MSFS 2020 Tips

[Harold Henderson]

I've been in MSFS 2020 for about 6 hours now - only 1 hour of flight! The rest of the time has been spent trying to figure out/configure the UI, controllers, and camera/views options.

So, here is something I stumbled over that would have saved 4 hours of setup trial & error: search for "msfs 2020 squirrel tutorial" at Youtube. This is a series of 5 (so far) approximately 20-25 minute tutorials that will walk you through what you need to be able to jump in and fly.

If anyone else has tips for msfs 2020, post them here to share with everyone.

Yes, msfs 2020 is pretty AWESOME!!!

[Theodore Martin]

Harold, I'll give you a week to familiarize yourself with MSFS 2020 then I'm hoping you will provide a report on your initial impressions and how it compares with other sims you have used (i.e. P3DV4, etc.).

However, if you prefer you can provide a daily post of what you find.

Wayne Joyner - by all means please add your impressions and comments as well.

[Omar Campanalunga]

I have been lucky enough to be testing the MS2020 in the alpha phase from the very beginning, it is true that there were some bugs and not all cities are well represented but they have done an excellent job. I will continue with my Xplane, we'll see what's in store for us.

[Harold Henderson]

Found a few bugs in several of the a/c and at least 2 in the UI but, overall, a fantastik visual experience and the a/c no longer seem to be flying on rails.

Carenado already has their Cessna 182T ready to purchase in MSFS 2020 as does ORBX with some of their scenery.


I'm happy so far as my expectation was not for a perfect experience but just to get started with the familiarization and learning curve.

[Omar Campanalunga]

Found a few bugs in several of the a/c and at least 2 in the UI but, overall, a fantastik visual experience and the a/c no longer seem to be flying on rails.

Carenado already has there Cessna 182T ready to purchase in MSFS 2020 as does ORBX with some of their scenery.


I'm happy so far as my expectation was not for a perfect experience but just to get started with the familiarization and learning curve.

With time they will surely correct them and patches and updates will come, it seems to me the definitive simulator, but I have to amortize the investment with my XPlane. About the learning curve, it will be very easy for you because it is very intuitive and with many aids in flight as a copilot or different levels of difficulty.

[Maratib Ali]

i have been playing with the sim for about 2 hours now, initial impressions are amazing, excellent sim, it's like payware scenery all over the globe,but loading times are huge, but should not be of concern if starting a long flight anyways.i had 1 crash when loading onto and airport and i was like oh no who is going to load that again.

[Robert Simac]

Thanks all for the feedback on new (old) MSFS. I did not pulled the trigger (yet) and have been following this guy https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ_X7k ... 6ZWQ4wpfkQ on youtube. Real B738 pilot, flies XPlane Zibo B738 usually, emphasis on full legs, vatsim, atc, checklists, procedures and realism, I learned a lot from him, flying the exact same setup most of the time.

Now, with MSFS2000, what I am seeing from his videos, are beautiful visuals, especially externals, beating xplane by many miles, ... but ... the MSFS airliner's (A320, B787) cockpit (functionality, not the looks) modeling... looks bit unfinished, compared to B738 zibo, autopilot, fmc, the things you take for granted during the flights, are not existing or plain misbehaving in MSFS.

I thinks I'll wait a little while. Would not dare to take MSFS to vatsim land on busy KDFW evening, with quick dancing ATC, with semi functional cockpit, too much stress already... As for flying around alone and enjoying the scenery, I cannot wait though...

Robert

[Theodore Martin]

Thanks all for the feedback on new (old) MSFS. I did not pulled the trigger (yet) and have been following this guy https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ_X7k ... 6ZWQ4wpfkQ on youtube. Real B738 pilot, flies XPlane Zibo B738 usually, emphasis on full legs, vatsim, atc, checklists, procedures and realism, I learned a lot from him, flying the exact same setup most of the time.

Robert

Robert,
I too subscribe to this guy on Youtube. Watching him flying X-Plane greatly improved my impression of that sim. This morning I watched a couple of his videos on flying MSFS 2020 (i.e. "Landing Challenges" and his "Last Day Before LAUNCH"). The Last Day flight was a capture of a live stream he did in which he uncovered a few bugs in the default B787 as he flew from Manchester to Dublin. And Robert, you are correct that the cockpit is not as polished as payware a/c but for default a/c it is pretty good.

My original plan was to wait a year before thinking of purchasing MSFS 2020 (let them get the bugs out...) however I've been so impressed with what I've seen so far I'm not sure I can wait a year. The real issue for me, besides having to purchase a/c again , is that I also have to upgrade to Windows 10 from Win 7. That means re-installing everything and the last time I looked they didn't have drivers for my Brother Inkjet printer.

[Maratib Ali]

If you don't look at the scenery around airports and focus just on jet flying then this is not the best experience, my aerosoft airbus FSX gives a much better A320 experience, if you want use vatsim or ivao and use fsuipc 7 then the simconnect takes the whole chunk of FPS with it, i went from 32 FPS to 11 FPS when trying to fly online , so it's best for offline or smaller prop planes at the moment until microsoft fixes simconnect.

[Harold Henderson]

If you don't look at the scenery around airports and focus just on jet flying then this is not the best experience, my aerosoft airbus FSX gives a much better A320 experience, if you want use vatsim or ivao and use fsuipc 7 then the simconnect takes the whole chunk of FPS with it, i went from 32 FPS to 11 FPS when trying to fly online , so it's best for offline or smaller prop planes at the moment until microsoft fixes simconnect.

Same effect on FPS here, too. However, FSUIPC7 is just a Beta. Noticed a warning when I installed the latest version of vPilot (for Vatsim comms) that there was a framerate impact using vPilot and MSFS 2020. They said this is an Asobo acknowledged issue with the SimConnect client, so there's a little more work to be done. I am going to test vPilot later today.

I do a lot of flying on FSEconomy and their new SimConnect client for MSFS 2020 works fine, so they are not having the issues other add-on apps are seeing. In fairness, the FSE client has very limited functionality compared to FSUIPC7 and vPilot.

Had a lot of fun yesterday flying the C172, G36 Bonanza, and B350i hauling FSE pax/cargo using real weather. Everything worked flawlessly.

[Theodore Martin]

...that I also have to upgrade to Windows 10 from Win 7. That means re-installing everything and the last time I looked they didn't have drivers for my Brother Inkjet printer.

Looks like I'm going to upgrade my printer anyway. Wife is now working from home and needs a printer with 2-sided auto-feed for scanner and faster printing. May be able to move to Win 10 sooner than I thought.

.....Had a lot of fun yesterday flying the C172, G36 Bonanza, and B350i hauling FSE pax/cargo using real weather. Everything worked flawlessly.

Glad to hear this Harold. Feeling more and more like moving to MSFS 2020.

Does anyone know if you can have FSX and MSFS2020 installed on the same computer? Do they interfere with one another? I'm asking because I'm presently running P3Dv4 as well as FSX for the a/c I haven't repurchased for P3D (e.g. PMDG 777). If, or maybe it's when, I move to MSFS 2020 I may want to keep FSX running for the same reason.

[Harold Henderson]

Ted, I don't have FSX installed on my computer but I do P3Dv4 on it. I suspect it would not be a problem to have FSX and MSFS 2020 on the same computer.

I have had both P3Dv4 and MSFS 2020 running at the same time. Learned that controller inputs to one feeds into the other sim, too. That's a big DUHHH!!! So, you should be able to fly in both using different controllers and judicial use of autopilot.

[Theodore Martin]

Ted, I don't have FSX installed on my computer but I do P3Dv4 on it. I suspect it would not be a problem to have FSX and MSFS 2020 on the same computer.

I have had both P3Dv4 and MSFS 2020 running at the same time. Learned that controller inputs to one feeds into the other sim, too. That's a big DUHHH!!! So, you should be able to fly in both using different controllers and judicial use of autopilot.

Thanks for the info Harold. I don't plan to run both at the same time (or attempt to fly both at once ). I just want to preserve ability to fly some of my a/c that are not available in MSFS 202, and FSX has all the a/c I have in P3D, so P3D will be the one to go, I think, when and if I move to MSFS 2020.

P.S. I just remembered that when my computer automatically upgraded to Win 10 a couple of years ago I could not get FSX to work properly, so I make have to keep P3Dv4.

[Harold Henderson]

Was flying the Cessna Citation CJ4 into Port Moresby, New Guinea today using live weather. Here's a screenshot.

MSFS2020 01.jpg (316.73 KiB) Viewed 8853 times

[Harold Henderson]

Small BIG things in MSFS 2020.

Another thing I noticed several times during the above CJ4 flight, was the virtual head movement during turns. Most of this flight was flown with autopilot - mostly in Nav mode, but there were several times I had my head down in the instruments with no visual view of the horizon when I was in Hdg mode and turned the heading bug to start a turn to the right. Several times I was caught off guard with the virtual sensation I was turning left rather than right as commanded. I first checked the bug was right of current path and then noted the right turn indicated by the artificial horizon. The sim succeeded in fooling me!! When you do this with visual reference to he horizon, you don't even notice this.