Marketplace and Xbox

jasmits

@Black-Square Thank you SO much for the detailed response!

That makes a lot of sense, see it always feels like my favorite developers like you, JustFlight, PMDG, A2A, are the ones that take a really long time to release products in general and even more for them to make it to Marketplace, but you're part of the small club of excellent developers with reputations worth protecting, and they're my favorites because of the high quality of the products. Fun little Catch 22, I love what you/rest of that list make because their products are just amazing quality but it takes time to make them that good plus more to release them on a flawed 1st party marketplace.

One of these days I'm finally building a gaming PC specifically for flight simming, catalyst is actually wanting to get into DCS more than anything else, I'm okay with waiting on some of the quality add-on aircraft and generally fine with my MSFS experience on Xbox plus some decent peripherals. IK it sounds odd that I'm a developer without a decent PC, but I'm a backend and mobile guy so all my fancy computers are Macs. I always need at least one to build for iOS and they play nicer with Linux. Not to mention the absurd performance from the new Apple Silicon chipsets. Like it's actually ridiculous, a contract I was doing recently was in a closed Windows ecosystem and they issued me with a top of the line i9 powered Lenovo P16, for fun I compiled a big open source android project on both it and my fanless Macbook Air, the Air compiled it in less than half the time. It's not even a top of the line Air, retails at less than half the price of the Lenovo haha.

Thanks again though, can't wait to get my hands on the Starship and learn those weird high-tech-for-the-80s systems. For the record, I'm totally fine with how the Dukes are performing and would be fine if the Starship came out with similar foibles, but also if it were me I wouldn't release it in that state either.

KAPA Flyer

@Black-Square That's unfortunate. I personally don't see 2024 being stable for a very long time, if ever. It's just not a very good Sim at all.

More than happy to use the Starship in 2020 when the time comes.

Marionettework

@KAPA-Flyer said in Marketplace and Xbox:

@Black-Square That's unfortunate. I personally don't see 2024 being stable for a very long time, if ever. It's just not a very good Sim at all.

More than happy to use the Starship in 2020 when the time comes.

Have you given it a fair shot lately? I felt the same way before SU3, and now I prefer it to 2020. Putting aside the fact that I'm just used to 2020, 2024 is objectively better in several ways.

KAPA Flyer

@Marionettework It's really not. Asobo outright lied about some things, others aren't working correctly or are straight up missing. Prettier sky colors don't make it better.

Moonflower_414

Only improvement that 2024 has over 2020 is slightly better looking clouds.

Marionettework

@Moonflower_414 said in Marketplace and Xbox:

Only improvement that 2024 has over 2020 is slightly better looking clouds.

Besides the clouds, here are the things I enjoy more about 2024:

Vastly improved loading time.
Walking around your plane, it really gives a sense of scale and lets you look at all the details, I find that much more immersive than panning around in drone mode in 2020.
3D rocks, grass, but most of all the tarmac and runway and their textures are many times more detailed, and the comp textures actually work in 2024. When you taxi, you can see the paint flaking off on the markings, and you see the thickness of the paint.
Default taxi/runway lights are way more detailed
The lighting on the planes looks much more realistic to me, probably in large part due to the ray-traced shadows. The plane just looks more real from outside.
I got used to the EFB and I like it, being able to see the flight plan, LIDO charts, SimBrief and other stuff from a more immersive in-game interface than in 2020.
The built-in ATC voice is a lot better, although ATC in general is still flaky.

It's not all perfect, I probably get more performance in 2020 but both are acceptable. The colors are more saturated in 2020 but I find them more similar now than at launch. Usually when I go back to 2020 I find it more cartoonish, and I miss the walkaround.

Derek

@Marionettework

"Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"

jasmits

PSA: She’s out on the 2020 Marketplace! I only had time to check her out and start exploring the cockpit while home for lunch but she’s absolutely beautiful

jasmits

I think “Masterpiece” would be an appropriate term to use here. @Black-Square, beyond worth the wait. Simply magnificent.

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KAPA Flyer

I absolutely love it. The very rudimentary FMS is insanely unique and honestly fun to learn.

KAPA Flyer

I'm also still blown away that N514RS is based about 4 hours west of me. Gonna have to make the trip to go see it.

jasmits

@KAPA-Flyer SO MUCH FUN. I feel the same way about a lot of the JF planes. Learning the intricacies of the PMDG NGs was fun and then moving on to the 777 there really just wasn't that much to learn. It's mostly the same, with some differences.

I flubbed my first ILS approach because I kind of just figured that I could arm approach and then it would auto capture, not have to switch to heading mode and manually switch my nav source. Super fun learning a whole new and weird set of systems.

jmarkows

The heading mode switch was a bug that's since been fixed.

jasmits

@jmarkows Recent fix, was the version uploaded to Marketplace older maybe or are we talking about different things.

Should the expected behavior on an ILS approach using FMS navigation(with the optional Garmin not enabled or not being used) for an ILS approach, running under the assumption we have our nav radio tuned correctly that we've done everything else correctly and are on the correct course at the correct altitude be:

Same as we are used to with most modern GPS based navigation systems, come in with navigation source set to GPS(again, FMS in this case but using general terms for insert relevent GPS navigation source), FD/Autopilot set to Nav, Approach mode armed and the GMS should automatically switch to radio navigation when the VOR is detected and automatically change over to first lateral and then vertical guidance from the ILS when the glideslope is captured. I did not do a perfect job of describing that process but close enough, basically exactly like in say a 737NG where you still need to configure a lot of things yourself, but assuming everything is configured properly the FMS handles the changeover from GPS to ILS navigation for you.

OR

Do we at some point need to manually switch our source from FMS to Nav, probably using HDG to hold our approach heading during the changeover for good measure in case we have any hiccups, but if done at the right time with everything configured correctly we should immediately capture the VOR and be transferred back to Nav mode for at least lateral guidance if we are still outside of the glide slope.

Not sure if I did the best job of summarizing that, I think it makes enough sense for my question though.

jmarkows

#1, APPR should be an armed mode that grabs the localizer/gs once you pass through it. You shouldn't need to manually switch from the FMS as long as it will take you within capture distance of the ILS.

jasmits

Was this a recent fix? Not at home to confirm what version was uploaded to Marketplace, but with the latest update being the one that I was under the impression was the one submitted you'd think it would be that one unless a little patch came out since.

I can't say with 100% certainty because there is a lot to be figuring out on your first couple flights with this aircraft, but on my first hack at an instrument approach I'm 90% sure I had everything set up properly, was definitely at the correct altitude and course and it just motored on by the glide slope at capture altitude and could see the ILS on the SDU. Since then I've just used the HDG hold while I manually switch sources and always successfully captured the localizer/gs. Totally possible I just had something set incorrectly on my second flight and first instrument approach using unique and complicated avionics.

jmarkows

It was fixed a week or so after launch? It was a few weeks ago for sure.

jasmits

@jmarkows I'll give it another go tonight, certainly a bit of a learning curve for the Starship avionics. Could've been user error on my first hack at an ILS approach that just gave me the impression it didn't automatically switch from FMS to radio, I at least now know that I know how to configure everything properly from successfully capturing from HDG mode

jasmits

@jmarkows You were right, and it's the current version on MP, I tried letting it switch automatically on capture and it worked that time. Not honestly entirely sure what I did wrong the first time, maybe forgot to preselect the course(?) but you'd think that it would still follow the localizer(unless that messes it up?).

Dunno, it was my first instrument approach and second flight in the Starship so brain was quite busy. Appreciate the comment though, otherwise I probably would've just assumed it doesn't auto swap being a rather antiquated fully integrated avionics system and been swapping manually for who knows how long.

KAPA Flyer

@Black-Square Seems to be a couple bugs with the Xbox version on 2024 only.

The Screen's "textures" (smudges, scratches,etc) shake when reflecting any sort of light.
Trim is reversed. I use the Turtle Beach Velocity One Yoke, so it may be a hardware issue, but other aircraft have the same problem so it may be a Sim issue.
There's an odd Pitch Behavior when either Nose or Nose Down. Nose up, the plane will tend to "get away" from the user when engaging AP. Nose Down, when engaging Flaps, the plane will begin a severe AOA that is unrecoverable unless the AP is disengaged.

I personally believe these are issues relegated to 2024 specifically, as I've not encountered them in 2020 (or they aren't as severe). They are also not necessarily "game breaking" because the product itself is Top Class inside and out, I just figured I'd pass along my findings.