Really looking for all and any advise or recommendations from the community. For Mods, hardware upgrades, YouTube tutorial series, really anything. I would like like to know what you enjoy using or has helped you along the way. Even settings or cfg file tweaks. There is so much it’s a little overwhelming.
So I bought MSFS when it launched on steam, I am a complete novice when it comes to aviation, but I did buy a cheap $100 Hotas Flight stick, then learned to properly fly the Cessna 152/172 and TBM 930 (I thinks it’s the 930) all on hard with no aids. Took a long break from flying then got the itch again, well this time I really started to love it and invested some money. So I’m currently using…
Honeycomb Alpha Yoke
Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant
Logitech Rudder Pedals
Logitech Radio Panel
3 Aura Base Shakers (already had amps, PSU’s and 6 shakers from my iRacing sim rig)
Stream Deck (I use for misc stuff like parking brake, camera views, drone controls, volumes, etc.)
I have a VR I use for iRacing sim, but prefer to fly with triple monitors over the VR, I do have another monitor and tablet for ATC,VFR Map and other information.
I use simshaker for aviators, with the sound module plugin on a dedicated sound card.
I use Spad.next for custom button mapping on Bravo Throttle.
MSFS Addon Linker
OnAirCompany for a career experience.
My goal is to use OnAirCompany to learn to fly different aircraft. I started leasing a Cessna 172 and I will just work my way up creating new control profiles for my hardware with different aircraft as I work my way up.
The only real in-game mods I use are a ground vehicle mod.
I don’t really use multiplayer but I use live AI traffic and one day I would like to use VatSim but I’m not where near comfortable enough to do that yet.
I would just really like to add more mods for immersion, sound, ATC upgrade, visuals etc but don’t even know where to start, plus I can’t afford for them to be really resource intensive as I’m already pushing my PC to it’s limit with all the screens until I can build a new one. So please keep that in mind. I see a lot about simbrief, navigraph, and littlenavmap but those seen kind of overwhelming also are they really needed. I usually just plan a flight in the software then back out and do it again after or load a new flight plan using my Garmin 1000.
Sorry for the wall of text, just figured I’d ask for some help.
For me personally my one recommendation - the We Love VFR adds to my immersion - but may not be relevant to you if you are up high. But it adds nice details when coming in to land/low.
Its all free - they cover the world.
FSRealistic - Adds audio and visual cues for turbulence, coughing, sneezing, pilot screaming and more. Should support your simshaker so you can really feel that hard landing. Note: this is payware.
VATSIM - Best ATC upgrade you can do until BeyondATC comes out. You’ll have to learn the calls but they are easy and there’s plenty of resources to get you on your way. It’s understandable to be nervous as a beginner but once you get it, you’ll never fly without it ( In the US it’s 90% repeating back what you’re told.)
Flight Planning - Simbrief and Navigraph are the two main ones Highly recommend if you plan to fly on VATSIM in the future as it gives you current and real world charts. You can export these flight plans directly to the game or supported 3rd party aircraft (which is fairly extensive list). LittleNavMap is an app that lets you track your flight as well as plan and file them and works similar to Volanta or SimToolKitPro. My advice: Stick with what works for now until you can research these options better.
Visuals - I mean the graphics in this game already blows the competition away just out of the box. You can apply reshade or color corrections to get more “Realistic” colors out of the ground and sky. Other than buying airports or night scenery mods you’re pretty limited
Awesome thanks for all the info I think I’m for sure going to check out FSrealistic. As far as VatSim I know there’s nothing visual but do you think it would have a performance impact?
i’ve rarely had an issue with vatsim giving a performance hit
I’d say the only time i see any drops is when there’s 20-30 people at the same airport and they aren’t horrible either… I think when i did Cross the Pond last year where there was 2000+ people on the network, i did experience a performance decrease at Dulles with 90 some odd people on the ground between the gate and the runway but it cleared up once i got off the ground. Typically speaking though at your local airfield with no one for 500 miles in any direction you’ll be fine
That said “there’s nothing visual” isn’t entirely true. You will see other planes that are connected to the network and the game does not do a good job of matching those models; you’ll only see models for which you have something installed. FSLTL is good for those who fly out of major airports regularly. I don’t know if an option exists for GA/Biz/Bush planes.
I have both and they dont conflict for me (not sure how they could to be honest)
All I would say is that make sure you have a quick access button to mute FS ATC - as it can talk over the in game ATC. I have FS ATC on a low volume setting as I like to hear it bubbling away in the back ground without being loud or distracting.
Thank you! I am going to install FS-ATC tonight, really looking forward to trying it out. FSRealistic has been awesome so far, I installed that and FSLTL last night and a couple city scenery mods for my area. Loving the difference!
just to be clear - FS ATC just adds random radio chatter - nothing more.
It does use your active frequency to find the right type of chatter (or you can manually pick at type of chatter) and you can manually select area of the world that it uses (Europe, South America etc etc)
You may want to check out a topic I started a while back. Hasn’t had much activity recently but I think that’s because everything (almost) has already been mentioned
(There’s also a link to a Google sheet with links to where you can get them if searching doesn’t bring them up)
