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[cormack12]

Source: https://www.flightsimulator.com/joi...-flight-simulator-technical-alpha-in-october/

In October we’re hosting a technical alpha to gather feedback on some of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024’s new services. Please note the focus of this technical alpha is validating new services in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and the scope of available content will be limited. Because the focus of this technical alpha is services, it will also be limited to the Windows PC (Windows Store) platform.

Space for the technical alpha is limited and not all those who sign-up may be selected to participate. Those selected to participate will be notified via e-mail to their preferred contact e-mail address (collected during sign-up). The technical alpha will be available for a limited period of time (about 2-3 days) and will no longer be accessible once the period ends. The exact date(s) of the technical alpha will be announced closer to the start.

 

[nemiroff]

I usually stay away from these things because I don't want to experience a lot of unfinished stuff. But it's near release, and it's just 2-3 days of access and testing. I signed up, no biggie.

 

[Cakeboxer]

Too bad i'm not into flying games without combat, the graphics are stunning.

 

[joeygreco1985]

How can it be an alpha a month from release?

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

How can it be an alpha a month from release?

 

[StueyDuck]

I wouldn't mind a try.

 

[calistan]

I've had a quick play with this. Graphically it's not as good as the 2020 version at the moment, but I suspect that's because it's a 9 GB download and streaming everything, compared to my 500+ GB install of the other one. Buildings are auto-generated lumps, bridges have solid walls beneath them. I haven't tried major cities yet. Still uses screen space reflections in the water. It recommended ultra settings for me.

Otherwise, not a huge amount of difference. It's very smooth, which is what I'd expect given the way it looks. If you open the door on the ground you can get out and walk around in first person (you can see your feet). If you open the door in the air, you die.

There's the option to customise your pilot, which I really couldn't give a shit about, but the interesting part is that you can record your own voice and have them generate an AI version in-game comms. I don't know if I dare try it. Maybe not.

 

[calistan]

Like a goddamn comet.

London skyline vanishing before my eyes. Controls not registering inputs for a few seconds, then applying all the inputs you made while it was locked out, all at once.

On the plus side, the clouds look amazing. They've lost the grainy quality they had in 2020 and now look silky soft. Will give it some more time over the weekend, but this does not look like something that's six weeks from launch.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Like a goddamn comet.

London skyline vanishing before my eyes. Controls not registering inputs for a few seconds, then applying all the inputs you made while it was locked out, all at once.

On the plus side, the clouds look amazing. They've lost the grainy quality they had in 2020 and now look silky soft. Will give it some more time over the weekend, but this does not look like something that's six weeks from launch.

Not great.

I had heard a few weeks ago it was in bad bad shape, sounds like a delay might be in order

 

[calistan]

Not great.

I had heard a few weeks ago it was in bad bad shape, sounds like a delay might be in order

I was pleased to be able to try it early, but it definitely feels like an alpha. If they'd said it was coming TBA 2025, I'd be fine with that.

I don't know why they've saddled it with the 2024 name, it should just be MSFS 2 and come out whenever the hell it's ready. The core audience for this is super hardcore, they're not going to be happy if it spends months as an effective downgrade from 2020.

Not sure how much more I'll test it, since it isn't saving my control options, so I have to remap everything on each startup.

 

[willothedog]

Squirrel is live-streaming the tech test. Looking good.

 

[GHG]

Not great.

I had heard a few weeks ago it was in bad bad shape, sounds like a delay might be in order

Oh for fucks sake not again.

Out of all the utter shite Microsoft publish, this is the one game alongside the Forza horizon series (not motorsport anymore, that ship has sailed) that I want them to continue to release in a good state.

Where have the standards over there gone?

 

[calistan]

I think I'm done with the alpha now. I had to abandon using my proper flight sim stuff and just used an Xbox controller, since there's a default setup for that. Custom controls were getting erased on startup.

Positive stuff:
The clouds, lighting, cockpit shadows are all upgraded.
Career mode looks like fun. Hope you can do the missions without having to go through flying school first, though.
Photography challenges give you a reason to go exploring.
Super realistic rain effect on the windows.

Negatives:
There are weird issues with the map, where it will erase all the buildings, leaving only the underlying satellite image, and redraw it all in a slightly different way. Then do it again and again, every few seconds.
I tried finding my house but the sim decided that my area is full of deep canyons, so I couldn't recognise any of it. You can see the ground mesh raising and lowering as it tries to figure out how to fit things together.
Performance varies a lot between areas. Flying through the skyscrapers in Vancouver caused no problems, but Miami made it stutter like crazy, even though the size and density seem pretty similar.
I bought an extra 32 GB of RAM because of the recommended specs for this, but I never saw the sim take more than about 12 GB.

 

[Darsxx82]

The beta is only 9GB when the base game would be between 30-50GB. It's clear that it's not the foundation of the product ready to be released.

That said, MFS 2020 was already released in a less than perfect state and it was improving in optimization while adding content. There's no reason to expect anything different in this FS2024 even more so when it has exponentially increased in ambition and content day one.

PS.

 

[adamsapple]

Not great.

I had heard a few weeks ago it was in bad bad shape, sounds like a delay might be in order

Odd, the round of previews last month were pretty positive.