I just don't see why all the textures and mesh and who knows what else is needed to sit on my computer when I hardly ever use more than say 30% of it. And then it needs to be updated regularly.I was really hoping for an online satellite image coverage for a truly next-gen sim, something similar to a project that's been around since the FS9 era and is called tileproxy.It pulls the relevant satellite image of where you are from a choice of online satellite image providers and then lays it down to the mesh you are using. Can't get any more realistic, really.Until a sim comes that does this for images and mesh, I will not consider any new iterations of FSX or Xplane to be next-gen.

Bingo!

Not sure your assumptions stand up. Yes the XP 'minimum' means it has to run on a 32 bit system, but the 6G RAM tells us that it can also use more the 4G so must be 64bit capable. I see no reason why they couldn't ship two binaries, one 32bit and one 64 bit. That would silence that part of the FS9 brigade who spent five years claiming that the hardware to run FSX was too expensive so they were not going to upgrade, since the 32bit version will run on whatever box they currently have, and it will remove a lot of the limitations that FSX developers are hitting. I think it is a safe bet that what you can actually do with Flight will be limited only by the resources you have available, so if you want PMDG's 787 and it doesn't run on your box, you can blame PMDG instead of Microsoft.

6GB recommendation doesn't sound like a 64-bit application at all.It's just the 32-bit VAS limit plus a little extra for the system & other programs.

If we wait long enough, we will know for certain.

Not sure your assumptions stand up. Yes the XP 'minimum' means it has to run on a 32 bit system, but the 6G RAM tells us that it can also use more the 4G so must be 64bit capable. I see no reason why they couldn't ship two binaries, one 32bit and one 64 bit. That would silence that part of the FS9 brigade who spent five years claiming that the hardware to run FSX was too expensive so they were not going to upgrade, since the 32bit version will run on whatever box they currently have, and it will remove a lot of the limitations that FSX developers are hitting. I think it is a safe bet that what you can actually do with Flight will be limited only by the resources you have available, so if you want PMDG's 787 and it doesn't run on your box, you can blame PMDG instead of Microsoft.

The requirement for FSX is "1GB or more" and is a 32 bit app.

Speculation time!FactsWhen the Microsoft Aces Studio team was made redundant:- FSX was not complete and had many significant imperfections- SimConnect was displacing FSUIPC but was never completed, although its architectural concept was sound- A number of the Aces Studios personnel started Cascade Games Foundry as a new game developer studio to 'reinvigorate the simulation market'. No product details have yet been announced and CGF has been very quiet publicly.- Microsoft have announced that Microsoft Flight will operate under Games for Windows - LIVE- During the period between FSX release and the present (~5 years?) many exciting new simulation techniques have become possible or are actively being worked on by a number of companies- It would be very damaging to add-on developers if their products had no future in the MS Flight environmentSpeculation- Microsoft's Games for Windows simulator software is solely a world (scenery) simulator, and the aircraft we see on their trailer videos are only for testing the effectiveness of that world simulation. The scenery will be delivered to the user in real time from Microsoft Games for Windows servers- The absolute silence of Cascade Games Foundry is because they are under a Non-Disclosure Agreement with Microsoft to help develop MS Flight, a train simulator and a ship simulator to work under Games for Windows - Live- SimConnect will be completed and will support existing add-ons with relatively little modification- These environments will be announced by Microsoft during December 2011Future Fact!When the announcements are made by Microsoft, I shall be proved utterly wrong ! (LOL)

Speculation time!FactsWhen the Microsoft Aces Studio team was made redundant:- FSX was not complete and had many significant imperfections- SimConnect was displacing FSUIPC but was never completed, although its architectural concept was sound- A number of the Aces Studios personnel started Cascade Games Foundry as a new game developer studio to 'reinvigorate the simulation market'. No product details have yet been announced and CGF has been very quiet publicly.- Microsoft have announced that Microsoft Flight will operate under Games for Windows - LIVE- During the period between FSX release and the present (~5 years?) many exciting new simulation techniques have become possible or are actively being worked on by a number of companies- It would be very damaging to add-on developers if their products had no future in the MS Flight environmentSpeculation- Microsoft's Games for Windows simulator software is solely a world (scenery) simulator, and the aircraft we see on their trailer videos are only for testing the effectiveness of that world simulation. The scenery will be delivered to the user in real time from Microsoft Games for Windows servers- The absolute silence of Cascade Games Foundry is because they are under a Non-Disclosure Agreement with Microsoft to help develop MS Flight, a train simulator and a ship simulator to work under Games for Windows - Live- SimConnect will be completed and will support existing add-ons with relatively little modification- These environments will be announced by Microsoft during December 2011Future Fact!When the announcements are made by Microsoft, I shall be proved utterly wrong ! (LOL)

Very neat speculations. I'd be very interested in this type of system. But I think the more accurate sceneries will come in "modules" or addons via Microsoft. They'll cost ya. Otherwise (hopefully) they'll be using data in much the same way FS98/2000/2002/2004/X does for world wide scenery and the 22,000+ airports.

- SimConnect was displacing FSUIPC but was never completed, although its architectural concept was sound

How exactly was SimConnect "never completed?" It's the interface for every FSX product we sell.

FSX:(Source http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulatorx/product_info.html)Minimum System Requirements

• Windows XP SP2 / Windows Vista / Windows 7
• Processor: 1.0 Ghz
• RAM: Windows XP SP2 - 256MB, Windows Vista – 512MB
• Hard Drive: 14GB
• Video Card: 32MB DirectX 9 compatible
• Other: DX9 hardware compatibility and audio board with speakers and/or headphones
• Online/Multiplayer Requirements: 56.6 kbps or better for online play

Flight:(Source http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/#news-performance_hardware)

We’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

The mention of XP SP3 tells us there that there IS a 32bit version, but, on the same page....

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

This does not mean MS Flight IS 64bit, it means there is no reason to say it is 32bit only.