WestWind Virtual Airlines

I'm sick as a dog today so I stayed home from work. (Honestly this is true) Coincidentally it's 2024 release day. Microsoft will just NEVER learn to stagger release, so - predictably - the launch is a complete mess. Downloads sticking at 97% and not moving for hours, ppl ranting all over twitch and YouTube, Streamers doing "loading %" simulator streams instead of flying, etc., etc.

I did manage to download it and get in once, BUT... MS sticks you in a login queue for minutes to hours before you can log on b/c Surprise!! Server overloads!! "Too many users are trying to connect at the same time." LMAO

I took a 3 hr. nap and when I woke up, I was in... BUT again, now MS is streaming required assets on demand - so the sim loading of assets now takes forever. Yea, add to my problems, that the internet in my area SUCKS... and I can only EVER get 30Mbits/S download speeds despite being on a Gigabit plan. Got to watch the career assets SLOWLY pop in - one at a time - when I started a career at Flagstaff pullman airport.

Gonna be a while before I'm running 2024 reliably. Just hilarious. Good job MS!!

Yeah, my Discord exploded with posts about the launch. I did get the Steam launcher installed, but it will probably be this weekend before I can run MSFS 2024 for the first time. And it is now 00:30Z on the 20th, and people still have login issues.

On the plus side, when I DO get in, it looks REALLY good. I'm just messing around, I haven't uninstalled 2020 and won't for a good while until most of the issues are resolved. BUT... this is by far better visually and I have no issues with graphics - apart from the Nividia driver not seeing the game or optimizing it even though I made sure to update to the correct GeForce driver.

Helis starting on Helipads are still fully started, haven't found a cold-start option when on a helipad. I kind of hate that, but at least you can cold start from a normal GA ramp.

I will get my first look at MSFS 2024 on Friday evening around 6 PM CST (GMT-6)

I started MSFS 2024 for the first last night, Thursday evening, expecting several hours of download and install time. I went and put supper in the microwave and came back to check and it was about 20% done, I was surprised to see it was ready to play before I finished eating supper.
After eating, I took a quick flight from my hometown, Higginsville Municipal Airport (KHIG), to the nearby college aviation department airport (KRCM) Skyheaven Airport, in Warrensburg, MO. I Need to find out how to turn off the visual aids and markers as they completely changed the UI and where the settings are. But they were helpful for the first flight. Why did they need to scramble all the key binds? it will take me a while to relearn everything.

I noticed the Career mode was blocked out on the first run of the sim. But I was able to check that out after restarting the simulator.

It's a good thing I kept MSFS2020 installed.

Appreciate all of the insight on MSFS 2024 so far... I think I'm going to download it this weekend. Though I'm disappointed to read that PMDG products will not be easily ported over from MSFS 2020 over to 2024 as initially thought. The 777 will require a complete top to bottom rebuild while the 737 will likely just need some tweaks. We'll see what happens, but I'm guessing we'll need to repurchase PMDG add-ons... again.

Sean - what was your first impression of the new sim?

I installed the Steam Launcher on day one but waited till Thursday evening to launch the game. I believe waiting till things settled a bit was the right move.
I like the career model, but at this time I don't think it is worth the two hundred I spent for the version I got. The default aircraft are just not ready for the serious flight sim pilots. I will quote the A330 driver from YouTube "Designed by Clowns and Supervised by Monkeys". applies to all of the airliners at this time so we will need to wait for third-party developers like we did for 2020. So do not get rid of MSFS 2020 just yet. X-Plane 12 is still my go-to simulator.

I am curious about the new sim, but I will stay with MSFS2020 until PMDG has the 737 ready for MSFS 2024.

That's all I have been flying lately.

I am hoping that the liveries from 2020 will work in 2024.

Steve Canham WWA11 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 23, 2024 1:58 pm I am curious about the new sim, but I will stay with MSFS2020 until PMDG has the 737 ready for MSFS 2024.

That's all I have been flying lately.

I am hoping that the liveries from 2020 will work in 2024.

I'm with you 100% on your comments, Steve.

I'm going to download 2024 and try to copy over my PMDG folders to the new Community folder to see what happens. From what I've read it's been a mixed bag of results, so we'll see.

Well, it is still early but as of now all of the 2024 aircraft appear to be locked out and 2020 liveries will not work in the 2024 version.