Tag: flight simulator

There’s been two updates already for MSFS 2024 (update 1, update 2) and while it seems there’s been some improvements on actually getting into the game compared to the first week, the experience in the game is still hit or miss. It either looks great, or it’s unplayable.

I took a short flight from Duxford EGSU to Durham EGNV as a first tentative leg of a possible around the world trip. It didn’t start off well – even though I’d already flown a number of flights in the TBM 930, on this flight for some reason the plane only partially streamed in, leaving the cockpit controls with no text labels, and the outside, well … missing:

As well as the lack of detail on the cockpit controls, the EFB apparently has an issue plotting a circumnavigation route, showing an additional leg that looks like it spans the entire globe, in addition to the individual legs:

Enroute for most of the trip, I didn’t get any scenery detail, the level of detail was less than FS X:

Later as the detail of the plan caught up mid flight, I was still missing a wing:

As I approached my final destination, for a VFR flight this was completely unplayable as I couldn’t even see where the airport was supposed to be:

Landing roughly where I thought the runway should be, I ended up sinking into the ground:

Taxiing across ground with zero detail, I found a gray area where the runway should be:

There was zero airport detail apart from a couple of other parked planes, and rather oddly, hundreds of parked cars:

From this short flight, I can’t imagine what it would be like to continue this planned VFR flight around the world, with a risk of having to guess where runways are. I’m still planning on attempting a round the world flight but it would be a painful experience in 2024 right now. I almost want to continue just to see what other odd issues I run into and to record the improvements in the game over time, but committing this many hours to something this unplayable just seems like it would be too frustrating.

I think I’ll go back to 2020 to continue my flight and will share updates as I go.

With the recent UK scenery updates (July 2024), other than the newly updated photogrammetry areas I was wondering if there had been any other updates that have been sneaked in and not mentioned in the release notes.

I took a number of screenshots of melty scenery back in 2020 shortly after the release that I was going to share but just remained in my screenshots folder. Let’s go back and see if there’s been any changes.

August 2020: Flying west near the mouth of the Thames estuary, there were some interesting water formations in the Thames:

August 2020: London before the recent updates, looking rather sparse:

… but after World Update XVII London is now looking incredible, and the water level glitches are fixed (actually I think they were fixed a while ago, not just in this most recent World Update):

September 2020: McLaren’s headquarters near Woking decided they needed to expand and build houses on their roof:

… looking good after recent updates:

August 2020: rather sparse looking Colchester Castle in Essex:

November 2021: Colchester Castle with some updates, but still being rendered as if it is an office building:

… September 2024: looks like the castle model has slightly more detail again, but still not great, it still is rendered with office building textures. This really deserves it’s own POI model:

October 2020: similarly even sparser Needles at the Isle of Wight:

May 2021: some of favorite melted scenery I’ve found so far in game is around Southampton docks, like these melted tractors and trucks:

and similar looking melted cars:

May 2021: Southampton docks melted ships:

… September 2024: I couldn’t find this same ship again, but this one in 2024 is even better:

May 2021: one of my favorites, a melted car park structure near Southampton docks:

and more melted farm equipment:

Parked cars draped over the side of a building:

… September 2024: still here, still melty:

May 2021: trees growing on cruise ships at Southampton docks:

… in Sept 2024, this same ship is oddly looking worse, like it’s taken on some water:

May 2021: Cardington Airfield hangers rendered as just large stock scenery buildings:

… updated recently in World Update XVII in July 2024:

May 2021: the rather impressive Milford Proving Ground in Bedfordshire:

It’s Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launch day 1. My download is still ongoing, but browsing the forums it’s not looking good so far as many users are finding they’re stuck in a queue to logon. That’s a first, I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like this before. I’ll continue browsing the forum while I wait for my download, but doesn’t look like I’ll be able to get into the game tonight.

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/does-msfs2024-actually-work-for-anyone/665064/1