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(abacus) Cessna

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People actually buy stuff from Abacus?
Hello If it were not for Abacus Title "FS Design studio" the Avsim library would have a lot less aircraft available thats for sure.Without that one program we would not be where we are in the hobby today.

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Hello If it were not for Abacus Title "FS Design studio" the Avsim library would have a lot less aircraft available thats for sure.Without that one program we would not be where we are in the hobby today.
Maybe Abacus wouldn't, but don't tie the other developers to this statement please? I'm sure that FSLabs, PMDG and LVLD have not even heard of this program yet, still produce excellence in their own, very addictive to us, way. :(

Dave Taylor gb.png

 

 

 

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Maybe Abacus wouldn't, but don't tie the other developers to this statement please? I'm sure that FSLabs, PMDG and LVLD have not even heard of this program yet, still produce excellence in their own, very addictive to us, way. :(
HelloI am sure that the LVLD guys have heard of it as the original 767PIC was built using FSDS .And a lot of other nice payware over the years

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Yes Abacus was relevant at one time but they failed to keep up with the increasing complexity of payware so that many addon developers have gone well beyond what they produce years ago in terms of quality and complexity. Just look at any Carenado plane vs. this plane. Last time I bought an Abacus product was for FS2002.

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Guest SF22
Hello If it were not for Abacus Title "FS Design studio" the Avsim library would have a lot less aircraft available thats for sure.Without that one program we would not be where we are in the hobby today.
My first addon for a MSFS was the Airbus Ultimate Collectors Edition and honestly I uninstalled it after a couple of minutes. About 30

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It's all very well looking down your nose at Abacus, but their products helped (and continue to help) sell a lot of copies of MSFS. We may like fancy ultra-realistic FS add-ons, but there are far more FS users who just want a 'lite' treatment of an airliner or fighter plane of the kind done by Abacus that they can pick up from PC World or wherever.Considering that the sales of FS have been bolstered for years by less hard core simmers buying that sort of thing, I think it is a fair bet that if it wasn't for companies like Abacus, FS would have been discontinued long before it made it to the FSX incarnation. And that doesn't even touch on the role FS Design Studio has played in matters, in that it is almost single-handedly responsible for the exponential growth of the freeware community upon which sites such as Avsim were in large part founded.So yes, people do still buy stuff from Abacus, and in fact, they get stuff for free from them too. Check out the free 'Scenery Shortcut' program from Abacus for example.Al


Alan Bradbury

Check out my youtube flight sim videos: Here

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HelloWell said Alan, without FS Design Studio there would not have been anything like the amount of Freeware aircraft availableAnd without Freeware we would not have got the amount of Payware developers that we have now.Thats not to say that Abacus have not produced a lot of poor stuff over the years but they do sell stuff by some very smart folklike Konstantin Kukushkin who wrote amongst other things EZ-landmark which is now Flight1 FSDiscover, EZ-Scenery and EZ-VFR and also Aircraft Animator and most lately Aircraft Facilitator X for Flight1.FS Design Studio has been one of the most important tools written for the hobby, without that program and the free G-max the hobby would never have got this far.

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Guest 413X3

I like their Paint Manager program, but in terms of quality of aircraft, they are a small step above "Perfect" Flight. No disrespect to them because they put out airplanes that a lot of people are quite happy with. Not everyone wants PMDG quality, or even CLS midrange

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It's all very well looking down your nose at Abacus, but their products helped (and continue to help) sell a lot of copies of MSFS. We may like fancy ultra-realistic FS add-ons, but there are far more FS users who just want a 'lite' treatment of an airliner or fighter plane of the kind done by Abacus that they can pick up from PC World or wherever.Considering that the sales of FS have been bolstered for years by less hard core simmers buying that sort of thing, I think it is a fair bet that if it wasn't for companies like Abacus, FS would have been discontinued long before it made it to the FSX incarnation. And that doesn't even touch on the role FS Design Studio has played in matters, in that it is almost single-handedly responsible for the exponential growth of the freeware community upon which sites such as Avsim were in large part founded.So yes, people do still buy stuff from Abacus, and in fact, they get stuff for free from them too. Check out the free 'Scenery Shortcut' program from Abacus for example.Al
I wasn't really looking down my nose at Abacus but since you brought it up I feel compelled to respond.If there is a market for lower quality addons for the non-hardcore flight simmer market that is fine. All power to them to sell products that meet this demand. In their marketing I don't see them necessarily over-promising or trying to say they are top of the line. But then again they aren't exactly saying they are the low end of the market either. It's no skin off my back as I know what their products are and I know I'm not going to buy them but if you do a value for money comparison Abacus' product pricing is definitely out of line. I don't want to use a specific product comparison but those of us who are regular purchasers of addons (I usually spend around $500 a year on addons) know that most developers give you a much better value proposition than Abacus. Just look at the pricing of this product and see what else is out there in the market for a similar price. I would say that a fairer price for the highlighted product would be sub-US$10. So if I have a beef with Abacus it would mostly be this pricing issue. If Abacus is able to sell their products at the prices they are quoting, they are selling to people who are not aware of the overall pricing structure of the market and what alternative products are available.As far as free stuff plenty of other developers give away free stuff - a lot more of it and better quality. As far as Design Studio is concerned there are better alternatives to that as well.The fact is Abacus was helpful and relevant to the hobby at one point but it just isn't so anymore, especially when you take their pricing into consideration.

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> As far as Design Studio is concerned there are better alternatives to that as well.No one is disputing that, but what Al and myself are discussing in FS Design Studios role in furthering the hobby.But go on, name a better alternative other than the free G-max that a newcomer to FS Aircraft Modeling could use, given the knowledge base that has built up around the program.

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It is absolutely true that there are more capable alternatives to FS Design Studio, but perhaps none that are so accessible. I train people on computer software for a living, and when it comes to things like Photoshop, 3DSMax and its chopped down child, GMax, which many use for FS models and repaints, there is a definite steep learning curve, and that's true even for a trainer, since we have to get the certifications to train the things professionally for each new version. If you'd ever gone for even one of even the simpler qualifications, for example the Adobe Certified Expert accreditation for Photoshop, you'd know what a pain in the &@($* that is - it costs 120 quid just to take the exam because you have to know literally everything in the program! A program of that complexity is a frightening prospect to many FS users who simply want to knock up a repaint, and I personally applaud Abacus for tackling that problem to assist the less computer savvy people out there.Simple affairs such as FS Design Studio are something a casual user can easily have a go at and get to grips with fairly quickly, since they are far less daunting, in a similar fashion to the Abacus repainting tools which negate the need to spend a lot of time and money on mastering something like Photoshop. And I do still use FS Design Studio even though I have 3DSMax and GMax, as it is simply a lot less hassle much of the time.Mind you, all this is a bit off topic, so, has anyone bought that Cessna?Al


Alan Bradbury

Check out my youtube flight sim videos: Here

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> As far as Design Studio is concerned there are better alternatives to that as well.No one is disputing that, but what Al and myself are discussing in FS Design Studios role in furthering the hobby.But go on, name a better alternative other than the free G-max that a newcomer to FS Aircraft Modeling could use, given the knowledge base that has built up around the program.
I wasn't aware that G-Max came from Abacus. I will certainly grant you that it still relevant to the hobby. I can't knock the historical contributions that Abacus has made to flight simming.

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I wasn't aware that G-Max came from Abacus. I will certainly grant you that it still relevant to the hobby. I can't knock the historical contributions that Abacus has made to flight simming.
I don't think it does as far as I'm aware.Al

Alan Bradbury

Check out my youtube flight sim videos: Here

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