What was your take?

 

I was shocked that Austin hasn't looked at MSFS for more than 15 minutes in all these years and he doesn't see the AI problem in XPX. Glad though he is moving ahead with some great upgrades, like the built in Ezdok. Have to admit I wish he understood what we XPX converts are used to seeing in a sim.

Yea, I had heard him mention in a previous interview on FSbreak, that he knows very little about MSFS. I was shocked then to hear that because I think its always important to know what your compitition does/did (good or bad) and learn from that.

 

I think the Ai question that was asked was a good one and I was a little surprised by his sort of defensive answer. I dont really care about AI planes flying real world sceduals, this is not a plane spotting program but a flight sim, but I would like to see the proper planes show up at airports, IE no 747's at grass fields etc.

 

I think this will be a project for an aftermarket addon developer to tackle. I got the impression LR wont be addressing this anytime soon.

 

However, It was a great meeting and Im glad he took the time to talk to us about XP10.

 

Rob

Same here, I was the one asking that question and I'm stumped he doesn't realize the limitations of X-Plane AI compared to MSFS, namely the max number of 20 a/c's and the inability to make them follow custom flight plans. AFAIK, in the current state it would not be possible to make add-ons like Ultimate Traffic and the likes for X-Plane.

 

On the other hand, I was happy to hear that we will continue to see small, continuous improvements on the flight model during the V10 run.

 

However kudos to AVSIM for the meeting, it's been a really nice event to participate to.

 

 

Marco

The AI is good at flying the planes realistically and here-in Austin is correct, but to do more with the AI system you have to write a plugin if you want to add some supervisory features.

 

I know one person in the X-Plane.org forums announced he is writing his own AI implementation. His version should have the supervisory AI features FSX users have been asking for.

I too was suprised with the response about the AI. He needs a one minute video of Ultimate Traffic in action!

 

It did strike me that there's a big difference in thinking between what Austin thinks is important and what a mainstream audience thinks. An example of this is his take on development in the next 12-24 months being on 'minor' things like the User Interface and aircraft systems. I'm hoping that eventually LR will see that an accurate flight model is only the start of a good flight sim experience, and that everthing else (i.e. the world in which you fly) is going to be a greater challenge to master.

 

Interesting preview about what's coming up in 10.10, but as mentioned before - he was picking items off a list that he thinks are important. I'm sure there are other important features on the list as described by Ben's blog (specifcally new Art Assetts for the cities).

 

Did I hear correctly that Chris Serio wasn't in the LR team anymore? I didn't quite hear as to whether this was a temporary situation or not.

Hello

Austin seems oblivious as to what the market wants to see in a flight simulator.

In his world it is all about the flight model, but most want a complete experience which is what FSX delivers.

He needs to spend some time with FSX and its Addons to better understand what the market expects.

There are many reasons why FSX is more successful and attracts more development but he seems very blinkered

Hello

Austin seems oblivious as to what the market wants to see in a flight simulator.

In his world it is all about the flight model, but most want a complete experience which is what FSX delivers.

He needs to spend some time with FSX and its Addons to better understand what the market expects.

There are many reasons why FSX is more successful and attracts more development but he seems very blinkered

 

I think you're exactly right, but I wouldn't speculate that he's oblivious to what the market wants it's just that it appears his priorities are different which in itself isn't necessarily a problem so long as he is willing to empower others around him to develop and implement those other aspects into the sim.

 

I got the impression that Austin is giving it his all to make a flight simulator and not just a game, and that he is in it for the long haul, and with 3rd party deveopers on board there will be alot of add-ons for us to pick from.

Attending the town hall meeting got me to download the X-Plane demo and give it a try. Program hung a couple of times on startup, but then it loaded and played.

The X-Plane world without any add-ons is definietly superior in my view then FSX without any add-ons. Will X-Plane with alot of add-ons work as well as it does without add-ons?

I found by accident that the 15 minute time limit in the demo resets when you restart the sim, so I was able to try the heavies, light ga, and the helicopters, all of them worked very well.

Will I be purchasing? not sure at this point.

I found by accident that the 15 minute time limit in the demo resets when you restart the sim...

 

The 15 minutes also stop while pausing and also while a menu is open - so for tweaking and trying stuff it actually gives you more time. You can also continue to fly after the 15 mins - but the controls won´t work (AP will) and you have a screen blocking some of your view that can´t be removed.

 

All in all I think the demo option is very fair - it gives you unlimited time (in 15 minute bites) to try the full featured program - except for terrain outside the (very large) Seattle demo area.

 

Jan

I have to agree that Austin seems more focused on the Sim aspect and not much into the goodies. He seems to be oblivious of all the advances that FSX has gone thru with the use of 3PD support. I hate to say I was chuckling when he mentioned the latest tecnhological advance coming to XPX was the saved camera views that you can bind to a joystick button, I was hollering we call it Ezdok. The one thing I can say about Microsoft is that they monitor what applications most Windows users feel are most valuable and usualy will include it on their next OS version.

Is it possible to read the interview somewhere?

 

Thanks.

Is it possible to read the interview somewhere?

 

Thanks.

 

I think they will be creating a podcast of it over at FSBreak.

Hello

Austin seems oblivious as to what the market wants to see in a flight simulator.

In his world it is all about the flight model, but most want a complete experience which is what FSX delivers.

He needs to spend some time with FSX and its Addons to better understand what the market expects.

There are many reasons why FSX is more successful and attracts more development but he seems very blinkered

 

I regret I couldn't participate in the teamspeak but here we are six months after the introduction of v10 and we are still waiting for a complete product. Six months ! That's about a quarter of the life cycle for an average X-plane version.

 

It would be nice to have a record of what Austin said in the teamspeak, whether textual or aural. So, I will refrain from saying much right now but reserve the right to do so later. I think many here know where I stand, whether you agree or not. But based on the few comments here, the v10 situation doesn't seem much clearer, IMHO. And that's a shame.

I personally do not believe that Austin only spent a total of 15 minutes with FSX or any other popular flight sim for that matter. That is really difficult for me to swallow. I think by stating his limited time allows him to not be compared to or criticized by a side by side comparison. You would think that one would want to look at other popular simulations that contain features that are highly respected by the community. With that knowledge, one has the ability to improve those well liked features in their own simulation. No logic falls on that statement whatsoever.

 

IMHO

I regret I couldn't participate in the teamspeak but here we are six months after the introduction of v10 and we are still waiting for a complete product. Six months ! That's about a quarter of the life cycle for an average X-plane version.

 

V8 life cycle was 3 years, V9 has been 4 years. FS2004, 3+ years. FSX, 5+ years. Life cycle of flight simulators today is longer than it was 10 or 15 years ago. So 6 months would amount probably to no more than 1/8 of its life cycle.