Game Discussions Microsoft Flight Simulator

[Juniper]

How essential are the marketplace items to the overall experience?

Not at all. I've not bought any of them. You can if you want, but some of them are about the cost of a game. You should grab all the free ones though... also the "world updates" (so far Japan and USA, with the UK next month) are delivered through the marketplace.

Thousands of free addons available on 3rd party sites. More than you're ever likely to need IMO.

 

[askavir]

How essential are the marketplace items to the overall experience?

Like Juniper said, nothing there is essential, but grab all the free ones.

The aircraft on the market made by Carenado are extremely polished, but they aren't essential either, just high quality (but a tad expensive) extras.

 

[Vasea Azure]

How essential are the marketplace items to the overall experience?

Third voice to add that marketplace items are not needed in any way. So far unimpressed with payware planes, and unless you really like certain airports, you wont need any of the scenery packs.
I own one payware airport from trusty Flightbeam Studios (the Portland KPDX) as its one of my fav areas to fly. Still the place looks very nice without it.

 

[Revenant69]

Thanks for the advice, gang. Another question: I bought the game through Steam but it appears that Steam only downloads the installer for the Xbox Live menu and that the rest of the game will be downloaded though a separate portal. Is the download from that point on "pausible" in the sense that I could download for the day, shut my Internet down for the night and pick up where I left off in the morning, similar to how Steam download's work?

 

[EDanaII]

So... that loading screen takes an awful long time. I only need to learn about new things after an update. Any way to disable it so that I go straight to the main menu? I didn't see any choices in the option screen.

 

[askavir]

Is the download from that point on "pausible" in the sense that I could download for the day, shut my Internet down for the night and pick up where I left off in the morning, similar to how Steam download's work?

Yes. Unfortunately the game itself, all updates as well as any marketplace addons (including the free ones) are downloaded through the game's own downloader (missing out on Steam's ludicrous download speeds). However, if you need to stop before completion (or force-restart the download - sometimes it hangs), it will restart from where you left.

Btw, since you have a nvidia gpu, so far as graphics settings are concerned, I suggest you use the Geforce Experience tool to set your initial settings and tweak from there (or just leave them be). The graphics settings available are quite a lot, and it's not always easy to know which are the ones that cost more fps, and which are the ones you can push a little further.

So... that loading screen takes an awful long time. I only need to learn about new things after an update. Any way to disable it so that I go straight to the main menu? I didn't see any choices in the option screen.

I don't think there is, no. I think the introvideos can be disabled, but the loading time is pretty much the same. If you find out there is a way to make loading faster (besides using a SSD), let us know!

Good luck, and welcome to our little merry band of couch aviators

 

[Old Duck]

So how big is this update?

 

[CMDR Reaper]

In MSFS you have a hotkey to switch between VR mode and Desktop mode (CTRL+TAB), and they have their separate settings. I wish that Elite would implement such feature.

 

[Faded Glory]

Mine was 16 GB

 

[Para Handy]

So how big is this update?

178GB

EDIT: - I think I remembered incorrectly, I think it was 178 files / parts / whatever (the thing that counts up as the download progresses) - so maybe the 17GB figure is the case. Sorry.

 

[Old Duck]

178GB

You lie! (Then again it wouldn't surprise me)

 

[Revenant69]

178GB

 

[askavir]

Mine was 17GB IIRC

 

[Para Handy]

Mine was 17GB IIRC

There was a smaller download through the xbox store (or whatever that is called) - then the game downloaded a bigger update.

On sober reflection I think the 178 might have been the number of files so people's 17GB is probably correct.

My apologies.

 

[Juniper]

It was 13.62GB for me, but I think it depends on what edition of the game you have. The liveries they've released with this build (additional download) is about 4GB.

 

[EDanaII]

I don't think there is, no. I think the introvideos can be disabled, but the loading time is pretty much the same. If you find out there is a way to make loading faster (besides using a SSD), let us know!

Good luck, and welcome to our little merry band of couch aviators

Well, dayum. But I'm not surprised, I mean, given that my download was 1/4 of a terrabyte, plus 10 gig for the VR update... Man, I remember the good ol' days when we were all thrilled with a 20 meg drive.

And, thanks for the welcome. I just completed a flight between Sedona and Flagstaff (AZ). Did a little "canyon running" on my way there. Once again, imperfect scenery, but way better than what FSX offered.

Only issue for me, other than some jittery VR, was trying to save the flight. Seems my VR playback screen is modal and the actual save dialog was stuck behind it. I couldn't actually save that flight.

 

[Juniper]

And, thanks for the welcome. I just completed a flight between Sedona and Flagstaff (AZ). Did a little "canyon running" on my way there. Once again, imperfect scenery, but way better than what FSX offered.

It's a big beast for sure.

If you're flying around the Grand Canyon, make sure you download the USA World Update from the marketplace (it's not part of the initial install, or even a patch). The scenery is much improved.

 

[EDanaII]

If you're flying around the Grand Canyon, make sure you download the USA World Update from the marketplace (it's not part of the initial install, or even a patch). The scenery is much improved.

Thanks for that. I actually hadn't done that yet, which may explain why some of the towns in Northern Arizona didn't look as good as they should have. Time for a new flight! After several days of downloading, that is.

 

[Juniper]

Thanks for that. I actually hadn't done that yet, which may explain why some of the towns in Northern Arizona didn't look as good as they should have. Time for a new flight! After several days of downloading, that is.

I can't remember how big it is, but I don't think it's bigger than 20GB. There's a similar one for Japan, and the UK is coming next month.

 

[Faded Glory]

And, thanks for the welcome. I just completed a flight between Sedona and Flagstaff (AZ). Did a little "canyon running" on my way there. Once again, imperfect scenery, but way better than what FSX offered.

Might just be worth checking (and apologies if you've already done it) that in the General Options under Data you have all the Bing data world graphics and photogrammetry turned on. I know that in my case they were off by default, and I was flying around for quite a while thinking the scenery looked good, but not great...

And definitely get the USA update as Juniper suggested.