Microsoft Flight Simulator

[Boozy The Clown]

 

[K]

I had a quick go with the F/A-18 just now, taking it up from Newcastle airport and blasting all the way down to Pontefract. It doesn't seem quite as fast as I was anticipating - I was expecting to slam on the power and hit mach 1, which is probably unrealistic and shows up my ignorance about planes. It's definitely faster than the MB-339 I bought - that topped out at about 480kts, this goes up to about 600kts. It made me wonder if I was doing something wrong, as the developers definitely said that it would be able to break the sound barrier, and that it would even make a sonic boom.

 

It's a big, heavy old bird that seems to take a bit of getting used to - you can't throw it into tight turns, which I guess befits its role as a fighter bomber. I had another quick run of taking off from JFK and razzing over to Manhattan at treetop height / full speed, and while the streaming was obviously on the verge of breaking down completely, it coped surprisingly well. Manhattan looked pretty low-res, but it was all there and navigable, if it can be said to be navigable while you're careening round in a 1970s jet fighter you neither control nor understand.

[mlewis]

I’ve used the F/A-18 quite a bit in DCS; there it tops out at about 0.9M before afterburners- load dependent.

 

It’s definitely not super cruise capable- it’ll always need its afterburners to go M1+ ; is that perhaps on a separate keybind in MSFS?

[footle]

41 minutes ago, mlewis said:

I’ve used the F/A-18 quite a bit in DCS; there it tops out at about 0.9M before afterburners- load dependent.

 

It’s definitely not super cruise capable- it’ll always need its afterburners to go M1+ ; is that perhaps on a separate keybind in MSFS?

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/f18-super-hornet-afterburner/472117

[K]

3 hours ago, mlewis said:

I’ve used the F/A-18 quite a bit in DCS; there it tops out at about 0.9M before afterburners- load dependent.

 

It’s definitely not super cruise capable- it’ll always need its afterburners to go M1+ ; is that perhaps on a separate keybind in MSFS?

Yes - it’s not bound to anything by default, but if you search for the command and assign it to something that isn’t already used, you can stick it on that. Slightly confusing, as you need throttle to maximum, activate the afterburners, and then throttle up even further. 

[K]

I’ve just been tooling around San Francisco in the hornet in an attempt to revisit F/A-18 on the Amiga. If anyones playing now, stick live weather on - the weather in SF and further north into California is very dramatic. Lots of very low cloud over the city, giving way to mist settling in the valleys to the north. 
 

Also worth visiting SF because the Golden Gate Bridge seems to have disappeared. It’s either a local glitch or some kind of AI fail, but it did diminish the feeling of playing some super-advanced version of that old Amiga sim. 

[RFT]

22 hours ago, SteveH said:

 In a word....awesome  It has a really nice weight to it for a start, which I don't think I was expecting. They seem to have really spent time getting the resistance just right in the yoke as well as it feels amazing. It's so much easier following smooth turns and climbs with this compared to a controller (not much of a surprise I guess)

 It looks amazing all lit up. You can choose from 10 colours I think it is, for all the backlights, plus around 10 levels of brightness. It comes with a couple of clip on overlays for the warning lights (SIPS?) that are behind the yoke, but they have stated that the warning lights don't function yet. A rep on YouTube was talking about adding various profiles, I assume then that the goal will be to have the warning lights reflect whatever plane you are flying. 

 The buttons to the right are programmable and they give you a ton of stickers so that when you are settled on what you want them to do, you can label them if you wish. It's a bit daunting starting off and it says "press button 30 to release the parking brake" and not knowing which button that is without keeping the guide to hand. 

 Some odd quirks, you need to still use a controller for navigating the menus, at least as far as I can tell. I guess that's because you use an analog stick like a mouse to move around and this doesn't have an analog stick on it, or a d-pad. The A,B,X,Y buttons didn't work at all in the game and I thought it was broken at first, but they work fine on the Xbox dashboard so I assume it is because other buttons on the stick are replacements for them in-game. 

 So yes, expensive, but so far no regrets. Looking online, Turtle Beach seem to be being very responsive to anyone with a problem or just stuck with functionality. Very happy with it. Worth the price if anyone is in it for the long haul (no pun intended!) 

 

 Edit: oh yeah, the trim wheel is just sublime, they have nailed that for sure. It feels so good. Also, the thrusters (I have no idea if they are called that? The four accelerator thingies with the white knobs) come with some replaceable knobs that look like landing gear and flaps knobs so that if you are flying a single or twin prop (or jet) you can use the other two as landing gear, flaps etc.

 

question - the 3 knobs under the throttles - are they for turning or pulling?

[SteveH]

34 minutes ago, RFT said:

question - the 3 knobs under the throttles - are they for turning or pulling?

 They are for pulling. Not sure what the middle and right hand one do yet, but the left one is the throttle like the one used in the Cessna. Though much to my surprise, zero throttle is all the way out and you push it in to increase it. I always thought they pulled out to increase throttle!

[RFT]

1 hour ago, SteveH said:

 They are for pulling. Not sure what the middle and right hand one do yet, but the left one is the throttle like the one used in the Cessna. Though much to my surprise, zero throttle is all the way out and you push it in to increase it. I always thought they pulled out to increase throttle!

 

Red should be mixture and blue will be prop pitch/RPM (which will only be relevant on planes with variable props, like the Bonanza).

 

Another Q, sorry - are these knobs interchangable like the ones on the throttle levers?

 

[SteveH]

3 minutes ago, RFT said:

 

Red should be mixture and blue will be prop pitch/RPM (which will only be relevant on planes with variable props, like the Bonanza).

 

Another Q, sorry - are these knobs interchangable like the ones on the throttle levers?

 

That's ok  No the knobs aren't interchangeable, only the levers. They give you four spare tops for the levers that replicate the colours of those sliding ones.

[Vespa Alex]

On the X Box, is it worth buying this or just stick with the Gamepass version?

Will both get any future updates?

[footle]

1 hour ago, Vespa Alex said:

On the X Box, is it worth buying this or just stick with the Gamepass version?

Will both get any future updates?

 

just stick with gamepass. 

[iwan_canobi]

Had another session in VR on this with my new HP Reverb G2, holy balls it’s good! Have tweaked settings so have it running smooth now for the most part, and the resolution with the G2 is incredible, you can clearly read all of the dials etc!
 

There was quite a few moments where my brain definitely clicked into a ‘this is real’ mode (hard to explain this feeling!). Especially when you get up higher and don’t notice some of the slightly dodgy textures and buildings.

 

Flew from my local grass airfield, flew over my house, then to my work then to Glasgow and landed at the airport! Also had  another blast in the Spitfire, starting to get the hang of prop pitch and mixture control! 

[tobert]

Sounds amazing @iwan_canobiWhat kind of rig do you need to get VR working smoothly

[Rumspringa]

23 minutes ago, iwan_canobi said:

Had another session in VR on this with my new HP Reverb G2, holy balls it’s good!

If you don't mind me asking, what spec is your PC? I've been hovering over the add to cart on a Reverb the last few days but would have to hijack my son's yet to be purchased Christmas PC to use it , I'm on a 4690k & gtx1070 which obviously wont cut it. How are getting on with the controllers? I'm thinking of maybe sticking with the Index controllers which means the ballache of lighthouses.

 

e- Always sat in the back of the class. Slow typer, you know I don't live fast. 

[Dr Nookie]

On 18/11/2021 at 10:54, SteveH said:

 In a word....awesome  It has a really nice weight to it for a start, which I don't think I was expecting. They seem to have really spent time getting the resistance just right in the yoke as well as it feels amazing. It's so much easier following smooth turns and climbs with this compared to a controller (not much of a surprise I guess)

 It looks amazing all lit up. You can choose from 10 colours I think it is, for all the backlights, plus around 10 levels of brightness. It comes with a couple of clip on overlays for the warning lights (SIPS?) that are behind the yoke, but they have stated that the warning lights don't function yet. A rep on YouTube was talking about adding various profiles, I assume then that the goal will be to have the warning lights reflect whatever plane you are flying. 

 The buttons to the right are programmable and they give you a ton of stickers so that when you are settled on what you want them to do, you can label them if you wish. It's a bit daunting starting off and it says "press button 30 to release the parking brake" and not knowing which button that is without keeping the guide to hand. 

 Some odd quirks, you need to still use a controller for navigating the menus, at least as far as I can tell. I guess that's because you use an analog stick like a mouse to move around and this doesn't have an analog stick on it, or a d-pad. The A,B,X,Y buttons didn't work at all in the game and I thought it was broken at first, but they work fine on the Xbox dashboard so I assume it is because other buttons on the stick are replacements for them in-game. 

 So yes, expensive, but so far no regrets. Looking online, Turtle Beach seem to be being very responsive to anyone with a problem or just stuck with functionality. Very happy with it. Worth the price if anyone is in it for the long haul (no pun intended!) 

 

 Edit: oh yeah, the trim wheel is just sublime, they have nailed that for sure. It feels so good. Also, the thrusters (I have no idea if they are called that? The four accelerator thingies with the white knobs) come with some replaceable knobs that look like landing gear and flaps knobs so that if you are flying a single or twin prop (or jet) you can use the other two as landing gear, flaps etc.

 

If you’re not dressed like Biggles while you’re using that I’ll be very disappointed. 

[iwan_canobi]

9 hours ago, tobert said:

Sounds amazing @iwan_canobiWhat kind of rig do you need to get VR working smoothly

 

9 hours ago, Rumspringa said:

If you don't mind me asking, what spec is your PC? I've been hovering over the add to cart on a Reverb the last few days but would have to hijack my son's yet to be purchased Christmas PC to use it , I'm on a 4690k & gtx1070 which obviously wont cut it. How are getting on with the controllers? I'm thinking of maybe sticking with the Index controllers which means the ballache of lighthouses.

 

e- Always sat in the back of the class. Slow typer, you know I don't live fast. 

You do need a pretty beefy PC to run it smoothly, I’m on an AMD 5600x with an Nvidia 3070Ti and I need to run most things about medium to get it to run smoothly. I think it’s doable on lower end setups if you don’t mind dialling some settings back.

 

The Reverb is really nice for this, the resolution is amazing and there’s no hint of screen door effect. I haven’t played much with the controllers, I gave it a quick go last night but given my mouse is right there I found that easier. I haven’t tried other games yet to see if the controller tracking is as big an issue as some make out. Annoyingly they’ve improved the tracking and FOV, I ordered direct from HP thinking I’d be getting this new version but then found out that it’s only US models that get those updates! So I could have got a headset plus controllers for the price I paid for the headset alone. HP have a £50 off deal just now on it though.

[Vespa Alex]

Are there any sensibly priced flight sticks or yokes for the X Box worth buying?
I'm really enjoying this so far, but clearly on a pad it's missing something.

[shirubagan]

I’ve been eyeing up the HOTAS-1 for months, but this lovely-looking piece of kit is finally available. £350 though. 
 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/d/turtle-beach-velocityone-flight-universal-control-system/940l0thw0x8g?cid=corelsite

[fat flatulent git]

Jesus, the installs and updates for this are going to take ages.  Glad I'm not a one-console only gamer.

 

Hopefully I'll be flying some time tomorrow.

[SteveH]

On 19/12/2021 at 18:51, shirubagan said:

I’ve been eyeing up the HOTAS-1 for months, but this lovely-looking piece of kit is finally available. £350 though. 
 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/d/turtle-beach-velocityone-flight-universal-control-system/940l0thw0x8g?cid=corelsite

 Oh man I wish I had waited now. I bought mine on launch day (it's a lovely bit of kit, which I do talk a little about a page or so back) but would have waited if I had known I could have used reward points toward buying one. 

 

 Actually one thing I didn't mention is the rudder buttons. Although they apparently intend to release separate pedals for that Velocity One, the rudder buttons are analog so you do get nice fine control of the rudders rather than a simple on/off.

[Rumspringa]

Spent all last evening trying to fly a circuit in VR (damage off) and record it through the headset lens using the replay function. The sim crashes when I try to save a replay and also when the headset is left idle so it's a nightmare trying get the camera and everything synced and setup in time. Just wanted to record a few landmarks for some friends but fucked it up. I'm running it on a 1070 and i5 4670 and I've been surprised by how well it runs in VR, it's on fairly low res of 1500x1500/eye I think but it should look much better than what I've captured here on potato. Flight was from Connel airfield near Oban then north through Glencoe following the road back to Tyndrum and turning back to Connel via Loch Awe and the Cruachan dam. It's going to drive my wife insane but tonight I'll be back on the highway to the dangerzone and hopefully do better.

 

[jonamok]

Nice. How immersive did that feel?

[Rumspringa]

Man it's really great, once you get it running smoothly the immersion and sense of speed is amazing. You can feel the turns and drops in your stomach, I can't really believe how good it is. I've only just got the software so don't really know what I'm doing yet but I've spent tonight messing around with every combination of graphic setting and sussing out the replay and weather/time settings. Setting it up at dusk with an amazing sky and sunset while sitting back on a replay flight and being able to look around is so good in VR.

From what I've read on MSFS forums I shouldn't be able to run it on my specs but it's going like a dream. I picked up a Vive pro2 on Amazon just before Christmas for £400 open box, I already had the wireless card, Index controllers and base stations from the OG Vive so thought it was probably worth it. Its got its issues but overall I'm really pleased with it. It uses its own motion smoothing setup rather than the SteamVR one, initially it was really crap but its been updated recently and the smoothing from 30 up to 120fps is excellent now with hardly any artifacting. I don't know how it works with the Quest or Index etc but the trick seems to be getting it to run as close to 30fps as possible (or maybe 45 smoothing up to 90), I've got it locked to 30fps in the Nvidia control panel but pretty sure that is being ignored by the VR settings because upping the cloud, reflection and resolution settings tonight has definitely improved the framerate/smoothness. 

Sorry to prattle on but I'm honestly gobsmacked by how good it is, I'll stick a video here tomorrow if I can record it properly.

 

e- I tried to record a better video, it was such a ball-ache to do but not sure it was worth the effort. Think I need a more suitable camera for filming inside the headset. Also, I checked and locking the framerate for MSFS in Nvidia control panel does work for VR and helps smooth things out quite a bit.

 

e2- Another, with a cheap GoPro clone stuck in the lens. I've managed to squeeze up the settings and resolution quite a bit now but GPU is at constant 98%, CPU's at 100. I think this is the limit for my 1070 setup, the sound in the video might as well be from the fans.

[TehStu]

That's brilliant. Good grief, I want a VR setup so bad.

[Stanley]

I really wish MS would do VR for Xbox. I hope the next PSVR2 does well so they might consider it at least then. 

[Jammy]

Looks amazing @Rumspringa. Have you tried the Mach Loop in Wales yet ? I only just thought of it and haven’t even checked if it’s in the game, but I’d be amazed if it isn’t, and I bet it’d be fun with that rig of yours.

[Rumspringa]

That's a good idea @Jammy, there are flight plans for the Mach Loop. I need to learn how to use the sim properly rather than putting everything on easy and hoping for the best, I've got a mate with his PPL who is  coming over at some point for a go so hopefully I'll pick some of it it up.

[spanx]

I hope the planned copilot feature comes at some point. It’d be great to help others get up to speed on procedures, ATC etc. And also share the burden in the commercial airliners. 

[K]

Top tip for Xbox players that I saw on the official forums: if you get stutters and pauses while you're playing, then turn off the rolling cache. I had this problem, and turning off the cache made the game run much more smoothly.