Good to hear directly from one of the most respected developers in this genre. Regardless of whether FSX is flawed or not, it is what it is, and it is the best that we've got (with no disrespect to X-Plane or other platforms intended).

 

That developers are still enthusiastic about producing products for FSX is good news for us all.

I'm all ears point me in the right direction. Maybe someone can start a thread for us newbies wanting to start running FSX.

 

 

If you are into GA and scenery (like Flight) then I recommend checking out some payware like this,

 

for GA (Note I am pretty much only a tubeliner pilot so I haven't flown these but I always hear good things from them):

 

http://www.realairsimulations.com/

 

 

Older birds (once again haven't flown them but their rep precedes them):

 

http://a2asimulations.com/

 

 

A fantastic twin prop I do own:

 

http://www.precision...uct/js4100.html

 

 

For scenery these guys do fantastic work:

 

http://fullterrain.com/

 

 

I'm not sure if this is the kind of thing you're looking for, they can be expensive but they're much deeper in every way than anything Flight put out.

Presently running Flight on a Windows 7 64bit, I7 quad core. Plenty of RAM GT540M..3GHZ max. 27in external monitor.

 

I plan on replacing my current desktop in the near future .

 

If you enjoy flying small airplanes in Flight, I would start my FSX experience

by purchasing Orbx PNW scenery and RealAirSimulations Scout taildragger.

 

Set the frame-rates in FSX to 30 and use the nvidia Inspector app to set

your video card to 16XAF and 8XS AA, along with Vsynch at half the monitor refresh.

 

Then turn off traffic in FSX and go fly around the Pacific North West. Easy on weather,

start with fair weather or clear skies..

 

With the exception of the Seattle urban area, you should get great performance and wonderful scenery..

Interesting to hear how MS approached A2A just like they approached PMDG to develop for them.

I remember RSR saying that once PMDG said they weren't interested in the direction MS was taking Flight, they were cut completely out of the loop like a lightswitch.

 

I wonder if MS will swallow their shame and contact the same companies they shunned earlier if they decide to make another FS title.

They contacted us for models for Flight. We said no as well... (a year before release)

Good post Scott. Glad to hear FSX is still in the sights for years to come from all the best devs..And P3d will rise and rise, imo

 

People can knock Flight till the cows come home, but because of it I'm here looking for more.

How ironic.

 

See? This is what they were trying to achieve with FLIGHT! :rofl:

 

MS must be laughing all the way to the bank

 

FLIGHT was more of a game than a sim, but what it did, it did well..Let's just pray that Ms sees sense and releases the SDK :Whistle:

 

Welcome aboard, Mike. And what mad dog says about credit cards? Word. My advice? (for what it's worth) get one or two good GA (A2A or RealAir) and a single ORBX area and just fly around for a while; like you were/are just doing in Alaska

 

And read this thread..heh..welcome to FSX in all its glory!

Interesting to hear how MS approached A2A just like they approached PMDG to develop for them.

I remember RSR saying that once PMDG said they weren't interested in the direction MS was taking Flight, they were cut completely out of the loop like a lightswitch.

 

I wonder if MS will swallow their shame and contact the same companies they shunned earlier if they decide to make another FS title.

 

I speculated on the "Flight" forum the sole purpose for having MS controlled DLC was because they wanted to keep any and all profits and not have to share them with 3PDs... Even if they approached many prior to "Flight's" development. They probably thought they were going to market Flight with slogans like "Co-Developed with top flight sim addon makers like PMDG, A2A, etc." to woo the sim crowd when in fact the game itself is nothing but a casual gaming experience to say the least.

 

As for those transitioning from "Flight" to FSX...

 

While FSX looks and performs pretty horribly out of the box, it still offers 100x more content than "Flight" ever did.

 

This is what makes me mad about "Flight" more than anything.

 

The greed that was behind the whole thing. The whole "give you a base product that isn't even a full game and pay-as-you-go" DLC model. That just smacks of pure, un-adulterated GREED and I am glad if backfired big time. I usually don't jump on the "I hate da man" posts, but this was a clear instance (IMO) of greed and not really wanting to produce a quality product, IMO.

FSX might be old, but she's a goodie.

 

At times...

In April I bought XP-10 to start a slow transition from FSX, which I still love and use a majority of the time. I have invested a lot in terms of add-ons, and thank the 3rd party developers for making it so great.

 

A few asked if MS would sell the FSX code or make it fully available to 3rd party. I don't think that would happen, but it would make for a significant life extension, especially with Windows 8 and evolving CPU and GPU architectures.

Well, for me Flight lowered the barrier of entry into sim flying. I enjoyed the free island, but I ended up trying the FSX demo and picking up FSX first because of the depth, variety of aircraft and the whole world was there. Before Flight I had spent a few minutes with older versions of Flight Simulator over the years and never really got past all the commands to get off the ground. With Flight, it got me in the air and hooked. After that I wanted more, but looking at the limitations of Flight, I decided I would print out the FSX command list and see if I could get off the ground and enjoy the demo. Flight was the push I needed to get into FSX and sim flying.

 

After picking up FSX, I eventually bought the Flight collection on sale and I enjoy playing both as long as the servers are still running. It's a sad turn of events for those of us who enjoy Flight, but I always had a nagging feeling that it was a bit of a paid beta with so many missing features. It also felt like someone (or a certain camp) at MS was setting it up to fail from the beginning. If that was the case, I'm not sure why they bothered to release it at all.

 

Anyway, there is a positive side that a few more of us are here in the community enjoying FSX and other flight sims thanks to Flight.

For us, it was the fact that they intended from the get go to not allow any 3rd party development. Plus, the methodology hat they attempted to use (i.e. only external models with no VC) meant a totally unrealistic approach. Very arcade.

FSX is strong and healthy for three reasons:

1. It is the recipient of more time, money, and engineering than any other software platform. Probably well over a 10 to 1 ratio over most other platforms.

2. Outstanding open architecture allows hard working 3rd party companies to thrive

3. Lockheed Martin's P3D keeps the big guns invested in the platform

 

Totally agree Scott. Thanks for the info!

 

Best regards,

Jim

maybe I'm a little too uptight about stuff like this.

 

LOL...I think we're ALL a little up tight about Microsoft doing this...again! <face palm> Now...where was I?....LOL

Not naming names (ahem), but I wonder if certain flight simulation enthusiast websites that both supported and help promote Microsoft Flight might now feel a little guilty about all the people who purchased the program, due in no small part to the aforementioned promotion on said website. Again, I'm not naming names (ahem).

 

I'd feel bad about selling tickets to passengers on a train that I pretty much knew was going to eventually run off a steep cliff, but maybe I'm a little too uptight about stuff like this.

 

Why don't you be a little less obtuse and come out and say what's on your mind? Are you suggesting that AVSIM "sold" or "hyped" Flight and now we should feel guilty about it?

This news has changed nothing for me... and I'm sure there's plenty others out there that will continue to use FSX for years to come.

It lasted about 10 minutes on my suystem. :P

 

Then it was gone!