Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020
Discussion
The way they've made the world is with tiles and they get incresingly compressed at the poles. At the poles themselves all you get is weird flickering last time I looked.
Shame they can't do more with the polar areas.
It looks like they use the same 64kb image for most of it. I can't imagine there's much or any quality satellite imagery available to the public but they could at least make it up with a bit of imagination.
Shame they can't do more with the polar areas.
It looks like they use the same 64kb image for most of it. I can't imagine there's much or any quality satellite imagery available to the public but they could at least make it up with a bit of imagination.
I got started with MS Flight Simulator over the holiday. It's probably the first time I've had to leave a computer on all night to finish a download since the 90s.
My pc is set up for sim racing, so my first attempt at a flight was with an old usb joystick balanced on my knee. I've now got a Thrustmaster joystick and throttle from the Box.co.uk sale, and a few extra bits of aluminium profile to mount it on my sim rig, and I've finally managed a flight that felt like it was under control.
I'm trying to stay away from dlc for the time being, it looks like an expensive habit to get in to.
My pc is set up for sim racing, so my first attempt at a flight was with an old usb joystick balanced on my knee. I've now got a Thrustmaster joystick and throttle from the Box.co.uk sale, and a few extra bits of aluminium profile to mount it on my sim rig, and I've finally managed a flight that felt like it was under control.
I'm trying to stay away from dlc for the time being, it looks like an expensive habit to get in to.
This post has been a long time coming - I've finally completed a VFR round-the-world trip in a Cessna 152!
This started when the game was launched during lockdown, and it took two and a half years to complete, so I need another project!
Here's the route I took:
Here is a folder of screenshots of all the airports, POIs and scenery I encountered along the way:
Folder
Summary:
- Objective was to minimise nav aids, instead using view from window, wind data, E6B, stopwatch, and Google Maps (this was the whole point - to see sights);
- Max nav aid capability was limited to NDB/VOR/ILS if available/necessary;
- Weather was always live;
- Time of day was live (except in arctic circle in winter);
- About 40-50k miles travelled;
- 2 years, 4 months, 9 days comprised of mostly <1hr flights, a few times per week;
- 405-410 airports visited;
- Longest leg 4hr/390mi over the Greenland Ice Sheet, using 3/4 of a tank;
- 920 screenshots;
- Five deaths (mostly due to flying in any weather);
- One forced landing (fuel miscalculation);
- One worn out joystick;
- Most difficult flight - Leh-Manali highway (following highway along valley floor up to 17500ft, surrounded by >20k ft peaks);
- Worst weather - Reyjkavik;
- Highest density altitude 19000ft (unrealistic) when following the Leh-Manali highway;
- Least impressive views: Tundra, Kansas, European plain, lowland China;
- Most impressive views:
Utah and Arizona-
Isafjordur (Iceland)-
Hong Kong-
Los Angeles (blown away by size)-
- Most interesting POIs:
Sedan crater-
Fukushima-
Manzanar Japanese internment camp, California-
This started when the game was launched during lockdown, and it took two and a half years to complete, so I need another project!
Here's the route I took:
Here is a folder of screenshots of all the airports, POIs and scenery I encountered along the way:
Folder
Summary:
- Objective was to minimise nav aids, instead using view from window, wind data, E6B, stopwatch, and Google Maps (this was the whole point - to see sights);
- Max nav aid capability was limited to NDB/VOR/ILS if available/necessary;
- Weather was always live;
- Time of day was live (except in arctic circle in winter);
- About 40-50k miles travelled;
- 2 years, 4 months, 9 days comprised of mostly <1hr flights, a few times per week;
- 405-410 airports visited;
- Longest leg 4hr/390mi over the Greenland Ice Sheet, using 3/4 of a tank;
- 920 screenshots;
- Five deaths (mostly due to flying in any weather);
- One forced landing (fuel miscalculation);
- One worn out joystick;
- Most difficult flight - Leh-Manali highway (following highway along valley floor up to 17500ft, surrounded by >20k ft peaks);
- Worst weather - Reyjkavik;
- Highest density altitude 19000ft (unrealistic) when following the Leh-Manali highway;
- Least impressive views: Tundra, Kansas, European plain, lowland China;
- Most impressive views:
Utah and Arizona-
Isafjordur (Iceland)-
Hong Kong-
Los Angeles (blown away by size)-
- Most interesting POIs:
Sedan crater-
Fukushima-
Manzanar Japanese internment camp, California-
LimaDelta said:
Well done. I did one in a Cessna Caravan with FSX way back. Far less scenery to look at back then, so I generally left it running on AP while I did other stuff, and came back at TOD.
You forgot to mention total number of hours logged on this flight.
I thought I wouldn't want to know the answer, but ~300 hours is about ~20 mins per day which isn't too bad. I found quickly that distance is the enemy of VFR navigation, so I did shorter flights.You forgot to mention total number of hours logged on this flight.
Annoyingly, I couldn't use the logbook to give me all the stats because it reset to zero after an April 2021 update (I had reached Japan by that point).
Grrbang said:
I thought I wouldn't want to know the answer, but ~300 hours is about ~20 mins per day which isn't too bad. I found quickly that distance is the enemy of VFR navigation, so I did shorter flights.
Annoyingly, I couldn't use the logbook to give me all the stats because it reset to zero after an April 2021 update (I had reached Japan by that point).
If you had to do it again in a different plane, what would you choose?Annoyingly, I couldn't use the logbook to give me all the stats because it reset to zero after an April 2021 update (I had reached Japan by that point).
BrettMRC said:
If you had to do it again in a different plane, what would you choose?
Good question, and perhaps the most important as nobody wants to change planes halfway through. I just had a look at all the other planes (non premium version of FS2020), and I wouldn't have chosen most of them. This is because they have GPS/glass or because they are taildraggers. Plus the C152 is an excellent plane.
The problem with GPS/glass is that even if I'd switched off the map or guidance, I'd have been tortured by the temptation to switch it on when I got lost. I don't understand the point of FS2020 if the objective is just to follow a line! Being constantly on the verge of lostness is a fun and memorable way of taking in scenery and places.
The problem with taildraggers is the tendency to die a fiery death when landing on the wrong runway or in the wrong weather. A lot of versatility would be lost. Also, you would need a slider to control the brakes, because pressing a button to fully engage the brakes would want to flip the plane.
The DC-3 seems fun and good for completing the trip in a shorter time. Another potentially interesting plane was the Beaver although I'd want to double check if the 395NM range is sufficient.
For anyone happy with full nav aids, then a C172 is probably ideal.
Great effort. I’m on with the same. Currently heading down the USA East coast in a Cirrus SR22. I’m not far from Florida, and hoping to cross to Cuba and South America before heading North up the West coast and over the Pacific.
I’ve not died yet, although I did run out of runway landing somewhere in Greenland in a white out.
I’ve not died yet, although I did run out of runway landing somewhere in Greenland in a white out.
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