Additional Clues about MS Flight

[Guest VirtualXpert]

A person going by the name "Jaggyroad Films" has posted some "inside" info about Flight."Oh man, I wish I could share with you some of the tidbits of information I'm getting from developers. I'll say this... developers should be happier with the next iteration of FS. My understanding is it is more geared towards development than ever before. Let's hope the buzz I am hearing from several developers is true."The MS Career/Talent site would seem to support the claim above by indicating that Flight will provide an SDK for third-party addon support."Help define our new partner program, including SDK pipeline and release criteria, to enable 3rd party partners to develop add-ons for our game."The listing also mentions "Other interesting technologies for this team include: 3D Studio Max, Maya"Full job listing (posted yesterday) here:http://www.microsoft-careers.com/job/REDMOND-Software-Development-Engineer-in-Test-Lead-MGS-Flight-Sim-LIVE-Job-WA-98052/760837/Note: the URL contains "MGS-Flight-Sim-LIVE-Job" (MGS stands for Microsoft Game Studios)I'm also encouraged by the following statement about realism, accuracy and fidelity:"The company is offering few details on Flight, but Unangst said that it is looking to appeal to flying enthusiasts with the realism, accuracy, and fidelity they expect, but also imagines including other types of gameplay that might appeal more to novices."To me, this statement indicates that Flight will, largely, be the same flight sim we know and love but with more novice experiences added on top and/or integrated into the sim.Personally, I'm excited about the announcement of Microsoft Flight and look forward to more detailed info.-Thad

[SpiritFlyer 987]

I am very hopeful and looking forward, not backward...Kind regards,Stephen

[poplar 39]

Me too

[maxter 0]

Thats great news if true. While developers like Orbx and A2A have wrung the neck out of the current version, I would love to see what MGS can do with the tech available 6 years on.Cheers and thanks for the heads up.

[Guest VirtualXpert]

Looks like former ACES member Paul "PC-12" is also working on the Flight project. After more than a year of not posting on his blog, Paul posted the following the night before Flight was announced:"Just dusting off the cobwebs a bit. I might actually need to do something with this blog in the future."The next day he posts about the Microsoft Flight announcement. This might be a good blog to check in on from time to time.Link: http://paul-flightsi...om/default.aspxSome other interesting speculation...I wonder if former ACES member Adrian "Torgo3000" (content dev) is working on the Flight project as well. His last blog entry from April of 2009 starts out,"Well folks, I'm still employed at MS (or rather re-employed at MS after having been canned with the rest of the group). And I'm working on an as-yet-unannounced project."He goes on to state the following about his new project,"I will say one thing. Performance is about priority number one from day one on the new project. I definitely learned my lessons from FSX. Creating a flexible content-driven shader system when there is already mountains of legacy content not necessarily authored specifically for that system, and no time to go back and touch every single asset is a BAD idea."Link to post: http://blogs.technet...on-sort-of.aspxUnfortunately, there have been no futher posts by Adrian but if he is indeed working on Flight then it would seem performance is a very high priority for the team.-Thad

[n4gix 4,947]

These are a few of the same "bread crumbs" I mentioned shortly after the official press release was made. Thank you for bringing them back to the discussion. I remember what I read, but often forget where I read them... :(

[january 19]

--------------------------------Some other interesting speculation...I wonder if former ACES member Adrian "Torgo3000" (content dev) is working on the Flight project as well. His last blog entry from April of 2009 starts out,"Well folks, I'm still employed at MS (or rather re-employed at MS after having been canned with the rest of the group). And I'm working on an as-yet-unannounced project."He goes on to state the following about his new project,"I will say one thing. Performance is about priority number one from day one on the new project. I definitely learned my lessons from FSX. Creating a flexible content-driven shader system when there is already mountains of legacy content not necessarily authored specifically for that system, and no time to go back and touch every single asset is a BAD idea."Link to post: http://blogs.technet...on-sort-of.aspxUnfortunately, there have been no futher posts by Adrian but if he is indeed working on Flight then it would seem performance is a very high priority for the team.-Thad

Note that this post is dated some time ago- April 09. That would seem to imply that work on MS Flight has been going on for perhaps 18 months now. Possibly nearer than we have thought.Alex Reid

[ErichB 3,643]

Good finds!

[Benjamin J 751]

If the performace related thing is true, than we have reason to be hopeful. If they deliver FSX with the performance of FS9, we have a real reason to be happy.

[january 19]

In his blog,(cited above by Virtual Expert), "torgo 3000" is quoted as- "I will say one thing. Performance is about priority number one from day one on the new project."Interesting that within 3 months of MS killing FS (Jan 23/09), a new MS project with staff rehires, is in the works! --------------This 18 month old performance comment thus takes on new significance- apparently MS was quite aware at that time, of the poor performance issue with FSX. And so quite promptly started a NEW project- targetting performance! At the time of that quote (April 09, re performance being number one)- FSX was still struggling- the newer high performance PCs were yet to arrive on the scene.These 18 month old musings of torgo are consistent with the point made by Fr Bill/n4gix that FLIGHT is more likely to use the FS9 engine (with improvements) and not that of FSX. One gets the sense from that old blog that FSX was NOT a favourite of MS corporate management!(One also wonders, then, if addons for FS9 may be usable in FLIGHT rather than the other way around. Curious that i/fly first released their 737 for FS9.)Alex Reid

[dmaher 0]

"Creating a flexible content-driven shader system when there is already mountains of legacy content not necessarily authored specifically for that system, and no time to go back and touch every single asset is a BAD idea."

This is an interesting comment.The shader system in FSX was a substantial change from FS9.Sounds like time ran short converting all the FS9 art the new FSX standard.BTW can we turn off FSX’s specular, normal, and reflection features?

[Bob Scott 7,720]

I maintain high hopes, and low expectations...Bob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

[dmaher 0]

One gets the sense from that old blog that FSX was NOT a favourite of MS corporate management!

I’d think management sees the problematic launch of FSX RTM as their own failure. The option for an extension was management’s responsibility.In hind sight, there’s a case to be made the wrong course was taken.That management should have swallowed that bitter pill and granted an extension.Moving the FS project from ACES to MSG should shorten the chain of command.Hopefully the chain of management will have a better point of view on the situation.Of course we can only guess at what was going on.It’s easy to say extension but it would have had critical downsides too.We don’t know :)I think it’s fair to say FSX RTM had serious performance issues.They were largely addressed in SP2. But the PR damage was not :)

[january 19]

I’d think management sees the problematic launch of FSX RTM as their own failure. The option for an extension was management’s responsibility.In hind sight, there’s a case to be made the wrong course was taken.That management should have swallowed that bitter pill and granted an extension.Moving the FS project from ACES to MSG should shorten the chain of command.Hopefully the chain of management will have a better point of view of the situation.Of course we can only guess at what was going on.It’s easy to say extension but it would have had critical downsides too.We don’t know.I think it’s fair to say FSX RTM had serious performance issues.They were largely addressed in SP2. But the PR damage was not :)

Any corporate group/department has to earn its keep. If a project has to be delayed- even for apparently good reasons, tough questions are going to be asked as to how to justify and meet that ongoing development payroll. One can only guess that FSX was released in its state to ensure the next payday & once released and the investment at least partly recouped, the axe fell.As a result, however, it is very likely that Flight will meet all its milestones! Hence the milestones may not be as ambitious as with FSX.-------------------(Quote- "I’d think management sees the problematic launch of FSX RTM as their own failure." Not likely- experience tells us that in any organization: (corporate/government/military/non profit) Upper management is always right -even when they're wrong!) Alex Reid

[HughesMDflyer4 470]

VirtualXpert, thanks for sharing this information! Been wanting to hear some more news about Flight since it's been a while.:(