without that, 2024 is no better. This is just a couple of many issues and adjustments that have been made.

So, you’re not wrong that visual quality has reduced in 2020 for both PC and Xbox.

Do I think we need separate installs? That really depends on your point of view. We already have separate installs. Asobo adjusts the quality of what’s shown based on the available memory. So making a separate program is a waste of time. An Xbox is only a PC with a fixed configuration. Quite a powerful one at that for what it is due to optimizations they were able to make because they own the platform.

2024 was designed to better leverage the ability to adjust visual quality based on a number of factors, download speed, available graphics memory, available processors is way more efficient now, available system memory, and so much more. That’s the whole point fo their work. It’s going to be a while before we see that improvement at its best. I think addons will get more expensive, though, as it’s going to take more time to create them.

1 Like
14

Looks like you’ve been using the new sim during almost half the number of hours in the five days since MSS2024 went live. Hey! That’s great. It’s a sign the new sim works well for some of us. That said, I don’t remember insinuating Career Mode was included for the benefit of gamers; I said I personally wouldn’t use it. If it helps with your career, that’s fine with me and good luck.

15

I admit not knowing the first thing about consoles, I never owned one so my mentioning Xbox in my initial comment may have been ill-advised. Thank you for the heads up, Sir, and I hope forum readers will scroll and read all your interesting posts about Xbox in this topic.
Regarding FSLTL, I’ve used it often and it has worked rather well in my setup. I love parking my AC atop EGLL’s tower and watching the goings-on. Heathrow is always busy, as in real life. Once zoomed in 4 or 5 steps, the 27s can easily be monitored for Departures (Left) and for Arrivals (Right). KSEA is excellent for plane watching with FSLTL. An AC parked just above its tower in late afternoon gives an outstanding view of the three runways and, once the AC start moving, you soon see a lot of action. In regard to slowdowns, I personally can’t say I noticed any evident problems when using with the app. In passing, using my keyboard to look around with FSLTL is very intuitive and easy.

16

Yes, if not set up properly, FSTL will definitely cause destination airports to disappear and other scenery related issues in 2020, PC or Xbox, doesn’t matter. FSTL requires careful setup to avoid scenery issues.

As I noted, if too many aircraft are injected, FS will run out of slots for objects, and it won’t show objects at your destination, and could cause reduced terrain textures and PG as well.

17

Yeah, I took the week off for it, many late nights! About 7-8 hours were just sitting at loading screens the first day, though.

I assumed it’s what you meant by this:

I remember when FS2020 came out, the same concerns were raised about it being for Xbox gamers, though. The UI sometimes being controller-centric can give that impression. And I remember one of the Sim Updates was derided for improving the console performance at the cost of the PC experience, so I was probably wrong to assume you were referring specifically to the career mode in that statement.

But I really do have a lot of counter-points there. There are SO many new sim variables exposed now for the home cockpit experience. None of that benefits console players. The improvements to the atmospheric rendering and the 4000x terrain mesh detail also don’t scream “for console gamers only” to me. The flight models feel dramatically better, not simpler which would indicate a console target audience (with all assistance off). Taildraggers are trickier to work with. We have new avionics like Honeywell. All of the default avionics are now the WT units which are some of the most complex default instruments we’ve ever had in a sim. I think this new sim is a step in the right direction for PC simmers. I’ve heard several third party developers now say that the new SDK allows things that were never before possible including better helicopter simulation. The launch has been a huge mess, for sure, but I’m very optimistic as a PC sim person.

18

You say that when MSFS2020 appeared there was some talk about the new sim being meant for an XBox audience. Well, I have no recollection of that and my impression, at the time, was of a PC-oriented sim rejuvenation only. I probably missed or overlooked any XBox connection with all the excitement the August 2020 launch brought about.

I found what you said in the last part of your post quite interesting and I’m glad to see there’s further Working Title involvement in the new sim’s avionics. As I enjoy learning how to operate the various controls and displays, the facts you pointed out are making me a bit more anxious to experience MSFS 2024. Thanks.

2 Likes
19

I downloaded FS2020 on day 1, and it worked well for me out of the box. The bugs that many reported did not affect me early on. The first real bug I ran into was ATC voices dropping out after a few sim updates were released.

That said, the avionics we have now is way better than what we started with, and I’m really happy with where FS2020 is.

When it was announced that more of the content in FS2024 would be streaming, I had a feeling it would be a big problem given what we’ve seen with the last few world updates and sim updates. So I decided to hold off getting FS2024 for a while. If things improve I might consider getting it, but for now I’m happy using FS2020 with Beyond ATC.

2 Likes
20

I was going to get FS24 but just before it was released I flew Ant’s Tiger Moth and just felt that was as good as it needed to be and it made me have a rethink.

I realised there were only 3 aircraft I was interested in and I thought Career Mode would be buggy and it was then obvious that it would be a while before my 3rd party aircraft I want would make it across to FS24.

So I thought I’ll hang on to my money and monitor how things go.

My current assessment is that it will be a while before I upgrade while I wait for some aircraft that I want to fly that have acceptable quality.

I take my had off to those still plugging away with FS24 and I wish them luck. sPK