Microsoft Flight: Hawaii Only

[MikeT707 1,181]

Below are system specs for Flight running on high and low settings. Notice that the Hard Drive space required is 10GB.FSX Hard Drive space requirements is 14GB.Take On Helicopters (a region-specific modern flight game) Hard Drive space requirements is 20GBThe only conclusion that I come up with is Flight will not be a global sim. (I hope I eat my words, by the way)It will very likely be a Hawaii only game that would have a pilot career path based on missions. I also suspect that MS will produce additional Flight titles for other regions, such as San Francisco, Seattle, Swiss Alps, Rio de Janero, etc. By doing this, MS will be able to produce titles that will appeal to a large mass of people that will be interested in flying relatively simple aircraft in scenic locations and earn career advancement via missions and challenges. Additionally, this game could port over to Xbox, adding to the revenue stream. Also, by creating region-specific titles, MS will be able to sell many more units as they would get buyers that will purchase more than one Flight edition, such as Flight: Hawaii Edition, Flight: San Francisco Edition, Flight: Rio de Janero Edition, which can be similar to how they marketed Combat Flight Simulator a few years back.Specs from MS Flight TeamWe’ve found the game runs well on low graphics settings with hardware meeting the following specifications:

• CPU: Dual Core 2.0 GHz
• GPU: 256 MB card capable of shader 3.0 (DX 9.0c compliant)
• HD: 10 GB Hard Drive space
• OS: WinXP SP3
• RAM: 2.0GB

It was also one of our goals to ensure that the game can run well with high settings on hardware that is attainable today. Based on our testing of core scenarios, the game runs smoothly on high graphics settings with the following hardware specifications:

• CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 960 @ 3.20GHz, AMD® Phenom™ II X6 1100T 3.3 GHz or better
• GPU: ATI Radeon™ HD 5870, NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560 or better
• HD: 10 GB Hard Drive space
• OS: Windows 7 64-bit
• RAM: 6GB

[Fsau 0]

It's possible they have just slimmed down the initial install and then you buy high definition areas.10GB is still quite massive, even for a global simulator when you consider that a large percentage of the world is covered in a small amount of repeated textures.You could be right, it may just be Hawaii, the latest screenshots certainly don't offer any evidence to the contrary but I hope you are wrong.Honestly if it does turn out to be a region specific simulator I will lose interest in Flight pretty quickly, there is something so fundamental about a Flight sim retaining complete global modeling, I have fond memories of those transatlantic crossings, or just starting up a flight from an airport whose name I cannot even pronounce. If Flight were to lose this I won't be too keen on buying it, maybe I will pick it up when it goes on sale. At least we aren't stuck without alternatives, Xplane is looking better each day and with engines like Outerra I don't think we will be stuck without choice.

[Gibbage 199]

I think Take On uses all photo real. You can tell that Flight does not by any screenshot.

[fsxkitty 62]

If Flight is Hawaii-only (which I really really really hope not) then it's detail must be pretty good. 10GB is pretty big for a sim which only has one set of islands.What I'm hoping is that detail has been reduced in places that users will never fly to (African countries - Tanzania etc). This way the game size won't get too large and they'll be able to put more detail into places that the user will fly to (USA etc.).

[MikeT707 1,181]

Honestly if it does turn out to be a region specific simulator I will lose interest in Flight pretty quickly, there is something so fundamental about a Flight sim retaining complete global modeling, I have fond memories of those transatlantic crossings, or just starting up a flight from an airport whose name I cannot even pronounce. If Flight were to lose this I won't be too keen on buying it, maybe I will pick it up when it goes on sale. At least we aren't stuck without alternatives, Xplane is looking better each day and with engines like Outerra I don't think we will be stuck without choice.

Very well stated. I think a lot of us on this forum would see this as a big let down.

[HughesMDflyer4 470]

If Flight is Hawaii Only, then they've done a pretty bad job on the detail level. I'm not saying it looks bad, but for it to be only one location, you'd think there would be even more detail. But that this point, it looks like one of the higher-detail areas that the sim will have. For a GLOBAL sim, the detail level of Hawaii is quite high.I typed this late in the evening and was tired, so hopefully it makes sense.

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

I see it this way...My ORBX folder is currently at 48.9 gb and my FSX drive is at 112 gb. When FSX was released it required 14 GB hard drive space and 15 GB for the Deluxe Version, and that was basic scenery by comparison.If MS Flight has the entire world in 10 gb with the detail we've been seeing of Hawaii then something really doesn't add up.The only way I see them delivering the entire world in 10 gb is that 10 gb is for installing the base program only.....then the rest of the world is accessed online through Games for Windows Live, something like how Google Earth works.I still say it is going to be Hawaii Only and maybe other regions in expansion packs down the road. Similar to what Flight Unlimited franchise was like in the 1990'sCheers

[Tierborn 188]

.........Honestly if it does turn out to be a region specific simulator I will lose interest in Flight pretty quickly, there is something so fundamental about a Flight sim retaining complete global modeling, I have fond memories of those transatlantic crossings, or just starting up a flight from an airport whose name I cannot even pronounce. If Flight were to lose this I won't be too keen on buying it, maybe I will pick it up when it goes on sale. At least we aren't stuck without alternatives, Xplane is looking better each day and with engines like Outerra I don't think we will be stuck without choice.

I thought everyone loved Flight Unlimited.

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

I thought everyone loved Flight Unlimited.

I liked Flight Unlimited as it was leading edge...however I always went back to MSFS because it was global, had more 3rd party developers and you could fly Jets to any destinations around the world. Something not possible with Flight Unlimited.If MS Flight is similar to what Flight Unlimited was then they are going back to something that has already been done....and a concept MS criticized back in the 1990's as they claimed to be better then Flight Unlimited.So far we have only seen Hawaii and General Aviation, single engine props, and now only 10 gb to install.......So it looks to me like an MS attempt at a Flight Unlimited concept.Cheers

[FloB 34]

10 GB for a global sim in 2011? No way. Online-in-game loading of scenery? I don't think so.You get what you see: Hawaii in good visuals and some really nice default GA planes. Probably there may be additional areas, planes and missions to buy online. But the world-sim "like we know it" is gone. You don´t drop a famous 20+ years-franchise´s name just for advertisement.10 GB for Hawai only and without photo-textures? One reason for that could be additional mission content like rendered videos, lots of soundfiles etc. That adds up quickly. There could be real seasonal/weather dependent textures too. If they are true, Flight (when it is released) will run smoothly on high setting and a medium-high rig. That the visuals seem rather poor for a small area like hawaii would probably then be a concession to performance.The good news: Flight will be released within 5 months from now. Insider information? Yes, just asked my guts.

[simmerhead 885]

No way they'll make a decent global scenery with just 10GB. That leaves three alternatives:1) A minimum install option like the older FS versions where you could choose which regions to install on the harddrive2) Poor global coverage3) No global coverage

[FloB 34]

If you think about the success of custom scenerys and planes like orbx and carenado do and keep in mind that a lot of simmers and "gamers" take that quality as "state-of-the art" and regard everything else as retarded, it is a quite reasonable approach to focus on smaller areas and a few planes and build them "high quality". A world-sim with 20 default planes would always be a disappointment in visuals and details nowadays. And I´m fine with that.The problem from my point of view is, that we don´t know about the plans for addons and the capability of Flight to have full IFR, ATC, Jets, AI planes etc. and if it will allow 3PDs, or if it will be permanently limited due to the new approach.

[austintan 0]

actually if thats the case, i would switch to XP10. Cos what i want is a flight simulator. If they can port over whatever mission they have and still have the global flight sim (like fsx), i would buy it. Hopefully they are only starting it off at hawaii and progressing to other parts soon...

[speedbird2001 0]

In my opinion, it would be a marketing disaster if Flight was released only for Hawaii. As much as Hawaii conjures up images of tropical utopia, surfing, Steve McGarrett coming up with immortal phrase ‘ Book ‘em Danno’ etc etc, I have absolutley no interest whatsoever in simming to Hawaii. None. I am not sure how many buyers from my neck of the woods would be. For that matter, who, from the US and outside Europe would be interested in buying a Shetland Islands, or Canary Islands only simulator knowing there is no expansion ability. Additionally, I read somewhere (and I do stand corrected if wrong) that most buying simmers in fact come from the European market rather than the US. So Microsoft really would be shooting themselves in the foot especially as Microsoft have in place the mechanics for an entire world simulator. I can live with an ‘all singing all dancing’ Hawaii enhanced simulator, with a slightly ‘dumbed up’ version of the rest of world, know that someone, sometime, will develop the gaps. In fact it would be quite an exciting prospect. Surely Microsoft can see the sense in this ???

[Ops Normal 57]

In my opinion, it would be a marketing disaster if Flight was released only for Hawaii. As much as Hawaii conjures up images of tropical utopia, surfing, Steve McGarrett coming up with immortal phrase ‘ Book ‘em Danno’ etc etc, I have absolutley no interest whatsoever in simming to Hawaii. None. I am not sure how many buyers from my neck of the woods would be. For that matter, who, from the US and outside Europe would be interested in buying a Shetland Islands, or Canary Islands only simulator knowing there is no expansion ability. Additionally, I read somewhere (and I do stand corrected if wrong) that most buying simmers in fact come from the European market rather than the US. So Microsoft really would be shooting themselves in the foot especially as Microsoft have in place the mechanics for an entire world simulator. I can live with an ‘all singing all dancing’ Hawaii enhanced simulator, with a slightly ‘dumbed up’ version of the rest of world, know that someone, sometime, will develop the gaps. In fact it would be quite an exciting prospect. Surely Microsoft can see the sense in this ???

I couldn't agree more. I lost count of the number of times i have done a complete African tour or flew from Asia to Europe simple because i got tired of numerous cross country flights in one country.