I am personally super excited for this. I think if you subscribe to the game pass you get closed beta access, but don't quote me on that.
I just subscribed to the game pass this past week so I'm not sure how it worked before then, but right now I only get the option to pre-install the standard version of the game with no reference for beta that I've seen so far. I'm glad to get the standard (basic) version as part of the game pass but I'm really waiting on VR to be added to it. After IL2, DCS, X-Plane, Aerofly FS2, Prepar3d, flyinside, and even war thunder all have VR support now natively it is a bit for a glaring misstep. Microsoft was way behind on understanding the simulation market when they finally admitted during later development that they needed to look at integrating VR when they could down the road. The development team is definitely taking baby steps in getting back into the flight sim market that they effectively created in the first place. It will be interesting to see how they do now that they have to compete against X-plane that effectively was their main competitor when they left the market after FS:X as well as now having to compete against their own legacy product in Prepar3d that has been rebuilt and refined over and over by Lockheed Martin from the old FS:X software they bought out. Then to have both military and civilian themed games out there that range from arcade to full on study level simulations to also have to recapture market share from will be a challenge. Their biggest strength is that they will be appealing to and reaching casual gamers who ordinarily wouldn't come across or consider a flight simulator as well as those with a case of nostalgia for the older FS products. It is best summed up that we are in a golden age for flight simulations with a flavor for everyone and every type of operation/skill level/difficulty. Now if the controllers would just come down in price, the niche nature makes them still the most expensive part. Even if you can realistically do an accurate simpit for under $1000 for something like DCS (the airliner guys will still be spending many times that for their boeing and airbus simulators)
So do you think that this will live up to the claim that you can practice VFR with it? Let me clarify, without spending $5,000 on scenery
I hope it can, they are working hard to produce a quality product and the visuals are going to have to be on par with, or exceed, everyone else to win the market over. The old FS:X was fantastic for IFR training, I saved thousands of dollars during my flight training by flying the exact flight I would take 3-5 times before getting into the actual plane. The simulator was far less stable to fly compared to the real plane (an issue that Prepar3d still suffers from when combined with even professional flight controls) it forced you be very cognizant of all your inputs so when it came to make the actual flight it was actually easier to do.
If their videos and screenshots are any reference, it should be pretty amazing. I do wonder if the quality changes once you get outside of the typical areas. I know they talked a lot about their flight models. If Prepar3d uses FSX's flight model, then they really did not model the airflow. I do not even think that Xplane 11 is modeling the flow of air. This is the big thing that FS 2020 seems to be doing, is actually modelling the airflow through space including the land and buildings, and around the airframe. So without having to specifically tell the system things happen at a certain time when certain thresholds are fixed, they just model the airflow and if for example you stall, you are loosing lift on the wings, they even said the wings will drop as they would in real life when going into a spin. This is a good video that talks about it.
I downloaded the demo of Xplane 11, and unless their full product is significantly better than their demo, and FS2020 is nothing like what they are promising, I do not know how they are going to keep customers. To be blunt, it is hot garbage. I should not be getting 15FPS @1080p on a sim like this with a modern 6 core CPU and a RTX 2060. My CPU usage was never above 30% and my GPU usages was never above 80%. Apparently they are switching to vulkan at some point, but man I would be furious if I spent the money they charge + planes + scenery. I have no Idea how someone could use a VR headset with that kind of performance.
It sounds really good to me if the sim is more challenging to control. I've even seen the other way round where people start insisting that because they trained with less difficulty than the real life situation was that some things didn't or wouldn't work in real life. A lot better this way.
I wonder how much they optimization they have been making and so, if they've got the LOD and performance system even properly in place yet and customized for the VR - which can be annoying given that VR was also just sort of an afterthought.
My interest is a bit mixed for this game. While it looks fantastic and I'm sure it would be fun to fly around and explore different places. I just have alot more interest for DCS and IL-2: Great Battles. I will not buy it for release but I will most likely have picked it up within 2 years.
My interest is more in general aviation, I would like to eventually get my private pilots license. So I am more looking at this as something to familiarize myself with some functions, flight, navigation and procedures. I also attempted to get the Skyhawk to spin from a stall and I could not do it. It just seemed like it would nose down immediately and come out of the stall. I even tried a low speed final turn to try to see if 45 degrees + rudder + back pressure on the yoke would cause it, and all it does is just want to nose down. So I am not sure if I am doing something wrong, or the flight model is just not able to handle those types of scenarios. I did see someone do it in an addon Cessna 172, but that seems silly that you have to pay for addon planes just to get the flight model correct.
I’ve not run X-Plane since version 11.30 when I was doing some testing on the third party Kodiak to check it against the ones we were operating. Actually do need to update and do the same with that developer’s PC-6 now that it is out, the Kodiak was spot on performance numbers even when used in high altitudes that most developers don’t spend as much time checking over. I saw that the 11.50 came out a week or so ago with Vulkan I’m guessing in the dev branch so I’ll have to give it a try but I’ve heard that performance jumps around with it as they are still smoothing out its integration. I’ll try and give the 172 a test myself, but what you described Ghiz should have more than dun the trick with an accelerated stall and given more than a nose down pitch. The reaction you got from it sounds like a standard stall in arma for fixed wing, I’d really hope that X-plane could do a better job with their included models!
This is my, probably not correct, at trying to induce a spin, it does drop a wing, but it immediately goes noes down and stabilizes. I put all of the input on there, I am not sure if you can read it or not. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s3bCr3HWtVn4cncPiB9kku3xQ2MFArsk/view?usp=sharing -Edit - Another take, better resolution. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eQRtKCzrPaEKRG8OcPuzZGuOFR6g3dnb/view?usp=sharing
For comparison, this is from FS2020, obviously I am making the inputs So I do not know if I did the same thing. But this is what I would have expected to happen.
Confirmed - The ATC will be able to handle all communication, including touch and go and full pattern flying. This seems to be a big problem for Xplane 11 since there is not ATC communication for anything but IFR flight. It looks like you will have full communication with FS2020. Maybe not a big deal for some people, but being able to practice departure, crosswind, downwind, base, and final over and over seems to be a pretty big part of early flight school to GA private pilot. It is nice to see that is being taken into consideration. There are a bunch of leaked videos, I will not link them here, but if you want to find them, search on Reddit.
I was looking for some screenshots, and I found this: Then I found the location in google maps, and compared. Pretty darn close. I have no idea if the did clean up on it or if this is all from generated data. But it looks pretty good. There is a google map showing a bunch of screen shots from different locations. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/v...W&ll=36.91817134581584,-59.61821223628288&z=4
- Steam release up now - VR Coming, initially only for the HP Reverb 2 coming later this year(https://www8.hp.com/us/en/vr/reverb-g2-vr-headset.html) - Multiple Free updates, paid DLC coming later - Floodgates opened on preview videos, so there are a TON of videos on Youtube now.
I had been procrastinating on pre-ordering the G2 but may have screwed myself by waiting too long now that this announcement has come out. The G2 is apparently a step above everything else on the market at the moment and finally enough of a jump for me to move from my old Oculus CV1.
