Microsoft Flight Simulator - Post launch impressions

Flight Sims Microsoft Flight Simulator
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Im sure there is plenty of tweaking to be had, I just put the resolution at 1440p w/ Ultra preset for now. It runs in the 50’s, sometimes hitting 60. To be fair, I can’t run xplane at 4k 60 on max settings either, but on some very high settings it will. Even on low preset, MSFS cannot get over 45 in 4k for my system. For fun I tried in 1080p on Ultra, and it still struggled to get high 50’s. Definitely going to need a TI for max eye candy on this one.

I monitored the hardware utilization as well. On Ultra in 4k, obviously its using more than 8gb of VRAM, because its maxed out and running poorly. On 1440p, its staying around 7.8gb which makes sense why it runs so much better there. I have some bad news for the multithreaded guys, my CPU (9700k) utilization gets pegged at 100% while loading, but stays in the 40-50% range while flying. Not much more CPU usage than what I see in DCS.

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@fearlessfrog Did they mention how user created aircraft/scenery will be handled? Will there be a free user workshop within fs2020 or will we have to copy/paste/use installer like in the older versions of FS? Or will they only allow paid marketplace addons?

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Running 4K on a new flight sim, or anything leading edge, seems aggressive. But you do you, man. :slight_smile:
I got a 2K monitor to bridge between reasonable high-res with reasonable performance.

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In Options / General at the bottom there is a new ‘Developer’ menu for the release build. If you enable that you get all sorts of whizbos plus the ability to download the SDK direct and start hacking away. The airport editor etc is all very rudimentary, so the big guys like Orbx built their own tooling.

For free stuff last I heard they were throttling dev application to the Marketplace because they are overwhelmed in seeing if legit or not, so for now it’s copy/paste folders time. They marketplace is driven by ‘Flight Credits’ so not sure if free stuff is allowed, although there is nothing in the dev agreement to say you have to charge. It’s just like FSX/P3D. The ‘Content Manager’ is sort of like the old FSX Scenery Layers, so fairly easy to add stuff in from anywhere.

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My 2080 runs out of VRAM at 4K like @Gunnyhighway said. There’s lots not optimized so far, but since they are aiming for VR at medium settings, they’ve got lots to fixed up sooner rather than later.

Also, should say, if on a 2080 and latest 2004 Windows then ‘HAGS’ enabled helps with smoothness (I’m off to dinner, but google for hags :slight_smile:)

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How do we take screenshots?
Where are they saved?
Thanks in advanced.

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Setting my res to anything other than native 2160p (4K) screws with my other monitors so I’m pretty sure that lowering Render Scale (some people call it Resolution Scale) will do the trick.

I wish my 1080Ti had more VRAM than 11GB. :wink: Can’t wait to see how my 24 thread performance is on my AMD Ryzen 3900X …

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I don’t know, but MSFS 2020 will definitely excel at this. The lighting/atmosphere is pretty amazing.

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On the other hand, game pass offers a free trial across about two weeks IIRC, so you can cancel the trial if you FS2020 isn’t to your liking. Even then, you cancel game pass whenever you’d like.

As far as VR, unless I missed something, we don’t know how that will pan out yet platform-wise. It could be more of an integration with WMR, given it’s launching exclusively on the HP reverb at first. There’s a non-zero chance that Steams requirement to run VR through their platform could delay the platform getting VR access.

Personally I’m doing game pass to start; will see if I ultimately buy full version via steam or xbox live.

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Hmm… I’m pressing prt screen out of habit from previous sims. But I have no idea if it’s working and/or where to look. I can’t even find the FS2020 installation directory.

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I use Geforce Experience alt-F1, doesn’t help find the default key though :thinking:.

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AMD Game Drivers out now as well.

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I’ve heard that the windows key and print screen works.

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What’s your CPU? Make sure you’re not CPU limited and GPU is being nearly fully utilized. I found that was the issue for me with a 2080 Super.

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I mentioned “Using VR through Steam is quite easy and painless” because I recently found out that running VTOL VR directly with Oculus VR was really bad. I always thought Steam VR was just an extra layer but now I love it. I don’t know if it’s gotten better over time or whatever but it works like a charm. I don’t even run the Oculus Tray Tool anymore to up my supersampling. We’ll see how this whole FS2020 VR Oculus Rift S thing shakes out …

I’m not interested in the free trial game pass either for obvious reasons. :wink:

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N/m, I saw you were trying to run 4k in an urban area lol. Set render scale to 70.

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Win + Print Screen

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I think the developer even recently made a change to that launch menu and put “Oculus VR - Not recommended” as one of the options or something…

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I’ve been running all my VR titles with the othervr (Oculus) parameter. Not any more! :slight_smile:

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For all the initial crap it got…WMR software and Steam VR have made pretty good strides and does seem to be updated quite frequently. I’ve been pretty pleased with the regular updates.