Here is some good info:http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/m...ulti-threading/

Here is some good info:http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/m...ulti-threading/

Oh so true!RJ

Here is some good info:http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/m...ulti-threading/

Yup, FTA, it's only texture loading which has been loaded off to other cores, not really the core engine:

The first thread manages the game rendering and processes the artificial intelligence and physics algorithms. On a system platform with more than one core, multiple terrain tessellation simultaneously executes on the second, third, and fourth cores. Digital elevation model loader and texture composition tasks are encompassed in this processing as well.The net results are a lower latency in texture calculation and a much clearer visual image displayed at varying elevation levels. Processing multiple tessellations concurrently ensures balanced usage of available cores and also contributes to significantly faster load times. As figure 3 shows, the level of detail when quad-core processing is involved provides a crisp, realistic image and a heightened user experience.

I think we can be more optimistic: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?t=10082And there is still a lot of room for improvements like the WEI of Win7 is already indicating.

Thank you MS FS team for all those years of fun and enjoyment. Frankly, I don't think MS will do much with FS in the near future.I pray those who lost their jobs can find a new one soon, even if it's temporary. I found out about all this morning when I decided to visit the forum. What a surprise. Although I had thoughts that someday MS would pull the plug, maybe after FS11 or so, but I didn't think it would be this soon. It's sad indeed.David

that's really sad... i really do hope they find jobs :( simulation assurance vie

that's really sad... i really do hope they find jobs :( simulation assurance vie

They have......most of 'em are still working for MS in other parts of the company. Many of those are part of the new team under the ageis of Microsoft Game Studios planning for a future possible release.

They have......most of 'em are still working for MS in other parts of the company. Many of those are part of the new team under the ageis of Microsoft Game Studios planning for a future possible release.

The ones to feel sorry for are the people who were kicked out with 36 hours notice. Any business can and must lay people off if it has no alternative to remaining profitable -- that's not my issue. What strikes me as outrageous is booting people out the door with such short notice.I can't be sure but some/all of them will have been working 80 hour weeks like most of the rest of the team. To reward them with a brutal firing is absolutely outrageous. I told my contact in the former ACES that he'd be crazy to accept a job in the new project on anything but a temporary basis, and that he should be job hunting in the meantime.I don't think he paid attention, but the problem is that Microsoft has already shown him how brutal they're prepared to be when they panic about the business numbers. If he thinks that they won't do it to him again, or that if they do they will, for the second time, give him two months to find a job in a shrinking Microsoft, he's probably badly mistaken. And if the worst does happen, he'll probably have a great deal of difficulty finding a similarly high paying job elsewhere.I have to point out to the world that when the stuff hit the fan DuPont instantly convened a task force that was able to cut company expenses by 10% immediately without laying anybody off, and they plan further belt-tightening without laying anybody off.It's not so much that DuPont cares about its employees, though they do, it's that they understand that holding a team together is very important to their future business. They are taking a long term view rather than letting the mutual fund managers dictate company policy regarding the current quarter's profitability at the expense of the long term, about which the fund managers don't give a rodent's rear.

Hate to be a downer, but this is how I see the future for us simmers:First of all, there will never be another Microsoft Flight Simulator, nor a product from another company using that code base. Microsoft clearly has a low opinion of games unless they can sell XBoxes. For example, look at what happened with Links -- the only other game out there that had the long-term "cult" of FS (in other words, a game whose enthusiasts would, over the years, rush out to buy every new release, and seriously consider buying/building a new computer to take advantage of the performance of that release if it didn't run well enough on their current system). Microsoft buys it from Access, supports it for a few years, then abandons it. They acquire 3DO, maker of High Heat (the best baseball sim around at the time) and don't even bring out a new version, opting to bury it a few months after the merger is complete. Face it, Microsoft's core business is selling Windows and Office to individuals and, more importantly, businesses and hardware makers. Games (unless they sell XBoxes) are a drop in the bucket.Don't expect, once the recession's over, that Microsoft will crank up development again. The people most able to quickly pick up where they left off will be (have been?) scattered to the four winds. And, speaking as an ex-game developer, one of the most difficult jobs of all is to come in cold as a new hire and be tasked with learning and developing from an existing code-base...and that's when the code-base was vastly simpler than FSNext. I would count on at least six months to get a new development team up and running on that code, before even writing a line of their own. That's not an expense Microsoft is ever going to consider. The fact is that the only time to have "reconsidered" was before sending out the pink slips -- a fact I'm sure Microsoft was aware of when they decided to let the axe fall anyway. MSFS is dead and buried -- they'll just sit on the code (maybe using it, as others have speculated, as vaporware to deter competitors) until it's as much of a memory as Pro Pilot or Fly!So, what does the future hold? For a time, FSX will continue in production. But how long that lasts will depend on sales. I'm sure that, even if sales have been steady, they have dropped off considerably since the early days. How long will they continue to provide an income stream that would justify production? A clue will be if/when FSX is moved to some sort of "Microsoft Value Games" line, and has its price cut to $19.95 or lower. That will tell me that Microsoft has determined that the product is no longer viable as a full-priced game, and is merely trying to scavenge some additional profit from the "cheapskate" market. I would guess that, within a year of that taking place, FSX will be quietly taken "out of print," and, a year or so thereafter, the validation servers will be turned off, and that will be that.(A side note: I'm sure there are or will be "validation cracks" readily available online that will work around the latter problem. In fact, I would guess that FSX will continue a shadow existence as a torrent download for some time after it ceases to be available commercially. Since Microsoft will have chosen to stop trying to make a profit from it, I doubt they'd be interested in using their legal budget to stop people from file-sharing what will be for them an antiquated and "obsolete" game. But how many payware developers will be interested in investing their effort and capital producing add-ons for a product that will currently only be available via BitTorrent?)For those of us who already have FSX and a full complement of add-ons, we should be able to get full use out of the game (although, as others have noted, with no great increase in performance over what we're seeing now) for a number of years. The coup de grace will come if and when Microsoft eventually introduces Windows 8/9/whatever, with a new "user-files-and-settings" system that's incompatible with either XP or Vista's way of doing things, and FSX becomes no longer able to run on the new system. That's a number of years down the road, but there's no doubt it will come.The sad reality is that, as long as the flight-sim community remains built around FSX, its days are numbered. If it is to survive, another product (whether the potential new Aerosoft project, X-Plane, or even FlightGear) is going to have to emerge and take the place of Microsoft's product in terms of features, quality, and acceptance by the third-party development community. If that doesn't happen, the reality is that PC flight-simming is on the road to slow but certain oblivion.

a thought...would you continue to sell a program for a 100.00 (now only 50.00) you developed, when a market born of your software is making millions.?And on top of that you have to field a slew of phone calls complaining about "some" 3rd patry developers software , who blame all the problems on you? and how many calls to authorities to report the theft of those add-ons...they certainly have better things to do....... this all started out to show what computers can do (way way back when). FS grew out of the love of the game.and now it's all about money. Which of coarse is needed for one to pay bills with, every one knows that. I think where we've gone bad is the acceptance of that and approval of it.I hear it all the time anymore with a shrug of the shoulders , oh well what are ya going to do. it's all about the money...just pay the 899.00 for ESP or buy X-plane.. or X Box or what ever.I think the worst of it all was the developers who made his or her offering for free and see some members even websitesabsolutely rip a person to shreds over it. even some of those think it's funny to this day,.. probably mock this post. my friends who will escape that society , No One, the truly sad thing is it will fall upon your children as well. We make the world we live in. as for me I'm happy with what I have, I paid for it fair and square. ..... :)FS is not the sum total of my happiness.

JDWalley,That was a very insightful analysis. Thanks for writing it up.

All I have to say is ACES is back and they are now part of Microsoft Game Stuidos, so there WILL be another flight simulator and employees that work there have confirmed that they are back and they are making a new sim, the only thing is nobody knows if it will be a new series, a continuation, or an overhaul, but by looking at the job listings at Microsoft for an art designer for a "new flight simulation" game back in January a week after ACES was cut, shows me that Microsoft is probably looking for fresh ideas and thus needs new people. Steve Ballmer probably thought that FSX was a big failure when it was not. If Bill Gates was there, he probably would have kept them, or just integrated them with MGS (Microsoft Game Studios) and BTW, Bill Gates LOVES flight simulator, and he is the one that licensed it from SubLogic.

All I have to say is ACES is back and they are now part of Microsoft Game Stuidos, so there WILL be another flight simulator and employees that work there have confirmed that they are back and they are making a new sim, the only thing is nobody knows if it will be a new series, a continuation, or an overhaul, but by looking at the job listings at Microsoft for an art designer for a "new flight simulation" game back in January a week after ACES was cut, shows me that Microsoft is probably looking for fresh ideas and thus needs new people. Steve Ballmer probably thought that FSX was a big failure when it was not. If Bill Gates was there, he probably would have kept them, or just integrated them with MGS (Microsoft Game Studios) and BTW, Bill Gates LOVES flight simulator, and he is the one that licensed it from SubLogic.

Do you have any new official sources for your statement about the future of flight simulation in Microsoft? Did Bill Gates tell you personally that he loves flight simulator?

All I have to say is ACES is back and they are now part of Microsoft Game Stuidos, so there WILL be another flight simulator and employees that work there have confirmed that they are back and they are making a new sim, the only thing is nobody knows if it will be a new series, a continuation, or an overhaul, but by looking at the job listings at Microsoft for an art designer for a "new flight simulation" game back in January a week after ACES was cut, shows me that Microsoft is probably looking for fresh ideas and thus needs new people. Steve Ballmer probably thought that FSX was a big failure when it was not. If Bill Gates was there, he probably would have kept them, or just integrated them with MGS (Microsoft Game Studios) and BTW, Bill Gates LOVES flight simulator, and he is the one that licensed it from SubLogic.

1) When you say "ACES is back," do you mean there is a recognized development group within MGS that is recognized as "the Flight Simulator development group," or do you mean that some of the former ACES staff have been hired back for general development at MGS?2) How many of the ex-ACES staff is "back," and how senior were they in the former studio?3) When you say "nobody knows if it will be a new series, a continuation, or an overhaul," does that include the possibility that we're only talking about a Falcon-style shoot-'em-up game for the XBox 360 as a one-off product?While I've never worked for Microsoft (although I did do the interview marathon with them once), I was in the game-development field for around fifteen years, and I'm deeply suspicious of any "Microsoft closed ACES and laid everybody off, then hired them back for a pseudo-ACES group at MGS and had them get back to work on a completely-new attempt at FSNext" scenario. It doesn't seem in keeping with the way the game industry works (in my experience), nor does it seem to make any sense to let people go and hope you can convince them to come back right away (if at all). My guess is that either a handful of ex-ACES staff are going to be making a completely-different and completely-incompatible flying game (as opposed to a simulation) for the console market, or that Microsoft's merely "playing the vaporware card" to nip Aerosoft's proposed FS in the bud. I'd love to be proven wrong, though.P.S.: Whether Bill Gates loves flight simulation or not is rather immaterial, since he is no longer running Microsoft. If he was still in the CEO's chair, it's possible that ACES would have been given carte blanche to make FSNext the greatest sim the world has ever seen. But he's not.

1) When you say "ACES is back," do you mean there is a recognized development group within MGS that is recognized as "the Flight Simulator development group," or do you mean that some of the former ACES staff have been hired back for general development at MGS?2) How many of the ex-ACES staff is "back," and how senior were they in the former studio?3) When you say "nobody knows if it will be a new series, a continuation, or an overhaul," does that include the possibility that we're only talking about a Falcon-style shoot-'em-up game for the XBox 360 as a one-off product?While I've never worked for Microsoft (although I did do the interview marathon with them once), I was in the game-development field for around fifteen years, and I'm deeply suspicious of any "Microsoft closed ACES and laid everybody off, then hired them back for a pseudo-ACES group at MGS and had them get back to work on a completely-new attempt at FSNext" scenario. It doesn't seem in keeping with the way the game industry works (in my experience), nor does it seem to make any sense to let people go and hope you can convince them to come back right away (if at all). My guess is that either a handful of ex-ACES staff are going to be making a completely-different and completely-incompatible flying game (as opposed to a simulation) for the console market, or that Microsoft's merely "playing the vaporware card" to nip Aerosoft's proposed FS in the bud. I'd love to be proven wrong, though.P.S.: Whether Bill Gates loves flight simulation or not is rather immaterial, since he is no longer running Microsoft. If he was still in the CEO's chair, it's possible that ACES would have been given carte blanche to make FSNext the greatest sim the world has ever seen. But he's not.

All I will say is there is a developer on this forum somewhere, his name will go unnancounced, but he has a good relationship wtih the people at MS, and he gave me the details about what media that FSNExt will be on, and if it will be for PC. If he told me, I assume that he can say it to anyone, but I do not want to tell anyone right now, till MS comes out themselves.