The teaser is made of computer-generated images based on real film.That's a marketing product, not an in-game product.

Do you know this with a certainty? Do you have a source? I mean, this is 2010 we're talking about and that level of graphics is unquestionably achievable with DX11.

This is really unexpected.I am sure we are a long ways from release, and I've got mixed feelings. On one hand, I was looking forward to upgrading my computer and finally being able to run FSX with decent performance. On the other hand, I hope that Flight represents a fresh new engine which is fully optimized for today's platforms.I will say that this is not good news for add-on developers, at least from the standpoint of my purchase decisions. Until I know more, I'm probably putting a hold on additional purchases for FSX. I love the Orbx stuff, but it is hard to justify buying all of their (for example) North America products when there is potential that I'll be flying a new sim which isn't compatible in a year or two. There was a level of comfort in having FSX as the platform for the foreseeable future which made me more apt to buy enhancements.This may also put off my computer upgrade for a couple more years. There is no compelling reason to upgrade other than FSX. Everything else I have works great.We obviously don't know much, but I like the "dream of flight" vibe in the video. That is what it has always been about for me.

Re: AerosoftMight want to have a look at this thread:http://forum.avsim.net/topic/289615-aerosoft-flight-simulator-2013/page__st__25__p__1797057__hl__aerosoft__fromsearch__1#entry1797057This quote from Mathias kinda says much both about where the Aerosoft sim is and the fs engine:"But when we ask these companies to show something on a round earth, with sight lines of 100 miles, using DX11 and not using more then 30% of resources (we also got to do flight modeling, weather, user interface, online stuff etc etc) you will get a lot less enthusiastic responses. If at all."

Game For Windows Live was originally going to be a pay for service much like XBox Live is, but when PC gamers balked at having to pay for something that they enjoyed for years with other services like All Seeing Eye (bought by Yahoo who later stopped supporting it), Gamespy Arcade, Xfire, Mplayer (bought by Gamespy and integrated into the GS Arcade service) and now Steam and Impulse, MS made GFWL a free service. Yes, you can share friends with XBox Live gamers and in a few instances, play games with XBox Live gamers, but the experience is much to be desired as the PC gamers get a dumbed down game while the XBox gamers get stuff like auto aim so they can compete with the PC gamers (that is a whole other story and why MS killed crossplatform gaming). Still, the other services I mentioned offer as much if not more than GFWL. Xfire even takes screenshots and videos and will upload them to the Xfire servers so you can share your screens and videos along with tracking how long you played a game (or sim).What does bother me is that one will be able to track achievements and as seen with other games, stat whores will do what ever it takes to get to the top of the stats list. Will Flight feature stats that can be tracked online? No one knows right now, but if so, Flight will not be the flight sim many of you think it will be. Hopefully it does not have such features. Will Flight be better than FS9, FSX, or Xplane? I will not speculate, but will wait until more information comes out.

Why? Just because it's a well established platform? Some might argue it actually. The whole concept of creating the FS platform by developers that know what the community wants sounds more delicious to me than a platform developed by MS which is pretty much incognito within the community during the development process.

Because I've seen what happened with FSX. For the longest people were running it looking worse than FS9 and happy as a clam doing so. Even today many are running FSX looking decent but performing well under FS9 with comparable visuals. Nothing new on the front end outside of visuals is that much different than FS9 yet people swear by it. We don't even have to get into the argument raised by developers. So I see no matter what condition 'Flight' is in unless MS cuts out add-on developers completely and/or isolate flying to certain parts of the world where people wouldn't go for it because it's new and make endless excuses to do so (I'm sure MS knows this by the way after seeing what happened with FSX). I would only go for 'Flight' if it fully surpasses both FS9 and FSX collectively. I wouldn't do like what so many have done with FSX and just go for it because it's new and hope hardware catches up with it in time. The sim has to really give me something... I really feel like MS needs a few more wakeup calls before they really get what's made Flight Simulator stay around so long. With firing Aces and targeting this thing to the 'LIVE' platform looks as if the 'game' aspect is still in their system. They got lucky with FSX which has made them feel 'GAME' is the right direction to keep pushing toward. If they release 'Flight' and it's in a state we have no choice but to all out reject it MS will get the wakeup call they need. They'll either drop the franchise or come out with a decent versin under a mantra like, "Flight Reloaded - The Simulator many have been waiting for". They won't market it as a game anymore or at least not in the since they do today because they've gotten finally what FS is all about.

Well like it or not this IS huge news in our simming world. Let the rumors, speculations and accusations begin! Could this be the first time I actually skip an entire version of FS going from FS2004 straight to FSNext (ooops, I mean Flight!)? Which, by the way, what are we gonna call this new version? :( Flight!, Microsoft Flight!, MSF, MF, FSnext, FS11, F-lite (ha!), we need to get our acronyms correct! Time for that new sub-forum. :( I'll put out my first speculation - They probably been working on this thing for almost a year so I'll say it will be released in 2-3 years. ah who needs to fly, let's just babble,Clutch

If that's true, that's really going to shake up the addon industry. I really hope it's not the case.

I agree. If MS makes all dev's for FS go through that process that can't be good.

I agree. If MS makes all dev's for FS go through that process that can't be good.

I don't quite agree. I think a type of quality control can be extremely useful. I only hope that it doesn't mean that we have no freeware stuff anymore. That'd be somewhat of a small disaster in my mind...

That's the rub with most NDA's - you can't even acknowledge that you have agreed to one, nevermind say anything about the product(s) that you might be working with. If they are under an NDA, it could mean they are actively assisting on the new product, but it's more likely that as a 3rd party developer, they are granted insights into the new product or the alpha testing phases, perhaps consulting to give the development team ideas on making the product add-on friendly. Orbx, like many other developers, will probably enter into NDA's to get a peek into the underpinnings of the new title so they can prepare products or services for the new system. Historically, Microsoft hasn't gone to established outside developers to assist on a simulation... while there's always a possibility this will be a "first", history and occam's razor are more aligned with all the 3rd party NDA participants being there for preview and possibly add-on interfacing consultation. I'd love it if I was wrong, but I bet Orbx isn't getting any hand-on time assisting with creating the scenery or back-end code. -Greg

That's not quite accurate! Captain Sim, designed and modeled the FA-18 for FSX/Acceleration! So while rare it's not unheard of to have a 3rd party work with the primary developer.

The teaser is made of computer-generated images based on real film.That's a marketing product, not an in-game product.

Do you know this with a certainty? Do you have a source? I mean, this is 2010 we're talking about and that level of graphics is unquestionably achievable with DX11.

Never forget the classic DirectX 10 teaser "screenshot" that was meant to represent the "possible" improvements that DX10 could provide. In the end, it was a rendered scene which had little to do with anything that FSX could actually do. Just as David has no certainty or proof that the video was a rendered representation, nobody else has any certainty or proof that it is actual in-game footage. The video is VERY appealing, no doubt... but I think that out of an abundance of caution, we should all consider it to be not representative of the in-game experience. It's very important at this stage in the game to not let expectations run rampant. If it turns out that it is rendered, you won't be left with broken expectations. If it turns out that it is actual in-game footage, than you get a nice surprise! I'd rather be surprised than disappointed. -Greg

It is fun to babble and speculate about what might or might not be. Who really cares about the name of the sim and all those peripheral pieces.What we need to know is:1. Will the sim be availble to 3rd party developers to create new rich content(scenery, aircraft, weather, ATC)using the latest tech (this is the most important thing)2. Will 3rd party aircraft developers be able to model highly realistic flight models 3. Will the weather environment continue to be realistic (HiFi-type) -- or just pretty.4. If the 'Live' servers are down, slow or for whatever reason you lose your personal internet connection - can we still fly ?I hope so!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_LiveSounds like Live has binaries that work offline too. I guess the million dollar question will be do you have to get XBOX to run it?

OF COURSE YOU DON'T NEED X-BOX! lolLOOK EVERYBODY- Windows live is simply a gaming network- like gamespy or steam. It allows you to chat with friends, track achievements etc. IT HAS AN OFFLINE MODE. You don't need to be online if you don't want to. It doesn't require x-box, and lastly it is completely free. You can buy add-ons for games through the windows live marketplace, but you can install them other ways too. I have downloaded some add-ons through Live, and installed some through stand alone installers.

The teaser is made of computer-generated images based on real film.That's a marketing product, not an in-game product.

There's zero way to know that. It probably is- you're likely correct, but todays DX11 cards and engines could easily do that in realtime 3D. It would be nice if they give us a beefy DX11 engine.They're all computer generated, and not based on film- the term you want is pre-rendered.

If anyone needs any more proof how dominant interest in MSFS over X-Plane, just look at this post. This teaser shows us next to nothing was posted only about 10 hours ago is already on page 3 with 86+ posts. Meanwhile over in the X-Plane forum, new preview shots of the upcoming X-Plane 10 have been posted 2 days ago and it only has 7 replies. They actually are really quite good. (Night shots)

The add-on market (freeware and payware) is what has kept FS alive all these years. The old MSFS dev team knew that. What the current groups knows one could only speculate.Kill 3rd party addons and you kill Flightsim.But, hopefully, someone from MS will arrive on scene and clarify everything so we don't all get lost in pointless speculation.As a developer, though, my biggest fear is not really the Apple Store concept (which admittedly is a bit irksome as it takes away a bit from the rapport and direct contact I have with my customer bases)... my biggest concern is that instead of having one dominant Flightsim platform, you're going going to have a hugely fractured user base with some users sticking to MS Flight, some going to Aerosoft's new sim, some to X-Plane, and some to whatever else is coming out.Developing for one platform is hard enough as it is.... Developing for three or more would be problematic to say the least.

Don't worry Bryan :smile:Cheers,

Meanwhile over in the X-Plane forum, new preview shots of the upcoming X-Plane 10 have been posted 2 days ago and it only has 7 replies.

Those nightshots are actually stunning.