Flight Simulator 2024 is Set to Give it's Players a Purpose

Video Games Chronicle ^ | 12-29-2023 | Chris Scullion

[fireman15]

Long story short, then, we love Flight Simulator. There’s just one problem, though, and it’s a fairly big one. What happens when you run out of ideas?

As a sandbox, the game is great. Choose where to start, choose where to end, and enjoy the flight. But not everybody is comfortable with setting their own parameters like that in a game. Some people play games for the satisfaction of completing challenges set for them. In other words, some players like being told what to do and seeing if they can successfully do it.

The 2020 release has some of this – there are around 50 Landing Challenges where you’re placed in front of a runway and have to land in difficult circumstances. Then there were the Reno Air Races and Top Gun Maverick DLC, which added racing and fighter jet missions to a game that previously didn’t have any.

Some players – including us – are looking for something a little more, however, and from what we’ve seen, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 looks set to provide exactly that. Rather than a major update to the existing game, Flight Sim 2024 is an entirely new sequel, and this time it plans to give us a purpose for playing.

Specifically, Microsoft says the next game will focus on “career aviation”. While it’ll still be possible to pick any plane you like and fly anywhere you like, the 2024 edition will also add a bunch of new careers that go beyond simply ‘pilot’ – careers that will have clear win and lose conditions.

[BB62]

“...Set to Give it’s Players a Purpose...”

Not only is that an inaccurate quote, but “it’s” is NOT the possessive form of “it” - “its” is.

“It’s” means “it is”.

However, thanks for the link!

[zeugma]

https://www.flightgear.org/

I Might have to buy a joystick. Looks like flightgear is available in my repository, including different aircraft.

Thanks for the heads up!

[steve86]

Many of us are quite aware of grammatical rules and etiquette but with the advent of predictive word generation in phone input methods occasionally the wrong form will get through unnoticed.

[ConservativeMind]

My first flight simulator was the Sublogic Flight Simulator.

I believe Microsoft later bought that.

[NWFree]

Good luck with that

Zzzzzzzzzzz 😴

[RckyRaCoCo]

Using FS9(fs2004)as I type this.

I bought the standard version of MSFS...but spent so much time over 20 years getting FS9 the way I like it...just can't seem to make the switch(runs good on my old hardware too).

Maybe if I get a beefier 'puter I'll give MSFS a shot.

Been 'simming since Commodore 64/Atari days.

[RckyRaCoCo]

Heh

[RckyRaCoCo]

3d glasses?

[fireman15]

Not only is that an inaccurate quote, but “it's” is NOT the possessive form of “it” - “its” is.

I do appreciate your thanks for the link and hope that you found something there that was of interest to you.

I tried to copy and paste the headline, but it was very long and came out in all capital letters which I knew you and others would likely find even more offensive than a spelling or punctuation error. So, I erased that and pecked away the important part from memory and accidentally typed “it's” instead of “its”.

Here is the complete headline for those who would like to know what you are complaining about. "2024 PREVIEW: FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2024 IS SET TO GIVE ITS PLAYERS A PURPOSE THE 2020 EDITION TOOK PLAYERS TO THE SKIES, BUT THE 2024 ONE WILL GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO DO UP THERE." That is actually a little long for a Free Republic Headline. Yes, I am guilty as charged; I edited the title down for brevity.

It reminds me of another person who I responded to earlier on another thread who was highly offended that the OP didn't properly format the bullet points after he copied and pasted text into the “Body of Thread” box. It is more difficult to get things correct when using HTML in the “Body of Thread” box than it is when posting a reply. This is because there is no spell check. I intentionally misspell a word in my posts and use the spell check tool in Free Republic because it also generates HTML when it corrects your spelling. You can then make simple HTML modifications for italics, bullet points, etc. etc...

I would add that this was not a thread where anything matters much if at all to anyone. It is a game that a few of us enjoy which sometimes also provides some benefit to those of us who own and/or operate real aircraft. Nitpicking about spelling and punctuation is just that... nitpicking.

[fireman15]

My first flight simulator was the Sublogic Flight Simulator.

I believe Microsoft later bought that.

Wikipedia which I despise for anything remotely political has a thorough article on the history of the Microsoft Flight Simulator including its purchase from Bruce Artwick’s Sublogic Corporation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Flight_Simulator

I have a lot of storage space and throw away very little. I have several versions of the early iterations of this excellent software for various platforms. I was very impressed with the performance I got from the DOS version after I put together an XT compatible desktop computer with an EGA adapter and monitor.

I put together a lot of PC's over the years and the latest Flight Simulator's performance was always a consideration when picking components.

Long before we had high speed internet in our area my neighbor and I ran cat5 cable between our houses so that we could play Microsoft Combat Simulator together. This started a bit of an “arms race” between the two of us where we each purchased higher and higher quality computers, joysticks, control yokes and rudder pedals. I could always tell when he had upgraded his system; suddenly he would be shooting me out of the sky in every game.

[fireman15]

(FWIW, I was the designer of the first version of FSim’s Flight Lessons. I've been a flight instructor for 35 years.)

I have always found the lessons included to be very valuable. I thank you for your contributions to this software realm.

My brother is an airline captain. Before he moved on to the major airlines, he was a check airman for his regional. The airline leased large hydraulic enabled reproduction simulators of the Metroliners that they operated. I assume it could simulate other aircraft as well, but this was many years ago so I actually do not know.

One time when he had no students scheduled, he invited my dad and I up to try it out. It was an incredible machine. My dad got airsick before the hydraulics were even turned on.

[Bob434]

ah cool- didn’t know that- I have an old joy stick for use with battlefield 1942- Think ill have to check the game out further- the videos are pretty cool for it

[Bob434]

I can certainly believe that- I did online auto racing- and the tracks were so close to real, with bumps, curbs, etc all factored in, that sim racers have been able to transfer to actual road racing because they get to know the tracks so well, and all of the little nuances like bumps on a corner that woudl make a person spin out of control if they didn/’t know that they were there before driving the coarse-

I’ve seen a few sim racers who got invited to drive real courses, and they did really well-

[fireman15]

Maybe if I get a beefier ‘puter I'll give MSFS a shot.

Been ‘simming since Commodore 64/Atari days.

You and I are in the same boat. I am currently on a low budget so I am using MSFS 2020 on a laptop which uses a Ryzen 5 2500u with a 25 watt TDP 16GBs of RAM and only the integrated Radeon Vega 8 Graphics adapter. I get a warning every time that my computer does not meet the minimum requirement. I run it at 1600x900 with mostly low performance settings. I get around 19fps.

I had to do a lot of tweaking to keep my system from crashing. I actually run it on a very clean Windows 11 “to go” installation on an NVME SSD in a USB 3 enclosure. Supposedly the 2500u is not capable of running Windows 11 either. I have tweaked the system a bit. I increased the paging file (virtual memory) on the NVME SSD from “managed by Windows” to 16GB. I also had to go back to earlier AMD “minimal drivers”. The latest and greatest are sometimes not the best choice on a weak system. I start the program in a 640x480 windowed box. After it starts up I switch to the higher resolution. Before I go back to the main menu to shut things down, I switch back to the 640x480 resolution.

The program wouldn't start at all after I changed some graphics options while using it. I found a free program called, “FS2020 - UserCfg Editor” on flightsim.to to change the settings to low performance settings while the Flight Simulator is not running. The program was a life saver. After getting things running again I have seen how much I can get away with knowing that I can revive the installation if things start crashing again. The results have been quite satisfactory. 19 FPS may not be good enough for many action games, but it is fine in MSFS 2020. I sometimes turn things down for certain configurations or activities.

https://flightsim.to/file/41268/fs2020-usercfg-editor

[rx]

Microsoft purchased substantially all the assets of BAO, Ltd. in November of 1995. That purchase from Bruce Artwick included all the code for Flightsim and all rights to allow continued development of the Flight Simulator product.

By 1989, Sublogic Corporation had split off from Bruce Artwick and BAO, Ltd., to form a separate company. In 1995, Sublogic Corporation sold to Sierra and came out with its last Flightsim-related product in 1997 under the Sierra brand. The split obviated any need for Microsoft to purchase any Sublogic Corporation asset(s).

Wikipedia says BAO, Ltd. was acquired in December, 1995, but technically, the purchase agreement documents are dated 11/4/95 and the closing was November 30, 1995. I can say that confidently because I was BAO's point person for negotiation of that sale.

As a former member of Sublogic Corporation and BAO, Ltd.,I was always pleased at how well the product sold and was received thereafter through tens of millions of hours of use. I believe its sales averaged over a million copies per year, making it the most popular non O/S software in the world, at least through 1995.

[rx]

I'm going to admit (and gloat at the same time) that around 1990, I and a couple of other pilots from Champaign (not Bruce Artwick) made use of 40-hours of (mostly) 6DOF Boeing simulators (727, 737, 747, 757, 767) on Boeing Field in Seattle in the never-ending quest to improve FlightSim.

While in Boeing Field sims, we had at our beck and call a top Boeing instructor. When he signed people off using those sims, such pilots were type rated to carry a hundred or more actual passengers behind them.

 

[fireman15]

What distro do you use?

My current system is weak. I purchased MSFS2020 with a 40% discount from the Microsoft Store. I use a very clean tweaked Windows 11 “to go” system on an external NVME SSD to run MSFS 2020. It took quite a bit of trial and error with the settings to keep it from crashing. The primary problem turned out to be the newer drivers that I was using. I had to go with minimal drivers from a couple years ago.

I tried this because I had almost no system crashes when the program first came out. I hadn't used the game for a while when I started trying to help a young friend learn to fly. My system could no longer handle the program. I was sure it was all the updates from Microsoft, but I finally figured out that it was the newer drivers from AMD.

My system triple boots, the Linux distribution that I use is Ubuntu Studio 22.04. I purchased MSFS2020 from the Microsoft Store so I am unable run it from Steam in Ubuntu. But I did purchase both Microsoft FSX and X-pilot 11 through Steam and both of them run using Ubuntu. Of course X-pilot 11 is more challenging for the machine. The X-plane 12 Demo made for Linux barely runs at all.

When we come into a little money I plan on purchasing a more capable computer so I can enjoy the amazing graphics now available.

[fireman15]

That is amazing! Thank you for telling us of your experiences.

I have never been more than a Private Pilot after starting out hang gliding, moving onto ultralight aircraft and then GA aircraft. My brother and I used to construct huge Rogallo style kites that we would try to get pull each other aloft behind our tractor. Later after he was already flying for a regional airline, I bought an old Rogallo style hang glider that had floats and we towed it behind his boat. It was a lot of fun, but not really comparable to flying in the mountains under a double surface high performance hang glider wing.

I have enjoyed playing with flight simulators for many years. Although this has been somewhat sporadic depending on what else I have had going on in my life.

[rx]

In about 1992, I was invited to be a member of the FAA committee that would ultimately set forth standards for desktop simulator to full up 6DOF simulator use in ways the FAA could consider using as qualification equivalence for existing requirements, e.g., IFR approaches for Instrument Currency requirements, among many others.

Here are a few more examples of "auspicious" Flightsim users who made a mark or two with their extraordinary/unusual skills.

[fireman15]

ah cool- didn't know that- I have an old joy stick for use with battlefield 1942- Think ill have to check the game out further- the videos are pretty cool for it

I purchased an adapter to use my old 15pin joysticks and flight simulator accessories with USB. Of course, the problem is that the hardware is so old that some of the variable resistors need to be cleaned with strong solvents that dissolve oxidation. And it can be difficult to get the solvent where it actually needs to get without a lot of disassembly.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07R8SMK8L/

It actually costs more than a cheap gamepad but it is interesting to be able to use old joysticks and other types of controllers.