The PMDG NGX has turned me into an FS9er -sort of...

[yellowjack 28]

We spend so much money on flightsim because we want the best not because it is necessary. Any damage to our wallets is self inflicted and voluntary and to quote the RAF motto "Per Adua ad Astra". We all love and hate this franchise at the same time. When "Flight" makes an appearance we will all begin shouting "If only" etc.

[CFIJose 5,485]

Johnny, I agree! I think that most of us who have gone through upgrade after upgrade to get FSX to perform well, knows that it took money and the dedication to get it working. Even with my new system, I still needed to tweak the cfg, inspector, and FSX settings in order for it to work well. If Flight works right out of the box, then that would be a miracle. LOL BTW, all I want is VC rain effects and an ATC similar to Flight Unlimited III. Till this day, I still think about that simulator. It's still my favorite sim of all time.

[kdfw__ 542]

the die hard fs9 users didn't switch to fsx not because of the lack of addons but because of the hw investment required to make it run with acceptable performance. if one bought the best hw for fsx when it came out, would've required another generation of hw--i7--to properly run pmdg ngx. couple this with the sw investment already made and the ability to make fs9 appear like fs9.9 with excellent performance, the result was predictable--a big split in the hobby. now, those who fancy themselves elite simmers where $$$ is no object, this is all nonsense. if this 'flight' thingy comes out and really takes advantage of hw advances and gets great fps with today's average hw, people will go to the platform w/ the eye candy and wait for the addon vendors to follow.

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

the die hard fs9 users didn't switch to fsx not because of the lack of addons but because of the hw investment required to make it run with acceptable performance.

I've read some posts from some die hards that didn't switch due to the addons or lack of for FSX or the fact that they didn't want to repurchase the same addons over again from those vendors who dont offer free versions for both platforms like FSDT or Aerosoft, that's why I made the comment. ALthough I dont know how we can quantify or put a tag on being "die hard" or "hardcore"

if one bought the best hw for fsx when it came out, would've required another generation of hw--i7--to properly run pmdg ngx.

That's somewhat true. I had a new rig built 3 years ago about a year after FSX and could probably use an upgrade about now. Regarding the NGX, I just took some screen shots last night in and around FSDT's KJFK that I am going to post in the Screen Shot forum to give some performance comparisons. I was getting a pretty solid 25 to 35 in the VC and in external views which is pretty good for my older rig with most settings to the high side, but I would definately benefit from running a 64 bit OS with more RAM.

It really all depends on the toolkit MS will provide developers, and how different the development will be between FSX and Flight. A big reason why FS9 broke off from FSX was because of the huge difference in development for these two. So some developers stayed in FS9 world while others started developing for FSX. To me it simply seems like Flight is using the same old engine with shaders, if development for it is similar to FSX, you will be addons propagating into Flight very very quickly.

That would be great if we end up getting addons in to Flight very quickly. In that case, provided that Flight does offer better visuals and performance and we get our addons sooner rather than later I will switch. If not, I will just hang tight with FSX until they start to appear.

[NGXfanatic 85]

Well said Mr. Campbell. I'm looking forward to Flight, but until PMDG quality addons are available, I may just fool around with it to marvel at what is new, but I won't take it as seriously as FSX. Much like FS9 lifers, I empathize with them on the rationale that they invested plenty of money and time on FS9, I feel the same way about FSX not so much about the money, but in time spent tweaking and in adding AI flightplans/models. Seeing that it almost looks like an FSX sp3, I am hoping that Flight! offers some level of backward compatibility (or a conversion program between FSX and Flight files if it's truly a clean sheet design) to allow for a quick portover of FSX addons. If performance is so much better, while also adding much improved visuals or weather behavior, I would drop FSX in an instant if Microsoft offered a way to transition something like the NGX over to Flight! in a short time frame.So, I'm still excited for Flight!, but i'm not anxious for MS to release it in the near future thanks to the NGX. It really has given FSX a new lease on life.

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

Well said Mr. Campbell. I'm looking forward to Flight, but until PMDG quality addons are available, I may just fool around with it to marvel at what is new, but I won't take it as seriously as FSX. Much like FS9 lifers, I empathize with them on the rationale that they invested plenty of money and time on FS9, I feel the same way about FSX not so much about the money, but in time spent tweaking and in adding AI flightplans/models. Seeing that it almost looks like an FSX sp3, I am hoping that Flight! offers some level of backward compatibility (or a conversion program between FSX and Flight files if it's truly a clean sheet design) to allow for a quick portover of FSX addons. If performance is so much better, while also adding much improved visuals or weather behavior, I would drop FSX in an instant if Microsoft offered a way to transition something like the NGX over to Flight! in a short time frame.So, I'm still excited for Flight!, but i'm not anxious for MS to release it in the near future thanks to the NGX. It really has given FSX a new lease on life.

Yep, same with me. It's not about the money, although I would prefer not to have to buy all my addons again, but I would if they were available for Flight. The way I am looking at it is that Flight could be around 6 months or more from release. So once it does come out, it will probably still take at least 6 months or more until we start to see addons. Of course depending on backward compatibility it could be much sooner, but with no compatibility it could be 2 years or more if the 3PD's need to start from scratch. If that's the case I will just wait until Flight addons hit their stride and then jump in.However, depending on what PMDG and LDS do and if they continue to stick to FSX developement then I guess I will be sticking to FSX until they get on board. After waiting 3 years for my a/c I am going to stick with it this time until I can get the same thing by them for Flight.It will be very interesting to see what happens once the 3PDs get the SDK and the whole mystery is resolved around backward compatibility. I am almost more excited to hear about that than I am to hear when Flight will be released. Either way, I am happy with what I have now and if that means 3 more years of FSX so be it.

[Alan_A 1,650]

It really all depends on the toolkit MS will provide developers, and how different the development will be between FSX and Flight. A big reason why FS9 broke off from FSX was because of the huge difference in development for these two. So some developers stayed in FS9 world while others started developing for FSX. To me it simply seems like Flight is using the same old engine with shaders, if development for it is similar to FSX, you will be addons propagating into Flight very very quickly.

One interesting possibility - and please note, this is purely speculation on my part, I have nothing specific to go on - is that some of the more advanced add-on aircraft, like those from A2A and PMDG, might appear in Flight fairly quickly. The reason is that those developers (and probably some others) have transferred so many functions outside of FSX that the aircraft are essentially separate programs, interfacing with FSX but not necessarily depending on it. If I recall correctly, A2A said something recently to the effect that their Accu-Sim modules could be transferred to other sims by building a new interface. That would make logical sense to me, and I'd take it as a hopeful sign. Again, I have no basis in fact for thinking that any of this applies to Flight - but it'd be fun if it did.