MSFS -Everything you know about upcoming Flight Sim from Microsoft-

[ronh]

August 15 - Update,
Well, very nice screenshots. After picking up my jaw from the floor some questions on the view from 10,000 feet. No real close-ups yet, and the blur filter they use on old Hollywood stars, showing me those lovely fuselage textures ... well.

The development roadmap -
Media Updates - self explanatory. More eye candy.
Tech Alpha - Internal - I guess I assume internal testing - not for us common folk yet.
Build Program Update - maybe some sort of schedule, who is invited, when.

Early, Mid September
Still internal.

Late September
Pipeline Feedback Overview - I assume they will show us common folk - if we are selected, how to provide feedback on the Tech Alpha/Beta builds. So almost ready.
Feature Discovery Series - what the heck it that? (MS add this to the FAQ) A video, white paper - both? on the subject. Maybe some sort of webinar with the lead developer for the subject. That would be cool. Similar to what LR does when they release their "roadmap"
World, Weather, Aerodynamics, and Cockpits. Hmm Aerodynamics - not really Flight Dynamics or Engines yet? Why use this term?

October
Feedback Pipeline Online - so the feedback system is ready, that would assume that insiders start to get access to the builds for testing/use/feedback on functionality.

Pass the popcorn, please.

 

[hairyspin]

It’s by your elbow: take a handful and pass it on!

 

[Gibbage]

I also posted my insights from a developers point of view.

P.S. I called the aircraft out as an A380 NEO. I meant to say A320 NEO! DOH! Good stuff though. Cant wait to crack into the SDK.

 

[rhumbaflappy]

I sense that Dos Equis may become a 'sim killer'.

If this thing is too good. If it really delivers. What is the point of P3D, X-plane, or Aerofly? Especially in danger is P3D and it's large base of 'not for entertainment' violators.

As developers making content for these sims, it might be wise to make sure you save source materials so you can rotate back to Microsoft development as the SDK becomes available.

 

[DragonflightDesign]

I think you're possibly forgetting the inertia that will be caused by investment in P3D addons. That's a large group of people that might install FS2020 alongside P3D but will be very reluctant to abandon P3D because of their financial investment in it. Unless/until the same addons become available for the new sim.

 

[WarpD]

Prepar3D is absolutely not in danger. It is used in literally thousands of training systems around the world. That keeps growing.

 

[Deleted member 12505]

Would love to see more than 3 second segments. P3D will continue and no need for anyone to feel "guilty".

I can probably think of several thousand add-ons sold over the decades housing a logo or scenery image without permission including the default FSX "as is" (no add-ons). I don't think waving the "violator" stick is good for anyone on any platform and would escalate and become a very expensive proposition (lawyers being the only winners) that would kill add-on development across the board (all platforms) and diminish the FS market to nothing ... and/or make it prohibitively expensive so that the "not for entertainment" group is the only group with sufficient funds to purchase.

Cheers, Rob.

 

[Deltaflight]

I'd like to here what Aviasim has to say about this. She has to be excited. I am. Perhaps when the WGS84 stuff gets figured out we will get a valuable response. This is awesome to see Microsoft addressing their mistakes post FS2004.

 

[Mashby]

Prepar3D is absolutely not in danger. It is used in literally thousands of training systems around the world. That keeps growing.

Totally agree you have remember that Lockheed is a defence company first. Flight Sim was purchased to enhance their Military and commercial Simulators and even if they lost the flight simmers it wouldn't even be speck on their balance sheets.

 

[rhumbaflappy]

Totally agree you have remember that Lockheed is a defence company first. Flight Sim was purchased to enhance their Military and commercial Simulators and even if they lost the flight simmers it wouldn't even be speck on their balance sheets.

I'm not saying P3D is in danger of collapsing. I'm saying it's users base may shrink drastically.

Why would developers continue to make content for a user-base of thousands, when the new sim may end up with a users base of hundreds of thousands? Especially if conversion to P3D requires substantial man-hours? I think ORBX faced a similar problem with X-Plane, until Austin's user-base increased enough to make it worthwhile. P3D's user-base may shrink instead of growing. And the military user-base won't care if we develop an ultra-light plane or a civilian northwoods floatplane airfield. Their content market would be very limited, as would their market size.

Would user's abandon X-plane or P3D, even though they might need to replace all their content? The X-plane users from FSX already did, and might do it again. Both X-plane and P3D entertainment users left FSX due to bugs, limitations, aircraft handling, or poor display of content. Dos Equis could resolve those issues, and step those things further ahead of anything currently available. That's why I think it could be a sim-killer. Microsoft may well dominate the flight sim software again, leaving little room for competition.

 

[robystar]

Speculation, speculation!
What if... and I can start summing up a whole bunch of unknowns, but if this new MS FSX indeed renders the whole world with that detailed photo real ground, you will not be able to have it all on your hard drives.
That means that you will be dependent on a server that streams it while you may 1. have to pay for access and 2. you would need a very fast internet connection.
I do not have a very fast internet connection nor would I want to pay for a per session or monthly usage of something I buy. Either you buy it and it is yours or you don't!
Suppose, I would buy, hire or lease a car and then have to pay just for driving it????? would you go for it? I would not!
Question is what do/will you buy? What is in the basic package and what is not?
And nobody knows!

 

[adino]

Question is what do/will you buy? What is in the basic package and what is not?

That is absolutely a valid question....

That means that you will be dependent on a server that streams it while you may 1. have to pay for access and 2. you would need a very fast internet connection.

Most probably right...but if it has at least a decent flight model FSX level or more and can stream the whole Caribbean in photo-real, guess what.....
I will terminate my Netflix subscriptions, upgrade my internet speed and will buy it for fun of it! LOL

 

[JB3DG]

I'm not saying P3D is in danger of collapsing. I'm saying it's users base may shrink drastically.

Why would developers continue to make content for a user-base of thousands, when the new sim may end up with a users base of hundreds of thousands? Especially if conversion to P3D requires substantial man-hours? I think ORBX faced a similar problem with X-Plane, until Austin's user-base increased enough to make it worthwhile. P3D's user-base may shrink instead of growing. And the military user-base won't care if we develop an ultra-light plane or a civilian northwoods floatplane airfield. Their content market would be very limited, as would their market size.

Would user's abandon X-plane or P3D, even though they might need to replace all their content? The X-plane users from FSX already did, and might do it again. Both X-plane and P3D entertainment users left FSX due to bugs, limitations, aircraft handling, or poor display of content. Dos Equis could resolve those issues, and step those things further ahead of anything currently available. That's why I think it could be a sim-killer. Microsoft may well dominate the flight sim software again, leaving little room for competition.

Its not in as much danger of losing developers as you think. Those of us who have tapped into the commercial training market (which makes enough to support our efforts) are going to great lengths to make our code as platform agnostic as possible in order to remove dependence on a particular platform. That by itself alleviates the danger if P3D is the client's preferred choice.

 

[manschy]

Speculation, speculation!
Either you buy it and it is yours or you don't!

Totally agree. Some years ago, I bought (I THOUGHT I BOUGHT!!!) Adobe Premiere Pro for video editing. Did a lot of small films but give up that hobby for about several years. One year ago, I wanted to make a small FSX movie and reinstall APP - passwort failed just because Adobe was meant to cancel access because that version was simply too old!!! So even I have bought the programme, I didn't own it for real! I simply just owned the right of using Premiere Pro. Even I had all components on my rig, nothing was mine at all!

So once bitten, twice shy! Are you sure any keyword you have to enter after any reinstalling P3D will still be your own? What about LM will cancel any access? Everybody feels blessed having done a complete backup of the sim to get back the last version at least.
So you are right - if I have to pay for each flight I want to do, pay for each enabling a landclass I want to fly over, pay for each aircraft again I choose to fly, then count me out!

 

[lionheart]

I love all the simulators, personally. Some more then others. Tons of fond memories of FS2004. Nightmares of FSX and CFS3, mainly because it wouldnt run on any of my computers. (plural... through several years, none could run them well for a long time).

So many nice sims out there. I am putting great hope in FS2020. And man, it looks sweeeeet......

One of the things that gave me hope was seeing film clips from it. They were smoooth. FSX was always glitchy or low frame rates, like it was having issues. THIS.... appears smoooth.

 

[lionheart]

I'll never forget running Prepar3d the first time. I was on that sim for HOURS.... It ran good on my computer! I saw what others had been talking about FSX for the first time. That week, I cancelled all production of FS2004 plane work and shifted focus to all work being FSX / P3D based. Being able to run the sim is 'key' in my humble opinion. But... It must look nice.

 

[Mashby]

Tons of fond memories of FS2004. .

Totally agree with you there although I still miss the fs2002 and Fs2000 just for the amount of great freeware (well at that time we thought it was great.) But as everything got better it became more complex it took a lot more time

Well at the end of the day the more flight simmers out there the better.

PS love your aircraft lionheart

 

[Gerli]

That is absolutely a valid question....


Most probably right...but if it has at least a decent flight model FSX level or more and can stream the whole Caribbean in photo-real, guess what.....
I will terminate my Netflix subscriptions, upgrade my internet speed and will buy it for fun of it! LOL

I'm very worried about that... Internet speed in Argentina is terrible and if this Sim is based on streaming data... oh my, trouble ahead.
But... on the other hand, probably I'm going to be unable to run this on my actual rig and because the Argentine Peso just crashed and the prices of hardware are now at forbidden leves, I'm just going to sit in a corner and watch videos while crying.

 

[ronh]

@Gerli Take heart. Reading through MS xbox game pass. I believe, my own opinion, MS will have a version of Dos Equis ( love that) that you can download and play off line. You may be able to purchase it in the MS store as a digital copy. See the other games they have there. Who knows maybe you download the area you fly in and then have it on you machine. I really can't believe that it's all online based. Maybe only multiplayer and real weather.

 

[Deleted member 12505]

My understanding is there will be a "offline" option but you get NONE of the higher resolution streaming data and it will default to LC (with the exception of a few detailed areas on disk) ... I think in one of the videos you can see the LC appear where the Azure streaming couldn't keep up. So my guess is those that produce LC and/or PR tiles will still be viable options for users that don't want to fallback to default terrain when the Azure stream drops below a given threshold.

I'm more curious about how well the terrain is loading/streaming, these 3 second clip segments that are very "directional" leave me asking "why?"

Cheers, Rob.