MSFS2020 was released yesterday. Yay! I had paid for it a couple of months ago. So I wasted no time in downloading it. And downloading such a massive product was quite an epic experience.. I simply left it to run overnight. On a side note, the theme music that played during the installation is what my masseuse normally puts on during a deep tissue massage. My laptop, which I bought brand new in 2019, does not meet minimum requirements. So while the cockpit seems to be realistic, distant scenery is clearly in low resolution. Other than that, the product seemed to run smoothly.
The UI is extremely clean, concise and bold. The app automatically detected and married my existing Saitek Yoke, throttle quadrant and a couple of other devices for radio, auto-pilot etc. I did not have to download any drivers, etc. I did have to do a bit of calibration. By comparison, I remember the frustrating experience I had with setting up and calibrating control surfaces, etc. in the last version of Flight Simulator (FSX) released back in 2006 or so. There are still plenty of features available in the product to use. And, after my first flight, I felt sure that I will be tweaking options continuously in all aspects of the simulation for many months to come.
For my initial flight, I chose to fly from Mansfield, Massachusetts to Johnstown, New York. I remember visiting Johnstown many summers ago for a colleague's wedding. Its beautiful, pristine country as one can expect with upstate New York. Of course, I drove to the wedding back then. And that was a charming experience all of its own. Now I "flew". About 10 minutes into the flight, I changed my mind and headed over to Worcester Regional airport. Flying the entire leg to Johnstown can wait for another time. I have to head to the rock gym shortly. So without further ado, here are the screenshots with descriptions:
Setting up a flight plan to Fulton County airport was a breeze.. and a far cry from the multiple dialog-based planning of earlier versions. In this version, we just do everything on a single dynamic map user interface. Just click around and scroll, drag or zoom with the mouse, type stuff in, etc. Bam! Done! You can save the flight plan on disk for re-use. For aircraft, I went with the twin-prop Diamond DA62. Note that all graphics, labels, etc. are rendered in Flight Simulator based on real-world data. You can set custom weather or use real-world weather streamed from the same services used by the aviation industry. This simulation has been considered by even professional pilots to be a great learning and acclimatization tool for a couple of decades now.
A few minutes after takeoff, we are still climbing. Up ahead is an indicator for our destination, Johnstown NY, that provides both distance remaining and the altitude at which Fulton County airport lies. Worcester Regional airport is sliding by on the right. The primary flight instruments display our track using GPS. You can see that the graphics for landscape out in the peripheries are rendering a bit flat.. or just haze, I guess.
I then changed my mind and headed toward Worcester Regional airport. I flew over the airport so I could enter into a left traffic pattern. In above screenshot, I am downwind to the runway I want to land on. A little low and maybe a little further out than I should be.. I think. But I am just trying stuff out here. So bear with me. Graphics in the middle to the bottom of the screen are pretty good. I did not notice any "dropped frame" effects. The 118.42 NM indicator on the screen is still referring and pointing to my original destination of Johnstown NY, which is what I had filed in my flight plan.
On Final. It was actually a good pattern if somewhat low throughout. Still smooth frame rates and very good graphics. Fulton Country airport is behind us now.
In the landing roll. I admit touchdown was a bit harsh. But a good first effort, I think. Audio effects were realistic and three-dimensional. But that's something Microsoft had done really well before. This new version of Flight Simulator is definitely all about the graphics and how quickly HD data about new terrain you fly into is streamed into and rendered on your system.
The whole product has been built on Azure and Bing Maps technology. I have been tracking progress since this new version was first announced in 2019. Plenty of HD videos have been steadily made available online over the past 12 months by both Microsoft and testers invited by Microsoft. Can you imagine the level of planning, software design, coding and testing that would have gone into implementing this product? As a Software Engineer, I am envious. I want to be involved in such a project. Anyway, I cannot wait to use the simulation on a more powerful laptop.. someday. I am sure that the graphics and the entire simulation experience will be mind-blowing.
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