If Flight were released today there would be many disappointed posters. All Microsoft has has specifically said is it will have::

... new game play elements and enhanced scenery and terrain to new aircraft and integrated content marketplace...

We've alreadty seen examples of both. II'd be interested if anyone can link to more specific statements by Microsoft .

Oh but MGH there are all those highly detailed interviews in P.C.P. that specificly state absolutely nothing!!

Oh but MGH there are all those highly detailed interviews in P.C.P. that specificly state absolutely nothing!!

Exactly. But what I quoted is what Microsoft actually said on the record. I'd love to see any similar on the record statements about the enhancements

Now you're just confused. Imagine if you had add-on scenery that covered all of, say, Australia. Now, when you go log in and fly in Flight, the bits and pieces of scenery data have to be brought from the internet into the flight sim. Now, what kind of an impact would this have visually, and performance wise? Probably a quite noticeable one. The only way for things to work is for the add-on to be installed onto YOUR computer.Add-ons are huge. We all know that some aircraft can be around 100-300MB, and scenery can be over 1 GB. Imagine how long it would take for all that data to be loaded so that you could fly!Now, you could have a set up where you have the add-on installed on your computer, but in order for it to show in Flight, you log in. This kind of set up could still likely be cracked by pirates.

I never said that this idea will be piracy proof but I'm sure that can greatly reduce it.I see your point about addons installed on your PC so lets look at it from a different angle, let say that the virtual world of Flight is available for everybody after buying Flight but for you to fly in Australia you have to pay to be able to fly overthere so nothing is downloaded to your PC but by paying to fly in Australia you have access to it in the virtual world, I don't know how it's done really but like playing poker online you can see your cards but they are not downloaded in to your PC so I assume the same thing can be done with a virtual world, the scenery is not downloaded to you PC but you can see where you are flying.

Actually I see much better sized autogen in the screens of Flight in the FSX/Flight comparison thread. And regarding the store, if FSX SP2/Acceleration addons would be compatible with Flight I think they still need some kind of upgrade. The developer can then use the store to charge you for that.

Agree about the look of Flight, Flight as to be better compare to FSX look and performance wise, if not why waisting time.As far as the developers charging a small fee to have their FSX addons made compatible with Flight (patch).....I don't think so, not enough money compare to a brand new addon and the piracy problem still there.

You can't compare something as trivial to implement as poker (cards can be generated on the fly in code if needed) with something as data intensive as FS.Also, the amount of money directly lost to piracy is highly debatable, but one thing is for sure, the money spent on trying to prevent piracy is clearly gone. So, to spend millions of dollars on anti-piracy solutions to prevent a few thousand pirates from using a game that they would not have bought otherwise anyway and inconvenience the paying customers is not cost effective, in fact it clearly drives paying customers away in some situations.Instead of coming up with exotic DRM implementations, software developers should ensure that their creations are worth buying and that updates are released in a timely manner and are worth getting. The current trend of release with bugs now and patch over the next year is what drives customers away. The industry should focus on fixing that first.

The consensus seems to be that any default sim aeroplanes will merely be bridesmaids in waiting until the payware bride shows up. But what is worth bearing in mind is that even some of the default FS aeroplanes have been pretty good in the past, notably the little Grumman amphibian in FSX, which is as good if not better than a lot of payware offerings.If Flight has some improved flight or weather dynamics, we may find that even the default aeroplanes it comes with can do things payware FSX ones cannot, so we cannot be certain that Flight will be a worthless empty shell until some payware kicks in, especially since if there is improved capability, clearly MS would want something flyable in there that was able to demonstrate such capability. I don't know if that will the case, but like everyone else, I don't know that it won't be.Such improved dynamics are my real hope for Flight, not improved looks. I'll appreciate the improvements in visuals for sure, but above all I want it to be a flight simulator, not an eye candy simulator.Al

You can't compare something as trivial to implement as poker (cards can be generated on the fly in code if needed) with something as data intensive as FS.Also, the amount of money directly lost to piracy is highly debatable, but one thing is for sure, the money spent on trying to prevent piracy is clearly gone. So, to spend millions of dollars on anti-piracy solutions to prevent a few thousand pirates from using a game that they would not have bought otherwise anyway and inconvenience the paying customers is not cost effective, in fact it clearly drives paying customers away in some situations.Instead of coming up with exotic DRM implementations, software developers should ensure that their creations are worth buying and that updates are released in a timely manner and are worth getting. The current trend of release with bugs now and patch over the next year is what drives customers away. The industry should focus on fixing that first.

I'm just saying that I'm sure it can be done.I have to agree with you on the patch released pain in the neck, there is nothing more anoying to me to have to patch a specific scenery or plane 2 or 3 times.You buy a snenery you install it and after a month or so there is a patch to make the scenery FPS friendly...like the developer did not know the FPS impact you would get..HELLO!!I

Back to the original topic:if Flight were released tomorrow I would buy it as long as it offered improved performance and visuals over FSX, both of which have been promised so I have little reason to doubt they will be delivered, magic FSX screenies not withstanding. I would probably still fly all of my favorite 3rd party planes in FSX until a good number of quality replacements showed up for Flight, though. I think I would be less likely to continue to buy add-ons for FSX once Flight is released, also, though I would probably buy PMDG's 737 NGX were it to somehow show up after Flight.

I suspect PMDG's NGX is going to end up in Flight sooner than many people think.Al

I never said that this idea will be piracy proof but I'm sure that can greatly reduce it.I see your point about addons installed on your PC so lets look at it from a different angle, let say that the virtual world of Flight is available for everybody after buying Flight but for you to fly in Australia you have to pay to be able to fly overthere so nothing is downloaded to your PC but by paying to fly in Australia you have access to it in the virtual world, I don't know how it's done really but like playing poker online you can see your cards but they are not downloaded in to your PC so I assume the same thing can be done with a virtual world, the scenery is not downloaded to you PC but you can see where you are flying.

It simply will not work. Cards are not 1GB in size! Since new add-ons are always being released, you can't simply pay and unlock the add-on, and expect it to display. All the files would have to load...imagine someone with a slow internet connection. They would never be able to use their add-on. FS is much more advanced than a little card game.The add-ons simply have to be downloaded to your computer just as they always have.

It simply will not work. Cards are not 1GB in size! Since new add-ons are always being released, you can't simply pay and unlock the add-on, and expect it to display. All the files would have to load...imagine someone with a slow internet connection. They would never be able to use their add-on. FS is much more advanced than a little card game.The add-ons simply have to be downloaded to your computer just as they always have.

:( a little card game.......I played in tounament with over 12,000 peoples to start in it (from all around the world) and that's without counting hundreds of other tournament taking place at the same time and that's without counting other players playing on regular tables, these tournament can go on for over 12 hours and the computer use to do that has to generate cards for everybody + the virtual room for 9 players at the times so it's 1,334 virtual rooms just for one tournament....so it's not a simple thing to do, they also have to generate the graphics for the virtual room, you can also chat when playing....I mean it's HUGE .....Will it be like that for Flight, I don't know but is it possible.....you "betcha".Oh! and by the way, there is no way you could hack the site to cheat or else, trust me security was tight.

As an AT&T user that now has to deal with a traffic cap, I'll take the old model where you download the data once and it stays on my hard drive, instead of having to download it in the background during play.

:( a little card game.......I played in tounament with over 12,000 peoples to start in it (from all around the world) and that's without counting hundreds of other tournament taking place at the same time and that's without counting other players playing on regular tables, these tournament can go on for over 12 hours and the computer use to do that has to generate cards for everybody + the virtual room for 9 players at the times so it's 1,334 virtual rooms just for one tournament....so it's not a simple thing to do, they also have to generate the graphics for the virtual room, you can also chat when playing....I mean it's HUGE .....Will it be like that for Flight, I don't know but is it possible.....you "betcha".Oh! and by the way, there is no way you could hack the site to cheat or else, trust me security was tight.

It doesn't take much to generate a card, which is likely a bitmap of some sort already on the computer. (or part of the game) The game just gets the command to display a certain card for a specific user. That's nothing. But, again, take a 1GB scenery add-on or 300 MB aircraft add-on and make that display for any user within a second. That isn't going to happen. Even if it had to load, it would take forever depending on your internet connection. Your silly card game is not comparable at all to a flight simulator. Get it out of your head.

The consensus seems to be that any default sim aeroplanes will merely be bridesmaids in waiting until the payware bride shows up.

If the bridesmaids are anything like Pippa Middleton then I'd be a very happy man.

HelloI will buy it once Fsuipc for MS flight shows up and drivers from Goflightuntil then I will watch and read with interest.