MSFS2024 - A Dream!

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I click on the MSFS2024 icon on my PC desktop and starting of the sim goes pretty fast. No holding points or that it gets stuck while loading in any way. You would not believe all the data is loaded through servers and not stored on the SSD.

So i encounter a beautiful and intuitive UI for the very first time. There are several options available, like career mode or world photographer. But for a first experience with FS2024 I choose free flight.

Oh wait, I have to set up my peripherals first. But ok, everything is already set up for me. That is fantastic. FS2024 copied my preferred key settings directly from FS2020. My Logitech joystick has been recognized correctly and everything is set up nicely.

There is a new VR-Headset section in the settings. Wow - I can connect directly to my Quest 3. Means, I can go without using additional software like virtual desktop. On the Quest I just had to install the MS flight simulator client (MSFSC). That is really convenient. So Asobo used the time well to enhance the VR experience with FS2024. It never had been easier to configure the VR parameters like frame rate and ASW directly in the FS2024 interface. Great, that was what I hoped for. Even better, they have implemented their own UI for VR users, improving the overall experience a lot.

So now I choose free flight - really exited if the up to now flawless experience will continue. I choose my hometown, not too far from the alps and Lake Contance. The way the aircraft are shown in the UI is nicely made, as you can take a virtual tour for each plane. I choose the 152.

Wonderful. It takes a few seconds for the textures and airplane data to load and then I take off into the morning sun. The visuals through my Quest 3 are crisp and beautiful. Nice bushes and 3d-trees. Everything looks much more real than with FS2020. Houses are much more realistic (not just some painted blocks with or without roof). You can immediately tell the difference. The visual difference between FS2020 and FS2024 is huge! Also, the clouds look much better. So Asobo has really understood what to focus on.

And not to forget about the inuitive (and in line with real life aviation) and realistic ways they found to interact with copilot and ATC. That really enhances immersion and feeling of flying. Also the aircraft behaves and handles much more realistic (I guess some sort of air flow simulation is involved in the background routines).

But the best thing - and I really mean the best at all: Asobo did not only improve UI, visuals and ATC. They have taken major effort to optimize the software for performance. I get better visuals, as everything is optimized for the GPU, CPU cores and for the Quest 3 and get more FPS than compared to FS2020 and zero stutters. After flying a while and I get into the Alps valleys and over the mountain tops the new terrain loads and transitions so smoothly - it must be a dreamā€¦

To be honest - it is unfortunately only a dream. What i have written here is what i would have told somebody asking me in October 2024 about my expectations regarding the new FS2024.

Now starting up FS2024 in RL, it takes a lot time to load. But still misses to load some of the most important textures. Terrain has not improved in most parts of the world. From flying altitude the visuals have not really improved from FS2020. There is nothing special for VR users, no improvements, only minimum support. The stutters are less, but only because it seems like the have cut off all the FPS leading to substancial less FPS performance. Everything is so un-intuitive. The UI is awful. There are SO many bugs. My Logitech Joystick is not recognized correctly. The key mapping is awful. The Marketplace is ā€¦ ok lets stop here.

Coming back from Christmas vacation with seemingly zero progress in improving FS2024 leads to me speculating that FS2024 even after possibly years of correction work to come still will be a disappointment. Its a nightmare come true. Why MS why?

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Iā€™d have made it very clear that you were still dreaming.

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i honestly wonder if its too broken to be fixed myself

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I, like everyone else who pre-ordered, had an expectation of what the game would be like, which motivated us to pay upfront.

The developers would have know what state the game was in prior to release (arguing otherwise, is to say they lost control of the project).

The gulf between customer expectation and what was delivered is the widest I have experienced in a video game and for context, I got my first video game in the 1970ā€™s.

I hope they can fix some of it, but I am not optimistic about the prospects of the game being delivered in full.

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I think they will deliver. But it will be after the announcement for FS2028

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Nice post! Although I donā€™t agree about the ā€œMSFS client on Q3ā€ part. No other game does this so I donā€™t think itā€™s fair to expect Asobo to make a special app just for Quest, and I donā€™t really see the benefit either. Just about every HMD requires some client to run in parallel. Plus that wouldnā€™t work on any actual PCVR (displayport) headsets that donā€™t run apps.

Agree with just about everything else though!

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really nice original post, it describes many users feelings about msfs 2024. itā€™s a huge disappointment unfortunately in many aspects including what you mentionned

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msfs client on Q3 was lets say something to dream aboutā€¦ I know it is not realistic to expect that. Most probably technically it is not worthwile to do from a programmers standpoint. Just dreaming when seeing all that marvellous FS2024 adventizing in summer 2024

But at least something that makes linking and configuring so easy that somebody who is not an expert can just grab his VR Headset and instantly go VR with MSFS without spending days of figuring out how to do it. For me being new to VR that was the case with FS2020.

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Fair points, but I think PCVR will always require some fiddling since itā€™s not a closed ecosystem (like Apple) since itā€™s, by definition, PC-based. Plus heavy graphical hitters like MSFS are always going to require some performance tuning on most systems.

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Very nice post, but sadly we have all been let down (especially VR users), one of the stock aircraft places the pilot on the rear seat, I donā€™t think it was a pipe dream of mine to expect at correctly seated pilot, nor a pipe dream to expect Asobo to have performed some basic VR validation

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Too broken, maybe. Will it take a year or two to fix it? Most likely so

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Itā€™s the best elephant and zebra simulator Iā€™ve ever seen !!

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Even if I wasnā€™t interested in FS 2024 and had not bought this software, I think in reading about it I would be amazed that Asobo/Microsoft botched it so badly, so broadly. Itā€™s not like they didnā€™t have domain knowledge to build on, that of FS 2020.

I think itā€™s questionable whether FS2024 should have been standalone instead of a DLC pack for 2020, although I understand in theory that Asobo was rebuilding the phsyics engines. But that it wasnā€™t a DLC and the product as such is not something I want to load up at all, that makes my own experience very disappointing.

I used to admire the engagement they exhibited on venturing into the new FS2020 frontier, and seeing the progress they made, which in turn made me a fan, and made me hopeful. All thatā€¦ no more.

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Indeed. We joke about Bethesda games where you get the odd bugged mission etc, but certainly in MSFS2024 career mode you can almost guarantee something will be wrong with every mission; and not just wrong but which makes your (in game) life difficult.
We should be awarded extra credits for the workarounds we need to perform to complete missions. Iā€™ve lost count of the number of credits Iā€™ve lost due to bugs. Several million now for sure.
That said, I still enjoy the good parts so Iā€™ll keep persevering. Things can only get better ā€¦ one would hope.

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Very nice article.
I was one of the lucky ones who was able to test the sim before it was released. Yes, we only had an alpha. But I already suspected then that the sim would probably hardly be finished when it came out.
But Iā€™m still happy that I can already fly the MsFs 2024 in the ā€œbetaā€ stage. The 3D ground and the mountains look stunning. And I love the career mode.
But of course, finding the right settings is fiddly and annoying. I spent 3 days trying to find the right graphics setting for my Pimax crystal light. It was worth it. The difference from the beginning to now is huge. Now it runs (mostly) really well.
But yes, the list of bugs is huge. But Asobo and Microsoft have proven that they are capable of continuously improving the sim. I am convinced that the sim will get much better in the coming months so that our dream can come true.

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Wake up ! Youā€™re dreaming,ā€¦A happier New Year to you.

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The biggest difference between expectation and reality for me was that the career mode is so hard-core and unforgiving of mistakes. I assumed that were you to crash in career mode you would simply have to press a button to try again.

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Well written. I agree with most of your findings. Indeed, the gap between user expectation and what was delivered is pretty significant.

I couldnā€™t believe what I saw when I spawned at KJFK for the first time in MSFS 2024 and saw ā€˜filled photogrammetry bridgesā€™ all across New York - something I had hoped would never return to the Sim.

Then I watched AI traffic, and aircraft (as usual) started rolling through each other, I saw Boeing and Airbus house liveries everywhere, DC-10 flying around (they are obviously no longer active in real life), and cargo jets parked at gates.

From that moment it was clear to me that MSFS 2024 needs a lot of work!

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Why have we not heard from MS.

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Whatā€™s the purpose of this irony? To repeat whatā€™s already been said here 100 times in a different way? Obviously, itā€™s just an attempt to attract attention, but it wonā€™t help anyone.

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