Is FSXPlay worth the $500 now?

[TheOriginalTom]

I'm a long time FSX2020 and TGC2019 user (GCQuad).

I've been waiting for FSX Play to get less buggy. With several people reporting here that it is working well, I'm trying to figure whether it's finally worth the $500 upgrade? I humbly request your opinion on:

Are the graphics a significant upgrade over FSX2020? (My projector is only 1080P. Do I need a 4k one?)
Are the bugs mostly swatted and it works fine?
Can you have both installed on your computer and go back and forth?
Is it better to just try something new (like GSPro) for the best graphics?

Mucho thanks,
Tom

[StalefishFS3]

I don't own Play and likely never will unless it goes on sale for like 250 during a Black Friday sale or something. It is a resource hog on your computer and IMO, it offers nothing that GSPro doesn't.

Note I still use FSX2020 for practice from time to time. But 95% of the time I am loading up GSPro.

[TheOriginalTom]

That's really great perspective. I keep hearing the GSPro has great graphics.

[Willnus]

Hi Tom,

FSX Play is significantly better than 2020 in my opinion.
Graphics are better, a lot of the bugs are getting ironed out, and yes you can have both and play whichever you fancy.

I have both Play and GSPro and find myself opening Play much more out of the two.

Regarding the projector, I have only in the last week upgraded to 4K, and only because my 1080 projector packed in, I was more than happy with the graphics up till then (although 4K... wow)

Something to check before you upgrade is how much of your course library has been made available to Play.
A lot of the courses from 2020 haven't been made available for Play yet, so just have an idea of how many courses you are going to be able to play before you shell out your cash...

[TheOriginalTom]

Okay, that addresses many of my comparison questions. Thanks a ton. It looks like many of my purchased courses are already available. Can you comment on the 4k projector upgrade? Sounds like it made a huge difference in the quality. Did it make a huge difference on both GSPro and FSXPlay?

[delaloi]

I haven't tried GSPro, so have no comment on that. But as regards FSX2020 vs Play, yes the graphics are much better on Play even with a 1080p projector. I understand that no one likes to feel ripped off, but if you have a golf simulator running FSX, you can probably afford the $500. Yes you can have both on your PC and run whichever one you wish. I have both and haven't opened 2020 for a long time.

The comment on courses above is a good one -- some of my faves from 2020 are still not on Play and I assume will not be coming (notably Castle Stuart and Royal Birkdale). Foresight will probably give you free substitute courses if you complain about this after having bought Play, so it's not entirely sunk cost.

[delaloi]

Also FWIW, I played Coeur d'Alene on Play over the weekend, first time on that course in a while, and I found the rendering of altitude changes to be substantially improved. Not sure if it's related to a Play update or a course version update. I have found this to be maybe the hardest graphical aspect for a sim to convey; for example FSX2020 does not do it very well. Play is doing a pretty good job on it now, there is no doubt when you are hitting uphill and downhill (which there is a great deal of on Coeur d'Alene -- definitely one of the best courses on the platform).

[sinkingputts]

I switched over to GSPro little over a year ago and never looked back. Almost everything is better about GSPro. All the course are homemade so some are not good and some are incredible. While I’m writing this i think there are about 1000 courses. I’ve loaded every single course in on course practice and looked at the course graphics etc. I rated all of them so when i have friends over we can easily pick from course that are good.

1 Star = Don’t even bother

2 Star = Only if it’s a local course that you love

3 Star = Course is cool or graphics are good but not both at the same time

4 Star = Good Graphics, Great Course or course has historical value (play these after all the 5 Stars have been played)

5 Star = Great Graphics, Great Course (play these if you want to impress people on what sim golf offers)

If you log onto the SGT website you can rate the courses to your personal liking. I’d say about 35% of the course are 4 and 5 star course. I could play a different one every day and it would take a year to get through all the good ones. Sadly there’s no easy way to share my ratings so you end up loading a bunch of crappy courses only to be bummed you have to waste time looking through so many to get to a good one. If you have a group of guys coming over to play you should know what’s good

[JaybirdCU]

Is it better than it was when released, yes. Is it better than GSPro, not IMO. Curious what you decided.

I log back into FSXPlay after each patch, but typically find myself reverting back to GSPro within a day or two. I wont even consider FSXPlay if I have guests over, too many crashes/bugs. For a while I was using FSX2020 for a range and GSPro for a sim, but more and more, I just use the GSPro range. FSX2020 makes a better range if you care about saving your shot data over time, but I typically don't bother anymore. I am about to do some experimenting with some different length driver shafts, for that, I will probably use FSX 2020. I still prefer FSX 2020 range to FSX Play, but Play is certainly superior (when it works) in the graphics/simulator department.

For $500, I would get 2 years of GSPro and revaluate, but that is just my opinion.

[Willnus]

I reckon we have reached the tipping point...

I would say the New/Updated courses for FSX play are now better than GSPro. Certainly, the ones they have obviously spent time on like Troon and Pinehurst. Some of the ones they updated for FSX Play a while back are still short of where GSPro is though.

All personal opinion of course, but I find myself pretty much only using FSX Play now (and mostly playing the premium courses)...I just wish more of my FSX2020 library would come online quicker. Places like Birkdale etc should really have been sorted by now..

[GerardN]

I reckon we have reached the tipping point...

I would say the New/Updated courses for FSX play are now better than GSPro. Certainly, the ones they have obviously spent time on like Troon and Pinehurst. Some of the ones they updated for FSX Play a while back are still short of where GSPro is though.

All personal opinion of course, but I find myself pretty much only using FSX Play now (and mostly playing the premium courses)...I just wish more of my FSX2020 library would come online quicker. Places like Birkdale etc should really have been sorted by now..

The Troon graphical update is phenomenal - I also believe this is peak gfx and feel at this moment. Is there a list of other courses that have gone thru a similar graphical enhancement?

[Willnus]

Yep Troon is superb. Previously I didnt play Links courses too much on FSX, as I found the graphics made them feel a little bland and flat... but Troon looks amazing now..

Pinehurst No2 is defo the next best one in terms of the step up in Graphics..I've downloaded another couple of new courses recently but not had a chance to play them due to a dodgy back, be interested to see if they are similar, or if the Major courses got special treatment..