EmerlistDavjack

This guy has some good perspective. I also wonder how the hell Microsoft will make money from this thing, or if Bill Gates is just okay with losing money to make something great (highly doubt).

It looks like the $5/mo Xbox subscription will give access to the game without any additional purchase. I don't play any other Microsoft games, so that wouldn't be added value, but I will gladly pay $60/year for a comprehensive flight sim.

Look up a guide on how to set up your TV for gaming, and it should be fine. "Game mode" is necessary to reduce input lag on most TVs. I used a 32'' and now use a 46'' Samsung 1080p TV and have loved it. I think 43-46 is just right for the size when you are using TIR in flight sims. When I play FPS games I find it a little on the large side since I have to visually scan the whole TV rather than having a smaller monitor where all the information is concentrated. I've been looking at 4k TVs in order to switch the GPU burden from supersampling, but they only seem to come in 43 or 49'', not the 46'' I am used to, and I think I'll go with the 43''.

The weather systems are what really does it for me. The storms look spectacular. Seeing a storm roll in and cover NYC in snow in a timelapse was just stunning. I can't wait for a game with actually good clouds (IL2 is terrible and DCS is passable) and weather systems. Hopefully they integrate real-time weather downloads into the game. As far as PC specs go...there's this new thing where if your internet connection is good enough, you can essentially stream-play a game. All the computation is done remotely, so your PC is rendering the game as it would a movie, not a full game. I suspect that is going to have to be a large part of how MSFS20 works. I saw a video claiming that the data for flying the whole globe is in the Petabyte range, so that has to be streamed to you. So while that's neat for urban/suburbanites, it totally blows for us country folk. I can drop another couple grand on a machine if I absolutely want to, but I can never convince a cable company to spend a million dollars to service 50 new homes. Microsoft is usually pretty good about making their products for the widest range of consumer, so I hope that they will allow something like selective pre-caching, so that I can decide to fill a 500gb SSD with a few areas of the planet I'm most likely to fly around.

Who else is excited for MSFS 2020? The videos look insane...and it turns out that those views are too good to be true on an offline machine. From what I've read, MSFS2020 will require streaming data to fully function, in excess of 25Mbps. This would be okay news except that I live in the country and have a 4G cellphone connect that tops out at 6 Mbps. Will, I be able to fly MSFS2020? I dunno! But it will suck if I cant. I would expect Microsoft to have preload options but who knows. I know a lot of you are dedicated combat pilots with less interest in Civ flight. What do y'all think about this?

For when you have around 17 minutes for some good melodic harmony:

I took the liberty of polishing up this badge if there is enough resolution for the skins. (And yes, I know this whole thing is very American. Come and get it, Yanks!)

Both those look great! Whatever preserves J10 colors while being distinct. I'd like to be able to say, "I'm the Taxi" and have everybody immediately know who I am.

If it fits more for Jasta 10 to have no checkers on the tail, then let's do that. Thanks for the advice. If there isn't one, a checkered line on the bottom of the lower wing would be good too for identification. A period appropriate Taxi (carriage?) emblem would be great, even if my checker stripes might be a bit before their time. Perhaps my exploits in the air inspire NYC taxis. I like the "Public Hack" one. Maybe polish the metal a bit in photoshop so that the lettering stands out brightly. If possible change the number to "10" for J 10.

Looks great, Butzzell! Now I have to come up with an emblem for the side. Checkering the Elevator and Rudder (but leaving the stabs black) would be appreciated as well.

Great musical choice, lol.

Damn, I'm gonna have to miss it for a ski trip. Hope we aren't too outnumbered for the last game, I know I haven't been able to show up that much this go-around. Looking forward to FC games but I'll miss RoF and all the options it gave us. That southern England game was a blast. S!

Congratulations to your family!

To all my fellow Californians: be safe, have a plan, have escape materials. I live up a winding one-way road in the foothills. It's a very scary thing.

I with Larner on hating the N17 even with Luft's unspoken...things. I plan on showing up this weekend. It's been awhile! I'm caught in the California power outage but I have a generator that runs off my big propane tank and I can bundle gaming time in with refrigerator time. 😎