About to take the MSFS2020 plunge...maybe

[clarkejw]

I bought mine through Steam, and have had zero problems. One thing to be aware of, though, is scenery. If you're an ORBX Scenery user, I strongly advise buying scenery through ORBX rather than the Microsoft Store. There have been lots of posts on the ORBX forums about problems with updates, etc.

[AerialShorts]

FS2020 is a huge download to be sure, and you only want to do it when you have to. When FS2020 first launched and users were having issues with blocking downloads, some noticed that a full redownload and reinstall fixed issues that weren’t fixed just through updates. I don’t know if that situation still persists, though. It’s way too easy to check file hashes to make sure all installs are the same and I would hope that is all sorted. As FS2020 keeps growing with scenery updates, these downloads are hard on data limits and take way too long on slower connections.

They’ve updated the help on the UserCfg.opt file but you may get a blank page with a captcha to get to it:

https://flightsimulator.zendesk.com/hc/ ... r-instance

FS2020 needs to know where your install is located or each update it will try to download everything again. If you move your install it will confuse the updater and you need to modify the UserCfg.opt file to keep that from having to download everything again. But lots of info at the link if anyone did non-standard installations or moved the install after initial setup.

IMO, FS2020 is worth the trouble. You just get lost in that world, or I do. Especially in VR.

Also, just general info, SSD drives can really help performance (not on downloads, though). The SATA interface drives are great and significantly faster than spinning drives, but if you really want speed, look to m.2 drives. On my system, m.2 benches out four times faster than SATA interface drives.

And about connections, check your ISP to see if you might be able to get faster speeds. At my house we were stuck with 7Mbps for the longest time. I even signed up to be notified when faster speeds were available. Apparently they forgot all about that and at some point up to 60Mbps became available for lower cost ($10/month cheaper) than 7Mbps. A guy is coming out to install the new setup next Thursday. I could do the install myself for 40Mbps but the monthly charge is the same for 40 and 60 with just a $99 install fee to get 60Mbps. They probably need to adjust signal levels or splice a connector to get the higher speed or something.

At 7Mbps it literally took days to download FS2020 and nearly a day each to download the US, Japan, and UK updates. Aside from the $99 installer fee and buying a modem (not required - they lease for $15/mo), we will be getting more than 8x our current bandwidth and turn days into hours or minutes, at less per month than we’re paying now. Our network speeds and bandwidth were fine for our purposes until FS2020. Anyone with similar issues might consider at least asking if something better might be available. It might even save you money.

[Lewis - A2A]

I bought mine through Steam, and have had zero problems. One thing to be aware of, though, is scenery. If you're an ORBX Scenery user, I strongly advise buying scenery through ORBX rather than the Microsoft Store. There have been lots of posts on the ORBX forums about problems with updates, etc.

Thats true with all the updates so far tbh, lots of updates to the host sim means updates to the add-ons, no matter how or where you buy.

[Masterius]

Download speeds, per se, aren't a problem for me, as I have approx. 300Mbps download. What is a problem is controller assignments.

At the moment I have quite a few controllers (all Saitek/Logitech): 1 Pro Flight Yoke w/quadrant, Pro Flight Rudder, 5 additional quadrants, Switch Panel, Radio Panel, and X-52 stick/throttle. The switch panel and radio panel don't seem to be recognized by MSFS2020. All the others are...in a rather frustrating way.

I've gotten used to (and probably spoiled by) using LINDA and FSUIPC. Bot in FSX:SE and P3D, I completely disable all controllers--mouse, keyboard, and peripherals--and assign everything through LINDA and FSUIPC. Not only that, but due to the nature of those programs, every aircraft I fly has their own, unique profiles. They make it very simple and easy to do that.

Not, from what I'm experiencing, anywhere as "user friendly" with MSFS2020. Using the controller options there, I'm presented with "mouse [default]", "keyboard [default]", etc., etc., etc. I even have [default] boxes for each quadrant! It appears that, in order to have customized, individualized, unique aircraft "profiles", that I have to create new profiles for each controller.

Am I missing something?

I'm not using LINDA or FSUIPC7 at the moment, so perhaps they'd make it easier, but from what I'm seeing, if I want to create a specific controller profile for, say the Baron G58, I'll have to create a G58 profile, one at a time, for twelve different controllers!

[TBryson2]

I bought mine through Steam, and have had zero problems. One thing to be aware of, though, is scenery. If you're an ORBX Scenery user, I strongly advise buying scenery through ORBX rather than the Microsoft Store. There have been lots of posts on the ORBX forums about problems with updates, etc.

I get my Orbx scenery directly through Orbx using their control manager(?). Never had an issue. I don’t think I would ever get it from another source! Still on the fence about MSFS though, but now have another consideration. (Steam or Microsoft). Sheesh!

TB2

[TBryson2]

At the moment I have quite a few controllers (all Saitek/Logitech): 1 Pro Flight Yoke w/quadrant, Pro Flight Rudder, 5 additional quadrants, Switch Panel, Radio Panel, and X-52 stick/throttle. The switch panel and radio panel don't seem to be recognized by MSFS2020. All the others are...in a rather frustrating way.

I've gotten used to (and probably spoiled by) using LINDA and FSUIPC. Bot in FSX:SE and P3D, I completely disable all controllers--mouse, keyboard, and peripherals--and assign everything through LINDA and FSUIPC. Not only that, but due to the nature of those programs, every aircraft I fly has their own, unique profiles. They make it very simple and easy to do that.

I concur! I also have many controllers and each of my aircraft use their own profiles in FSUIPC. I’ll assume (yes, I know) that FSUIPC for MSFS will offer the same flexibility?

TB2

[tbaac]

...
I've gotten used to (and probably spoiled by) using LINDA and FSUIPC. Bot in FSX:SE and P3D, I completely disable all controllers--mouse, keyboard, and peripherals--and assign everything through LINDA and FSUIPC. Not only that, but due to the nature of those programs, every aircraft I fly has their own, unique profiles. They make it very simple and easy to do that.

Not, from what I'm experiencing, anywhere as "user friendly" with MSFS2020. Using the controller options there, I'm presented with "mouse [default]", "keyboard [default]", etc., etc., etc. I even have [default] boxes for each quadrant! It appears that, in order to have customized, individualized, unique aircraft "profiles", that I have to create new profiles for each controller.

Am I missing something?

I'm not using LINDA or FSUIPC7 at the moment, so perhaps they'd make it easier, but from what I'm seeing, if I want to create a specific controller profile for, say the Baron G58, I'll have to create a G58 profile, one at a time, for twelve different controllers!

I agree that the controller mapping in msfs is pretty clunky. DCS is bad enough (last time I tried). This is worse.
As you suggest though, FSUIPC7 seems to make it all a whole lot easier. And only $20 if you have one a license from the past few years. It works differently now in that it runs outside of the sim and connects to it. But functionally it seems pretty similar for controllers. Earlier on today I unmapped everything in msfs (please ms/asobo, give us a button to clear all bindings from a device). Then mapping the controls in FSUIPC was easy and intuitive if you've done it on previous versions. Recommended.

[ClipperLuna]

Just took the plunge and loving it so far. Takes an eternity to download (about 35 hours in my case), but wort the wait.

I do have some advice if you're an Avast user: make sure you whitelist this program in Avast. I was getting hung-up on the loading screen and (apparently) the cause was the anti-virus being over-eager to "protect" me. Looks like it's been happening to a few people.

[Masterius]

(please ms/asobo, give us a button to clear all bindings from a device)

I found out a (reasonably) easy way to do so. Go to OPTIONS then select CONTROLS. Click on the control/device you want to unbind, and then select either press M or click on [M] PRESET MANAGER. A popup will appear showing the current/active device profile (for instance CURRENT PROFILE: MOUSE DEFAULT). Click the + virtual button, which will create a new profile which is automatically blank. Give it a name (I use Blank Mouse Profile) then either F11 or click on the virtual F11/APPLY AND SAVE.

Voila!

You'll need to do that for each device, but you'll only have to do that once. You can save as many different profiles as you want; all you need to do is make sure the one you want is the current profile.

Al "Chevalier"

[tbaac]

I found out a (reasonably) easy way to do so. Go to OPTIONS then select CONTROLS. Click on the control/device you want to unbind, and then select either press M or click on [M] PRESET MANAGER. A popup will appear showing the current/active device profile (for instance CURRENT PROFILE: MOUSE DEFAULT). Click the + virtual button, which will create a new profile which is automatically blank. Give it a name (I use Blank Mouse Profile) then either F11 or click on the virtual F11/APPLY AND SAVE.

Voila!

You'll need to do that for each device, but you'll only have to do that once. You can save as many different profiles as you want; all you need to do is make sure the one you want is the current profile.

Al "Chevalier"

Thanks Masterius, feel bad that I missed that. Really useful though, thanks. I like how in FSUIPC you can map controller buttons to a keypresses. So, I can have pause Track IR and centre TrackIR setup to 2 of the buttons on my throttle quadrant and then when combined with mapping numpad 0-9 to the custom views, that gets me close to the controller setup I have in xplane. (In xplane I'd be using xcamera and have TrackIR enabled or disabled per camera, but this is close enough).