Newsletter + NEW PHOTOS

[alainneedle1 97]

edit: But of course this is exactly what it looks like in FSX and since Flight is just an enhanced version of FSX we are stuck with the same deficiencies.

What!!! What!!! I read something about that somewhere....where....hummmm...

[mmann 72]

What!!! What!!! I read something about that somewhere....where....hummmm...

That's too funny!!Subtle too!!Regards, Mike Mann

[JoeD 0]

Why are some saying that flight is just an enhanced FSX?Were some expecting flight to look totally photo realistic with a PC? Photo sceceney is not even an option if you want autogen world wide so....Personaly, I have all the major graphic upgrades for FSX but IMO, even at this early unfinished stage Flight still looks much better. :smile:Besides, grapics are far from the only improvement to Flight over FSX

[FlyinMisfit 0]

i know it's still early in developement. but the one thing that has always bugged me about FSX and previous versions is...look at the last screenshot(#4) from the Jan 2011 screenies. notice how much above the horizon the sun is and yet how dark looking the sky and terrain is. imho, toooooo dark for the sun to be that much above horizon. not very realistic looking to me. from what i've seen so far, i'd have to say that Flight appears to be nothing more than a refreshed FSX. nothing ground-breaking. i do like the better looking terrain textures. happy flyin, FM

[HughesMDflyer4 470]

i know it's still early in developement. but the one thing that has always bugged me about FSX and previous versions is...look at the last screenshot(#4) from the Jan 2011 screenies. notice how much above the horizon the sun is and yet how dark looking the sky and terrain is. imho, toooooo dark for the sun to be that much above horizon. not very realistic looking to me. from what i've seen so far, i'd have to say that Flight appears to be nothing more than a refreshed FSX. nothing ground-breaking. i do like the better looking terrain textures. happy flyin, FM

Don't glance at the screenshots...look at the screenshots. Study them. There are indeed some major improvements. You just have to look.

[lazarus 1]

Flight is looking great! especially as this will be the default for those who cannot afford the many add ons ( me included ) to spruce things up in FSX. Hopefully they will improve the VC shadowing that was introduced in the FSX Preview

[Guest anthony31fs]

Don't glance at the screenshots...look at the screenshots. Study them. There are indeed some major improvements. You just have to look.

A bit of studying of shot 3 and it looks to me like there are different detail textures for the pathway and the grass. Much more useful to scenery designers than the FSX system where there is only one detail.bmp applied to everything on the ground. Also the shadows cast by the buildings appear to be more fuzzzy around the edges unlike FSX's hard shadows. Still can't see any cloud shadows though.And unfortunately the fourth shot shows about half an hour of daylight left and the stars are already visible. Just like FSX :( and completely unrealistic. Hope MS can sort that out.

[niyoko 7]

Don't glance at the screenshots...look at the screenshots. Study them. There are indeed some major improvements. You just have to look.

Completely agree. The more you look at each set of shots you start to glen the areas where they are making improvements. They choose these pictures for a reason.

[niyoko 7]

***Double Post***

[MatthewS 761]

Why are some saying that flight is just an enhanced FSX?

If it was a new engine we would be seeing drastically different graphics, including cloud shadows and better 'autogen' (partially obscuring distance rivers/roads making them appear better blended).Apart from better textures (cliffs and shoreline) and the 'HDR' effect can you tell me what you see that is actually new graphically?Do you really think MS is going to throw out all the existing FSX code and start from scratch? No, they are simply going to enhance what they already have. Remember MS is a public company and is making Flight for maximum ROI (so therefore the less 'investment' the better for ROI).The only truly new feature I've heard about so far is the LIVE / Marketplace integration. That's about MS wanting to cash in on the 'App Store' craze.Having said all that, any new flight-sim release is welcomed!

[DAD 2,656]

What concerns me about the latest screenshots are that they have an overall cartoonish look, rather than a photographic look...

no concerns here, looks great and superior to fsx to me and that matters, we will have to wait some more years for a complete photoreal sim, just too much data. look alone at orbx pnw, many gigs for a tiny portion of our earth. so yes, I am a very happy camper looking at these pics. great work, microsoft

[mvdb001 0]

In the new pics I don’t see al lot more than what is already possible in FSX, with a few add-ons. Also the focus on the pictures so far is scenery, not the light model and clouds which I am very interested in. I think if Flight really wants to make a step forward in flight simulation, what is needed is a whole new light model, for example cloud shadows and clouds that reflect some sunlight back ect.. Look at the SIMUL weather website and you know what I mean… (http://www.simul.co.uk/weather) those pictures look absolutely stunning!! I really hope flight will make those pictures possible as well! This is almost the only thing I need when I’m flying a 747 at 35000 feet, I don’t get to see a lot of scenery.I really hoop the development team will also work on the looks and feel of the clouds and sky instead of just the scenery… so fare I haven’t seen anything of it but I keep my fingers crossed.Just my thoughts. Cheers! Michiel.

[alainneedle1 97]

Why are some saying that flight is just an enhanced FSX?

Because it is, does Flight scenery look better compare to FSX...yes....is it something new (engine wise).....nop, not from what I'm looking at including some of the same bugs in it....@ everybody saying Flight is in early development....as I remember Flight came out in the open around August 7 last year but we all know that they had to be working on it before that to be able to released some stuff to us right??....so how long before August 7...lets say four months before that (been very conservative here) so lets say May first so here we are 9 month after and we still in early development !!......should we speculate on when they will reach the 1/2 way down the road marker....I'll bet you a lot they are not that early in the development of Flight, ..so why don't we see clouds and trees shadows, more autogen and all that good stuff in there released vid. or pic. will you ask and the reason is...if MS make Flight with all the bells and whistles we ask for to be in Flght what's left for the addons dev. to do.....not much right??We at one point or another were complaining about FSX, DX10 preview not working, popping trees, poor frame rate, flickering runway in DX10, AA not working properly, shimmering, stutterings, light blooms killing frame rate, water at max also killing farme rate and the list goes on and on.....so let say MS fixes all the problems all of us complained about in FSX and they also add other stuff like SLI compatible, the use of more core (6 +), hyperthreading, and name this fixed FSX.... Flight....what a wonderfull thing Flight (bugs free) will be for the addons dev. AND all of us will be enjoying the new addons comming out with clouds shadows just to take this one for example. Alright who wil be the first one to tell me I'm off my rockers again...:( .

[JoeD 0]

Some expect "drasticaly differect graphics" from the averge mid level PC?Are you aware of the computing power that woud be required to compute showdows for every tree and cloud for examlpe?Also, keep in mind that they are indeed rewiting most code so, the developement time frame will be longer than some seem to claim.Flight is not just a 2-3 year upgrade, It's a whole new sim!Perhpaps some are not aware of the many native limitations of FSX code that can not be corrected or built upon and we are already seeing some of the benefits of the new code that would never be possible with FSX?As I have said before, I have all the available graphical upgrades/bells and whistles for FSX BTW, let's all keep in mind that all we have seen so far is a few static images.No, I do not count the videos on the flight site as they are solely intended as a promotional indicator of what tpye of program it will be and are not to be interpited as any any sort of finished or near finished product.:(

[alainneedle1 97]

Some expect "drasticaly differect graphics" from the averge mid level PC?Are you aware of the computing power that woud be required to compute showdows for every tree and cloud for examlpe?Also, keep in mind that they are indeed rewiting most code so, the developement time frame will be longer than some seem to claim.Flight is not just a 2-3 year upgrade, It's a whole new sinm!Perhpaps some are not aware of the many native limitations of FSX that can not be corrected or built upon and we are already seeing the benefits of the new code that would never be possible with FSX? :(

My point exactly, Flight will not be working as good on a mid range PC like Crysis does not work as good on a mid range PC as it does on a high end PC (unless you don't care about high resolution and eyes candy)FSX engine is the best out there for a simulator, it was just not well massaged, trust me they cam improve FSX a LOT, you'll be surprise to see what can be done with this engine. MS is not in the scemery (addons) business so their main goal is to make this engine who work like a truck run like a Ferrari, at the same time the basic scenery will be improved.IMHO it will be up to the dev. to make Flight good looking enough to make us quit FSX.....Because of Orbx and other good dev. we can enjoy FSX in a way we could not before but still you need a powerfull PC to run everything maxed out, here is a 30 sec. vid. I made with fraps when I was tweaking my new rig (hardware wise), no fsx.CFG tweak at all but load radius at 6.5 and TBM at 200 and everything maxed out and no editing....

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