Tips and Tricks for Flight Sims

Over the last two years, I have been using many different tweaks and tips found online or invented by myself.

Tuesday, November 28, 2023 at 05:10 PM ET

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The default X-Plane 11 sky is too dang hazy for my liking on clear days. Yuck. This is on the runway at LOWI in Innsbruck, Austria. [Courtesy: Peter James]

Key Takeaways:

Specific tweaks can resolve common flight simulator issues, such as X-Plane 11's hazy skies (using "orbit" or "hialt" sky colors) and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020's landing stutters (editing effect files).
Optimize MSFS2020 performance by utilizing Developer Mode, reducing certain graphics settings (e.g., Terrain/Objects Level of Detail, Buildings/Trees/Grass to Medium), and leveraging DLSS Super Resolution with DX12 beta.
Enhance realism and control by enabling crash/stress damage for realistic consequences, customizing an Xbox controller for autopilot/aircraft functions, and adjusting cockpit view height to a true "pilot's-eye view."

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Over the last two years, I have been using many different tweaks and tips found online or invented by myself. Some of them everybody seems to know, so I won’t go into those now. But here at FLYING, I feel most of the real pilots dabbling in the sim world probably don’t know about some simple, effective things that can really help out their experience.

Hazy Skies

Let’s start with my favorite on X-Plane 11 (XP11) that concerns the never-ending “hazy sky” issue that has plagued the sim forever. Now, you can purchase some great weather add-ons that will enhance sky and cloud quality, but I wanted to share a two-second fix that can bring back bluer skies easily.