So where do we go from here? As I see it there is only one way forward. Short version: Developers need to unite and make FS11. Unless that happens I'm afraid the flight sim candle will burn out.

 

As a flight simmer and enthusiast for 20 years I am pretty tired of beating the old FSX horse. Life's too short to install FSX once more. A2A, ORBX, Aerosoft, Flight1, REX and many others have created some stunning things, but the platform is still a dead end. It's just too time consuming making FSX work with all the installs, updates and configurations one has to do. With a day job I just don't have time for it, and so I will leave the hobby too just as all my friends have over the last seven or eight years.

 

Flight did one thing right, and that was making it an online platform with easy to do updates and a marketplace. Lots of potential, but so horribly executed, what a sad day...

In my opinion after this debacle and the negativity of many in the flightsim community, it's over. All you have left now is Austin..How sad.

 

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Why is everyone so concerned about the "state of flight simulator"? As far as I'm concerned, I'm glad MS have realised Flight was even less successful than the previous MSFS series. Flight was a step forward in one direction, and three steps back in another. X-Plane 10 development has increased substantially compared to how it was with X-Plane 9, Lockheed are working on P3D, Microsoft have realised they were better off going down the direction the MSFS series went and, as far as I'm concerned, I'm happy with FSX. Compared to what was going on, in terms of FS, 5 years ago - there's a lot going on.

FSX will do fine for many years to come, and if not X plane 10 then maybe X plane 11 or maybe even Prepar3d or possibly some completely new simulator brand will come and take the place as leading FS. We don't need Microsoft or any other mega corporation to continue our hobby. X plane isn't that bad, if enough third party developers move to it I could see it doing just as well as FSX does.

 

Now after Flight development died future of FS doesn't look any worse than it did few months ago, even if Flight had sold well there is nothing solid to suggest that it would have actually became new leading simulator.

 

In my opinion after this debacle and the negativity of many in the flightsim community, it's over. All you have left now is Austin..How sad.

Why are you so negative? Look at the bright side, Flight has probably given FS community some new members that will still continue their hobby and possibly move to FSX and other simulators out there.

 

Plus whats wrong with Austin? In my opinion shortcomings in X plane are nothing compared to ones we have seen in many Microsoft products lately, think about Windows 8, and in MS Flight too, well not in actual product but its marketing.

So where do we go from here? As I see it there is only one way forward. Short version: Developers need to unite and make FS11. Unless that happens I'm afraid the flight sim candle will burn out.

 

As a flight simmer and enthusiast for 20 years I am pretty tired of beating the old FSX horse. Life's too short to install FSX once more. A2A, ORBX, Aerosoft, Flight1, REX and many others have created some stunning things, but the platform is still a dead end. It's just too time consuming making FSX work with all the installs, updates and configurations one has to do. With a day job I just don't have time for it, and so I will leave the hobby too just as all my friends have over the last seven or eight years.

 

Flight did one thing right, and that was making it an online platform with easy to do updates and a marketplace. Lots of potential, but so horribly executed, what a sad day...

 

I think you are essentially right, but I also think that a lot of people have invested financially, emotionally and otherwise in the current situation. Changing that, in such a fragmented market would be like leading bees in flight. I think it would take an outside agency, and the most likely one has just departed. I simply don't see a plausible way forward, and the options that are mentioned usually boil down to "Its all fine just the way it is." or alternately "Something good will come along"

 

Is that a growth strategy? Or a holding pattern?

 

I keep thinking of the Hy Brazil is sinking scene, from the life of Brian.

I don't wanna remind myself how much money and time I have invested in this hobby. Just got a new rig and almost complete Saitek cockpit eight months ago! But like Microsoft I regard that as 'sunk cost' and move on. It's sad indeed, but me and many like me just don't have time to get FSX running smoothly and when Flight was announced I had this tiny hope that it would become FS11 eventually.

Why are you so negative? Look at the bright side, Flight has probably given FS community some new members that will still continue their hobby and possibly move to FSX and other simulators out there.

 

This is EXACTLY what happened to me.. Flight raised an eyebrow from me after putting FSX on the shelf some years back.. Flight though made me want more and I became more and more separated from Flight once I realized they weren't going to give us "more".

 

Long story short I walked back to FSX and thanks to the INVALUABLE amounts of information on Avsim all the problems I had with it in the past were solved.. I was so entralled with flight simming again I bought Prepar3D.. I have since (walking away from MS Flight) spent at least $1000 between addons and hardware to fuel my passion of flight simming.

 

All because of Flight..

X plane isn't that bad

 

This statement speaks volumes, but probably not the way you intended.

 

Hook

This is EXACTLY what happened to me.. Flight raised an eyebrow from me after putting FSX on the shelf some years back..

 

It was just the opposite for me. I was spending a lot of time flying FSX, with my addons and anxiously awaiting the release of REX Essentials to upgrade over my REX2. I was thoroughly enjoying filing flight plans and flying my 737 IFR from point a to point b.

 

After reading about it, had zero interest in Flight - then a few days after release, thought what the heck I will check this thing out, and that was all she wrote. Have about 160 hours logged in Flight, have not launched a flight in FSX since. And I don't think I really have the taste for it now either.

 

I really did enjoy Flight, will continue to enjoy somewhat what I have with Flight, although knowing the product is dead as far as the future goes, has really put a damper on it for me.

I am not angry, nor bitter, nor do I feel betrayed in any way.

I frankly am just sad.

But I , like the Flight group, will move on and I will find great pleasure with some other flight sims I already have that I have not even begun to spend time with yet, due to being so enthralled with Flight.

I don't believe the hobby is in trouble at all. The 3rd party add on's make this sim completely awesome. The people at Flight pushed ahead with a bad business model and paid very little attention to what the flight sim community wanted.... who would be purchasing their product... who does that ???? Anyway FSX is really great and I look forward to flying it all the time. Flight made NO impact on my flying whatsoever.

 

IMO they should have tried to incorporate the advances they made in Flight into FSX even if it was a complete revamp put in the Jets, Truboprops, Heli's and add the whole world with certain areas in extreeme detail. Even if there was NO backwards compatability allow 3rd party developers to work their magic for whole world scenery, new aircraft with the tools they developed. Allow REX and other environment products to be included. Sell the sim for $70 , $80 or $90 bucks at major retailers, market the hell out of it and make the flight sim community happy. Meaning listen.

I'll miss having new aerocaches, but I still plan on getting a lot of hours of enjoyment out of this game.

 

I never thought of Flight becoming a hobby, but people here did convince be to purchase TrackIR, so I suppose I made a tiny step in the hobby direction with that purchase. Of course I intend on using it for FPS games as well. For me, all games are a short-term passion. Something new will always come along that gets my attention.

 

Hobbyists will always be a small subset of a larger gaming marketplace. For years now games have required more and more development time and money to stay current. Perhaps there really has been a tipping point in the market where the development costs have finally exceeded what the smaller customer base of hobbyists can support. I always thought that was why the focus of Flight was on fun rather than making it "as real as it gets".

 

If everyone on the AVSIM forums was willing to spend $1000 for the perfect flight sim, I still doubt there would be a good profit for such a project in the modern world of gaming given the incredible expectations of such a project and current costs of 3D game development. And I'm certainly not willing or able to invest that kind of money in what I know will be something that I tire of after a few hundred hours.

 

I just hope the MS Flight community here doesn't just vanish because they see no "future" in the game. I am still enjoying it, and still would like to enjoy reading about the experience of others in the game.

Flying my FSX sim is not the same anymore. I still love it but I no longer fly as much as I used to.

 

FSX works great on my computer and the quality of the add-ons keep getting better. But as with anything in life, the more you use a product the less exciting it gets.

 

My mind is now set on getting a homemade cockpit to enhance my simulation experience. I am tired of my monitor and the mouse clicking. I really think I will go with something like this...

 

http://www.jetmax.ca/

In my opinion after this debacle and the negativity of many in the flightsim community, it's over.

 

Hello

The perennial topic "The state of Flight Simulation" has been going on for years and years.

 

But strangely Flight Simulation just gets better and better.

 

We have never had the range of Flight Simulation hardware available to us as we have today, the companies developing and making these controls and avionics must see a future in the Genre.

Me, I have never been happier with my setup and I will continue throwing money at the third party developers both software and hardware to ensure my hobby progresses.

But then I am in this for the long haul.

Come on people, really? If anyone thought that was the future of flight simulation, then all I can say is that their expectations must have been really very low indeed.

Al

 

I personally think that M$ missed a golden opportunity, fundamentally the engine was an improvement over FSX and the game element was fun, i very much liked the idea of structure and goals, something like an integrated FSCaptain or FSPassengers. M$ didn't need to give us the world, why didn't they give us a low defination world, with Hawaii as a taster of what could be acheived, they could have also sold the cockpit less planes on steam that non-serious simmers could buy. The causual gamer would have been happy. But once the buzz had died down and the casual gamers go back to Angry Birds they should have prepared, involved the amazing 3rd party developers FSX had and allowed major changes to the simulation environment, they could still have charged a licensing fee for add-ons that are commercially released, the project cost was already commited, M$ loose no money at all and in fact continue reaping both good will and hard cash from the pro-sim community, as well as the occasional casual gamer!

 

I am utterly perplexed at the logic behind the intial release and the subsquent developments.

 

...By the way Al, does the "Mostly Harmless" title above your picture relate to Elite?

I doubt MS will simply throw the key away on Flight and not monotize the asset by licensing it out to third-parties. The thing is built for addons and has many features that appear to be baked into the code that are not yet activated. They would be insane not to, but then again they were insane to launch they way they did.