dtrjones

On 7/14/2020 at 3:26 AM, Huascar said:

If the planes are just as good, no need waste money with this third party software. I can afford the PMDGs, but out of principle I refuse to pay the cost. MSFS is revolutionary and everything about flight simulation will be different. 

Maybe you meant this as a throw away comment. MFS at 119 dollars as you rightly say though is fantastic value for money especially with the streamed imagery, weather rendering and regular updates to navigational data, however don't for one second think you are getting a PDMG level of airplane, all you are doing is setting people up for failure.

11 minutes ago, eaim said:

A slightly underwhelming update, but Asobo haven't had much time to add things since Alpha 4 was released, so it's hardly surprising.  

Yes my feeling as well. I suspect many of these issues were also called out by the 3rd party developers and the QoL improvements is as much to help them progress there development as well as improve the overall quality of the Alpha.

It's a pity though that the two major releases prior to a Beta release as far as I know hasn't featured any major new content. No sea planes, no business jets which I believe were in the trailers and still not in the Alpha.

On 7/8/2020 at 10:32 AM, ChaoticBeauty said:

Interesting. The log-in issue is the first thing I tested and I'm still getting it, on Google Chrome though. At least the slowdown issues should be fixed now.

@ChaoticBeauty and @Rimshot go to https://live.xbox.com sign out. Then back to https://www.flightsimulator.com/ and log back in, should be sorted. 🙂

The big jets appear to have there interiors done as well, but we've not seen a single shot of the cabin areas. Is it even possible to wonder away from the cockpit?

On 5/23/2020 at 12:09 PM, cepact said:

I found this very surprising that MS would buy 3d model from PMDG. They have access to very talented modelers at Asobo and they have a partnership with Boeing. I wonder how much they paid.

cepact think of the bigger picture! you rub my back and I'll rub yours (not literally mate!), it means MSFS are supporting PMDG development as well which is great news. I could be wrong but I don't think this would be a financial deal just to get a 747 out the door quicker.

On 5/26/2020 at 4:25 AM, KERNEL32 said:

Has it been confirmed that there are no helicopters on initial release? I wonder if Helipads are going to be found anywhere? Hospital rooftop landing would be awesome in these detailed recreated cities!

I don't know if it's been confirm but I'm pretty certain you will not have any helicopters with the base sim on launch, but pretty sure there is at least one helipad on a boat or building somewhere (I'm thinking photogrammetry buildings probably).

Of course having said all of that, how do we know that 3rd party developers are not building a helicoptor or even a fighter jet as we speak...

Quote

Love to see this level of commitment from the top. I asked him if he's going to implement anything he's experienced in the sim but he's understandably tight lipped lol.

Absolutely congratulations Sebastian Wloch, such commitment, well done! I'm sure one of the reasons Sebastian did his PPL was so he could enrich the simulation experience so I don't doubt some of this will make it's way into the simulator.

I wonder if Stephen Hood ever completed his PPL... 

On 5/26/2020 at 9:41 PM, Claviateur said:

Well the whole concept of getting in then out of a spin and it works as planned is the stressful part I think 😬

Oh so you mean if it doesn't work as planned... you die, yeah thats takes a load off. 😄

1 minute ago, ca_metal said:

I meant a new version after the 10 years time. 

Ah ok, that's possible but I think that would mean a different approach or a significant change, anyway that's a little way off. 🙂

On 5/24/2020 at 3:03 PM, Cruachan said:

Notwithstanding all the arguments surrounding how we access MSFS when it is eventually RTM, we might feel inclined to consider how Microsoft/ASOBO will recoup their undoubtedly huge existing and ongoing development costs. Why did MS revisit this franchise when history and, arguably, a lack of vision had soured their experience with financial losses and consequent abandonment of the product?

I feel quite lucky that I'm prepared for anything they throw at us even if that means a subscription which is commonplace amongs MMO's.

I feel the vast quanity of scenery on tap and the constant iterative development cycle will be more than worth it.

We'll just have to see but there has to be a significant cost attributed to the existing and future development along with the array of existing and new online services albeit all existing under the Microsoft umbrella.

On 5/24/2020 at 5:59 PM, ca_metal said:

If they succeed, we will hear about a new version coming before the 10 years have passed, with new or extended partnerships.

So @ca_metal you obviously didn't figure out why they dropped the version number from the title 🙂 as far as we know this is the one and only version, but the 10+ years will provide constant updates.

I always imagined when they talked about 10 years, it was from the initial release but I could be wrong on that.

13 hours ago, viz said:

Regarding casual players - ""I'm not normally a Flight simulator buff"...then wait until it's on Xbox and get it there. This is exactly the problem with this sim and the people who are giving it way too much credit already. They are marketing it as a realistic sim, but in reality, they are mainly attracting people who have no experience, who just want to look at pretty scenery. We are going to have a whole new generation of FS2020 YouTubers who just expletive off on multiplayer. Its not what flight sim is about. The community is toxic enough already. For those of us flight sim "chads", this is not the sim we were expecting. Not until there is some serious study-level aircraft available to match the visuals."

Regarding 'non simmers' - "You are the target demographic, and that's why some of us who have been in this hobby for 20+ years are a little annoyed with this "game"."

Regarding realism - "Thats the problem, this is a game, not a simulator."

Regarding the C172 - "Dude if you're telling me the 172 in this game flies like a real one then I want to see your airman certificate LOL. This is totally a game, not a simulator."

I don't think it's at all fair commenting on default aircraft as recognition of this being a game or a simulator.

IMHO It's clearly a platform geared towards supporting more compelling simulation of aircraft than you get out the box.

To what extent will the simulation level reach we'll only know once third party developers have released there higher fidelity aircraft.

15 hours ago, Hamish100 said:

Dear Asobo

Loving all the screenies and I am sure I can say that we are very  much looking forward to the IFR video later this month but at some stage I would love to see a full flight even if its just the Cessna doing a short run from one GA Airport to another maybe Darrington to Concrete in the Seattle Area which is about a 10 minute flight. You may be waiting for the NDA to be lifted before we can see anything like this but I thought there is no harm in asking......

Hamish

Thanks Hamish, and I know the community discussed this a few months back. My take is the same now as it was then.

A full flight implies a full flight experience which you can't do because the sim is in alpha so it's very likely were Asobo to do that they would get unecessarily called out on features that were not finished. This is why we have an NDA currently.

Ok so fine how about you just show us what is polished, so they decide to take out ATC for example then people will still complain saying it's not representative of the full sim experience. Which ever way you slice it even if it meets your 'requirements' Asobo come off badly.

The only way this can be done is when the product enters an Open Beta at the earliest, so right now it's not fair on us and certainly not fair on Asobo. Remember Asobo have to gauge the wider public reaction and what you percieve as full flight video may well not be what others would think and Asobo might see that as too great risk this stage in development.

Not saying it won't happen, but to do this video justice I think the sim probably needs to be a little closer to completion.

11 hours ago, Dominique_K said:

Thanks. Don’t think thats too much details, this forum is a good place to learn things !

Why Asobo’s volumetric approach would not lend itself to simulating cirrus ?  They  are a volume of crystals after all ? 

From wikipedia: 

Cirrus clouds range in thickness from 100 m (330 ft) to 8,000 m (26,000 ft), with an average thickness of 1,500 m (4,900 ft). 

I suspect it's difficult to render a cirrus cloud in 3D and make it look good viewing from ground to through to 35K feet. Hopefully Asobo will crack the nut and we'll have great looking cirrus clouds, as you say they are 3D after all. 🤞

On 5/11/2020 at 1:06 AM, mp15 said:

@Weatherman those clouds could be drawn in Photoshop by a 4 year old, Asobo has volumétric cloud creations technology, so expect to have those simple 2D clouds in game too.

Isn't that the issue, to have great looking cirrus clouds they need to be 2D textures, they don't render well in 3D, why isn't anybody mentioning this? Are you all chicken! 😃

I can't see a reason why Asobo can't mix 2D with 3D for an effective cloudscape, maybe this one has to wait for third party devs.

8 hours ago, Captain747 said:

I don't know about you guys but the difference is clearly noticeable...specially in the depiction of the colours ...notice how in the real areal photo the land vegetation is lush and vivid green and also the ocean water looks deeply and vivid blue.  Hopefully these things will be corrected, even though I highly doubt that they will.

Oh well...I guess this where the add-on developers will have their chance...because there are clearly lots of improvements to be made scenery wise and also in other areas, this is of course taking into consideration that the whole sim is still in its development stage.

That being said...even if these scenery shortcomings don't get corrected in the end...the default scenery is by far and large a thousand times better then any current default scenery in the current sims!...and that is a proven fact

I must be looking at two different images.

I thought the Microsoft Flight Simulator image looks great. Of course photogrammetry has its merits but also it's downsides as well and all the more remarkable that MFS can get so close using it's Azure AI solutions. The colours are clearly showing a different season, there are plenty of examples where you get more vibrant summer textures in Bing than you do in google, so its part 'n' parcel of the mapping suppliers and when they can provide imagery.

I think Asobo have done a fantastic job, MFS looks very natural to me and I would be delighted to fly to Ibiza and Corfu and all the other amazing islands in the med if they are like this.

8 minutes ago, aleex said:

Just one thing to "complain about". Not a no buy, just something good to be noticed 🙂 

Slightly picky 😉 older planes probably have halogen bulbs, but we know Asobo have put LED's onto there planes, the Cessna 172 has LED lights in it's wing.

There will always be data or processes required beyond the scope of the SDK that hopefully some third party can access. I don't think you can ever say the concept of FSUIPC is redundant unless you understand how FSUIPC has come to exist. However I'm sure in the short term Microsoft will have much greater expansion of data and processes available straight from the core interface be that SimConnect or whatever they chose to call it in the new sim.

Of course it's a different question to ask for backwards compatibility and that I'm affraid would be beyond Microsoft's control, they didn't auther FSUIPC but I'm sure the functionality will be replicatable good word that!

1 hour ago, sightseer said:

In the shot by BonhamFive -- it has a Cessna and a great looking thunderstorm on one side and a yellowish ashy looking pile of clouds on the other --  why are there two cloud color schemes running concurrently?  It just doesnt look right to me.  anyone agree?

Yes agreed 100% and I'm sure this has been raised in there forums 🙂 and if it hasn't, well you tried!

On 3/15/2020 at 5:23 PM, Azzles86 said:

Microsoft announcing that the game is now in alpha release testing .. can anyone shed light on what this means ? 
 

The current release of Microsoft Flight Simulator in testing is an Alpha, this title is just stating that I believe - nothing related to timelines.

There is a lot they haven't shown us, IFR/IFC, multiplayer, missions, Jets, VR? I'm sure we'll be in Alpha for a good few months yet.

On 3/6/2020 at 8:01 AM, Shack95 said:

Leeds, UK

Now that’s a very interesting comparison as many details don’t match: the cars, those football field markings, the field on the left. I could be wrong but I think this is the first time we have evidence of MSFS using different imagery than the standard version of Bing Maps.

Hi @Shack95 I've found the colours to be more vibrant in Bing Maps than in Google, it's one of the more redeaming features of Bing Maps I think.

UPDATE: Ok I've actually checked Bing Maps and wow, that is interesting, a completely different image to the one used in Bing, I've not seen that before.

Even scrolling through the different levels of detail in Bing Maps I can't bring up that image up. Great spot!!!

On 2/29/2020 at 5:54 AM, FDEdev said:

If you don't understand his post, suggest to read his first post in this thread. IMO this clarifies a lot....

 

Yeah it's not Martin's post really it's the entire thread. I'm sure this isn't a closed weather system and all aspect of it can be changed, you've heard whats possible with the audio and airport ground behaviours, I'm sure weather would have had a mention in terms of SDK but that discovery video came out too soon I think. Of course makeup of the clouds can be changed, higher fidelity for some could mean lower fps for others mindyou, Microsoft will have to strike a balance but third parties can of course be a bit more liberal. So yes definately we'll see crispier clouds, different clouds, they may even allow the return of a 2d texture cloud layer for those high altitudes cirrus clouds which I've not seen rendered particularly well thus far.

15 minutes ago, Casualcas said:

Yeah, that's the point of them. People who want to fly and not putz with hardware, installation and configuring. 

Yes you could say it's great value. Frooglesim is sponsered by Jetline Systems but points out you get lifetime support and they can configure and advice on any aspect of simming.

Hopefully going forward that level of support will not be required but for many I'm sure they have been very greatful!

16 hours ago, TuFun said:

Not only Microsoft but the move follows Sony, Facebook, and Unity.

coronavirus

Add to that PlayStation not attending PAX East, these stories are becoming a lot more frequient now and understandbly so.

I love this guys videos, very smooth on the radios, never gets flustered and managed every problem that come to him with ease, makes excellent commentary which anybody can understand and the videos are very well editied.