Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

A very good analysis. If I weren’t so terminally pessimistic, I would agree! :grin:

Seriously, looking at it as you have done, does make sense. :slightly_smiling_face:

Old habits from reading too much information about people generally interested in doing bad things…?

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Most Probably.

As a former intel officer I never say anything definitive…“Most Probably” is as good as it gets. :sunglasses:

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After almost 15 years in LE, believe me I feel yeah!

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I’ve reinstalled FSX just to fly those fun missions again. Still great fun, although the game still runs poorly when putting most sliders to the right and overflying dense urban areas. I think the new FS will run better than the old one on current PCs. Anyway here’s one of the beginner missions. Flying it with Track IR and better joystick sure makes the overall experience much better compared to times I first flown it more than a decade ago.

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A rather interesting video. Well worth watching for the points made. Frooglesim is NOT that excited by this news. Articulate points made.

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Really interesting video. Full disclosure - I work “with” Froogle for PC Pilot, so just figured I’d disclose that relationship. That said, his observations are valid, but I don’t necessarily share his concerns. I’d embrace dropping both FSX and P3D for MSFS 2020 if we get FSX+. I don’t care that I have to leave behind all my FSX and P3D stuff. I’d be happy to do it. Is MSFS 2020 the same entity that FSX was back in 2006…probably not. More or less evil? Who knows? FSX was awesome though. Better on release than P3D was from a content standpoint.

If MSFS 2020 can be the new FSX, awesome. They are entering an arena with better competition than FSX faced though. So they’d better be on their game.

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Best YouTube comment so far (IMHO):

“Maybe I’m missing the point, but I hope MSFS eliminates the need for 50% of the add-on market. I want a base sim that doesn’t require me to spend hundreds of dollars on ORBX and REX products to create a realistic environment. I no longer want to buy, update and lunch 10+ applications to achieve an ‘as real as it gets environment.’ I hope MSFS puts an end to that paradigm…”

Of course, I LIKE some of my add-ons, so I’m being selective about the things I’d like to not buy. Mostly weather add-ons, ATC, traffic…stuff like that. Modules (aircraft) and scenery…I’m OK with, because that stuff does need to be custom made. You can’t really make JFK from satellite photos…at least not believably.

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Yes. You shouldn’t need add-ons for weather.

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I agree.
Proper weather (and for me that includes proper thermals for gliders, with cumulus clouds on top and such stuff) and proper, scalable traffic are two things that I think should be part of the core game.
Same goes for a working ATC.

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Do I care? No. Do I really wan t to leave all that behind if I will need to re-buy and re-install? Also no. i.e. I also hope

MSFS eliminates the need for 50% of the add-on market.

…make that 75%. I have put way too much money in to FSX - scenery and aircraft - to do it all over again.

Plus, that all depends on whether or not 3rd party developers like Aerosoft and ORBX will even make add-ons for the new MSFS. Depending on MS’s business plan for the new MSFS, that may be far from a sure thing.

Agree 100%. But what is MS’s game? How do they plan on capturing a market share? Provide a sim that meets the FS community’s “demands” or will they employ exclusive business tactics to maintain control of and profit from 3rd party developers?

I hope for the best while saving my pennies. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Nostalgia. Regardless of intent, that will be a big part of it.

I never bought into the big scenery investment - I happily enjoyed what there was as I didn’t know what was all out there. Nor did I have a super computer then either.

I’d hope we don’t need add-ons for anything.

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I don’t know, I played MSFS for years with a $40 Saitek “all in one” joystick (Cyborg and then the Av8r). It’s funny, at the time I remember looking at the X-52 and thinking “who the hell pays $150 for a video game controller!?”

Even now, years later, there’s no way I’ve spent more than a grand in Flight sim hardware

[looks over at TMWH with Virpil Warbrd base, Crosswind Rudder pedals, Track IR, Samsung Odyssey VR headset, all sitting in Obutto Revolution cockpit with 40" 4K monitor displaying Chrome tabs opened to Virpils web pages for Tomcat stick and Mongoose CM2 Base, Honycombs yoke and throttle, Amazon pre-order for TM Hornet Stick, and <insert whatever exotic swedish hardware @Troll is cooking up here> ]

Ok.

Fine.

Maybe I spent more than a grand…

[Ignores bins in basement containing CH Fighter stick, Pro-throttle, throttle quad, 2 saitek throttle quads, Saitek Combat Rudders, Assorted switch gear and Leo-Bodnar board that one day will be a flight sim project…]

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Oh man I know, my “casual” joystick is a Cobra that I had shipped over from Europe. Then again, I flew on a Logitech Wingman, and Wingman digital for a looooooooong time, before I finally got a CH HOTAS.

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Developement update on FS site

https://fsi.microsoftstudios.com/

JULY 11TH, 2019 – DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

As the team enters the dog days of summer, we’ve been hard at work putting the finishing touches on many of the big updates we’re planning to share toward the end of summer. Our excitement continues to build, as does our impatience to share this information with you. So we press forward counting down the days until we can open the hangar doors and dive into the details with you.

There are many very important topics being discussed in the community (e.g. New Flight Model/IFR-VFR Flight/Weather Simulation Depth/VR Support, etc.). The team is constantly monitoring the feedback/suggestions being discussed and please know that many of these topics and more, will be covered thoroughly in near future updates.

In the meantime, here’s a work-in-progress screenshot, and confirmation that the Insider Program will be starting in early August as part of our development roadmap kickoff.

On July 25th, we will be releasing another update on our plans for August and September. Until next time, know that the team is excited and anxious to share more information with you.

Sincerely,

The Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

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Wait. So that picture of the six-pack is supposed to be a screenshot…? Wow.

Maybe because it looks like it’s in VR?

hmm

> Spencer first saw footage of Flight Simulator in “probably February or March”, and was so taken aback that he had to confirm with Microsoft’s studios head Shannon Loftis that it was actually real. “There were scenes that look better than photorealistic,” he recalls.
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> If Flight Simulator looks ahead of its time, that’s because, in many ways, it is. Not only do the underlying AI and graphical technologies behind its creation push current gaming technology to its limits, but they begin to surpass them. The geographic data alone, needed to render the world players will be flying around, comes in at two petabytes – equivalent to 20,000 Blu-ray discs.
*> *
> It will be far in excess of what can fit on a disc or be reasonably downloaded, and so Flight Simulator is at the vanguard of a new breed of game that can only live, perhaps fittingly, in the cloud. Microsoft servers will do a lot of the visual processing remotely and beam the results to a player’s screen, doing away with the need for a super-powerful PC at home (though you will need a fast internet connection). This is part of a wider shift that is already under way in video games: as technology improves and developers strive to create ever more realistic virtual worlds, games balloon in size, and the hardware needed to run them becomes more and more expensive. Offloading some of that data and processing to cloud servers is the solution that Microsoft – among other companies, such as Google – is betting on.

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Oh, this is gonna go over well with a lot of the community. Especially for those of us who have two choices for ISP, who are engaged in a competition to see who can charge the most money for the least reliable service.

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Yeah. I have a good connection but my trust of cloud services that can disappear when I want to play, will likely limit my ‘investment’. Maybe I am just a cranky old fart though but that kind of service only works in the best circumstances. Seems like they are trying a different approach to the Xbox controversy?

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