I remember when MS released Train Simulator back in 2001 and thought, how cool it would be if they could combine it with Flight Simulator in one "online" world where the train simmers could run all across the country side while the pilots could populate the skies.

 

They could see us and we could see them, just like real life.

 

When Ship Simulator came out in 2009, even though it was from a different developer I had the same "how cool" thoughts... Flight Simulator combined with Train Simulator combined with Ship Simulator all in some online world.

 

Now I know that we have add ons for just such stuff in the FS world. But they are limited.

 

What I'm thinking about is a true virtual world.

 

One that allows all of us, plane, train and ship enthusiasts to explore the entire virtual world together, see each others craft and even interact with each other if need be.

 

Ships steaming in under a bridge as a huge locomotive crossed it, both controlled by real people. While another person maneuvers their 737 on short final into an airport nearby.

 

VATSIM controllers working the ATC, while similar controllers, perhaps yard master, dispatchers etc... controlled the trains. The true enthusiasts could even set up similar systems for the ships.

 

With the takeoff of cloud computing, all this becomes more realistic and even more possible.

 

The world itself could exist inside the cloud, while the interface stays on your HD, along with your add ons.

 

Heck if you wanted to go all out, one could use similar engines that drive Train Simulator to establish, instead of train tracks, highways... where those in to such things could drive trucks, cars etc... around town or on highways.

 

A true virtual world...

 

Why not?

 

I think its very possible and with MS's turn towards the gaming side of the house. You'd think they might think this way too... who knows...

 

If I had the massive investment capital to spend, its what I'd design.

 

A full cloud based virtual world.

 

Where Flight Simulators, Ship Simulators, Train Simulators and yes... even vehicle simulators could all exist in the same virtual space.

 

But, keeping in true legacy flight sim fashion, I'd also include the world scenery with the simulator, so you could maintain and fly in your own private word, with AI etc...

 

People are a bit taken by the Prepared subscription based sim, but I think people would pay a monthly subscription to play inside a well maintained, adequately populated, true virtual world.

 

One not populated by the usual online gaming idiots... who exist more or less to make your experiences horrible or to take advantage of the newbies. Anyone who's ever played Call of Duty online for more than 30 minutes knows what I'm talking about... and it now seems that similar characters have shown up in the online MS Flight gaming...

 

I dunno, maybe this place already exists and I just don't know about it yet...

I would take my 747 and buzz the trains and then try to sink ships. That sounds like fun!

Since we are hypothetically speaking, why not throw in truck sim also? Believe it or not, truck sims have a huge following.

Actually that was the ultimate goal for MS Train Simulator 2 before Aces got canned. It was being developed with the FSX engine, with the intention of eventually interfacing with FSX.

X-Plane the one to watch for the future as it willing to use those cores on your computer and is built for 2008 on up computer unlike FSX. By 2020 we will have virtual world where one could drive on pleasurable highways and towns with major landmarks for USA and Canada and Western Europe it gonna be incremental pace. Flight Simulator and Train, Truck, Automotive will merge into Virtual playground and X plane is heading that way gradually, but other players will enter the fold. Still, see improvements in flight modelings, and equipment will incrementally get better and force feedback will improve. Graphics will be incremental but I think FSX and FS2004 will be played all the time still in 2020 as future sims will miss the improvement on eye candy wont justify the expense.