Cirrus SR22

[toprob]

[emfrat]

Does the parachute work?

[Charl]

Nice... 2024 I am guessing by the lawn daisies.
The mountains and other features seem much the same as 2020, how's the overall experience now?

[Splitpin]

That's a serious Cirrus Rob ....great screens

[toprob]

I suspect that Microsoft's flight model precludes things like parachutes, so I wouldn't expect to see it in this version. Maybe in MSFS2028.

EDIT: oops, the parachute does work, I just assumed it didn't.

MSFS 2024 is still far from finished, whenever I load up 2020 I'm impressed how most things just work now, but 2024 may need a couple more Sim Updates before it gets to that stage. I do love the lighting in 2024, while 2020 was good, it was kind of 'uncanny valley', where it worked great sometimes, but when it didn't you really noticed that something was wrong. In 2024 it's like we're climbing up the other side of the Valley, so the disconnection from reality doesn't happen so often. Sometimes when I turn the aircraft and the light sweeps across the panel and then comes into view it is very close to reality.

The Cirrus is ideal for Alps flying, as it has plenty of power without being too complicated. However I do think that there's a lot of room for improvement with the depiction of mountains in 2024, I still want to see real pointy bits, but the way that the mesh works -- giving priority to smoothing -- means that points are always going to be far too soft.

I did see on the recent live stream that Vexcel imagery is continually being purchased, and NZ showed up on their coverage map, I don't know how much coverage is available but it would be great to see this sort of tech improving the Alps.

This flight I've shown here "ended" at Tekapo, which has somehow turned into a jungle post-SU1. I really want to try Bijan's biome enhancements once it appears in the Marketplace, which I hope would improve the vegetation in NZ a bit. When I say the flight "ended", I mean I went into a stall and crashed while trying to pick the airfield out of the forest. Would've been a good time to have a working chute...

I'm still impressed with 2024, even though I'm prepared to wait until it is finished. Last week I reinstalled it to see if the problem I was having with aerial images was my fault, and it took about 10 minutes to redownload it. I also updated X-plane, which took almost an hour. Starting 2024 is super-quick, so I'm more likely to fire it up if I've got a few spare minutes.

The elephant in the room, though, is the lack of photo aerials on my airports since SU1. If this isn't fixed, and it may not be, then I might just as well just have an Xbox.

[emfrat]

[Charl]

There's a whole lot of things Not Quite Right with those last two but that's the upside of flghtsim, you get to tell the tale

then I might just as well just have an Xbox.

So... what's the deal with Xbox, is it very different from PC?

[toprob]

The chute deployed properly, but with the engine still running, by the time I thought to take a screenshot the engine was overpowering the chute:)

My interest in the Xbox really comes down to the fact that a PC is a complicated beast, and needs ongoing expensive maintenance, which I have trouble with now that I'm a pensioner. I need a 'gaming' PC just for the simulators, so without the need to sim on the PC it would be a lot cheaper -- the Xbox ranges from $800 to $1100 depending on features, excluding controllers. I'm talking about the top-end Series X, rather than the cheaper Series S which struggles to run the sim. The Xbox is a lot less powerful than a high-end gaming PC (mine is not high-end), but it is optimised for gaming. From what I've heard, though, MSFS 2024 doesn't perform as well as people hoped on Xbox X. It will get ongoing fine-tuning, so it may settle down.

The Xbox is just a box which plugs into the TV, and you can use wireless controllers. This makes for a much tidier system than my 2 PCs, two monitors, 2 keyboards/mice, wired joystick and controller, and countless wires holding it together. It uses an auto-resume system which means you can start it up and be immediately in the sim.

I love the PC as it's an all-in-one tool to develop scenery, create textures etc, access the web, and do all the things I need to do at my desk. However if I wasn't able to develop scenery -- which is where I'm heading at the moment -- I'd be a lot happier stepping away from the desk and blobbing out in front of the TV. It is unlikely that we'll ever be able to use our own home-made scenery on the Xbox, though, which is the one reason why I'm sticking with the PC for now. But to replace the PC, which may be necessary soon, I'd be paying $4000 - $5000.

[Charl]

I did once think of Xbox, so thanks for those thoughts.
The PC is such an ingrained multifaceted experience... difficult to imagine not having all those tools to hand.