40th Anniversary Deluxe Addition - How do I start it?

[vpnavy]

So far, this is the most confusing experience I have ever had with buying a software package.

1. I paid for it (via Microsoft Store) and the screen left me without any options after payment.
2. Wait a few days to show up on my credit card - nuttn' showed up.
3. Figured something got messed up so I started the purchase process again AND it showed that I paid for it but had to download a install program (can't remember exactly what it was but it started off saying it was about 150MB.)
4. I figured it will now recognize I paid for it and did the download. My credit card was hit today after the download.
5. Download finished and again - nuttn' telling me what to do next!

No new Icons, etc. - nothing at all.

My account shows I now own Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Edition Deluxe

Can anyone tell me what to do next?

Thanks!

UPDATE: Figured it out! Geeeez what a confusing mess.

[Daube]

It would have been nice to explain briefly which solution you went through to solve your issue.

That being said, as far as I know the MS Store version of MSFS requires you to trigger the install via the "XBox" application, in which you can see and manage your games bought on the MS Store.
From there you actually trigger the installation of the "launcher" of MSFS, which is in fact quite small, just a few hundreds of megabytes.
Then you can launch the sim. The launcher program will log you on and will trigger the "real" installation of the game content, which consists in several gigabytes of data.

On top of all of this, once you reach the main menu of MSFS, you will have to go into both the "marketplace" and the "content manager" to acquire the free content that comes with your sim (world updates and such) and trigger their download and installation from within the sim itself. This process will consume additional gigabytes of data and might take a lot of time, depending on your internet connection and the current state of health of the Microsoft servers (sometimes they are very slow to send you the data, even if you have a very fast internet connection... It's a matter of luck and patience).

[vpnavy]

Thanks DAUBE for your comments.

It would have been nice to explain briefly which solution you went through to solve your issue.
Well, I hit so many different screens I had to walk away and get my thoughts together. That is the affect of being in my upper 70's! SMILE

Looks like I went the XBox route. I have other versions of MSFS and it was pretty cut and dry. This puppy doesn't seem to be intuitive at all.

That being said, as far as I know the MS Store version of MSFS requires you to trigger the install via the "XBox" application, in which you can see and manage your games bought on the MS Store.
From there you actually trigger the installation of the "launcher" of MSFS, which is in fact quite small, just a few hundreds of megabytes.
Then you can launch the sim. The launcher program will log you on and will trigger the "real" installation of the game content, which consists in several gigabytes of data.
BINGO - that was my route.

On top of all of this, once you reach the main menu of MSFS, you will have to go into both the "marketplace" and the "content manager" to acquire the free content that comes with your sim (world updates and such) and trigger their download and installation from within the sim itself. This process will consume additional gigabytes of data and might take a lot of time, depending on your internet connection and the current state of health of the Microsoft servers (sometimes they are very slow to send you the data, even if you have a very fast internet connection... It's a matter of luck and patience).
Yuppa - dealing with that learning curve right now. Wish I did more homework - probably wouldn't have wasted the money.

Thanks again DAUBE for you comments.

[Daube]

You're welcome
And don't worry, you'll quickly realize that despite the learning curve and all the small troubles that MSFS can cause, it's all well worth it.
It doesn't take more than a few flights to understand how different (in a good way) things are in MSFS compared to the sims we were used to until now (FS9, FSX, P3D or XPlane).
We all agree that it's not comfortable to be forced to change our several-years-old habits like that, but I'm really glad I made that effort. I'm enjoying the flights way more than anything I could ever experience in my previous sims, this is a priceless fact, more or less

Since you are still in "discovery" mode, I'd like to mention a few well-known issues and lessons-learned that could save you quite a lot of troubles:
1- Sometimes, out of nowhere, the sim pretends it's not installed anymore. It's still there in fact, but it "forgot" where it was. This is frequent with the MS Store version. When this happens, you normally simply need to specify the actual path where your sim was originally installed. The installer program will recognize the files are there, like "oh that file is there already so I don't need to download it, let's check the next one... ohh it's there as well!"

2- Sometimes, when starting the sim, it suddenly asks you to insert some disks. This is in reality an issue that occurs when your user is not logged in properly to the XBox network. When this happens, you can simply shut down the sim (kill the application), go to your XBox application, log off your user (click on your user, choose disconnect), restart the XBox application, log in again (and ensure there are no warning messages), and then you should be able to start your sim normally.

3- You might see, while flying, some message popup telling your network is too slow or something like that. There's no way around it, it's not your computer, but most likely the Microsoft servers which are momentarily agonizing. You can try to change the server (by clicking on your user picture from the main menu screen) but no guarantee. Sometimes, the only solution is to wait for another day :/

4- Updates of the sim are mandatory, there's no way around, we're all in the same boat. It happens once every month or two months or so. Sometimes it's very fast, sometimes very slow. But once the update is done and you finally reach the main menu of the sim, the first thing you have to do is to check the content manager and the marketplace (depending on what kind of update it was) for additional content (free) which needs to be explicitely selected before it is added into your sim. For example, when there are "world updates", you have to go first to the marketplace to select and "acquire" for free this new enhanced world scenery content, and then you need to go to your content manager to download some additional compatibility updates that might have appeared in there.

5- the size of the updates (especially "Sim Updates") depend on the version of MSFS you bought (Standard, Deluxe, Premium Deluxe...). The higher the version, the bigger the updates. Because there is more content to update

Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions

[vpnavy]

Thanks a bunch Daube. I printed out your "hints" for future reference.

I did encounter (3- You might see, while flying, some message popup telling your network is too slow or something like that...). I closed and re-opened MSFS and it went away. I am running a popular internet provider (with fastest speed available) and never had a "speed" problem - great to know what else it could have been...

While I have you here - I have a few favorite (military) ASW aircraft in my copy of X - do I just search for "MSFS 2020" aircraft? Any utility programs to move FX aircraft over?

Thanks again for your help.

[Daube]

While I have you here - I have a few favorite (military) ASW aircraft in my copy of X - do I just search for "MSFS 2020" aircraft? Any utility programs to move FX aircraft over?

There are many military addons for MSFS, both freeware and payware.
However, I'm not sure I understand your question properly: what is a "ASW aircraft in my copy of X" ?

[vpnavy]

Daube: There are many military addons for MSFS, both freeware and payware

Super. Would I search for (freeware) FS2020 aircraft?

Daube: However, I'm not sure I understand your question properly: what is a "ASW aircraft..

Sorry about that. ASW is a acronym for Anti-Submarine Warfare. I am interested in the Lockheed P2 Neptune and Lockheed P-3 Orion.

Daube: ...in my copy of X" ?

I used "X" to refer to Flight Simulator X (FSX).

Thanks again for the help.

[Daube]

Aaaah ok, now I understand, thanks

Super. Would I search for (freeware) FS2020 aircraft?

Well, short answer is: yes you should search for freeware military (or civilian) addons for MSFS. There won't be the same volume of addons for MSFS than what we had for FSX, so you should expect many things missing for now. Many aircraft that we had in FSX are simply not existing in MSFS. There are conversion tools, but these are made for people who actually know something about aircraft modeling, and I'm not part of them :/

Sorry about that. ASW is a acronym for Anti-Submarine Warfare. I am interested in the Lockheed P2 Neptune and Lockheed P-3 Orion.

There is a P3C Orion freeware for MSFS. As far as I know, it was converted from the FSX model but it uses the default 747 virtual cockpit though, which is a bit disappointing.
I'm not aware of any P2 Neptune for MSFS though.

In a general way, you should first search for addons here in the Simviation library. There are quite a few of them uploaded here, so you might find many interesting things.
This is not only valid for aircraft, but also sceneries. And I'm only talking about freeware here.

When it comes to payware addons, there is also a vast range of available addons, on the usual "historic" stores (JustFlight, Simmarket...) as well as the internal MSFS marketplace.
The marketplace is nice to get automatic updates for your addons, but I would like to warn you about a well known problem: the addons which are sold from the market place suffer from two major issues:

1- Their files are encrypted, which means it's impossible to edit them. Sometimes, this can be a problem for those who want to tweak some parameters of the flight model or such, for example. But other than that, for normal users, it's not really problematic.

2- Anything related to "weapons" is prohibited on the marketplace. So military planes typically won't be allowed to display any weaponry under wings, or any canons, etc... In some cases however, some free "patches" are made available on some websites to make the weapons visible again. For example, the military planes made by "Deimos" are only sold on the marketplace, and won't show any weapon unless you download and install a patch for them from a certain website. Then the missiles (fixed, non functionnal) will become visible again under the wings. This limitation doesn't apply to planes bought out of the marketplace, so if you buy a military plane on JustFlight for example (and provided it CAN show weapons), then you should n't need any patch to display everything.

The "patches" I mention above are installed like a regular addon, just as if it were a repaint for a plane, or an additional plane or scenery.

About addons in general, contrary to FSX the installation of addons if much easier in MSFS. It's a bit similar to XPlane in fact: each addon is simply a folder that should be placed into a dedicated folder where all the addons stand. For MSFS, it's called the "Community" folder. It is not required to edit any file of the original plane to install a repaint for it, for example. (in FSX, we had to edit the aircraft.cfg, this is not necessary in MSFS).

[vpnavy]

Thanks a bunch Daube.

I will let ya know how it goes.

Have a great day.

[Daube]

You're welcome

In a general way, do not hesitate to ask questions about addons, not only for freeware but especially for payware ones. Quality varies a lot, and some addons are borderline scam. For example, avoid anything with "MSCENERY" written on it

[vpnavy]

You're welcome

In a general way, do not hesitate to ask questions about addons, not only for freeware but especially for payware ones. Quality varies a lot, and some addons are borderline scam. For example, avoid anything with "MSCENERY" written on it

Any recommendations for payware and/or freeware?

[Daube]

I have quite a few, yes.
I'll keep with military aircraft for now, so if you want to know about civilian stuff, just let me know.

In the freeware area, I would recommend:
- The Rafale. If I understand properly, it is an evolution of the FSX freeware "Thor's Hammer" Rafale, but now it gets a very nice virtual cockpit.
- The Hawker Hunter, same freeware as in FSX, by Dave Garwood. Both single seat and double seater are available, with updated models compared to FSX of course
- The "Super Warrior" addon for the default MSFS Super Hornet, which improves many aspects of this plane.
- The T-38 Talon by Milviz, which is actually a freeware conversion (authorized officially by Milviz) of the FSX/P3D model, with fewer features but looks fantastic.
- The F-86 Sabre by Milviz, also converted from FSX just like the T38 above
- The Cessna A-37B Dragonfly and its civilian variant, both nicely modeled with a nice virtual cockpit
- The Bronco
There might be others, of course.

Concerning the paywares, it's a bit more difficult and touchy, since it's about spending money (freeware cost nothing to try, right?).
An obvious recommendation would be the Tomcat by Heatblur and Dino Cattaneo. It's a kind of counterpart of the DCS version of the Tomcat. No working weapons of course, but it's full of very nice features, included a simplified version of "Jester" This addon is to be considered as the top of the line in terms of quality, when it comes to aircraft realism, features and 3D modeling in MSFS.

The Tornado by Dino Cattaneo (IndiaFoxEcho) seems to be also a nice adoon, and you might also want to take a look at the F-104 StarFighter by SWS. These planes have VERY GOOD modeling and quite satisfying flight models. I'm also quite a big fan of the Mig-21 by GKS, especially due to its very challenging flight model? The F-111 by GKS might also be of interest for you. Finally, I have heard quite good feedbacks about the Vulcan by JustFlight, if that's your kind of ship

Beside these various planes, I would like to be a bit careful, as it will mostly depend on your expectations. High quality often mean high prices. So some addon developers try to bring to the market some products which are more affordable. Some of them are very good and enjoyable nonetheless, but some of them are just pure disappointment. And sometimes, some are disappointing just to people who had too high expectations. I like to take the planes by DC Design as an example. They do not have the best 3D models, they might have limited features (or let's say "not so special"), but they offer a lot of variants and quite nice flight models, at a reasonable price. Another example could be Deimos: his planes had very bad fame, but he kept improving them and now they are quite nice, at least on the visual level. Flight models are far from perfect, but the price is quite reasonable, especially during sales

Also, take you time to check online (via forums, youtube reviews and such) if a plane might be heavier on the computer performances than others.

In any case, just stay AWAY from anything with "MSCENERY" written on it (I mean, just look at their screenshots in the market place, you will understand )

[vpnavy]

Thanks!

[vpnavy]

Daube - not sure if you are still monitoring this thread but...

Do you know what file(s) handle(s) the aircraft categories (i.e., Jets, Airliners, Props, etc.)? I would like to add a category for the aircraft I downloaded.

Thanks!

[Daube]

Well I'm not to sure, but by watching the various planes in my community folder, I believe the category is defined in the aircraft.cfg of the addon.
This file is usually located in ...\Community\addon main folder\SimObjects\Airplanes\addon subfolder\.
I'm not sure if it's possible to define new categories which didn't exist in the base sim, but it won't cost you anything to try