This or MS Flight Simulator 2024 for VR casual flying?

[ironmanmk42]

I’m only interested in flying around in VR on Meta Quest 3 for maybe 30-40m at a time and not really into pouring hours into realistic experiences with this simulator.
Just want to enjoy good locales and fly around my home and landmarks and big cities, alps etc. and have a good sunset sunrise type experience.
This one is on sale for $24 while the 2024 game is still $70.
Is this game comparable to 2024 in VR? Or should I do 2024 when on sale? From some videos I’ve seen 2024 seems sharper and nicer but many claim 2020 is nearly same so undecided.
Any opinion?

[shadowgravy]

I haven't tried VR in MSFS 2024 since SU4 was released a few weeks ago. With SU3, I found that MSFS 2020 was still better in VR, for ground visuals. The drawback with 2020 is you need around 200 GB of drive space while with MSFS 2024 you need far less if you stream the content as you fly.

I'll check VR tonight and let you know if 2024 is better now.

[ironmanmk42]

Originally posted by shadowgravy:

I haven't tried VR in MSFS 2024 since SU4 was released a few weeks ago. With SU3, I found that MSFS 2020 was still better in VR, for ground visuals. The drawback with 2020 is you need around 200 GB of drive space while with MSFS 2024 you need far less if you stream the content as you fly.

I'll check VR tonight and let you know if 2024 is better now.

Many thanks. I didn’t know 200GB v far lesser. Honestly I’d rather have the 200GB than stream on fly. I have a 4TB SSDs with 2+TB free for now. Later I can just delete the game if space needed or add another.

Also I found that MS Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024 are both on MS Game Pass Premium which has $1 intro offer for 14d.
Perfect to try both out in VR and see as well.

Pls do lmk your feedback as I’m looking forward to it.

[shadowgravy]

I'll add though, 2024 has 'curated' experiences, like visiting world castles and photographing famous bridges. It also has a walk-around mode similar to first person shooters.

[shadowgravy]

I did some testing tonight, and my original verdict still stands. With comfort and the quality of terrain graphics in VR being the only considerations, MSFS 2020 is--for me--the better sim.

My GPU: RTX 2080 Ti
My CPU: i7-9700K
My OS: Windows 10
My HMD: Reverb G2 (second generation).

With this setup, I've played hundreds of hours of IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles in VR. I've also flown a lot of DCS, Prepar3D, and MSFS 2020 in VR.

Comparing the two versions of MSFS, my local area (agricultural plains with a river; a mid-sized city with an international airport) looks very similar in both sims. MSFS 2024, however, seems to prioritize resources by reducing draw distance. I see buildings and roads materialize in the near distance. Ground textures are a little fuzzier as well. MSFS 2020 feels more organic and natural.

Switching to a major city (Auckland), MSFS 2024 renders the photogrammetry at a lower resolution LOD. The city looks like it was nuked and melted.

I flew one of MSFS 2024's castle photography scenarios, and I had a lot of judders. The ground textures seemed to either have a motion blur, or would degrade to a lower resolution. It was flyable; however I began to feel dizzy. I didn't make a direct comparison with MSFS 2020; however, I've flown 2020 in VR for years without discomfort or unease.

You may have better results with MSFS 2024, depending on your hardware. It has fantastic graphics on flat monitor, and it has some interesting modes that MSFS 2020 does not. I'd start with 2024 if testing on Game Pass because it installs faster.

[★Macman★]

BTW the G2 runs much better with the OASIS Driver which negates WMR altogether and does run on any version of WIN11. Also using the Latest DLSS (now 4.5) for your card is better. LINKS to each card type: (the 310 type are actually DLSS4)
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1250410/discussions/1/7004880749908233697/

[ironmanmk42]

So I spent about 3hr yesterday downloading MS Flight Sim 2020's 165GB data on first launch. Played it a little bit ~15m in "Discovery" with a chopper flight over NYC. This was in non-VR just yet. About to try VR today.

This morning I launched MS Flight Sim 2024. There was no download of anything as I think it's all streaming the Maps photogrammetry from Azure servers and rendering the 3d buildings on the fly. Did a small ~15m flight in a Cessna around NYC

Initial impressions -

when MS 2020 launched - it looked impressive on my monitor and nice graphics. The 3hr download delay was not expected but I guess better once than later.
The flight was hard and it had some weirdo green lines around it till I managed to understand it was air movement around it and I turned it off somewhere in menu (CFD or something). The graphics were crisp and nice and game looked great. Game ran in DX11 with DX12 listed as beta. Pre-selected Ultra graphics.

when MS 2024 launched - the initial title sequence was Wow with grand canyon and all. The initial NYC flyover was - incredible. Clearly looks like a step up from 2020 detail wise in menus. Pre-selected High Detail quality on my rig.

Especially building and terrain data from distance. Sky and clouds are comparable. However, it is dependent on internet speed - I have 1Gbps fiber but given my distance I get about 150Mbps instead of 930Mbps wired but this is aplenty (20MBps) to stream and play.

After flying more - it looks like MS FS 2020 is actually BETTER than MS FS 2024 imo for 2d flying. In MSFS 2024 - the details up close are bad - cities look like they've been nuked or something with ugly looking buildings, bad quality terrain and roads, cars and trucks that sink into roads and float back up, trees look like 1999 trees but as you near they become 2026 trees etc. Experience fluctuates here. There can be jitters as new data loads. In 2020 there was an option to control the internet bandwidth and how much to xfer via streaming.
At a little height/distance - MSFS 2024 clearly looks BETTER though. There are way more cities and planes and I love the Earth view you can do Free Flight on and take off from any airport and it seemed easier to control.

Like I said, all I want to do is just fly around for a bit. Maybe MSFS 2020 is sufficient but I do like MSFS 2024 a lot too despite some of its quality issues.

I'll play more and in VR which is what I wanted to do anyways and report back.

Initial impression thus far - MSFS 2020 might suffice but MSFS 2024 is a step up but I'm no expert to quantify this step up.

[Dragontail]

Spend your money on any other game, MSFS 2020 and 2024 are totally broken and wont ever be finished. Sim update 13 has made my game look like its in low quality mode and the frame rate is still in the 40-50 range. It's on Ultra, I've tried DirectX 11 and 12, looks like trash.

The Colorado river is all water climbing the canyon walls and unflyable now. Terrain changes in 2024 are sent right into 2020 and no one is checking a damn thing. It's evident they are trying to force players out of playing it at all.

2024 is still AI made trash. it's worse with maybe 30 miles of canyon actually looking like water with trees and grass. the rest of the 300 mile section I fly is a dumpster fire of AI guesswork.

[shadowgravy]

I'm fortunate that my little corner of the real world looks accurate and visually appealing in both versions of MSFS. I built my own airfield in the sims, complete with open hangars and a nice house down the road, and I use some persistence mods to make my single-engine GAs feel more like vehicles I own. I'm a digital hundred-millionaire BTW ... in Neofly.

[ironmanmk42]

Ok, so I played some time in both MS FS 2020 and MS FS 2024 (mostly VR and some not VR) and here's my impressions -

Spec: AMD FX 7700X, 32GB DDR5 RAM, 2x2TB NVMe SSDs, nvidia GTX 5070, 27" 144Hz monitor, Wifi 802.11ac with about 200Mbps Wifi bandwidth to my router downstairs which is Gigabit Fiber.

MS FS 2020 is smoother and crisper in 2D. I did not try VR on this one.
MS FS 2024 VR looks great initially but there's some occasional stutters and jitters but overall it can be a fast headache inducer due to VR because your entire fov shifts if your plane moves up and down as you tilt. It is extremely disorienting. Flying in Chase view didn't work with a Glider Ultralight type but worked in a Cessna and that is much better to avoid a headache in VR. It's not the game's fault though. It is just how VR would be if you do not have a steady frame of reference which is not possible in cockpit view.

MS FS 2024 is also crisp and sharp in 2D up in the air.

Both look bad when you go low and fly close to city or whatever because it is not rendered well. I really misunderstood and thought I'd get Earth view like in Bing Maps or Apple Maps 3d views. Oh well. It's not like that at all. If you have "Wander" or similar apps in Meta Quest 3 VR you'll see things in 3d like that but with lesser resolution.

Overall, I will say that MS FS 2024 is the winner. It has more stuff to do and free cam and roam and more airports and aircraft and overall looks like a good coat of polish compared to 2020.

However, MS FS 2020 is no slouch either. Both games are pretty good and I would not recommend either in VR with light aircrafts at all and definitely no cockpit view unless you want to throw up after 10m esp in those red bull stunt planes.

[ironmanmk42]

oh. 1 thing which is major I forgot to mention is I did update my nvidia driver to latest 591.xx driver to fix the crashes to desktop in MS FS 2020 and it still happens a lot.

Game launches sometimes and says "try it in safe mode instead of normal". It's vanilla game but there's still crashes.

[ironmanmk42]

So the crashes were related to DLSS being enabled post driver update to 591.xx.
I went to nvidia App and clicked "Optimize" which put the game in DX12 mode and it was great after that. Everything worked well.

In fact after playing MS FS 2020 a lot more, I feel it is a lot more fluid, responsive and has crisper look in 2d (non VR). Even the buildings and houses are rendered much better but could be due to MS FS 2024 not streaming fast enough?

I flew in a small city and it had all the proper roads and all including house areas but the houses themselves were wrong. MS FS 2024 has more "correct" layout of houses and stuff but they look pathetic compared to MS FS 2020.

Is this a setting issue? Some cities look spectacular compared to MS FS 2020 - like NYC and London and others.

[snooz]

I got 2024 (40th anniversary?) on sale.

I really thought for years my Rift S and 1080ti wouldn't run it, but it's quite amazing. At times insanely realistic, particularly water and surf areas for some reason.

They should be amazing value at sale.

2024 doesn't seem to have the Bush Pilot stuff due to bugs (might take another year before they're back) according to devs and discussions. I really love the slow planes and just taking it all in and, of all things, enjoying the landing challenge. I thought I'd hate it and crash all the time.

[ironmanmk42]

So I gave in and bought MS FS 2020 since it was only $24.
Now the issue is Steam is downloading the 165GB it needs to and this will take 2.5-3 hours. Basically since the game is running the 2 hours to refund can't happen now because you need 3 hours to download the game. Haha.

Anyways, it's fine. I've been playing it via Xbox Game pass Premium ($15 for one month trial) and the game is well worth it.

In future, if there is a sale for MS FS 2024 for $30 or below, I will likely buy that one too. The differences between MS FS 2020 and MS FS 2024 aren't that much for free flight. Most differences are in the default aircraft and things to do which MS FS 2024 has more of with Activities and Photos and Free Cam (all well worthy imo but for sub $30 since it is really more an expansion pass and some graphical update)

[RavenHawk]

Let me just add that 2024 is a always online service type. and as such if you have any internet issues and lose connection then you out of luck. with 2020 you can still fly while off line but the scenery will be less defined.

[seleucid999]

All depends! 2020 has much better performance. 2024 has slightly better lighting. VERY slightly, but worse performance. 2020 also has much sharper textures, especially for terrain.