Flight Simulator on a single display - how?

[DarkSideA8]

A friend gifted me a set of HOTAS joysticks. They're amazing - and I'm trying to learn to play MSFS on an old 1080p 24 inch monitor.

Readers of my threads will know that I'm buying a 32-inch 4k 144hz ips when they come out - but I have a serious question... Will even a larger single screen be enough to enjoy a flight Sim?

I'm almost thinking that FS is custom made for VR.

But absent that - does anyone really play flight Sims on a single screen? 3 monitor setups seem almost required - but perhaps VR is better?

 

[aeliusg]

Single screen is more than enough to practice instrument-based approaches which is what "serious" flight simmers do. Basically looking at your instruments the whole time like a commercial pilot would be doing without visual references. Triple-wides give you peripheral vision and the kind of panoramic view you would expect, even then that's not enough for a true recreation of the way you would be looking around and scanning with your eyes for traffic under visual flight rules. VR gets your stereoscopic vision and neck into the game so you can actually look around, but resolution and performance take a big hit even with the best headsets you can buy right now. A single large screen is actually a good idea if you have the space - a big 4K TV with low input lag and minimal processing is the equivalent of 4 smaller monitors at 1080p. It will be 2 wide and 2 tall instead of 3 wide, but the resolution and increased perceived field of view can be about as good. I wouldn't go 3 wide unless you already have the monitors lying around to play with.