I am feeling like the sim lacks fidelity, accuracy and precision when it comes to navigation and instrumentation. I can’t quantify my feeling with numbers, but it just feels like MSFS is “imitating” navigation rather than “simulating” navigation. I’m hoping that the devs will take this issue seriously and listen to the many many simmers (simmers, not gamers) who have brought this topic up. I’m hoping that MSFS is not just a pretty scenery game, but something more, something that flight simmers are yearning for. Remember “As Real As It Gets?”. This was the mantra long before PCs were able to simulate pretty clouds and beautiful vistas - “real” meant something else.
So specifically, I feel like the navigational instruments; OBI, HSI, ADF and GPS are “mushy” and not a “precise” as in other sims. Autopilots cannot seem to follow a course. I’ve noticed that the VOR and HSI needles cannot show the slight deviations that are important to navigating and making course corrections. The needles seem to jump from dead-center to a degree or two off - I’m wondering if this is indicative of the level of fidelity that underlays the sim and part of the reason the autopilots cannot stay smoothly on-course. Another gripe of mine is that the GPS displays are not “crisp” - as if the fonts are blurry and too big, the lines depicted are very wide…just look like they were drawn by a grade-schooler with a box of crayons.
These are my observations and my feelings - totally subjective, but I know I’m not alone in feeling that the sim currently lacks the realism in navigation instrumentation, GPS functionality, and FMC systems.
If the devs are weighing a balance between realism and fun, between a product for simmers or for gamers, between advanced and basic, complicated and simplistic…my thought is you can always scale it back with menu options and configuration, but you cannot scale it up.
I have been simming for 35 years and have flown GA aircraft IRL for almost as long - I think the core of this community wants “As Real As It Gets” and that means simulating real world navigation, aircraft systems and instrumentation and all the complexities that it entails. This requires PRECISION and FIDELITY and that, to me, is lacking currently.
I am hopeful that the devs understand this and continue to improve the sim in that direction and keep listening to the community.
This sim is stunning and amazing and I have faith that in the years to come it will be refined into the sim that it could be. I applaud MS and ASOBO for the work they have done, just hope that they keep listening to us and implementing our suggestions for improvement.