Microsoft Flight Simulator (PC, Xbox, Game Pass)

rinks wrote:

Albear wrote:Oh for strawberry floats sake, a mandatory update of 1Gb followed then by a mandatory update of 40Gb! How big is this flipping game on the PC! It's already 105Gb without this patch!

About the same on Xbox. 40GB for the game, and 60GB for the offline stuff. So you've basically got to download the whole base game again!

153GB for my install including all patches and content. Now to re-download the livery pack

Photek wrote:I did not download the offline stuff, it's a waste of space.

I'll delete it in a week or so. Just thought it might be a good idea to have it while the servers are getting hammered with the initial rush.

Memento Mori wrote:I'm averaging around 85 FPS on high settings at 1440p with the new optimisation update. Game runs so much better.

Downloading now too, Hoping I see some increases!

40 GB. Christ.

Can’t see much at night can you? I was trying to fly around my local city and I could have been anywhere. Not helped by the cramped cockpit view. Obviously these issues are resolvable by using different camera views and time of day selections, but I wanted to go for full immersion. Looked pretty though.

Will play some more when I finish work. I think I have fully downloaded all the updates in the game that I want now.

This really highlight my lack of creativity though. I can go anywhere in the world and I still don’t know what to do. I really need boundaries and progression in my “games”. But I am looking forward to trying out a few more things soon.

Tutorials worked fine for me, and the controller seems fine for my requirements. I am playing with “hard” pilot settings, and most of the others are some custom combination to eliminate some of the requirements to understand ATC etc. Basically I want as realistic handling model as possible, I can work downward from there….

It's been described as the new Crysis - Microsoft Flight Simulator is scalable, but it's also incredibly challenging to run at its higher settings, even when using the most powerful graphics hardware on the market. So how does the game fare on Xbox Series X? Very well actually - and what Asobo Studio has extracted from the Series S is also creditable. Join Alex and John for the full lowdown.

More VRR footage is available to premium and retro supporters on the DF Supporter Program!

Microsoft Flight Simulator tech review: a brilliant port to Xbox Series X/S

A genuine next generation experience translates beautifully to consoles.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digi ... series-x-s

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Can’t see much at night can you? I was trying to fly around my local city and I could have been anywhere.

Same! I was able to have a look around my immediate area, but when I went to a nearby town it had got darker and I couldn't identify any features to get my bearings.

Can you set the time of day manually? I assume you can, somewhere among all the options. It would be a bit restrictive, forcing us to fly only in real-time.

Something else I didn't have time to figure out: I always use inverted look, but - ironically for a flight sim - this defaults to "up is up" for the cameras. I tried altering it, but couldn't find a simple toggle. I altered the key binding manually for camera up/down, but it wanted to change it for multiple settings. Then it didn't work properly for the other cameras. Not impressed that such an important setting isn't easy to change.

Series X is comparable to PC settings on Ultra ( ) and Series S is Medium but clouds are same on both.

rinks wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Can’t see much at night can you? I was trying to fly around my local city and I could have been anywhere.

Same! I was able to have a look around my immediate area, but when I went to a nearby town it had got darker and I couldn't identify any features to get my bearings.

Can you set the time of day manually? I assume you can, somewhere among all the options. It would be a bit restrictive, forcing us to fly only in real-time.

Something else I didn't have time to figure out: I always use inverted look, but - ironically for a flight sim - this defaults to "up is up" for the cameras. I tried altering it, but couldn't find a simple toggle. I altered the key binding manually for camera up/down, but it wanted to change it for multiple settings. Then it didn't work properly for the other cameras. Not impressed that such an important setting isn't easy to change.

You can, yes. I think you can do it mid flight using that menu that pops up if you push in the left thumb stick. Same with weather.

Photek wrote:Series X is comparable to PC settings on Ultra ( ) and Series S is Medium but clouds are same on both.

Yes. It’s incredible what they have done (note that Xbox is 30 FPS capped - which is alright for this)

rinks wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Can’t see much at night can you? I was trying to fly around my local city and I could have been anywhere.

Same! I was able to have a look around my immediate area, but when I went to a nearby town it had got darker and I couldn't identify any features to get my bearings.

Can you set the time of day manually? I assume you can, somewhere among all the options. It would be a bit restrictive, forcing us to fly only in real-time.

Something else I didn't have time to figure out: I always use inverted look, but - ironically for a flight sim - this defaults to "up is up" for the cameras. I tried altering it, but couldn't find a simple toggle. I altered the key binding manually for camera up/down, but it wanted to change it for multiple settings. Then it didn't work properly for the other cameras. Not impressed that such an important setting isn't easy to change.

Weather & time of day is in the Flight Conditions on the top right before you take off -


https://www.polygon.com/microsoft-fligh ... conditions

In-Flight select the cloud icon -



Inverting camera info - https://www.polygon.com/microsoft-fligh ... controller

Thanks for that, but it’s saying the same as what I already tried, and the setting didn’t seem to stay set. I’ll try it again, as I was kind of rushing before.

I did 3 flights last night.

Derry to Donegal in a Cessna first for that “close to home” feeling. (I was actually supposed to do a flying lesson IRL in this airspace, but never got around to booking it). Got up in the air, yes that is still a pretty rough approximation of the city, set course for the destination, sat for 20 mins flying bored in a straight line with no landmarks. strawberry floated the landing.

Did the Everest preset flight. Made myself some excitement by flying like an idiot. Did a barrel roll around the peak, then descended as close to the ground as possible until I eventually crashed in the middle of miles of nondescript tundra.

Did George Best to Gatwick in an Airbus in a thunderstorm. Couldn’t see anything at all during takeoff, just pitch black with flashes of pure white. No scenery illuminated, not sure if that’s a bug? Got up to 30000 feet over the Isle of Man. Got bored again so tried to recreate the opening of Castaway. Vertical drop into the sea headfirst from that height. Didn’t even crash, just bobbed there like an ice cube.

That’s enough for me.

I’ve just parked a plane in my garden.

It’s very handy that there’s an airstrip only three miles from where I live.

rinks wrote:It’s very handy that there’s an airstrip only three miles from where I live.

Remember you can start anywhere. You don’t have to pick an airport to take off from.

Bertie wrote:

rinks wrote:It’s very handy that there’s an airstrip only three miles from where I live.

Remember you can start anywhere. You don’t have to pick an airport to take off from.

Didn’t realise that. Thanks. I really have just been dicking around so far. I’ll explore the menus etc soon.

I put about 4 hours in yesterday, mostly trying to do local stuff, following roads i know to cities i know - very impressive.

My main criticism is that its really really hard to justify using cockpit mode when the view is so restricted. The external camera does not really have an drawbacks other than compromised authenticity. Maybe i will toggle off the HUD display on the external camera so i cant use it for maintaining course etc.

The other one isn't really a criticism of the software - its just not much of a game. When there is no real risk involved, flying is fundamentally easy, so you are really just tooling about trying to find things to look at. I'm not sure if i am really getting anything from it than an evening with bing (google) maps wouldn't provide. The challenge would seem to come from plotting headings and maintaining them to do a planned route, but that feels more like busy work than skill, and I can just toggle waypoints on to the display and save myself the hassle of learning how to operate simulated electronic devices in my simulated plane.

It is ridiculously pretty though, and heading down to the coast (to a place i was the afternoon before) just as the sun was starting to go down and causing the sea to glisten was absolutely breathtaking.

I'm going to keep playing, and hope to find some sort of compromise that offers some challenge whilst not introducing layers of friction that come from plotting headings for the sake of plotting headinggs. If anyone has had the same feeling and found a "happy medium" i would love to hear what they did.

Bastards modelled every street around me, but not the one in which I live!

Performance is definitely better with the latest patch, but I've been getting a few crashes to desktop, far more than before.

I'm also completely unadventurous as to where to fly. I've been round my own streets about five times - I just wish I could go slower. Maybe if there was a helicopter version... possibly it's already on there, I don't know.

But I also do know I'll never learn how to actually fly these planes with the assists off. So I'm basically using it as a pretty impressive sightseeing thing. I can imagine you'd be gripped if you were a proper flying buff, though.

I suspect what I'll do is fly round a few places I'd like to see, and there are a few exhibition type flights in the opening menu that I'll no doubt do. Then I'll probably move it to storage after that, for the occassional tootle around.