As Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Steam reviews collapse to ‘Overwhelmingly Negative,’ its developer has admitted it "completely underestimated" the excitement for the game.
I purchased MSFS several months ago. I was excited to fly the entire world. The game kept crashing (i5 13600k and RTX 4070 Super). After maybe 5 attempts I got past opening the .exe, only to find that the game required 150 gb of updates. No worries, I’ve got fast internet.
But guess what? You’re limited to Microsoft’s server speeds, which appeared to be capped at 320 kbps. I would have run through my refund window ages before I’d even have the game downloaded. Do I risk $90 CAD on the hopes that an already struggling to run game actually works? Or do I refund? Tough choice it was for me. Hah.
Also special fuck you to Thrustmaster. NEVER waste your money on their absolute garbage. I bought the Boeing 787 yoke and it worked for 3 months before the roll sensor gave out, making it impossible to fly straight because the yoke is detecting random spastic motions all over the place, making the entire thing unusable. If you search this issue online you’ll find tons of people with the same issue. They use a first gen cheap hall sensor for the roll axis that keeps picking up interference from everything (especially the left throttle axis)
I grabbed literally the cheapest HOTAS from Aliexpress a few years ago and it has been awesome.*
*It required tweaks. The stick centering spring was WAY too tough and had to be shortened. And the measured range of motion was only about 80% of the physical range of motion so there were deadzones at the end of each axis. Resistors can be added to each POT to stretch out the measured range.
EVO NXT x2 after both my TH16000s shit the bed. Yup, the roll sensors. Opened the damed things up, alchohol swabbed the contacts and sensors, put back together and worked again. But gave them away to a friend just getting into flight/space sims. I warned him about the sensors.
I kickstartered Virpils advanced flight yoke system they recently announced. I bought a Winwing Ursa Minor Airbus joystick and it’s fantastic (considering I snagged it for $80cad)
It is! And they want me to pay shipping costs to mail it to them in Florida, where they will send me a brand new one (maybe) and I will encounter the same issue in maybe 3 months? 6 months? The fault lies with the actual sensor they use so I’m kind of boned regardless. It’s a design flaw.
As a fellow simmer, all I can say is: please try X-Plane. It needs support and is the best way to make sure the MSFS approach does not become the norm.
XPlane is fantastic but I play in VR and that is where XPlane downright sucks. XPlane is bound to single core performance on a cpu. It doesn’t matter how good your graphics card is because if you play in vr, your frame rate is capped at single core performance so it is absolutely unplayable (with ASW enabled and all graphics set to low).
For VR, Aerofly FS4 is phenomenal. But the tradeoff there is that Aerofly doesn’t have weather or live ATC. Aerofly actually uses a similar technology as Microsoft (if you enable global coverage). The difference here is that they don’t have access to high resolution orthographic scenery so it’s pretty low res. Performance though is absolutely unbeatable. The full simulator can be run on an iPhone or a Nintendo switch.
I purchased MSFS several months ago. I was excited to fly the entire world. The game kept crashing (i5 13600k and RTX 4070 Super). After maybe 5 attempts I got past opening the .exe, only to find that the game required 150 gb of updates. No worries, I’ve got fast internet.
But guess what? You’re limited to Microsoft’s server speeds, which appeared to be capped at 320 kbps. I would have run through my refund window ages before I’d even have the game downloaded. Do I risk $90 CAD on the hopes that an already struggling to run game actually works? Or do I refund? Tough choice it was for me. Hah.
Also special fuck you to Thrustmaster. NEVER waste your money on their absolute garbage. I bought the Boeing 787 yoke and it worked for 3 months before the roll sensor gave out, making it impossible to fly straight because the yoke is detecting random spastic motions all over the place, making the entire thing unusable. If you search this issue online you’ll find tons of people with the same issue. They use a first gen cheap hall sensor for the roll axis that keeps picking up interference from everything (especially the left throttle axis)
100% fuck thrustmaster. I gave up on them and got a pair of VKB Evo gladiators and absolutely love them.
I grabbed literally the cheapest HOTAS from Aliexpress a few years ago and it has been awesome.*
*It required tweaks. The stick centering spring was WAY too tough and had to be shortened. And the measured range of motion was only about 80% of the physical range of motion so there were deadzones at the end of each axis. Resistors can be added to each POT to stretch out the measured range.
EVO NXT x2 after both my TH16000s shit the bed. Yup, the roll sensors. Opened the damed things up, alchohol swabbed the contacts and sensors, put back together and worked again. But gave them away to a friend just getting into flight/space sims. I warned him about the sensors.
FFS Trustmaster.
I kickstartered Virpils advanced flight yoke system they recently announced. I bought a Winwing Ursa Minor Airbus joystick and it’s fantastic (considering I snagged it for $80cad)
Wouldn’t that be covered by warranty though? 3 months is a pretty short period.
It is! And they want me to pay shipping costs to mail it to them in Florida, where they will send me a brand new one (maybe) and I will encounter the same issue in maybe 3 months? 6 months? The fault lies with the actual sensor they use so I’m kind of boned regardless. It’s a design flaw.
As a fellow simmer, all I can say is: please try X-Plane. It needs support and is the best way to make sure the MSFS approach does not become the norm.
XPlane is fantastic but I play in VR and that is where XPlane downright sucks. XPlane is bound to single core performance on a cpu. It doesn’t matter how good your graphics card is because if you play in vr, your frame rate is capped at single core performance so it is absolutely unplayable (with ASW enabled and all graphics set to low).
For VR, Aerofly FS4 is phenomenal. But the tradeoff there is that Aerofly doesn’t have weather or live ATC. Aerofly actually uses a similar technology as Microsoft (if you enable global coverage). The difference here is that they don’t have access to high resolution orthographic scenery so it’s pretty low res. Performance though is absolutely unbeatable. The full simulator can be run on an iPhone or a Nintendo switch.
Yeah, agreed X-Plane is behind in VR. That specific use case gives MSFS an edge.
Is VR even playable in MSFS? I could never get it to open properly for me in pancake mode.