Which MSFS version to buy?

[Jack Sawyer]

Hi all, I’m thinking about buying MSFS now as I can finally use PMDG’s 737 and A2A will soon release the Comanche.

But I don’t know which version to buy as there looks like there’s three of them.

Also, is it only available as a download or is there an actual CD one can buy?

If it’s just a download, where is the best place to buy it, Steam or MS?

 

Thanks.

 

Jack

[Smudger]

1 hour ago, Jack Sawyer said:

to buy as there looks like there’s three of them.

Hello Jack

I purchased the Premium version, from Microsoft Marketplace, but I should have purchased the Standard version, £50 difference, it is constantly changing with each update.

There are multiple 3rd party developements on flightsim.to to enhance airports etc even further.

It is available on DVD, on Amazon and other flightsim stores. It is still a work in progress.

 

 

[EasternT3]

If you only want to fly PMDG and A2A and not bothered about the handcrafted airports or default aircraft, I'd just get the standard edition, I bought the premium one and it wasn't worth it for me 

[Jack Sawyer]

5 minutes ago, Smudger said:

Hello Jack

I purchased the Premium version, from Microsoft Marketplace, but I should have purchased the Standard version, £50 difference, it is constantly changing with each update.

There are multiple 3rd party developements on flightsim.to to enhance airports etc even further.

It is available on DVD, on Amazon and other flightsim stores. It is still a work in progress.

 

 

Thanks Smudger.  Why do you say you should have bought just the standard version beside the price difference?

I’d be really only adding only Orbx stuff unless it’s a GTN 750, AI traffic, and weather.

[Jack Sawyer]

3 minutes ago, EasternT3 said:

If you only want to fly PMDG and A2A and not bothered about the handcrafted airports or default aircraft, I'd just get the standard edition, I bought the premium one and it wasn't worth it for me 

Thanks for your reply.  Why wasn’t the premium worth it?  The only other aircraft I’d be interested in a really good “study level” helicopter which is what I miss in P3D v5.

[EasternT3]

35 minutes ago, Jack Sawyer said:

Thanks for your reply.  Why wasn’t the premium worth it?  The only other aircraft I’d be interested in a really good “study level” helicopter which is what I miss in P3D v5.

I bought it thinking I would use the premium (and deluxe) aircraft like the 787 until PMDG and co came to MSFS, but only used the FBW A320 up to the 737 release, and the handcrafted airports although better than the default airports, don't reach 3rd party level, so don't fly to them. Not complaining, the upgrade is good value for money imo, but only if you make use of the additional aircraft/airports, which I haven't.

Edited July 28, 2022 by EasternT3

[Jack Sawyer]

3 minutes ago, EasternT3 said:

I bought it thinking I would use the premium (and deluxe) aircraft like the 787 until PMDG and co came to MSFS, but only used the FBW A320 up to the 737 release, and the handcrafted airports although better than the default airports, don't reach 3rd party level, so don't fly to them. Not complaining, the upgrade is good value for money imo, but only if you make use of the additional aircraft/airports, which I haven't.

Thanks.  Aren’t the Orbx airports better than the additional ones?  And is it like P3D where the airports in Orbx’s regions are better than the default?  It’s a whole new learning curve with this. I especially have to spend some time looking at Orbx’s stuff.

[Ken Hall]

start with the standard Jack, the Orbx stuff and our partners that is anything on the Orbx site is better quality tthan the standard and upgraded airprts, the chancellor from flysimware is awesome it has two 750's alsothe Milviz 310 is great, no need to race out and buy straight away take your time ,exploreand enjoy the immersion,if you have VR even better, I have the G2 and it blows me away, so much online flying as well I fly with 2 groups and on average 4 nights a week, anything from 737's to bush planes in PNG, were doing a tourof GB at the moment, warbirds over Indonesia, deliverinf F1 racers in the redbull 73 following the world F1 tour.

cheers

Ken

[EasternT3]

32 minutes ago, Jack Sawyer said:

Thanks.  Aren’t the Orbx airports better than the additional ones?  And is it like P3D where the airports in Orbx’s regions are better than the default?  It’s a whole new learning curve with this. I especially have to spend some time looking at Orbx’s stuff.

 

Yes the Orbx airports are better than the Asobo handcrafted airports, that's why I don't fly to the additional Asobo airports as I am too busy flying to Orbx (and Partners), Flightbeam, Flytampa airports. I'm not sure about your other question, of the top of my head, the Alaska mesh is the only product that includes a upgraded airport (PAJN), I'm not sure if any other Orbx region/landmark product upgrades any airports.

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by EasternT3

[Jack Sawyer]

9 minutes ago, Ken Hall said:

start with the standard Jack, the Orbx stuff and our partners that is anything on the Orbx site is better quality tthan the standard and upgraded airprts, the chancellor from flysimware is awesome it has two 750's alsothe Milviz 310 is great, no need to race out and buy straight away take your time ,exploreand enjoy the immersion,if you have VR even better, I have the G2 and it blows me away, so much online flying as well I fly with 2 groups and on average 4 nights a week, anything from 737's to bush planes in PNG, were doing a tourof GB at the moment, warbirds over Indonesia, deliverinf F1 racers in the redbull 73 following the world F1 tour.

cheers

Ken

Thanks Ken, VR sadly makes me nauseous.

[Jack Sawyer]

8 minutes ago, EasternT3 said:

 

Yes the Orbx airports are better than the Asobo handcrafted airports, that's why I don't fly to the additional Asobo airports as I am too busy flying to Orbx (and Partners), Flightbeam, Flytampa airports. I'm not sure about your other question, of the top of my head, the Alaska mesh is the only product that includes a upgraded airport (PAJN), I'm not sure if any other Orbx region/landmark product upgrades any airports.

 

Thanks Eastern, I appreciate it.

[Jack Sawyer]

I'm currently in the process of creating a spreadsheet of all Orbx sells for MSFS. 

 

Can someone please explain what SamScene is and what "Wow" is too?

 

Thanks.

[wain71]

I bought standard then ended up buying the upgrades, I went for the Windows version but Steam seems ok, I have Tokyo from Samscene they seem to concentrate and Cities, looks good...not sure what you mean by WOW though...

[Nick Cooper]

Hello Jack,

don't buy the DVD version, it was aimed mainly at European customers who preferred a hard copy of their purchases.

In fact, you might not even be able to buy it.

In any case, what has happened since release is nine updates to the simulator itself, with a tenth one pending.

On top of that, there have been ten "World Updates" which have added large amounts of content. 

A DVD purchaser will still need to download all of that to reach the current full version.

 

Whether you choose to buy from the Microsoft Store or Steam is entirely a matter of personal choice.

The way that the game works is to first install just the game and if you buy from Steam that is all that you will get.

Once the game is loaded for the first time, the game itself then downloads all of its content.

Be aware that the game will, by default, install itself into your Users folder, and that you will be asked to specify where the content is placed.

This is a very large download and you may well not want it to be on your C drive.

 

Whether you buy the basic or enhanced version of the game depends on what you want from it.

You can read exactly what is on offer in many places, here being one of them.

I would recommend that you read it thoroughly and make your own decision on what offers you the best value

 

Once you have it, if I were you, I would install everything first and take a really good look around before you even consider any addons

at all and see what you have to start from.

Forums being what they are, you will be able to find the full spectrum of opinions and experience, ranging from "it's rubbish and every update makes it worse",

through "it is broken again, I cannot make it work to" to "I installed it when it came out and have loved it ever since, it just keeps getting better and better".

My own experience is closest to the latter, it still crashes every now and then, but overall, it has done most of what it promised.

 

 

 

 

 

[Smudger]

3 hours ago, Jack Sawyer said:

Why do you say you should have bought just the standard version beside the price difference?

Hello Jack

At the start Heathrow was in the Premium version, plus a few extra aircraft, but the way it has gone since with Orbx and other developers I feel the Standard version would be adequate.

I agree with Nick that you should read as much as you can, and base your decision on that.

[paulb]

Hi Jack,

 

Great to see you here. Well I bought the premium version as the price difference was not big.

Download seems the right way to go. I went with that via Steam and have not had any problems so far.

I find MSFS very different from both P3Dv4 and X Plane 11, so I still tweaking and changing the controls etc.

Also I agree with Nick -

34 minutes ago, Nick Cooper said:

Once you have it, if I were you, I would install everything first and take a really good look around before you even consider any addons

at all and see what you have to start from.

Visually it does seem like 'next generation' which was my main reason for buying it.

[Jack Sawyer]

2 hours ago, Nick Cooper said:

Hello Jack,

don't buy the DVD version, it was aimed mainly at European customers who preferred a hard copy of their purchases.

In fact, you might not even be able to buy it.

In any case, what has happened since release is nine updates to the simulator itself, with a tenth one pending.

On top of that, there have been ten "World Updates" which have added large amounts of content. 

A DVD purchaser will still need to download all of that to reach the current full version.

 

Whether you choose to buy from the Microsoft Store or Steam is entirely a matter of personal choice.

The way that the game works is to first install just the game and if you buy from Steam that is all that you will get.

Once the game is loaded for the first time, the game itself then downloads all of its content.

Be aware that the game will, by default, install itself into your Users folder, and that you will be asked to specify where the content is placed.

This is a very large download and you may well not want it to be on your C drive.

 

Whether you buy the basic or enhanced version of the game depends on what you want from it.

You can read exactly what is on offer in many places, here being one of them.

I would recommend that you read it thoroughly and make your own decision on what offers you the best value

 

Once you have it, if I were you, I would install everything first and take a really good look around before you even consider any addons

at all and see what you have to start from.

Forums being what they are, you will be able to find the full spectrum of opinions and experience, ranging from "it's rubbish and every update makes it worse",

through "it is broken again, I cannot make it work to" to "I installed it when it came out and have loved it ever since, it just keeps getting better and better".

My own experience is closest to the latter, it still crashes every now and then, but overall, it has done most of what it promised.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Nick.  IS there a difference between MS and Steam?  

I'm not sure what you're talking about.  It will put some files on C but then I can tell it where to install the content?  Or can it all be on a separate drive?

Please explain about installing everything, doesn't it do that after downloading?

I agree, they're rubbish, I always take them with a grain of salt.  

 

[Jack Sawyer]

1 hour ago, Smudger said:

Hello Jack

At the start Heathrow was in the Premium version, plus a few extra aircraft, but the way it has gone since with Orbx and other developers I feel the Standard version would be adequate.

I agree with Nick that you should read as much as you can, and base your decision on that.

I'm going to go with the Standard version, get a feel for it especially how to place files.  I reckon Orbx Central does it all automatically like in P3D?

 

[Jack Sawyer]

1 hour ago, paulb said:

Hi Jack,

 

Great to see you here. Well I bought the premium version as the price difference was not big.

Download seems the right way to go. I went with that via Steam and have not had any problems so far.

I find MSFS very different from both P3Dv4 and X Plane 11, so I still tweaking and changing the controls etc.

Also I agree with Nick -

Visually it does seem like 'next generation' which was my main reason for buying it.

Hi Paul, thanks.  Hope you're well, it's been a long time since I've heard from you.

Yes, my controls are all Virtual Fly so I hope they're recognized.

Take care.

[Jack Sawyer]

Well, I know it's kinda OCD but I wanted to know.  I typed in all the airports, mesh, Landmarks, and other stuff into a spreadsheet and it totals out to $6440 US.

 

Ya'll have been very busy!

 

The first airports I want are most of North America and Alaska.

 

I see there's a lot of third party developers selling their airports.  Does anyone have a list of just Orbx in-house airports?

 

Thanks.

[Smudger]

28 minutes ago, Jack Sawyer said:

The first airports I want are most of North America and Alaska.

Here you go Jack, Orbx products

[Jack Sawyer]

6 minutes ago, Smudger said:

Here you go Jack, Orbx products

Excellent, thanks Smudger!  I’m particularly partial to Orbx in-house airports.

[BradB]

I started with the premium store version , but a year ago I went to the premium Steam version . 
Well worth the money and much less hassle with the WU and SU . 

[Jack Sawyer]

4 minutes ago, BradB said:

I started with the premium store version , but a year ago I went to the premium Steam version . 
Well worth the money and much less hassle with the WU and SU . 

Thanks John, but why?  Why did you buy the premium version?

And what is WU and SU?

Thanks John

[BradB]

WU (World updates) SU (Sim updates) . The large collection of AC especially for VFR flying that I do was the reason for going 

with the premium version . The advise that you have received today is all solid , probably for you the Standard Version would

suffice . 

[Jack Sawyer]

26 minutes ago, BradB said:

WU (World updates) SU (Sim updates) . The large collection of AC especially for VFR flying that I do was the reason for going 

with the premium version . The advise that you have received today is all solid , probably for you the Standard Version would

suffice . 

WU, SU, I see, thanks.  

 

Which seems to “break” the sim more, the WU or the SU?

 

That large collection of aircraft, I’m wondering how much fidelity they have to real world planes or are they like a certain company I won’t name where maybe one third of the stuff in the cockpit works and they’re just mere eye candy?

[BradB]

15 minutes ago, Jack Sawyer said:

WU, SU, I see, thanks.  

 

Which seems to “break” the sim more, the WU or the SU?

 

That large collection of aircraft, I’m wondering how much fidelity they have to real world planes or are they like a certain company I won’t name where maybe one third of the stuff in the cockpit works and they’re just mere eye candy?

Which seems to “break” the sim more, the WU or the SU? - Usually the SU , for me I have had very few issues with both SU's and WU's and only two CTD's in nearly two years . For you the Asobo planes might be a bit lame compared too PMDG and A2A but I enjoy flying them all . This web site has a treasure trove of mods for all of them : https://flightsim.to/

[Richard Lincoln]

Hi Jack,

 

             I agree with Nick, however, in my case, I have the Steam Version and the Microsoft Store Version and the Steam version seems more stable to install. This might be because I live in Australia (Internet) I still use P3D and even FSX also. The reason for keeping FSX is, I am still unable to catch that UFO after all these years 

[andrew22222]

Jack, I recently got an Xbox and was pretty impressed with the graphics in 4K on a big tv and it's pretty much just turn it on and fly.  Not sure if you ever go that route but if you purchase the airports via the MSFS Market place (accessible while your running MSFS 2020) you get 2 versions (one for Xbox and the other for PC) so you don't have to purchase twice.  There isn't a massive selection of Orbx airports currently on Xbox but perhaps the number will rise.

 

Just something to consider if your going to shell out a lot of cash now.

 

Andrew

[Jack Sawyer]

8 hours ago, BradB said:

Which seems to “break” the sim more, the WU or the SU? - Usually the SU , for me I have had very few issues with both SU's and WU's and only two CTD's in nearly two years . For you the Asobo planes might be a bit lame compared too PMDG and A2A but I enjoy flying them all . This web site has a treasure trove of mods for all of them : https://flightsim.to/

Thanks again John.  Does it have any decent helicopters?  And these mods, do any of them cause CTD’s?

[Jack Sawyer]

3 hours ago, Richard Lincoln said:

Hi Jack,

 

             I agree with Nick, however, in my case, I have the Steam Version and the Microsoft Store Version and the Steam version seems more stable to install. This might be because I live in Australia (Internet) I still use P3D and even FSX also. The reason for keeping FSX is, I am still unable to catch that UFO after all these years 

Hi Richard, been a long time, hope you’re well.  This is curious about Steam.  I remember people saying FSX SE was more stable too, I wonder why.  That UFO!  LOL.  I could never catch it either.  Man I remember all those missions, my all-time favorite I must have done 100 times was the Hawaii one.  And the next favorite was the South American idol one.  Those were good times.

[Jack Sawyer]

22 minutes ago, andrew22222 said:

Jack, I recently got an Xbox and was pretty impressed with the graphics in 4K on a big tv and it's pretty much just turn it on and fly.  Not sure if you ever go that route but if you purchase the airports via the MSFS Market place (accessible while your running MSFS 2020) you get 2 versions (one for Xbox and the other for PC) so you don't have to purchase twice.  There isn't a massive selection of Orbx airports currently on Xbox but perhaps the number will rise.

 

Just something to consider if your going to shell out a lot of cash now.

 

Andrew

Hi Andrew.  I have a PS5 but not an Xbox so I don’t think I’ll be getting one any time soon, my wife would kill me  .  Can an Xbox use something other than the game controller to fly planes?  Can you connect a yoke for example?

[andrew22222]

Hi Jack. Yes the controller is too frustrating to use with the flightsim as it seems too aggressive and confuses me. I had a sidewinder pro joystick for pc flying (also had a yoke, trim wheel and foot pedals) but none worked with Xbox so couple of weeks ago I got an inexpensive T.Flight Hotas One as promoted for Xbox. Works great and comfortable to use so now I can just go for a flight,  no issues and mimimal setup time.

I must admit though that nothing really compares to flying a stick plane with a VR headset on, around Oregon and Washington. Don't have the headset now but flights I had with that, you actually felt like you've been somewhere for the past hour or so.  Awsome. For now though, a 65" LG C1 Oled :-)

[Jack Sawyer]

Just now, andrew22222 said:

Hi Jack. Yes the controller is too frustrating to use with the flightsim as it seems too aggressive and confuses me. I had a sidewinder pro joystick for pc flying (also had a yoke, trim wheel and foot pedals) but none worked with Xbox so couple of weeks ago I got an inexpensive T.Flight Hotas One as promoted for Xbox. Works great and comfortable to use so now I can just go for a flight,  no issues and mimimal setup time.

I must admit though that nothing really compares to flying a stick plane with a VR headset on, around Oregon and Washington. Don't have the headset now but flights I had with that, you actually felt like you've been somewhere for the past hour or so.  Awsome. For now though, a 65" LG C1 Oled :-)

Very cool Andrew.  Sadly I tried a VR headset a few years ago in a mall and man oh man did it make me ill.  I got vertigo real bad.  Don't think me and VR get along too well.

[Jack Sawyer]

I have another question.  Does MSFS have a wicked cool program like ChasePlane?  I absolutely LOVE this program.

[BradB]

8 hours ago, Jack Sawyer said:

Thanks again John.  Does it have any decent helicopters?  And these mods, do any of them cause CTD’s?

https://flightsim.to/file/8970/airbus-h135-helicopter-project
 

As long as all the mods go in the community folder of MSFS , you will have very few issues . 

[BradB]

4 hours ago, Jack Sawyer said:

I have another question.  Does MSFS have a wicked cool program like ChasePlane?  I absolutely LOVE this program.

Not yet but I think by the end of the year there should be a Chase Plane version for MSFS . 

[BradB]

8 hours ago, Jack Sawyer said:

Hi Andrew.  I have a PS5 but not an Xbox so I don’t think I’ll be getting one any time soon, my wife would kill me  .  Can an Xbox use something other than the game controller to fly planes?  Can you connect a yoke for example?

You can use your game controller in MSFS with the drone view , it works great to explore Orbx payware airports . 

[wain71]

7 minutes ago, BradB said:

You can use your game controller in MSFS with the drone view , it works great to explore Orbx payware airports . 

Drone camera great for exploring, I use an old wired Xbox 360 controller, currently beta testing a traffic add-on and it's so much easier to get around and check... I also have x52 Pro stick and thrust master airbus Captain edition stick and throttle set, all work flawlessly with MSFS... I actually don't miss chaseplane....

[Jack Sawyer]

 

19 minutes ago, BradB said:

You can use your game controller in MSFS with the drone view , it works great to explore Orbx payware airports . 

Um, I don't have a Xbox game controller, I thought I mentioned that above.  I do have a PS5 controller though.