FS2020 will also feature multiplayer, though certainly not as detailed (communications-wise) as VATSIM. You can see the Asobo’s 7 minute video on the subject at the below link. There is one shared world. You can filter by: Live (same real live weather situations); everyone; or just a custom group).
I have absolutely no knowledge or information, but: there are already combat flight sims like DCS World (I’m sure you know that, just stating generally). I can imagine licensing from Microsoft or Asobo would be difficult.
I do not know how this will work but it may be one of those fake-outs I have seen Origin do. They’ll sell something on Steam but when you start the game it launches their game client and so you are still playing through that. I find it really annoying when that happens.
I am NOT saying that is what will happen here. Just a wait and see attitude. Can’t be too sure these days.
That’s a good point, Mr. Mole. Although I was pleasantly surprised when Fallout 76 came to Steam that there was no separate login/launcher even though Bethesda indeed has their own, on which the game originally launched.
I’m wondering how the add-on market will work. Microsoft has already said that add-ons (planes, etc) would be available through an FS shop on the MS store. Steam, of course, has their own workshop/DLC store.
At this point, with NDAs lifted for much of the press, there are a fast-growing number of videos now available. But I wanted to bring up flight planning and link to a video.
In X-Plane I fly a 737 for my big-iron fix. There is a flight computer that you can use to input your desired flight plan/route, but it’s…awkward (though quite possibly realistic). So I instead go to a third party Web site, plan the essentials of my route, export a file, drop it into an X-Plane folder, and in the sim I select it from a menu. And that only gives me the basics; detailed approaches are not included, so I’d have to figure out how to do that within the flight computer.
Check out this short video of how this is done entirely within FS2020. Someone pinch me.
It seems really cool but I can not get a sense if this is only meant for super-serious people adhering as close to real conditions as possible or if more casual gamers can join (by which I mean, if you are not an actual pilot who knows proper radio communication behavior are you outta luck here?).
I looked into VATSIM some more and it looks like they are VERY serious about simulating all aspects of a flight (down to submitting an actual flight plan…as in…an actual flight plan that conforms to actual flight plans in nearly all respects down to departure and arrival runways). Not for the casual person for sure.
I ended up buying via Steam, the Super Ultra Deluxe version. I was originally going with the base version, but I might like the 787, and I spent more than that on mods for Prepar3d like an idiot. There: that’s my reasoning, and I’m sticking to it.
I did the region trick to play it early. It isn’t much of a game, which I guess makes sense. I flew over my city and the accuracy is ridiculous. It’s like 90% there. Easily found my office building, my home, or random things. It’s amazing how far it’s come since Flight Simulator '95.
I have only had a few minutes with it so far. Some notes:
The download is huge (almost 100GB for me)
Music plays during the download and I’ll be damned if I could find where to turn it off (so volume off but then no using the PC for YouTube or something)
Steam only gives you the Microsoft Client to run everything. The problem is, Steam thinks you are playing while you are downloading and downloading takes 2+ hours. So, no returning under Steam’s 2-hour rule. Once you buy it, you are probably stuck with it.
I am using an XBox controller on my PC and the game seems to have a teeny-tiny alignment issue with the controller such that, left alone, the plane slowly turns or climbs. I have tried trim with marginal effect. The tools that might correct this are…not easy to understand.
Load times are pretty slow. I have a fast drive and fast internet connection and load times are still lengthy. Not horrible but you notice it and there is almost nothing to indicate it is doing something rather than frozen.
I did fly around where I live and my building is there and there is even an old water tower on top of a building across the street from me that exists in real life. Pretty amazing.
I look forward to some more time with it after work.
Starting in the C172 (something I’m familiar with IRL…or was) and using an XBox controller, I felt a LOT of up/down movement, and I figured they had modeled pretty strong convective turbulence (I have flown on days like that). But I found that going into Controllers, then setting a dead zone for the up/down axis and reducing the sensitivity helped IMMENSELY.
I should probably do the same with the left/right triggers that control rudder. I had turn turn on take-off rudder assist, because the triggers were way too sensitive and I was all over the runway (I had no issues using rudder in XPlane). I think once I adjust their sensitivity I’ll be fine.
My only drama is, while in flight, hitting Escape, then Space to save the current flight hangs the app and I have to force-close it.
I did just get a 3.x Gig patch about 30 minutes ago; unsure what that fixes.
I just “finished” a flight in a Diamond DA40, a craft I am unfamiliar with IRL (me having been a Cessna pilot), but I love its unobstructed view.
I took off from Fulton County Airport (Atlanta area) and flew NE to Buford Dam and Lake Lanier, passing near my house. I then took off north towards the mountains, following US 19 for a while then just leisurely flying around the mountains of north Georgia at about 300 feet AGL.
I had picked out a small airport about 20 miles away and was nonchalantly making my way in that direction when my engine cut off. Dead. I’m in the mountains (or what passes for mountains in this area), and they are heavily wooded. But I reverted to my training from decades ago, reduced speed, added flaps (no way I was going to be able to go over another mountain) and looked for some God-send area without many trees.
And somehow, in front of me, was a small country road. I turned 90 degrees right and there was a very small development of a dozen country homes. I saw I still had about 70 knots so I was able to clear the little creek with the cute footbridge and set down just on the other side. I hit “brake” continuously and came to a polite stop, having just squeezed between two stands of trees.
It worked out textbook-perfect, with no aircraft damage at all. I then reviewed the gauges and, yep - out of fuel. My flight time in total was only about 45 minutes, and I think my default load that FS seems to remember is about 50% fuel. Again, I’m not familiar with the DA40, but certainly it should have more fuel capacity than 90 minutes, eh?
But this scenario often happens in real life: pilots get comfortable, they get sloppy, and they don’t do something as basic as check the fuel level before starting.
Total fuel capacity is 147 lt including aux tanks and consumption is around 20 lt/hr. So no, you shouldn’t have run out of fuel if you started with 50% fuel load.
I notice that most planes seems to throttle back to about 80-85%(ish) power after takeoff as a matter of course. Having played with the flight sim some I know I find it easy to want to keep the throttles at 100%.
I do not think there is a linear relationship between engine power and fuel consumption (i.e. 15% less power is not necessarily 15% less fuel burn). Is it possible that leaving the throttles at 100% could affect the fuel consumption rate significantly from what it is supposed to be in normal operation?
