Windows 11

[mac_1103]

MS basically gives away the OS to non-commercial users... It's a wonder and a gift they keep the flight sim going.

They probably figure it keeps a few people who have purchasing authority on the commercial side happy.

 

[day_trippr]

Considering the historically lethargic pace of Flight development I expect the cost is small enough that paying customers have been keeping it alive. One big reason I built the beast I'm running right now was in anticipation of a much earlier release of 2024. It's ok though because I've been enjoying the heck out of dogfighting (War Thunder and DCS) and driving sims (Assetto Corsa and Race Room Racing Experience) so my HOTAS and Pro Wheel/Pedal sets haven't been growing hair while I wait

Cheers!

 

[passedpawn]

I need to get back into gaming. I used to be "that guy", so long ago I don't want to say when. I got addicted to making money.

 

[mac_1103]

I got addicted to making money.

It's a helluva drug. I haven't touched MSFS since the mid-1980s.

 

[doug293cz]

MSFS was one of my favorites - really gave me a head start when I started flight lessons. Now that I have an airplane, the thrill is gone from the sim.

Brew on

 

[day_trippr]

Well that's understandable. Why sim when you can do it IRL?

We have an airport in town (appropriately, "Minute Man Airport") and decades ago I often had thoughts about taking flight lessons. The Spousal Unit was dead set against the notion of private aviation which did give me extra pause, but tbh I could have done it anyway but never found the time.

Also, hopefully you youngsters will be able to appreciate the time when you don't answer to a job. Much better drug than the whole "earning" thing

Cheers!

 

[passedpawn]

MSFS was one of my favorites - really gave me a head start when I started flight lessons. Now that I have an airplane, the thrill is gone from the sim.

Brew on

Totally. but for the mortals...

 

[day_trippr]

Found this on The Verge...

 

[passedpawn]

Hmmm... I don't have the ideal machine. Gonna have a hard time not thinking about that (vram = 8G)

 

[estricklin]

I'm a "bit" skeptical about the 50gb thing.

 

[day_trippr]

It has been reported that the download for 2024 is much smaller than the current version...

Cheers!

 

[passedpawn]

I'm a "bit" skeptical about the 50gb thing.
View attachment 858294

Where is your install (the EXE)? Did you download from steam or MS store?

 

[passedpawn]

 

[day_trippr]

https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/19/24248947/microsoft-flight-simulator-2024-cloud-release-date

Microsoft says the installation size for MSFS 2024 has been reduced to “about 30GB” by “tapping into the latest cloud streaming technology” and “streaming in the higher detailed areas that are only necessary for your flight path.” The game will no longer require players to download hefty world updates, but not at the cost of the game looking worse. That data will instead be streamed on demand with higher-resolution graphics being swapped in as players soar closer to landmarks like airports and cities.

I'm a bit wary of all that. Given even high performance nvme SSD storage is stupid cheap at the terabyte level I think I'd prefer to have it all on "disk" and not have to risk latency hits along a flight path...

Cheers!

 

[estricklin]

Where is your install (the EXE)? Did you download from steam or MS store?

Steam. The actual install folder is only a couple of gigs, but it creates another folder (maybe you pick the name at install?) and mine is called MSFS. I don't have any purchases either, only the game, and all the free DLC.

I bought Horizon 4 and 5 through the MS Store, and wow what a pain. I'm debating if I want to buy MSFS 2024 when it releases, if it isn't available on Steam right away that will be a good excuse for me to wait.

 

[balrog]

I'd prefer to have it all on "disk" and not have to risk latency

Cheers!

You know you're old when...

Of course, I have to admit I thoroughly agree. But I also like installing software, and having hard drive copies of things, rather than finding out I cannot reach them because Al Gore is playing with the internet, or sunspots have caused StarLink issues, or whatever.

 

[passedpawn]

You know you're old when...

Of course, I have to admit I thoroughly agree. But I also like installing software, and having hard drive copies of things, rather than finding out I cannot reach them because Al Gore is playing with the internet, or sunspots have caused StarLink issues, or whatever.

I agree as well. Though, it allows the developer to continuously update scenery, fix bugs, etc, without requiring the user to do huge downloads. Further, I'll bet the streaming option here is just to allow it to be played on game consoles that don't have enough storage.

But, some people are just tweakers, always playing the diminishing returns game of iterative optimizations. Sensibly, you'd expect better performance with local storage than streaming from the internet.

 

[passedpawn]

I wonder if you could create a ram disk large enough to hold something like MSFS. Running completely from RAM would be insane I think. I don't know where the bottleneck is to performance for games like that though (graphics retrieval from storage, GPU, CPU)?

 

[shoengine]

I wonder if you could create a ram disk large enough to hold something like MSFS. Running completely from RAM would be insane I think. I don't know where the bottleneck is to performance for games like that though (graphics retrieval from storage, GPU, CPU)?

That'll only help with load times. All the relevant data is already in RAM until the game needs new data, like loading a new cell or something like that. As long as the programmers aren't nincompoops that is!

That's probably why the suggested memory configuration is 64GB. Anything under that and you'll likely get swapping and then performance will be crap.

Thinking about it, I wonder if that amount of RAM is specifically for if it is streamed? Hard disk thrashing is bad enough, but imagine if you have to wait for stuff to get downloaded and THEN loaded into memory!

 

[day_trippr]

imagine if you have to wait for stuff to get downloaded and THEN loaded into memory!

Afaik, that's actually how it has always been. But WAN latency would swamp that anyway...

Cheers!

 

[passedpawn]

So OT... 40 yrs ago!

 

[shoengine]

We can't confuse Mac users, so they only get one mouse button!

 

[day_trippr]

I've been enjoying the current Assetto Corsa driving sim while anticipating the forthcoming EVO release. Here's the latest trailer - and the rendering is totally insane! Can't wait to see how my RTX4090OC 24GB handles it.



Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

You can sign up to test Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 if your PC is up to it

 

[balrog]

You can sign up to test Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 if your PC is up to it

My PC might be able to handle it if I select one of those balloons as the aircraft.

 

[day_trippr]

Hmm...That they're still validating the streaming is a bit concerning...

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is also getting smaller, with the install size reduced to around 30GB. Microsoft is using its latest cloud streaming technology to stream high detailed areas on a flight path, reducing the amount that needs to be preinstalled. Testing this cloud streaming technology is a big part of the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 technical alpha later this month.

 

[day_trippr]

Well this is rather disturbing...

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 sucks up to 180 Mb/s of internet bandwidth while in flight — equivalent to 81GB of data per hour

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-...in-flight-equivalent-to-81gb-of-data-per-hour

 

[shoengine]

Well this is rather disturbing...

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 sucks up to 180 Mb/s of internet bandwidth while in flight — equivalent to 81GB of data per hour

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-...in-flight-equivalent-to-81gb-of-data-per-hour

Comcast is gonna love that!

There better be some sort of caching solution.

 

[day_trippr]

Check it: this article describes a pretty high end system working hard to achieve 60fps at 4k with "ultra" settings. Take away half it's 64GB of ram and things go downhill quickly...

https://www.dsogaming.com/articles/...60fps-at-4k-ultra-settings-with-dlss-quality/

 

[balrog]

Shouldn't be a problem; after all, nobody sits and "plays" a game like Flight Sim for very lo...


Oh.

 

[day_trippr]

Meanwhile, back on topic, the W11 24H2 update should be approached with due caution and a solid recovery strategy

8 reasons to avoid the latest Windows 11 update (hint: they're all bugs)



Cheers!

 

[shoengine]

Meanwhile, back on topic, the W11 24H2 update should be approached with due caution and a solid recovery strategy

8 reasons to avoid the latest Windows 11 update (hint: they're all bugs)



Cheers!

I think my media PC decided that it was time to update. Not a bad canary. I'll just flatten it if it goes to hell.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I updated with no issues so far

 

[tracer bullet]

This isn't exactly Windows 11 but I'd imagine a bit OT is OK> Clearly this is where the IT crowd hangs out.

My old QNAP NAS gave up last night. A TS-251+ from about 7 years ago. I'm seeing a lot about it being a CPU problem and that a 1-0 ohm resistor jumpered between certain pins tricks it back into life. I can handle trying that out with fingers crossed. Hopefully it springs back to life, even if only for a few days.

I've already ordered another QNAP, being familiar with it's OS I'll forgive them this failure and get another. It'll have a pair of drives in it, hoping that I can boot it and configure it and then copy everything over. It looks as though the drives would only go directly into another machine and "just work" if the new machine is also quite old and has the right version of their OS on it. If the old one is resurrected I'll change its static ip address and name, and then set up the new one in its place. If I'm lucky the old links on my laptop and PC will still work, but it's not a big deal if they don't, I can replace them. I'll have to check that the TV and Nvidia Shield can find it to play videos from it as well, and so the QNAP media app and all the DLNA crap will have to be set up again as well. Certainly have some work in my future but it's do-able.

I'll be glad for my backup scheme of - things are on my laptop and PC, backed up regularly to the NAS in the house, and then the NAS itself backed up onto a portable drive which I keep at my desk at work "just in case".

Stating all this to ask if anyone sees any gross flaws here with my plan?

 

[sibelman]

This isn't exactly Windows 11 ,,, any gross flaws here with my plan?

Good luck with your resuscitation plan. I'm wondering about your wish to keep this old stuff alive, given you've already ordered a replacement. 7-year-old spinning disks and a flaky controller/mainboard suggest it's time to just say goodbye. Of course, given your backup scheme and the implication that your new NAS comes without disk drives, re-using the old drives could be sensible -- assuming that the "new" unit will operate with drives that are available when the old ones fail.

 

[estricklin]

This isn't exactly Windows 11 but I'd imagine a bit OT is OK> Clearly this is where the IT crowd hangs out.

My old QNAP NAS gave up last night. A TS-251+ from about 7 years ago. I'm seeing a lot about it being a CPU problem and that a 1-0 ohm resistor jumpered between certain pins tricks it back into life. I can handle trying that out with fingers crossed. Hopefully it springs back to life, even if only for a few days.

I've already ordered another QNAP, being familiar with it's OS I'll forgive them this failure and get another. It'll have a pair of drives in it, hoping that I can boot it and configure it and then copy everything over. It looks as though the drives would only go directly into another machine and "just work" if the new machine is also quite old and has the right version of their OS on it. If the old one is resurrected I'll change its static ip address and name, and then set up the new one in its place. If I'm lucky the old links on my laptop and PC will still work, but it's not a big deal if they don't, I can replace them. I'll have to check that the TV and Nvidia Shield can find it to play videos from it as well, and so the QNAP media app and all the DLNA crap will have to be set up again as well. Certainly have some work in my future but it's do-able.

I'll be glad for my backup scheme of - things are on my laptop and PC, backed up regularly to the NAS in the house, and then the NAS itself backed up onto a portable drive which I keep at my desk at work "just in case".

Stating all this to ask if anyone sees any gross flaws here with my plan?

I can't remember what size resistor I used, but my 12 bay Synology (I got it for free non working) I added the pull up resistor and it worked. The problem is based on an issue with Intel Atom CPUs, and an internal pull up failing. My fans run at full speed now, so I ended up adding some cheaper 80mm fans, not sure if that's related. If memory serves, the resistor value everyone online was saying to use, wasn't a common value so I ended up adding 2 in series, I think the suggested value was 110 Ω or so, and I used 1/8w 10% ers.

 

[tracer bullet]

The new NAS will have a pair of WD Red's in it, similar to what I have now, but of course new.

I'd like to resurrect the old one to copy to the new one, so I can see my folder structure and how I had it all organized. After the copy I'll back up everything fresh, in case any 1's and 0's got corrupted during the copy phase. I'm hoping if I stick the new one with the same IP address and folder structure that my links will work as always and I wont' have to go through that again as well.

I wouldn't put a ton of work into the old one, but for the cost of a resistor which I picked up at work today for free, I'll give it a go. I disassembled it last night and it took all of 5 minutes if that with just a single small Phillips screwdriver.

Not sure what I'll do with the old drives. Probably bring them to work for the official e-recycling programs they stick all the old work drives into. Data destruction and etc.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

The new NAS will have a pair of WD Red's in it, similar to what I have now, but of course new.

I'd like to resurrect the old one to copy to the new one, so I can see my folder structure and how I had it all organized. After the copy I'll back up everything fresh, in case any 1's and 0's got corrupted during the copy phase. I'm hoping if I stick the new one with the same IP address and folder structure that my links will work as always and I wont' have to go through that again as well.

I wouldn't put a ton of work into the old one, but for the cost of a resistor which I picked up at work today for free, I'll give it a go. I disassembled it last night and it took all of 5 minutes if that with just a single small Phillips screwdriver.

Not sure what I'll do with the old drives. Probably bring them to work for the official e-recycling programs they stick all the old work drives into. Data destruction and etc.

oh I'm in the same boat I have a huge tub of disk drives, I spent a week wiping all data with 0 just in case, now what to do hmmm

 

[shoengine]

oh I'm in the same boat I have a huge tub of disk drives, I spent a week wiping all data with 0 just in case, now what to do hmmm

Get the magnets out of them!

 

[day_trippr]

I have a powder-actuated nail gun that I use to dispatch retired hard drives with finality...

Cheers!