Does it really matter which one mattered at the end of the day? WE have record unemployment and people losing homes everyday here in the States and we are on a forum debating on which sim "Matters" I say be thankful for what ever sim you have and the only thing that matters is that you can enjoy it because there are people out there that cannot. :( Just enjoy whatever you have.

I suppose that is a fair comment but what else would you expect on a flight sim forum ??

Does it really matter which one mattered at the end of the day? WE have record unemployment and people losing homes everyday here in the States and we are on a forum debating on which sim "Matters" I say be thankful for what ever sim you have and the only thing that matters is that you can enjoy it because there are people out there that cannot. :( Just enjoy whatever you have.

I've never understood this mindset, there's always some percentage of the human population that is deemed "in trouble", "at risk", etc - should we never have discussions relating to our hobbies then? I guess we should just do away with the internet as a whole until all 100% of the human population is "happy" :->And I'm one of those who's about to lose my job also :->Tim

I've never understood this mindset, there's always some percentage of the human population that is deemed "in trouble", "at risk", etc - should we never have discussions relating to our hobbies then? I guess we should just do away with the internet as a whole until all 100% of the human population is "happy" :->And I'm one of those who's about to lose my job also :->Tim

You make a valid point - that there are always people "in trouble" in the world. But current times are much scarier than usual for a lot more people than usual.As a person who lost his job 17 months ago and will lose his home very soon without some very good fortune, I understand the mindset.

You make a valid point - that there are always people "in trouble" in the world. But current times are much scarier than usual for a lot more people than usual.As a person who lost his job 17 months ago and will lose his home very soon without some very good fortune, I understand the mindset.

Even though I can't say I am remotely close to the magnitude of problems other folks have right now, these are though times for everybody, well, a good part of everybody it seems. While problems cannot go away magically, you can always pause a bit and think about other things, momentarily at least. As long as the exercise does not become stressful, or in the way to finding a solution to problems, it should only help relax a little. If I may be so bold, I'd like to extend a message of solidarity to the friends who are going through tough times right now. Things will get better.regards,Macs

Now that the dust has settled some, it sure seems like we're faced with a technological bottleneck/turning point. No one really knows where hardware/software is going at this point, which is probably one of the reasons why MS cut the development "as was." One symptom could already be found in the hesitations re. singlecore vs multicore when FSX came out. But the changes are more radical than that. There are lots of questions hanging and lots of very different avenues to reproduce 3D: GPUs, CPUs, OS, algorithms, sources... it's just endless. How can a developer build something in such a state of global uncertainty? I guess FSX or XPlane represent the best of what can be achieved with what's commonly available today. And, frankly, although there are differences among 2004, FSX, Xplane, Fly! or even Flightgear , these differences are really tiny when one looks at the big picture: they all *kinda* look alike. Just like all flightsims *kinda* looked alike 20 years ago. Flightsim will have to wait for the course to be plotted. In the mean time, as said above, whatever floats your boat. Or flies your plane.

Im still feeling hopeful about FSNext.We know that ACES was disbanded but then it appears that at least some of the team was reassembled to work on some type of 'flying game'. What makes me hopeful is that flight simulator has always been technically a flying game. its never been a full fledged simulator and I cant imagine (though I have no idea) that it takes tremendous CPU/GPU horsepower to compute flight models. Some of the driving games are visually intense with a lot going on on screen. I have ATARIs Test Drive Unlimited and I think its a lot of fun. I used to have a very realistic simulator type game butI found out it had some type of anti theft protection that some called malware (StarForce). Games dont have to be 100% realistic to still be fun. Im keeping an open mind about whats possible for a flight simulator.As for hardware, I think multi GPU and multi core CPU will both be important for FSNext (or at least they will help).

...its never been a full fledged simulator....

...it says

It also says 'Games' on the box too; in fact it has done for most recent versions of FS (including the Professional editions), so maybe none of us are using it right :( Al

The term "Game" when applied to the FS series is a "legal fiction," added only to keep MS out of the cross-hairs of litigation... :(