) ... here's the story so far:1) I decided to keep my existing 2020 ... just in case. I'm glad I did, as I can see how all my gazillion addons compare between sims ... and ... I can flip back to 2020 when setting up my controllers etc. No problem with both sims living together (I use a different Addon Linker exe for each).
2) To keep it simple, I let the install go directly to my C drive, as there was plenty of space on there - and the actual footprint is meant to be lower than 2020 anyway. I did, however, change the location of my Community Folder - as that's where 99.9% of all my crud is going to go.
3) I got the inevitable install/update errors but got past that by uninstalling from the XBox app then reinstalling. Some of the archives were still there, so it wasn't a complete re-download from scratch.
4) Tried a couple of NZA scenery addons, plus a couple of ORBX. NZWF works well, but NZMF won't play (I think because you have to disable some MSFS libraries, which Content Manager doesn't allow you to do ..yet). With ORBX (2020 versions), it's hard to tell whether they're working or not as 2024 defaults are surprisingly good.
5) All this with only "Free Flight" mode. No time yet to play with all the other options.
Impressions
I've ploughed through *hundreds* of forum posts and was prepared for an absolute nightmare - and that I'd taken a huge step backwards in terms of performance and useability. Well ... I've been pleasantly surprised!
1) I've not suffered any of the photogrammetry/bandwidth issues - and (so far) none of those horrid "Connection Lost" pop-ups.
2) I was expecting the GUI to be even shonkier than before, but was pleased to find they'd taken a leaf out of X-Plane's book and allowed individual configurations on a per-aircraft basis. It's still quite insane, but way better than before, IMHO.
3) Following toprob's advice, I used the inbuilt screenshot facility - which works well, but store the results in a totally crazy place. Typical Asobo ... grrr.
4) Using my usual procedure (maxing all sliders out totally then see what breaks), I was surprised to see rendering quality and general performance to be slightly better than 2020 [GASP!!] - despite what many people on Avsim have been saying. Mind you, I haven't crippled 2024 with hundreds of dubious addons (yet!).
5) All in all, I'm really quite pleased with the upgrade. Yes - it certainly has many bugs, but I think I can see where it's trying to go, so the future looks rosy. Of course, a lot of that will depend on how quickly other developers transmogrify their products - but even without any of those, there's a LOT to enjoy. The eye candy certainly is amazing.
So ... here are my first three MSFS 2024 shots:
Somwwhere near Wanaka (I think) - default C172. MSFS creates a country-specific registration, which is a nice touch:
The inevitable NZMF test. Default scenery, as I can't get the NZA version to play (yet):
One of the problems with previous versions has always been the mapping of textures to these horrendously steep features. 2024 does incredibly well:
Now to try out a few aircraft addons ... and (who knows?) .. Career Mode etc.!!
Adam.
