Installation, Set-Up, & First Impressions from a Pragmatic Optimist

[Andrew Godden 943]

I will start by saying that I am not one who normally jumps into a new product on Release Day 1.....but after 14 years (ignoring the aborted MS Flight product), the anticipated hype of a next generation Microsoft flight sim, the very positive reviews from reputable flight sim community contributors, and outright peer group pressure, I didn't have much choice. I have been a Prepar3D convert in that time but for the purposes of this post let's just consider that an extension of MS FSX.

Not having any experience with Xbox or other MS online product purchasing, the purchasing process was no ordeal and the product was sitting in the MS Store app waiting for me. Installation commenced seamlessly enough until I finally realised that the lack of progress on the blue install bar at the bottom of the screen was because the install process had stalled. This was easily rectified be restarting the process, however, in the confusion I suspected the install path I had originally specified was not picked up in the restart.....admitting that this could have also been caused by my lack of familiarity with Windows 10 native products and the MS Store installation functionality. Nonetheless, my installation was finally successful.

After exploring and familiarising myself with the GUI, I did what we all prematurely do with a new product.....jumped straight in and flew around my local home area, with default graphics and general feature settings and with only a partial peripheral controller set-up. At this point I realised it hadn't/wouldn't recognise the Saitek TPM controller, but more on that later. OK, very rudimentary set-up notwithstanding, it looks OK. Important Note. This is where the pragmatic optimist in me shows! On this initial experience, was it like what I had seen in review videos.....YES.....was the performance on my PC reasonable.....YES.....was it better than FSX/P3D.....generally, YES.....do I expect it to improve with updates and third party add-ons.....YES.....do I have enough experience with it at this time to make a detailed assessment.....NO, but when everything looks reasonably positive, I will not take the typical naysayer position so rampant in the flight sim community and on some very specific Forums. Let's be realistic, after 14 years experience with FSX/P3D, xPlane, and Aerofly isn't even worthy of an mention, anyone who pans MSFS 2020 in week one must be either a real expert, a narcissist with ego centric tendencies, one of the aforementioned naysayers, or someone who looks at everything in life with a "glass half empty" approach.

Anyway, moving on!!!

Being of a gentrifed era, I like to know and be able to manage the install locations of products. So accepting how Windows 10 handles the installation of MSFS 2020 requires a certain leaping over tall buildings on my part. Remembering that I was suspicious about the ultimate install path, I spent some time exploring and understanding the folder structures of the MSFS 2020. This essentially confirmed my suspicions about the install path due to the stalled and restarted installation process.

So, scratch install version 1.0.....uninstall.....install version 2.0 now completed.

MSFS 2020 install version 2.0 was more successful with all components appearing to have installed to the specified locations. The folder structure is more obvious and not as convoluted as it first presented in install version 1.0.

The initial set-up of all Saitek peripheral controllers has been successfully completed in order to test basic operation and functioning. The previous problem with recognising the Saitek TPM controller was easily overcome by assigning the various axes to the required functions using the Controller set-up GUI. On starting SPAD.neXt there was an update to add MSFS 2020 to all licences, so this may or may not have assisted here. Note. I created a separate profile in SPAD.neXt for MSFS 2020 assignments as opposed to my Prepar3D profile. MSFS 2020 provides far more flexibility with greater detail in controller assignments and is just brilliant for getting the optimum set-up for your controller arrangement. The mental process associated with the move to this new set-up will be fun, but not unlike switching between my combat flight sims. Keyboard assignments are another thing, as whilst there is evidence of a sensible backward compatibility approach with previous MSFS versions, there are also changes and additions. Oh for the days of the old provided keyboard overlays.....such is the digital generation. 

For most flight sim tragics, we have been setting up detailed settings features and peripherals since the turn of the century, across multiple products, and without any detailed instructions. In fact, I can't even remember the last flight sim which came with any detailed meaningful instructions. By now, most of us have become competent at working it out by a variety of ways, trial and error, the simple application of a little commonsense, asking on forums, Google searches, YouTube videos, etc. So bemoaning any lack of instructions for MSFS 2020 is just outright nonsensical in the digital age. It is a new flight sim product and like any new product there are new ways of doing things whether we like it not.....this is not a time to be precious about these things not being tailored to your personal ways. The GUI is relatively intuitive and tool tips provide some basic helpful information. As noted in the previous paragraph, MSFS 2020 provides far more flexibility with greater detail in controller assignments.....so, for example, with the default set-up, don't expect the pan hat on your joystick/yoke controller to pan around like it used to do.

Now satisfied with install version 2.0 and having quenched my initial desire to jump in at the deep end, it was time to do some more flying and see what it is really like to fly. Setting up a test flight in the Cessna 152 departing from my local airport Torquay (YTQY), a lovely little airstrip with a grass main runway of 3,048 feet, it provided a local familiar environment not just to test the flight model but also the scenery. The scenery was always going to be the interesting factor to see what the detail was like for an area that I am sure got nothing more than minimal attention from the developers. To say the least, overall, it was impressive against legacy products and with the added level of realism with the flight model it is certainly the leap we have anticipated. Whether it is truly a quantum leap will only be revealed after many more hours of flight testing. The base ortho photo, at least for my local area is at least five years old though, so it will be interesting to see how this is updated in time, and yes, I was able to identify the representation of my actual house aligned correctly to the surrounding streetscape.

With the default install settings for graphics and other general set-up features, I was impressed with the general performance. With only some minor adjustments and fine tuning to these default settings, it should optimise the performance for my PC. Not to say that it was bad, I just need to experiment further to manage my expectations with the new environment.

In summary, MSFS 2020 is truly the next generation flight sim the community has been waiting for. I am not disappointed with my Release Day 1 purchase and experiences and fully expect the product to mature with updates and addons, just like all previous flight sims have. There is some speculation the release was rushed, but in time, I expect this will become irrelevant.

Don't be a naysayer, cast aside the shackles of your previous life's experiences, take a big breath and, open your mind. You might actually be surprised by what you really see!!! 

Cheers
Andrew

Disclaimer. Some xPlane users might not consider that MSFS 2020 meets the pre-release hyperbole, a situation somewhat to be expected from xPlane users. I have only remote experience with xPlane and there are those in the flight sim community, including experienced xPlane users, who equally do not consider xPlane to be a mature and as comprehensive a product, and certainly one with significant limitations and drawbacks.

[jaydor 345]

Thank you Andrew for quite a good opening batsman approach.  I like you, have c+cked up the first install and now on my second install incarnation.  Thanks for the good read and look forward to your future updates. 

 

[dogtrack 346]

An excellent read Andrew. Thank you.  Looking forward to upgrading my rig in a couple of months.

[phil white 274]

I am having issues with missing content. I purchased the Premium Deluxe version but I’m missing 10 aircraft and maybe other things too. Seems some others have had this issue as well and others not had any issues. I’m back home tomorrow after being away for a few days and will see how it is then. Lots of users who had this issue say an update resolved this so let’s hope so!.

it is after all a new sim still in its infancy and no doubt will improve as time moves on. I intend to fly GA mainly for now as the default jet liners are not very good from I have heard and the autopilot has bugs. 

I will post some screenshots soon and get my head around this new sim after using X-plane for some years. My MS Force Feedback 2 stick does not work with MSFS but my Saitek pedals do. 

Many users complaining of various issues and perhaps it was released a bit too soon.

[jaydor 345]

4 hours ago, phil white said:

 

I will post some screenshots soon and get my head around this new sim after using X-plane for some years. My MS Force Feedback 2 stick does not work with MSFS but my Saitek pedals do. 

 

Keep XP on your machine though as your back up..

[Andrew Godden 943]

4 hours ago, phil white said:

I am having issues with missing content. I purchased the Premium Deluxe version but I’m missing 10 aircraft and maybe other things too. Seems some others have had this issue as well and others not had any issues. I’m back home tomorrow after being away for a few days and will see how it is then. Lots of users who had this issue say an update resolved this so let’s hope so!.

it is after all a new sim still in its infancy and no doubt will improve as time moves on. I intend to fly GA mainly for now as the default jet liners are not very good from I have heard and the autopilot has bugs. 

I will post some screenshots soon and get my head around this new sim after using X-plane for some years. My MS Force Feedback 2 stick does not work with MSFS but my Saitek pedals do. 

Many users complaining of various issues and perhaps it was released a bit too soon.

Phil,

Being new to the MS Store app in W10, I found it  not to be as simply intuitive for the MSFS install as I would have expected. Having purchased the Premium Deluxe Edition, I was actually presented with four install options in the "My Library" section of my account, Standard Edition, Deluxe Edition, Premium Deluxe Edition, and one for the digital ownership.

Admittedly the Premium Deluxe Edition sat at the top with the other content sitting under a banner, "Bundle Contents", so choosing that is the logical choice. Having spent the time to understand this better now, it appears the way MS have packaged this is that the Standard Edition is the only standalone product, with the other two editions actually being upgrades to the base Standard Edition. The digital ownership is the critical component as it validates what you have purchased.

Either way, when starting MSFS it does check for updates, and any missing content for the edition you have purchased is downloaded and installed. After my experiences, I am far more confident of the process now than I was after my initial stalled install version 1.0.

Cheers
Andrew

[Andrew Godden 943]

24 minutes ago, jaydor said:

Keep XP on your machine though as your back up..

Absolutely, Jaydor. I, likewise, will not be ditching P3D from my flight sim PC for some time yet.