Hi All

Any of you MSFS users out there able to assist.

I realise this is personal preference and some of us will endlessly tinker and tweak, and some of us are happy to fly GA from default airport to default airport. But are there many things needed to make MSFS the best it can be and 'usable', or is it fairly stand alone out of the box?

For example my P3d I have Envtex, Envshade, Active Sky, Orbx with their various tweaks and bits, and lots of other little bits and bobs. Is there items like this that are required for MSFS or is it all pretty much there within the sim and ready to go, all you'd need is what is preference to your style of flying (PMDG 737, airports etc).

Hopefully that makes sense. Thanks is advance

Pete

Yep, that's very much personal preference. I personally would say that MSFS Premium is good enough for most purposes. Add a few freeware airports, the free FBW A320, and perhaps some payware airports that you really like, and you're good to go.

If you want good ATC, you should look into Vatsim, PilotEdge, SayIntentions, or BeyondATC (not available yet). I you want good charts, you should get a Navigraph subscription. And if you want outstanding aircraft, you should get payware airplanes from A2A, Fenix, PMDG, Milviz/Blackbird, and some other companies. But, unlike P3D, you do not have to invest first in weather, scenery, and payware aircraft to make the sim pretty and interesting.

Peter

True. If you want to splurge and haven't yet purchased MSFS, go for the Premium Deluxe version. That, and maybe any utility for managing your control profiles (i.e., FSUIPC, Axis and Ohs or Spad.Next), and FSLTL if you don't want to fly alone (and want some realistic traffic) and you're good to go. But yes, it's more standalone than FS9, FSX or P3D.

Aside from the sim itself...

MSFS Addons Linker

FSLTL

We Love VFR (any of them)

9 hours ago, A33Pete said:

fairly stand alone out of the box?

It's *a lot* more standalone than P3D.

Must haves, IMO:

• Bad2000's Addons Linker (freeware)
• REX's AccuSeason Advanced (payware) – controls terrain colour per season and tree colours, sizes, varieties and frequency of appearance.
• Floyd's epic clouds (freeware) – great for GA flying and if you don't mind not having live weather.
• AIG's AI traffic (freeware) – more controllable than FSLTL and less of a performance impact.
• KL791's Global AI shipping (GAIST) and GAIST Great Lakes (freeware).
• PuffinFlight's We Love VFR regions (freeware).
• Payware airliner: PMDG 737 (the 736 is a steal at $35), Fenix A320 (the best payware airliner I've ever used), JustFlight BAe 146 or Fokker 28 (lots of love for these older-style airliners).

IMO. YMMV.

6 minutes ago, F737MAX said:

It's *a lot* more standalone than P3D.

Must haves, IMO:

• Bad2000's Addons Linker (freeware)
• REX's AccuSeason Advanced (payware) – controls terrain colour per season and tree colours, sizes, varieties and frequency of appearance.
• Floyd's epic clouds (freeware) – great for GA flying and if you don't mind not having live weather.
• AIG's AI traffic (freeware) – more controllable than FSLTL and less of a performance impact.
• KL791's Global AI shipping (GAIST) and GAIST Great Lakes (freeware).
• PuffinFlight's We Love VFR regions (freeware).
• Payware airliner: PMDG 737 (the 736 is a steal at $35), Fenix A320 (the best payware airliner I've ever used), JustFlight BAe 146 or Fokker 28 (lots of love for these older-style airliners).

IMO. YMMV.

Agree 100% with all of these.

I also get some utility from FlowPro from //42, but that's a creature comfort thing. It's real nice to pull up a summary of my Simbrief plan next to the MCDU/FMC while I'm entering performance information, departure info, etc. It's worth the low price of admission.

gonna have to take me a look at this "we love VFR" is it worth it if you just fly the tubes ?

11 minutes ago, sonny147 said:

gonna have to take me a look at this "we love VFR" is it worth it if you just fly the tubes ?

It's good during approach and stuff... you don't always fly an instrument approach do you?  I guess I'm not familiar with UK's ATC - do they allow visual approaches?

27 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

It's good during approach and stuff... you don't always fly an instrument approach do you?  I guess I'm not familiar with UK's ATC - do they allow visual approaches?

yes they do everywhere if the wx is acceptable  , I almost only fly IFR  aim not really a pilot just like pushing buttons and looking out of the window 😄

MSFS looks great out of the box, so I’m not using many visual enhancements. I’m using a lot of other addons though. Just finished a video of an A320 flight from ENTM Oslo to ENBR Bergen, and this is the addon list from the video description:

Quote

Fenix A320
ENGM Oslo Gardermoen by Aerosoft / Jo Erlend Sund
ENBR Bergen Airport by WombiiActual (freeware) https://flightsim.to/file/1946/enbr-bergen-airport-flesland
FSHud Air Traffic Control 1.3.358 beta
FSLT (free standalone real-time online traffic liveries) https://fslivetrafficliveries.com/
REX Weather Force beta 6.0.2024.0404
REX AccuSeason Advanced (dynamic seasons)
GSX Pro by FSDreamTeam (ground services)
Navigraph Charts and navdata
Flight Recorder (replays, freeware) https://flightsim.to/file/8163/flight-recorder
AutoFPS (dynamic LOD, freeware) https://github.com/ResetXPDR/MSFS2020_AutoFPS/releases/tag/v0.4.2.10

Almost forgot Addons Linker for organizing all the addons https://flightsim.to/file/1572/msfs-addons-linker

Apart from these I have a ton of payware aircraft and payware sceneries.

Favorite airliners:

• Fenix A320
• iniBuilds A300-600R
• Just Flight BAe 146

Favorite GA: The Black Square range (King Air, Caravan, TBM850 and more)

Black Square will release the Duke very soon, which might be the best GA in the sim. Highly anticipated.

Today Aerosoft released ENGM Oslo which could be the best payware airport in the sim - the attention to detail is insane.

And Active Sky for MSFS released some 10 hours ago 😁

4 hours ago, mspencer said:

I also get some utility from FlowPro from //42, but that's a creature comfort thing. It's real nice to pull up a summary of my Simbrief plan next to the MCDU/FMC while I'm entering performance information, departure info, etc. It's worth the low price of admission.

Didn’t know about this. Bit pricey at 30 USD but also very feature-rich. Might be worth getting. Looks like //42 have quite a few decent addons (got stripr for loading screens).

Edited April 19, 20242 yr by Cpt_Piett

Additionally, the power lines addon adds a lot of realism, especially if you fly low and slow.

REX airport and runway textures are pretty good too, though there are a couple of alternatives.

I also use the Auto FPS addon and the frame generation addon.

Wow. Can of worms.

Out of the box you get fairly decent GA planes and a few decent airliners. Airports are improved over other sim but as always, lacking in the buildings/details department. Some are not even modeled at all. Freeware from Flightsim.to is your best best to find these missing airports. Avoid downloading and installing too many sceneries as they can conflict with each other and cause a CTD.

I have a ridiculous amount, being said. Using the Addonlinker (that's been mentioned here) is your best best to allow "links" to the sim community folder. Much like X-Organizer etc.

In my signature you can see all the planes I own and I do fly often. The F28 is still really new to me so I cant vouch for all of it.

You will find that the sim is in fact excellent despite its bugs/issues/quirks. AutoFPS and the Frame Generation mod will improve FPS.

Rex Seasons and Textures are great as well. I would avoid weather programs as they don't compare (visually) to MSFS default weather. If you have the Rex accuseason advanced it has a lot of good presets though.

AIG and FSLTL for traffic. FLSTL is great for performance and live traffic. AIG for liveries and offline traffic but it eats performance so turn it down to like 20ish haha.

So much excellent information here!

Except Captain Piett. You should just ignore him because he doesn't even fly a TIE Fighter.

5 hours ago, cianpars said:

Additionally, the power lines addon adds a lot of realism, especially if you fly low and slow.

Is that even available any more, did he move to a different site?

Hasn't been updated in forever on flightsim.to and the file is "currently unavailable".

18 minutes ago, Sonosusto said:

Except Captain Piett. You should just ignore him because he doesn't even fly a TIE Fighter.

Because Vader won’t let me 😆 I sort of “fly”the Executor though 😎

18 minutes ago, Sonosusto said:

You will find that the sim is in fact excellent despite its bugs/issues/quirks. AutoFPS and the Frame Generation mod will improve FPS.

Indeed. The sim keeps improving, and IMO it’s never been as good as in SU15, in terms of stability and performance. Lots of quirks here and there still, but the positives outweigh the negatives by far!

Since the list of available high-quality payware addons is mind-boggling, it’s probably a good idea to start with a few favorite aircraft and airports. It’s easy to get carried away…

Oh, and don’t listen to Sonosusto. Just look at that ridiculous helmet - can’t take him seriously.

Edited April 19, 20242 yr by Cpt_Piett

18 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

Because Vader won’t let me 😆 I sort of “fly”the Executor though 😎

I

You did.

Once.