Goodbye MS Flight (sim)

[fvapres 7]

They said "hey, where is a beautiful place that if we take screenshots of, we can show how close to reality we can make our sim look?" Someone said "How about Hawaii?" and so they've focused on taking screenshots of the terrain, ocean, monuments, airport environment, weather interaction with the ground, elevated and low-lying, the cityscapes and the local landmarks, just to show us what their product can do. Instead of showing things all over the world, they are showing their product in a limited area so we can see how they started in development and where they're at now. If you look hard enough at the first shots, there are some minor differences in the terrain/trees/buildings quality and the current quality. They were basic structures and 4-sided trees and now fully 3-d trees. The best news I've heard yet is the specs they've been testing for. The screenshot showing low performance mode isn't terrible and the screenshot for high-performance is awesome. The shading on the clouds and amount of auto-gen is awesome.Since FS98, MS has always released a world-wide sim. To do otherwise would be foolish. Hawaii may be the MS addon-quality scenery shipped as default and the rest of the world may be not so great, or it may be just as good. That is the only question I have. Did they basically cover Hawaii only in high-detail or is that all database-driven data a-la-XP10 type openstreetmap type data with autogen placed properly? If so, results should be akin to XP10 for detail levels of autogen. How about roadways? From a few of those shots, not the same flat texture-on-texture that FS has been.I'm not surprised they've released a date. I would presume early-mid next year just so they can iron down their features and let the dust settle on XP10. With nothing set in stone, they can withhold to next XMas if they have to just to make sure their product won't fall flat on it's face. That would give them time to add in any features they would deem necessary to bring the XP10 switchers back to the MS court.Time will tell. We are all anxious for something new and something better than current. No amount of whining or begging will get it in your hands any faster or make you any happier when it does arrive.

[JSkorna 137]

Who has released a date?

[dmaher 0]

Yes the franchise WAS dead at that point, it wasn't until years later that Flight was announced.

Take care not mixup the events.They did not kill the franchise....they moved it to MSG.Microsoft's public relations firm made a statement about that at the time of ACES closing...."We are committed to the Flight Simulator franchise which has proven to be a successful PC based game for the last 27 years. You should expect us to continue to invest in enabling great LIVE experiences on Windows, including flying games, but we have nothing specific to announce at this time."Yes, the talk on AVSIM at the time was about the meaning of the words "flying games". But the statement came from an external MS PR consultant so term really wasn't intended to mean anything - FS is a flying game.Plans for the FS franchise under MSG would have been prepared before ACES was shut.

[Fsau 0]

Point taken dmaher but at the time when ACES was closed I, and I'm sure many others, saw this as the end of MSFS.

[alainneedle1 97]

Hawwwwwww! man.....FLIGHT WILL HAVE A FREEKING MARKET STORE, XP-10 will not......so what do you think they will sell in their store, airline tickets??? The store is not something we are speculating on it's a reality so starting from there what do you think they will be selling in it.....seriously???I will bet my shirt that Flight will not be Hawaii only so from there you may start speculating about why we have not see more plane beside the ones we saw or more places to fly over beside Hawaii.....10GB for Flight, XP compatible..Let me start the speculations, 10GB for Flight will not contain high resolutions (4096) graphics for the whole world like Hawaii does includings buildings and airports, so guess what, if the rest of the world does not look as good as Hawaii BUT the places you want to fly over are available in the store (let say California) looking as good as Hawaii does what will you do...CC ready....enter your customer number in + all the info needed and "voila" ...open your Flight and it's there for you to enjoy, now you want to add a city or an airport made as good as hawaii is....CC ready....As I said before the store will be there to control piracy and we all know MS is in business to make money so do you think you'll be able to buy Miami Extreme (I just made this one up) on a DVD for your own collection....Do I want Flight to look like Hawaii all over the world for $100.00 on one DVD ...do you think that will happen...remember THEY WILL HAVE A STORE...

[dmaher 0]

Point taken dmaher but at the time when ACES was closed I, and I'm sure many others, saw this as the end of MSFS.

Yeah I agree we really didn't know at the time if we'd actually see another FS....And if folks weren't concerned they weren’t paying attention :)These public messages (from game developers generally) are so brief...they take a lot of trust on our part.I think a lot of fans don’t want to just trust the developers; many fans want to be involved and influence the design.Some people feel shutout I suppose...but they shouldn't, this is a busy time for the FS team.

[Fsau 0]

Let me start the speculations, 10GB for Flight will not contain high resolutions (4096) graphics for the whole world like Hawaii does includings buildings and airports, so guess what, if the rest of the world does not look as good as Hawaii BUT the places you want to fly over are available in the store (let say California) looking as good as Hawaii does what will you do...CC ready....enter your customer number in + all the info needed and "voila" ...open your Flight and it's there for you to enjoy, now you want to add a city or an airport made as good as hawaii is....CC ready....

So in your scenario it will be more or less exactly like FSX except MS will be involved in the aftermarket. I've got no problem with this as long as the store in not ONLY MS add-ons, if they allow 3PDs and maybe some quality freeware then I can see everyone being happy.

[pwc1 0]

I'm going to stay optimistic for FLIGHT, yet be cautious at the same time.

[jjjallen 37]

I will bet my shirt that Flight will not be Hawaii only so from there you may start speculating about why we have not see more plane beside the ones we saw or more places to fly over beside Hawaii.....10GB for Flight, XP compatible..

Alain - it will probably be the same situation as with TNCM which was the showcase airport in FSX but on a grander scale. Besides how many ORBX like teams would be required to give Flight primo scenery on a world-wide basis? JMOCheersjja

[alainneedle1 97]

OK let say we all agree that the MS"s store will sell addons and by doing so they will be able to control piracy (not bullet proof but a lot better) now as a 3RD party developer this is very good for me if I sell my addons in MS's store..why..because, even if I have to pay MS (what ever it can be) to sell in their store I will lose less money being protected against piracy.The problem I see is the one Aerosoft (Mathijs) as raised, they are a publishing company with stores in some countries so if they have to sell their Flight's addons only in the MS's store their own store or affiliated stores will not make any money so they have to think hard about going with MS's store only for Flight....and if Flight is the best thing that happen after sliced bread what do you think will happen... (maybe that is why all of them are not happy with MS).MS can't make Flight looking like Hawaii all over the world by themself for sure, how long did it take for us to get some decent payware for FSX and we still don't have them for the entire globe, if a 3RD party developer get onboard with MS they will have to follow MS's rules.Am I right....maybe...am I wrong...maybe but starting from the fact that MS will have a store, stuff will be sold in it so what can they sell we have not see yet??

[Scotty Myers 0]

I am sure it's been said and pondered upon but, for myself being a long-time MSFS (from ver 3) I would like to throwmy few cents in.I am in the process of revamping my rig (erasing FSX from system to re-install everything fresh with new addons) and thought,'hmmm. I am going to expend around 10 hours of major surgery on my rig and yet, MS Flight is coming out... Should I botherto invest $$ and time with new addons just to have to abandon them (if I chose to go FS Flight) or shall I just sit tight andhope that MS comes out with more information ? ?' .....Well. I see many people make the same statement that we as FS enthusiasts would not hesitate to go down the FS Flight highwayas long as we knew something about it (someone made nice comment that we are not see anything relevant from MS except screenshotsevery 30-60 days.. true!).Well, I feel the same.I would not hesitate to throw down $200 bucks on this new sim or continue to evolve my current rig as longas I KNEW something from MS regarding whether people using existing addons (scenery, A/C, utilities, VATSIM, etc) could stillmove it over to MS Flight!As to those who ponder the meaning of Microsoft's many uses of Hawaii screenshots, I think that MS would not exclude the entireglobe and have us purchase world addons. Seems counter-intuitive. Why would they alienate the rest of the FS world save for the USAand Hawaii (yes, Hawaii is part of the USA.. caught me..) ?Maybe they will have country-based releases? Live in Europe? No problem! We give you Europe in all it's glory but we are goingto remove the rest of the globe.. Live in China? No problem either!.. Here's Asia for you minus the rest of the globe!... and so forth.I think our biggest concern is whether or not we can continue to utilize all of the addons (scenery, A/C, etc) in MS Flight.After spending major $ over the past few years and countless hours of time configuring our systems why would wein a sane mind cross over to a new platform and yet have to abandon money and time to the whims of MS?I say we stick to FSX and improve the hell out of it beyond even MS's dreams or keep our fingers crossed and hopethat MS uses some common sense. I am no MS fan-boy by any stretch of the imagination but, lets hope the theyfind two brain cells to rub together to keep this franchise cohesive and fluid.That is my two-cents.FreddyFred

[IAmThWlfMan 0]

Starting to sound like it COULD be squaring up like FS4.. Everyone remembers that with the base scenery areas, and then you could buy Hawaii, Tahiti, Japan and the Grand Canyon.. As said before, its all speculation.. I think fvapres up in post 31 has a very good hypothesis of what COULD be going on.. We won't know anything for sure till it actually comes out..

[Toys_R_Us 0]

Microsoft has openly stated that they are addressing the two biggest problems with the flight simulator; those being frame rates and limited sales due to increasing complexity. Aces was not addressing those issues in a timely manner. In fact they were both getting worse. Phil Taylor saw it coming and moved on before the end. He is now quoted on Wikipedia as stating that there were problems between Microsoft management and the not-so-timely, or unresponsive, nature at Aces. And they obviously got tired of waiting on it. Let's hope that the new product will be at least as good as the past, and put behind the two biggest problems for starters. We all gain directly from the first, and indirectly from the second as the generation of more development money thru increased sales enters the pot.I personally think Microsoft made the right call ! But I also think they have left their loyal customers in total darkness way too long !!!!!! But then that's typical in bureaucracies, where basically everyone is afraid to make a decision if he or she isn't the top dog.Bob - Las Cruces, NM

[Guest HowardHughes]

I say we stick to FSX and improve the hell out of it beyond even MS's dreams or keep our fingers crossed and hopethat MS uses some common sense. I am no MS fan-boy by any stretch of the imagination but, lets hope the theyfind two brain cells to rub together to keep this franchise cohesive and fluid.That is my two-cents.FreddyFred

You could have said the same about FS2000/any earlier version - and you'd have massively missed out.

[Christopher Low 5,325]

I wouldn't consider missing FS5/FS95/FS98/FS2000/FS2002 as particularly heartbreaking. Personally, I thought they were incredibly disappointing.