May Lockheed Martin take over the virtual world (and more)

[mmann 72]

Microsoft ESP is a commercial visual simulation development platform. ESP is the code that Lockheed Martin bought and now sells as Prepar3D. They did not buy the code for FSX which is the simulator designed and sold by Microsoft for non-commercial use. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Joe Clarke 0]

What about the Railworks graphics engine? Seems to operate fairly well for me... I think it is a Microsoft offspring anyways?

[Blaze 102]

Jumping in Late,,,Based on my experience working with defense contractors I think just about everything Leen has posted on this thread has been right on the money!The other thing that nobody has mentioned yet is its not too inconceivable to think that some of our serious add-on developers might be gobbled up by the ability of LM to offer them lucrative contracts to support their commercial platform. What do you think PMDG would say if LM approached them with an offer to help develop a Boeing 767 Tanker, or offered key positions to Damian Clark to program weather synthesis? John V. recently took some heat for some comments he made about customers during the X-Mas sale at Orbx, Do you really think for one minute that if the price was right he would not consider ditching us, the little "ungrateful" fish, and accept a contract to provide the visuals for a simulation system being developed by a mega corporation like LM?That "wall" that that Mr. Leer has so eloquently spoke of, (I also believe will be built), might not only keep us enthusiasts out but also might pull a lot of professionals in.

[OzWhitey 3,353]

P3D is marketed as being a highly realistic world simulator. But the scenery it comes with is similar to fsx ie decidedly average.Its third party payware that makes fsx shine, and if p3d is to flourish it will need many of these programs ported over. That's only likely to happen if the '50000' simmers get on board.I think thats why lm are courting the serious simmer market. Should be a win for us and a win for them.

[snwboardn 87]

Jumping in Late,,,Based on my experience working with defense contractors I think just about everything Leen has posted on this thread has been right on the money!The other thing that nobody has mentioned yet is its not too inconceivable to think that some of our serious add-on developers might be gobbled up by the ability of LM to offer them lucrative contracts to support their commercial platform.What do you think PMDG would say if LM approached them with an offer to help develop a Boeing 767 Tanker, or offered key positions to Damian Clark to program weather synthesis? John V. recently took some heat for some comments he made about customers during the X-Mas sale at Orbx, Do you really think for one minute that if the price was right he would not consider ditching us, the little "ungrateful" fish, and accept a contract to provide the visuals for a simulation system being developed by a mega corporation like LM?That "wall" that that Mr. Leer has so eloquently spoke of, (I also believe will be built), might not only keep us enthusiasts out but also might pull a lot of professionals in.

Exactly... Especially with the defunding of military applications these military contract organizations are looking to make up for their military contracts on the civilian side. It would not surprise me one bit for LM to start gobbling up things like PMDG...

[magnetite 38]

I'd get on board with Prepar3D, but those license terms is what worries me. XPlane doesn't seem too appealing. I couldn't even get my joystick to work.

[flyingscampi 2]

Well, with the new DX11 impending update, that will likely kill off *all* addons including scenery, aircraft and weather textures etc.

Could you provide a technical explanation of why DX11 would kill off all the add ons? Surely they would only require minor 'tweaking'?

[airlinejets 709]

I cannot see any reason why LM would get involved if their intent is to shut us out of P3D.

They need beta testers.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

Yes, time wll tell. Untill told otherwise by LM, we are welcome to use P3D. The rest is speculation. So let's just enjoy the ride.

+ 10

[RYR738 9]

Nor can I. John Nicol (LM) has been very friendly to hardcore simmers. They are welcoming simmers to come and try it out.Senseless to think that they wouldn't want the hardcore FS industry joining the P3D boat.They also are great with requests in the forum. The devs are active and helpful. I *highly* doubt that they would ever close off there community to simmers.note: Even though P3D might seem like a viable solution, I actually don't believe that P3D is our next sim. I think that our real long term solution is XPlane10. PMDG is now considering using XPlane10 for their future sim of choice. Although XPlane is primitive, it in fact does a have a potential future welcoming *all* on this forum. -- They directly appeal to hardcore users. They actually appeal to users of this forum unlike the boys up in Redmond.

Can you show me where they said this ??I don't think so.Fred.

Microsoft ESP is a commercial visual simulation development platform. ESP is the code that Lockheed Martin bought and now sells as Prepar3D. They did not buy the code for FSX which is the simulator designed and sold by Microsoft for non-commercial use. Correct me if I'm wrong.

You are wrong !P3D/ESP Ver 1.0 IS FSX.Fred. Edited January 6, 2012 by RYR738

[JNicol 17]

P3D/ESP Ver 1.0 IS FSX.Fred.

To be very clear to all and hopefully from the source (me): Lockheed Martin secured the source code for Microsoft ESP v1.0. ESP is NOT the same as FSX although based on the same source code itself as FSX. It is closer to FSX SP2 plus some other stuff, minus some stuff. LM have been continuing development for TWO + years on the original ESP source and have made significant changes to this baseline. Most of the work has been to refactor the original code to allow us to develop on VS2010 and make it fully compatible with Win7. We have made additions to the code to make it more suitable for commercial simulation operations, including changes to the GPS for FAA qualification requirements, sensor views for military and law enforcement operations, bathymetric and land-class changes and upgrades for future non-flight applications, true multi-channel for high-end cockpit simulation applications, multi-touch panel support and many many others. We have squashed many bugs as well and added in more functions into SimConnect for the development and integration community. Although compatibility is maintained as much as possible with ESP and FSX content, the products are probably now so far apart under the hood that I can safely say that Prepar3D is Prepar3D. This work will continue to strengthen the baseline for future enhancements and changes coming. So although the engine and functionality still looks like ESP, which is I guess what the comments are all about (and I understand that), it is laying a great foundation for us.I am not going to answer any of the many speculative comments that appear on these boards or in this post as to be honest my words do tend to get over analysed and simple answers never seem to be enough. Suffice to say that the wall next to my monitor has a dent in it now and my forehead is sore. :( Maybe some of the energy can be directed at letting us know of features that would enhance the application for flight training and simulation use as I am sure that there are many real-world pilots out there that use the application. (Do this on the Feature Request topic on the P3D website forum.) Thanks for your understanding.Regards,JohnPrepar3D

[JasonHarris 96]

I hope it has a bright future for us simmers!

[Ben Cap 89]

Could you provide a technical explanation of why DX11 would kill off all the add ons? Surely they would only require minor 'tweaking'?

New models and animations? And with a new DX11 doubt the older DX based gauges in addon planes would work anymore.

[Dolfijn 0]

I think we can be thankfull that there is an alternative to MS-Flight (Prepar3D). And at the very least, LM is committed to the program and at this moment is delivering software that we can use. In my opinion there is no company that can garantee their support of a product for ever. Which doesn't mean that sometimes they do support a product for a very long time..Peter

[Jacoba 55]

Alot of you here obviously have no clue how the defense industry works...All it would take for P3D to be "put behind a wall", is the stroke of a pen by some unnamed person in the bowels of the Pentagon and POOOOF! Its gone from public view... again LM is not a computer simulation company and its definitely not a computer gaming company. its a high end US defense Manufacture and anything they do is with that focus in mind. Anyone who thinks anything else is setting themselves up for the same levee of disappointment you just endured with MS FLIGHT, you are ignoring all the evidence just like you did with FLIGHT...Must be something in the drinking water these days... logic and common sense seems to be in short supply.