I'm not in a hurry to get MSFS 2024

[jpreou]

That’s a shame Jeff. I would have thought that it would have been the other way around with flying more in the sim if you can’t in the RW.
Was this due to medical reasons?

Nah, time & money; the usual culprits. We had a number of unexpected expenses across '23 & '24 that have hit us hard and chewed through savings and into the credit cards.
I won't go into details, but we're firmly in 'recovery'mode and will be for some time to come. Even now we have some more unexpected home maintenance items on the 'to do'; the joys of an older house at just 'that age'!

Other than the world flight (still in southern Africa!) my simming was always mostly for pre-flying IRL flights and learning the local area.
Friend of mine just bought a new v7 Kitfox -- I'll have to try and sweet talk him into taking me some place in it!

Cheers

[Mynameisnemo]

Will be completely honest...

I tried it and for the time being I'm 1000% sticking with Fs2020/FSX:Se/P3D

I have it via the Game pass, and until it drastically comes down in price or and its a big "Or" they bring back the download feature like fs2020 then i'm keeping well away from it (even if its 250GB+ etc)

Running a decent enough PC and have a decent enough speed internet, and with just the basics running its constantly getting "low bandwith warnings"
(specs R7 3700x, 4060ti, 64gb ram, total of 3TB storage free across 4 drives. 1GB internet)

[FlyingKiwi]

My experience so far is it is a very promising sim hiding underneath a large multitude of bugs, glitches and generally appalling design decisions that make it seem like it's been released about 6 months before it was actually ready. The graphics look great, the flight model does seem improved, and performance for me at least is better with much quicker load times in particular. But the menus are a huge step backward from FS2020, the control binding 'system', if you can call it that, is probably the worst I've ever seen in a videogame in my life, and the AI traffic (air, sea and land) is completely broken. Much like FS2020 I expect it will get a lot better with time but it's a shame it's been released in a clearly unfinished state.

[toprob]

My experience so far is it is a very promising sim hiding underneath a large multitude of bugs, glitches and generally appalling design decisions that make it seem like it's been released about 6 months before it was actually ready.

Although I would never admit this on the MSFS forum, I think you are spot-on. In just about any setup menu, there are so many things which I just can't complete because there's no button to do so, or in the case of the controller bindings the displayed buttons don't fit in the tiny space allowed. Last night I started a flight from the top of the country, and the first thing you see is the Cape lighthouse:



There are too may World Update landmarks without textures in NZ, and elsewhere.

The default aircraft cover a very wide quality scale, from great to phoned-in, although I haven't tried them all.

But no crashes, except for once in the SDK.

However, this evening's short flight was another marvelous experience, better than anything I've ever had in any other sim. This sort of behavior has encouraged me to actually learn how to fly some of the aircraft properly -- things happen which I should know how to deal with, but in other sims it just doesn't matter much whether your engine is properly leaned, or as happened last night, you left the engine cover on:) It flew, but so very ragged, and I didn't even notice at the time.

EDIT: oops, forgot to mention the AI. Spawning on top of an AI jet, which I don't notice until it pushes back and drives out of me. A random bunch of AI which suddenly change to another aircraft entirely while parked, disappear or just appear suddenly. Fuel trucks etc which just rotate around their centre to turn. One of the staff which we had in 2020 actually walked through my body when I finished a flight. Very creepy.

At my Taieri, most of the helipads were taken up by hot air balloons, although that was more to do with the way I'd set up the parking. But six balloons on one little airfield?

[Adamski]

I have pink textures on the roof of Auckland Domain

[jpreou]

Last night I started a flight from the top of the country, and the first thing you see is the Cape lighthouse:

What's the problem?

[toprob]

What's the problem?

I'm just not a fan of the Barby aesthetic. The same architect has been busy in Dunedin, including the stadium not shown here.

[jpreou]

I was a little bothered about not having the $$$ or the machine for MSFS 2024 .... but the more I read, watch and hear the less bothered I am!
I'll stick with 2020 for now (what little use it gets), and aim for 2024 (or even later) some point in future.
I'll try to catch the next 2020 MP ... no guarantees with it being summer nights and daylight still reigns

[FlyingKiwi]

Just to add to what I said above, I've also not had any issues with actual instability - no crashes to desktop or anything like that which some others are reporting. I also think if/when they fix the traffic it could be amazing because I note that all of the VFR flights now show up, which didn't in FS2020. When I flew up to North Shore from Ardmore for my second test flight I joined into the circuit with a couple of North Shore Aero Club Robins which were in the circuit. It's just a shame they would suddenly teleport from being downwind to being somewhere over Whenuapai to spinning in circles in the middle of the North Shore apron... Live ship traffic is pretty amazing too, although also very inconsistent from what I've seen.

[Radar88]

What's the problem?

I'm just not a fan of the Barby aesthetic. The same architect has been busy in Dunedin, including the stadium not shown here.

The Barby aesthetic most certainly looks like a third-party NZ Landmarks add-on compatibility issue. Maybe it's a case of being a little bit too hasty. In hastily copying MSFS 2020 add-on content across from the Community Folder into MSFS 2024 folders, to try and see if it works, which by the pink appearance, not quite just yet, like so many other current global MSFS 2020 users are doing, now that they have installed MSFS 2024, further complicating the known user experience issues during the first initial weeks after launch.

Patience is often seen as a virtue, that not many MSFS 2024 global community users appear to have had in these past few weeks.

Hence why in the latest Microsoft Update Jorg Neumann has outlined a clear roadmap for addressing these issues:
Week of December 2: A new patch focusing on additional stability improvements and bug fixes.
Week of December 9: A larger update introducing new features, including:

The ability for users to enable or disable specific third-party content.
A safe boot mode to deactivate problematic add-ons that cause crashes during startup.

To mitigate current issues, the team has temporarily deactivated all non-aircraft content from MSFS 2020 within MSFS 2024 until problematic add-ons can be identified and resolved.

In the meantime found this recently uploaded YT gem link MSFS 2024 Scores Big Photogrammetry Points in Auckland, NZ
Done in a Robinson R66 by Cowansim at NZAA. With a smooth hover taxi to runway 23 for a climbing take off run along runway 23. Enjoy this sight seeing, tiki tour flight around MSFS 2024 Auckland with some interesting, sight-seeing commentary along the way, from a non local. Who's done a little background, landmark history homework, reading up about the area from the inter-web before-hand. It's worth a good watch & listen from a non NZ'er perspective. Just to showcase, the new MSFS 2024 Auckland City and area photogrammetry region scenery.

[toprob]

The Barby aesthetic most certainly looks like a third-party NZ Landmarks add-on compatibility issue. Maybe it's a case of being a little bit too hasty. In hastily copying MSFS 2020 add-on content across from the Community Folder into MSFS 2024 folders, to try and see if it works, which by the pink appearance, not quite just yet, like so many other current global MSFS 2020 users are doing, now that they have installed MSFS 2024, further complicating the known user experience issues during the first initial weeks after launch.
................
In the meantime found this recently uploaded YT gem link MSFS 2024 Scores Big Photogrammetry Points in Auckland, NZ
..............
Done in a Robinson R66 by Cowansim at NZAA. With a smooth hover taxi to runway 23 for a climbing take off run along runway 23. Enjoy this sight seeing, tiki tour flight around MSFS 2024 Auckland with some interesting, sight-seeing commentary along the way, from a non local. Who's done a little background, landmark history homework, reading up about the area from the inter-web before-hand. It's worth a good watch & listen from a non NZ'er perspective. Just to showcase, the new MSFS 2024 Auckland City and area photogrammetry region scenery.

The NZ landmarks are default streamed, originally added in World Update 10 for 2020, so there's no way to switch them off, we just have to wait until they are fixed.

I just finished watching that video and came here to let people know, it certainly is worth watching. I learnt more about Auckland than I did in the 3 years I lived there! I took a flight to have a look myself, although I couldn't get the R66 to take off (I'll read the manual one day) so switched to the Cambri. Here I am sitting on top of Mt Eden watching a storm roll over the city.



I didn't get the same photogrammetry experience the YTer did, and eventually I lost power and fell into the water.

[FlyingKiwi]

I can see my apartment in that shot.

[Naki]

I didn't get the same photogrammetry experience the YTer did, and eventually I lost power and fell into the water.

My Photogrammetry in 2024 was quite a bit worse than 2020 but I found a solution. I switched dynamic setting off. This has improved my experience in Tauranga ...haven't tried Auckland yet though.