Microsoft Flight: Hawaii Only

[m_av 0]

..... so if Gamespot were to say that it was world wide, would they be wrong?

not quite, but they could have said :"Not meant to be a factual statement !"Works in US politics.

[JSkorna 137]

How do you know that they are wrong?

Because Flight hasn't even begun beta testing yet.Because it takes time to stamp the DVDs.Because Microsoft will give the release date first, not those 2 web sites.Because all they are doing is guessing.Because that time of year is the slowest sales period for new releases.

[n4gix 4,955]

Because Flight hasn't even begun beta testing yet.

In short, it's called exercising a bit of logic, something which seems in scarce supply these days!

[Liz 2]

A bit of logic would include coming to reasonable conclusions, even if it is conjecture, based on the information that is available. Sometimes a person can figure out what 2+2 is without the answer being right in front of them. But, people are different. Some people, most of the time, like to know facts and only facts, and are not comfortable with coming up with conclusions unless the conclusion is given to them. Others can use intuition, environmental knowledge, and foresight and can sometimes come up with viable and accurate predictions. This happens all the time in business and in life. Oh well. I guess all we can do is just wait. I would imagine MS will tell us more in the future, but I could be wrong.

[xpcities 0]

A couple of questions regarding Flight :1. What happens to freeware development and does freeware have to be distributed thru the store ?2. What happens to payware development and can payware be independently sold ?3. If Flight is sold with Hawaii only, how much will it cost in monetary as well as hardware terms for the complete package, assuming they have a complete packge already developed to the extent that Hawaii seems to have been developed?It appears that the store idea puts a crimp, if not a complete halt, on development in general. At the very least, it makes all developers pause to ponder what it means to the individual developers and users in terms of delay, assuming M$ comes out with tools/SDKs simultaneously with the release of the main product.

[Rimshot 1,159]

No answers known yet to all of your questions. You may have noticed though there's a lot of speculation regarding all three

[ryanbatc 13,021]

Huge speculative thread!

[n4gix 4,955]

It appears that the store idea puts a crimp, if not a complete halt, on development in general. At the very least, it makes all developers pause to ponder what it means to the individual developers and users in terms of delay, assuming M$ comes out with tools/SDKs simultaneously with the release of the main product.

It's really not one bit different from the transition from FS9 to FSX, except that then the community had better communications and more information with which to work. Unfortunately, even then expectations and ultimate reality were wildly divergent.As far as development goes, we continue our efforts for FSX, which no doubt will remain a viable platform for many years after "Flight" is released, just as FS9 remains a viable platform for many.

[Propane 16]

I'm late to the party, but just a quick thought that hasn't been posted here yet according to the search function... Didn't FSX use A LOT of bmp files? Perhaps they use a more efficient file format in Flight which might account for the difference in space for a basic FSX install (anywhere between 12,6 and 14GB I believe) and the requirement for Flight?

[HughesMDflyer4 470]

I'm late to the party, but just a quick thought that hasn't been posted here yet according to the search function... Didn't FSX use A LOT of bmp files? Perhaps they use a more efficient file format in Flight which might account for the difference in space for a basic FSX install (anywhere between 12,6 and 14GB I believe) and the requirement for Flight?

They could potentially have eliminated hundreds of BMPs and instead used the DDS format + some compression to help keep file size down. Not only would it decrease install size, but also quicken the loading time of textures.

[Ben Cap 89]

They could potentially have eliminated hundreds of BMPs and instead used the DDS format + some compression to help keep file size down. Not only would it decrease install size, but also quicken the loading time of textures.

HOLY CRAP-- SOMEONE WITH COMMON SENSE!!!

[anthony31 63]

Some people here need to read the Direct X SDK. Specifically the "Windows DirectX Graphics Documentation" and the "Programming Guide for DDS" therein.

[SamSam 0]

They could potentially have eliminated hundreds of BMPs and instead used the DDS format + some compression to help keep file size down. Not only would it decrease install size, but also quicken the loading time of textures.

Well, BMP extension does not mean that they are not DXT encoded. See my draft on fsdevelloper Wiki about FS BMP format. For instance, most of the files in the Texture folder are DXT3/5 encoded depending on their content and have MIPS.And DXT is an algorithm that does not give the best compression rates. Some games package their textures in JPEG2000 and compress them to DXT on the fly.

[mgh 89]

They could potentially have eliminated hundreds of BMPs and instead used the DDS format + some compression to help keep file size down. Not only would it decrease install size, but also quicken the loading time of textures.

My understanding is that those FSX.bmp files that won't open in conventional graphics applications (the majority are already effectively in .dds format.EDITFrom Microsoft's Programming Guide for DDS

The file format implements several slightly different types (DXT1, DXT2, DXT3, DX4, DXT) designed for storing different types of data, and supports single layer textures, textures with mipmaps, cube maps, volume maps and texture arrays (in Direct3D 10/11).

http://msdn.microsof...b943991(v=vs.85).aspx

[Liz 2]

Because Flight hasn't even begun beta testing yet.Because it takes time to stamp the DVDs.Because Microsoft will give the release date first, not those 2 web sites.Because all they are doing is guessing.Because that time of year is the slowest sales period for new releases.

Jim,Don't be silly :) I am not disputing the report of a February release. I too do not think MS will release in February for all the reasons that you mentioned. If anything, they may go Gold in February or March, but certainly not release. The point I was trying to make was about the content of Flight having many missions and challenges. I think that is accurate, or at least very likely.