Initial impressions of the latest version of FSX Play (v1.4.0.4)?

[shellman19]

Has anyone installed it yet and if so what are your impressions? We all know the graphics are a massive improvement but has the playability finally caught up to FSX 2020?
Here's the patch list from Foresight on this upgrade version:
New & Improved Features:

• Improved FPS For Game Functionality
• Tournaments now available under Games menu.
• Match Play scoring now available for course play.
• Improvements made to all competition game modes.
• Improvements to overall game performance.
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and other improvements.
• Improved device connection and reliability.
• Bug fix for club data missing from FSX Live
• Bug fix for giant reflection of distance asset in lakes/water
• Bug fix for GC2s connecting without license if previously logged in with subscription
• Support for higher resolutions (2560x1440)

Here's the upgrade download page if you have not installed it yet:

https://www.foresightsports.com/fsx-play-download-and-installation

[Baller]

Pebble Beach is finally available so I updated and plan on trying but haven't yet. I'd love to hear thoughts as well.

[p3eps]

I downloaded it this morning (and Pebble Beach), but haven’t had a chance to try it. My sim room (garage) has bikes everywhere and needs a good tidy up now that it’ll soon be ‘winter golf’ in the UK!

Hope it’s taken a big leap forward since I last tried it in April / May!

[Fieldy]

I played pebble this evening briefly and practiced on the 7th for 20 wedges. Pretty impressed to be fair.

[Baller]

Yeah, did the flyover and I played a few holes (all I had time for) and it seemed spot-on to me and I know the course very well. Might play a full round on it today.

[Mess]

Loaded it up this morning. Only ran it on the gaming laptop I use for my system (until GPU prices come down) with a RTX 3060 in it. Only did a spacebar run through to see all the holes. Ran it at 2560 x 1600 (I think?). Pebble is the best rendition of any course I’ve seen so far on FSX Play. It’s pretty spectacular. The waves actually crash on the beach, which is sick. Normally, I play on min graphics settings, but I was able to play on balanced at this resolution without seeing a ton of blurry balls toward the end of the ball flight when it hits and rolls. The same couldn’t said about Torrey Pines (La Jolla). Torrey is still a bit laggy on balanced settings for me.

Haven’t played yet w match play or any of the other settings really, but I can say that there’s an at least 10-20% performance bump in this update.

[shellman19]

Mess So just wanted to see if I understood what you said above correctly... are you saying that Pebble runs significantly smoother than Torrey? If yes, then in your opinion is it safe to say at this point that the lag issues that some have experienced are more course specific rather than a systemic issue with FSX Play?
I would think that Pebble's graphics would have a greater CPU demand than Torrey so that is where my question is coming from. I am hoping that the lag issue is more course specific as that is a much easier hurdle for Foresight/FSX Play to resolve than a systemic issue with FSX Play in general. Thoughts?

[Mess]

Yes, I would agree with what sulli182 below has said. Seems like they are improving on how the ball flight engine is working with the graphics engine. La Jolla was one of the first (if not the first) courses released with Play.

[sulli182]

It is definitely course dependent. Foresight has been trying to put out new releases of courses that are laggy. I have a RTX 2080. Not the best graphics card but should be plenty for 1080p. I had issues with Harbor Town. They put out a new version of that course specifically recently and it was way better. That is the only course I have had that was choppy.

[Scottygolf]

How are you guys getting the courses that you own that become available in Play? I own Pebble, did the update as Foresight said you needed to but when I open Play, I do not see it available in my course library to download?

Thanks!

[sinkingputts]

If you already own it you’ll still have to download the course. Then just open PLAY any it should show up ready to play.

[Scottygolf]

That worked - Thank you!

[bigwill336]

I had the same issue when I downloaded the upgrade. I logged on and notice both practice facilities were missing from my library. I went to my download folder and reinstalled both practice facilities, logged back on FSX Play and both were there.

[sulli182]

Download and install it from the Foresight website. Then once you go back in to Play it will be available.

[sinkingputts]

So far hearing your guys it sounds like the frame rate has gotten better. Anything else? What about rough penalties? Sand penalties? Sticky fridge while putting? Hitting over the lip of bunkers? Any of those bugs get fixed?

How’s the match play feature? Does it put the guy who just one the last hole teeing up first on the next? What about handicap adjustments does the match play account for the handicaps? Does it auto skip a hole when one player has won the hole?

[SCDrJ]

I installed the new update and also upgraded from 256GB to 2TB SSD and now I am seeing GPU utilization no longer at 99% all the time. Will look at some FPS results soon!

[Scottygolf]

Are you guys seeing FSX Play as a major power resource hog? In the middle of a range session my new HP PC (from Foresight) just shut down because it got too hot. I cut vent holes on the cabinet but I think I need to put a different fan or move the computer. I have never had this issue in FSX2020 and spent longer time on this new PC in 2020 with no issues.

Thoughts?

[Scottygolf]

Are you suggesting to change the graphic setting within Play or the graphics card itself?

[sinkingputts]

My laptop fans are blowing non stop i even bought a external fan pad to set it on and still that thing needs more. I can only run on performance setting with most courses some even lag then. I have a Nvidia 3070 Alienware laptop.

[Jnc10]

change from performance to something else in play.

[Nusk]

I've just updated to 1.4.0.4, but as I run the application, it just gets stuck on the "Starting FSX Play..." screen and doesn't do anything more.
Has anyone had a similar issue or any idea what could the problem be?