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Microsoft Flight Simulator maps entire globe with AI

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Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator maps entire globe with AI

#61

Post by golergka »

tpmx wrote: post #10

Before anyone gets excited and goes to buy the game outright: First: Please consider trying out the game via the Xbox Game Pass for PC program instead. $5/month, $1 for the first month instead of buying it outright. Do remember to cancel. Thank me later. Second: The whole download/install experience is a trip. You need to download about ~90 GB of data (no problem!). However, the downloader is abysmal. It's not optimi…

I've experienced most of the issues you described, and yet, I have to conclude that the game is absolutely fantastic despite them. The visual clarity is mind-blowing, and the UI and all the helpers make all the difference between this game and all other sims that I've, as a completely casual player, have tried before.

But more importantly, it's not a game that's defined by it's release; developers are clearly following the service model, which gives me confidence that most of the bugs will be sorted out and game polished.

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator maps entire globe with AI

#62

Post by racingmars »

tpmx wrote: post #10

Before anyone gets excited and goes to buy the game outright: First: Please consider trying out the game via the Xbox Game Pass for PC program instead. $5/month, $1 for the first month instead of buying it outright. Do remember to cancel. Thank me later. Second: The whole download/install experience is a trip. You need to download about ~90 GB of data (no problem!). However, the downloader is abysmal. It's not optimi…

Welcome to the world of flight simulation! I've been in to flight simulation for a long time, and while there are definite rough edges that need to be improved, this really does represent the next leap forward in what's available for this hobby. X-Plane with ortho scenery installed on my system has much longer load times. Prepar3d has lower framerates when you get some good scenery and a good aircraft loaded. I wish flight sim performed like AAA games. But this really does represent a significant improvement to the genre relative to what we've had before. It'll be a while before the high-quality add-on aircraft are ported over and available, as well as other types of content where hand-made airports and such are much better than the mostly-auto-generated content that comes with the game... but out of the box the new MSFS really does look so much more realistic (not just the earth but the sky: weather) and performs better than what we're used to.

So from the perspective of existing simmers, a game that seems to be pretty bad relative to mainstream AAA titles is actually looking really great compared to that status quo.

As for the download system -- yes, there's no excuse for that. I'm not sure how they got that so wrong given the abundance of prior art that does it better. The seeming relationship between Azure load and FPS/stutters is concerning and certainly a new condition that didn't exist in existing sims. Overall I do think the new sim suffers from being released prematurely, as we see so often with software now. But the reason for all the hype and praise is because the flight sim community really is excited about the potential this represents because we've been stuck with such ancient platforms for so long.

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator maps entire globe with AI

#63

Post by [deleted] »

tpmx wrote: post #10

Before anyone gets excited and goes to buy the game outright: First: Please consider trying out the game via the Xbox Game Pass for PC program instead. $5/month, $1 for the first month instead of buying it outright. Do remember to cancel. Thank me later. Second: The whole download/install experience is a trip. You need to download about ~90 GB of data (no problem!). However, the downloader is abysmal. It's not optimi…

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator maps entire globe with AI

#64

Post by dperfect »

tpmx wrote: post #10

Before anyone gets excited and goes to buy the game outright: First: Please consider trying out the game via the Xbox Game Pass for PC program instead. $5/month, $1 for the first month instead of buying it outright. Do remember to cancel. Thank me later. Second: The whole download/install experience is a trip. You need to download about ~90 GB of data (no problem!). However, the downloader is abysmal. It's not optimi…

I'm on a fairly new machine (i9-9900K OC'd to 5.1 GHz, 32GB RAM, NVMe, RTX 2080 Super), and I was expecting smooth, stable frame rates at 1080p. Unfortunately, the game seems to be limited by one or two CPU threads consuming a constant 90-100% of those cores, while the other cores hover around 10-25%. As a result, I get fairly decent frame rates (25-50fps, depending on the area), but even in the best cases, it has a really annoying "micro stutter" that randomly - yet consistently - interrupts what would otherwise be an amazing experience.

I'm hopeful that an update could improve performance, especially with respect to spreading CPU load over more cores, but it sounds like a lot of other simmers are mostly content, so maybe that will never happen.

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator maps entire globe with AI

#65

Post by georgespencer »

tpmx wrote: post #10

Before anyone gets excited and goes to buy the game outright: First: Please consider trying out the game via the Xbox Game Pass for PC program instead. $5/month, $1 for the first month instead of buying it outright. Do remember to cancel. Thank me later. Second: The whole download/install experience is a trip. You need to download about ~90 GB of data (no problem!). However, the downloader is abysmal. It's not optimi…

Edit: no longer a problem!

Original comment: I've seen reports that the Steam refund window of a few hours of 'gameplay' is used up by the mammoth download time. Steam only downloads the installer, and the installer then downloads the game data. Steam considers the installer to be the game itself and starts the clock ticking.

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator maps entire globe with AI

#66

Post by xnyan »

mrkeen wrote: post #60

Microsoft Flight Simulator's (69,99€) AI is so good they'll charge you not to use it! The Deluxe Edition (89,99€) includes everything from Microsoft Flight Simulator plus 5 additional highly accurate planes with unique flight models and 5 additional handcrafted international airports. The Premium Deluxe Edition (119,99€) includes everything from the Microsoft Flight Simulator Deluxe edition plus 5 additional highly a…

Or, you can pay $1 and use it for one month via xbox game pass for PC, or $5 if you’ve already used the $1 offer in the past.

I’d strongly recommend this if you’re not very sure you’ll like the game.

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator maps entire globe with AI

#67

Post by mrcarrot »

georgespencer wrote: post #65
tpmx wrote: post #10

Before anyone gets excited and goes to buy the game outright: First: Please consider trying out the game via the Xbox Game Pass for PC program instead. $5/month, $1 for the first month instead of buying it outright. Do remember to cancel. Thank me later. Second: The whole download/install experience is a trip. You need to download about ~90 GB of data (no problem!). However, the downloader is abysmal. It's not optimi…

Edit: no longer a problem! Original comment: I've seen reports that the Steam refund window of a few hours of 'gameplay' is used up by the mammoth download time. Steam only downloads the installer, and the installer then downloads the game data. Steam considers the installer to be the game itself and starts the clock ticking.

Valve have said they will (somehow) not count the time taken to download the game content against the 2 hour refund clock [1].

[1]: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-08-20-valve-assu...

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator maps entire globe with AI

#68

Post by rkangel »

georgespencer wrote: post #65
tpmx wrote: post #10

Before anyone gets excited and goes to buy the game outright: First: Please consider trying out the game via the Xbox Game Pass for PC program instead. $5/month, $1 for the first month instead of buying it outright. Do remember to cancel. Thank me later. Second: The whole download/install experience is a trip. You need to download about ~90 GB of data (no problem!). However, the downloader is abysmal. It's not optimi…

Edit: no longer a problem! Original comment: I've seen reports that the Steam refund window of a few hours of 'gameplay' is used up by the mammoth download time. Steam only downloads the installer, and the installer then downloads the game data. Steam considers the installer to be the game itself and starts the clock ticking.

Valve have explicitly stated that that won't be a problem:

https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/amp/valve-says-the-time-it-takes-...

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator maps entire globe with AI

#69

Post by xnyan »

saiya-jin wrote: post #51
wjossey wrote: post #36

Lots of folks here saying “it’s impressive but...” The game was probably released faster than what one would expect from a super polished title, but the game is still extraordinary. The visuals are superb, the detail is spectacular (I can see my real house with our pool as I fly over), the mechanics are incredible for a base flight simulator (lots of stuff you’d normally pay extra via addons for), and the game has be…

> if you’re into flight simulators I think this will be a problem a bit - apart from initial WOW effect, not that many people are into civilian flying. Its way too complex for casual gamers and learning curve is almost vertical, you need ultra-expensive hardware (how many want to spend 1000s in covid times?) and to be honest, non-combat realistic flight sims are really not for everybody, I would say not for most game…

I will agree that it’s definitely a niche and not everybody likes it, that said you really don’t need thousands of dollars of gear to enjoy it. The breadth of controller support is actually one of the most incredible aspects of the game to me - Basically everything is supported including an Xbox One controller. I’ve actually used the gamepad a little bit and it was a perfectly enjoyable experience. I think you would get more out of it with some more specialised gear. For less than 100 bucks you can get a perfectly good joystick and yoke combo that will give you quite a bit of depth.

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator maps entire globe with AI

#70

Post by tpmx »

user_501238901 wrote: post #54
tpmx wrote: post #10

Before anyone gets excited and goes to buy the game outright: First: Please consider trying out the game via the Xbox Game Pass for PC program instead. $5/month, $1 for the first month instead of buying it outright. Do remember to cancel. Thank me later. Second: The whole download/install experience is a trip. You need to download about ~90 GB of data (no problem!). However, the downloader is abysmal. It's not optimi…

According to many long-time flight simmers, the performance of this title is about the same as previous ones, with the addition of 10x improved graphics. So that's why they don't care and you're getting downvoted on Reddit. PS: It's a next gen game built for the future in mind, GTX 1070 is basically outdated. Expect to require a 3xxx series graphics card for good performance.

This game has been marketed to a much, much wider crowd with a massive online media campaign. So it needs to work. It doesn't.

(Also 3xxx series cards aren't released yet.)

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