The Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Thread

[DaftnDirect]

I'm desperately trying to find out if there will be a VR mode so if anybody knows... that would be good!

https://youtu.be/ReDDgFfWlS4

*Edit: see the later posts in the thread for confirmation of VR support.

[bigmike20vt]

DaftnDirect said:

dburne said:

MSFS 2020 with VR should be a decent boost for VR overall.
This sim has one huge following.

I have a feeling it's going to sell a lot of expensive CPUs and GPUs too.

Possibly

I just ordered x570 tomahawk, 5900x and 32gb of 3600 RAM.

Just need GPU and new SSD now. (Well I say that but the cpu is on back order so likely going to have a mobo and ram i wont be using for a bit.****
**** I support I could put the ram in my i7 5820k rig . It's a lot faster and double the amount.

[DaftnDirect]

bigmike20vt said:

DaftnDirect said:

dburne said:

MSFS 2020 with VR should be a decent boost for VR overall.
This sim has one huge following.

I have a feeling it's going to sell a lot of expensive CPUs and GPUs too.

Possibly

I just ordered x570 tomahawk, 5900x and 32gb of 3600 RAM.

Just need GPU and new SSD now. (Well I say that but the cpu is on back order so likely going to have a mobo and ram i wont be using for a bit.****
**** I support I could put the ram in my i7 5820k rig . It's a lot faster and double the amount.

I wonder how much of a difference DX12 (coming in the summer) is going to make with making good use of those additional CPU cores. Hopefully we'll have a lot of hardware/frame rate comparisons soon.

[kojack]

According to Volga Aksoy (one of the Oculus devs) on running Flight Simulator:

Be sure to use the Public Test Channel for the Oculus PC software as it contains bug fixes in the

@OpenXR backend that came in hot and didn't make into the release version yet.

RedRizla said:

I'm a bit confused about something. Will it be best to get the Steam version or to get it from the Microsoft store?

One thing I read was that the steam version takes longer to get updates. Although I'm not sure how bad it is, one person complaining said it was 3 hours delayed, which seems pretty minor.

[PhoenixSpyder]

DaftnDirect said:

I wonder how much of a difference DX12 (coming in the summer) is going to make with making good use of those additional CPU cores. Hopefully we'll have a lot of hardware/frame rate comparisons soon.

It will...or...will at the least give smoother fps, but I sure hope MS solves the crashing issues with DX12 soon or a lot more people are going to be pulling out hair...if they even have any left, after this year....

[bigmike20vt]

DaftnDirect said:

bigmike20vt said:

DaftnDirect said:

dburne said:

MSFS 2020 with VR should be a decent boost for VR overall.
This sim has one huge following.

I have a feeling it's going to sell a lot of expensive CPUs and GPUs too.

Possibly

I just ordered x570 tomahawk, 5900x and 32gb of 3600 RAM.

Just need GPU and new SSD now. (Well I say that but the cpu is on back order so likely going to have a mobo and ram i wont be using for a bit.****
**** I support I could put the ram in my i7 5820k rig . It's a lot faster and double the amount.

I wonder how much of a difference DX12 (coming in the summer) is going to make with making good use of those additional CPU cores. Hopefully we'll have a lot of hardware/frame rate comparisons soon.

Hopefully not too much! I cancelled my 5900x as it had too long a wait. I swapped to a 5800x instead which arrived next day.   
Only 8 cores 16 thread as opposed to 12/24

[DaftnDirect]

Finally got time to try out VR.

TLDR: I’ve put what may be useful tips or info as bullet points so you don’t have to read the whole thing.

Starting Point:

FS Premium Deluxe installed and tested with a flight from London City airport, with Orbx London Landmarks and Orbx London City airport addons. I thought I’d start in a built up city and just see how bad the performance would be. My system specs are in my signature below. The Titan is a Maxwell series so now quite old and equivalent to a 1070 or maybe a 1070ti.

Switching to VR mode immediately brings up the main menu in VR and each time it starts, it asks you to recentre your view, and won’t let you do anything else until you do and you can’t rencentre unless you’ve bound a key to the command.

So…

• Before you start, while in monitor mode go to Option>Controls and under Camera you’ll find ‘VR – Camera Reset’, assign a keyboard or controller button to it.

If you start the sim, then start the Oculus app/put on the headset, the ‘Enter/Exit VR Mode option may be missing from the main menu. If so, just go into General Options and enter VR from there.

I had the black overlay issue described about (right-side periphery blocked and a masking circle to the centre, top-right).

Resetting position was incorrect, to move nearer the panel, you'd expect to have to move backwards, reset camera, then return to your position, but this was reversed, you had to move forwards, reset, then return.

• Open Oculus Debug Tool and turned ‘Use FOV Stencil’ to off. This fixed the circle but right-side peripheral vision was still blocked.

• Installed latest beta version of the Oculus app and the peripheral vision was fixed. This may have also been a fix for the circle as the debug tool resets stencil to Auto after every PC restart, but I’ve not had to set it back to Off.

• The beta Oculus app also fixed the position reset issue.

Performance:

There are separate graphics setting in FS for monitor and VR so you set each independently. FS had defaulted my settings to low and Render Scaling to 80% (I think).

Took off in London for a short flight around the city.

If you’re used to DCS and some other sims, you’re probably going to be disappointed with FS unless you have a 2080 upwards for the Rift-S headset. It’s a monster.

Having said that I was expecting it to be unplayable on my machine after previously playing FSX and P3D in VR. I was relieved that FS2020 for me, on my old machine was playable.

I was getting around 20-22 FPS in the city and 25-27 further out. With ASW this is an ok experience imo. There are lots of stutters though and the aircraft is jittery when you move your head. Outside scenery, (between stutters) was smooth.

• Using Oculus Tray Tool, set ASW to 30 Hz reduced the stutters for me by quite a lot. Unfortunately you can't create a game profile in OTT for the Microsoft Store version of FS as it has protection that prevents access but the Steam version apparently should allow this. So for the MS Store version, just leave OTT open without a profile selected and ASW set to 30.

Jittery cockpit is the remaining issue which you may or may not find a big deal.

Other issue is world-scale which seems too small to me… by maybe 25-35%.

• In the VR graphics options, all of the settings seem to me to make only small differences in frame rate but adjusting the Render Scaling makes a huge difference. At 50% for the Rift-S on my PC, everything is smooth and almost no stutters. Instruments are just about readable with some needing you to lean in but the outside scenery isn’t great at this setting. Moving it back towards 80% is probably as far as I’d go before it becomes really unpleasant.

This gives me a lot of hope that a GPU upgrade will make a big difference for me. I think you really want scaling to be around the 150% mark or there abouts for nice clarity in the Rift-S.

Overall, I’m relieved that this looks like it’s going to be ok once the remaining issues are sorted out. Frame rates are likely to be pretty good once I upgrade to maybe a 3070 or above and after that probably a CPU upgrade.

[Anonymous]

OMG finally came to grips with getting everything set up with MSFS 2020 and my Reverb G2.
Spent all of today just flying around my state in the Cessna 152.
Using Open XR for WMR and the game at 70% resolution with some pretty high graphics settings.
Very smooth and drop dead gorgeous. This sim is beautiful in VR.

It was painstaking at first for me getting everything working together properly, mostly was due to between my head and my desk lol. I used to be heavy into FSX back in the day when it was still supported by MS, but got away from it after they did. My main love is combat flight sims - IL-2 Great Battles and DCS - but now I have a civilian sim again, and I will be running it now in addition to the other two. Thankfully I am retired so that helps a little.

Kudos to Microsoft for bringing the great franchise back to life and Asobo Studio the developer that did it. It is certainly true to the MSFS legend.

[ohgrant]

 Thanks for all the continued info on this. I originally bought it when it was launched from the MS store but had to refund when their license scheme got corrupted and wouldn't install. When VR support was added in December, I bought the Steam version. With my hillbilly internet speed, it took a solid week to download. 
 I've only had a chance to play one training mission, it detected my system as low and set things accordingly. Still looks stunning to me on my reverb g1 and runs very nicely without any tweaking. Not sure what the actual fps is, I'll check that out with fps vr when I get things set up better. 
 Pretty surprised it runs as well as it does. better results than when flight sim x first launched when I tried it with my old Z800.  Also running much better than flight sim X is currently running with the flyinside vr mod and my Quest.   
  Another kudos to MS and Asobo.  

[DaftnDirect]

Your 1080ti has a bit more of a chance than my old Titan @ohgrant .

The problem for me is that I was really enjoying FS on the monitor and now having had a few sessions with it in VR, I can't really go back to monitor and my PC just isn't up to VR with this.

So far this sim has cost me about £1k in yoke, pedals and throttle quadrant... and now it's going to cost me at least £2k in GPU and probably CPU upgrades. I guess I knew it was coming.

Don't really have the budget for a couple months at least though, other things taking priority right now... ah well... this is where our hobbies lead us.

The experience is magical though, London at night, with the O2 and London Eye illuminated, just magical. And the UK scenery upgrade arrives soon

[ohgrant]

 I have to visit that beautiful island by air. Yes as did flight sim x in it's day, I think this will inspire a GPU upgrade here. Going to wait until both AMD and Nvidia GPU's are widely available and the pricing shenanigans ends and the new AMD drivers have matured a bit. Not going o make a decision for a long while.   

 Sounds like you have some sweet controllers. I'd love to get a yoke but that Snowdog has me gear lusting for that Yaw VR thingy. I'm pretty convinced it is a necessity.