Hello:

 

FYI: I am personally a steadfast enthusiast of the MSFS platform, and generally not a fan of anything to do with warfare. :Peace:

 

 

However, I was recently made aware of a fascinating new "simulator" involving flight and other user pilot-able vehicles, ships etc. which, IIUC, can all be concurrently active on screen in a massively multi-player environment using both on disk and online content

 

 

This "sim" reportedly also allows a form of free-flight without engaging in combat, which is what I found particularly intriguing. :Thinking:

 

 

The rendered appearance of pilot-able objects, scenery, effects, and reported frame rates using newer Direct-X technology is rather impressive. :Hypnotized:

 

 

I'd love to see Lockheed-Martin implement some of this technology into their future work with Prepar3d (aka "P3D"). :Idea:

 

 

 

For those with an interest in what is now possible to do with this type of newer "game" technology on the Windows platform:

 

 

http://warthunder.com/

 

http://warthunder.co...ia/screenshots/

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4qqQqFRHbs

 

 

PS: Virtual Cockpit flyers with Track-IR and/or EZ-Dok might enjoy this live in-sim video (NOTE: audio is in Russian)

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4qqQqFRHbs

 

 

BTW: Observe the highly efficient rendering of the cockpit shadows and scratches in the windscreen which change with angle to the sun, terrain textures, autogen etc. !

 

 

...And another great example of this project's "look and feel":

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hItyYdQxABQ

 

 

 

I hope this might stimulate some discussion and further innovation in preparation for the coming New Year ! B)

 

GaryGB

Wow Gary, some of those screen shots are surely impressive.

No matter what the naysayers say, I believe there is clearly a market for a current new platform for civilian flight simulation. This is not a start-from-scratch proposition as so much of the background work has already been done that was not so available not too many years ago. Moreover, in a global weakening economy there are likely a few game-oriented programmers, Windows game programmers, looking for work. The very fact that MSFS has a relatively large global community for a base package that is over 6 years old now for its current version, PLUS the existence of several 3rd party developers, makes the proposition that the time is quite ripe for a new base platform very feasible. The model MS used, making the basic package w/ robust SDK's, is a proven model. I'd love to see a next-gen platform done in native 64-bit code, optimized for multicore, and leveraging all of this with DX11, is a model that could take flight simulation to a whole new level of realism that is difficult to move towards using code already w/in FSX/P3D. Perhaps LM could do these things and use the code they have to tweak in a big way. The base platform, if done well w/ robust SDKs, means the developer for the base package can focus on the core product--they don't have to do it all! Andd let 3rd party developers have something really special to develop for many years to come.

 

Here's where I'd love to see this go for the new core engine:

• Native 64-bit (32 bit OS is disappearing fast now)
  
• Multicore optimization
  
• Robust implementation of DX11 or whatever is accessible at the time of release
  
• Super high resolution terrain mesh--do the math to determine what machines can handle at the time of release, then put the slider in to move it up even higher. It appears CPU/GPU development for the desktop is slowing--so forward scalability does not need to be as great as w/ FSX perhaps.
  
• ATC modeled after FSX's, however improved quite dramatically. The fluidity and realism in terms of lack of concatenation is superior to everything else out there IMO, it just needs to be made more complex and with more interactivity w/ the pilot ;o)
  
• Basic Autogen can be improved dramatically, accessing DX11 features if that is reasonable
  
• Flight models improved as able. A few basic planes of different types showcasing the potential is good enough!
  
• Dramatically improved water, yes DX11 driven
  
• Basic weather
  

Leave plenty out there to keep the 3rd party devs drooling to develop for. Once they see there is serious service life in the core engine, they have plenty to look forward to as developers. I can see something like this with a service life of 10+ years if done right.

Noel that list is great wouldn't that be awesome lets hope. Oh only thing the thousands of dollars we spend on this hobby would start all over again the only downside.

I agree that the graphics are impressive, but really it's not a sim, it's an arcade game. It's easy to make this type of 'game' look good, what about the HAWX series? It's little more than Afterburner for the tweeting generation.

 

I am more excited by DCS World or aerofly.

No - it's not a wakeup call. P3D is aimed the commercial market, not the games market. FSX is what it is and Microsoft aren't interested in any further developments now.

Yeah it looks impressive but everything is localized. Making the entire world look like that would be a huge undertaking. And the software would have to be online, sort of like MS Flight. We'd be downloading many GB's of data, and probably TB's as you started to collect the entire world.

 

MS Flight could have been the next big thing if they hadn't abandoned ship! (and made a few other adjustments for the serious simmers)...

 

XP10 has some promise but needs much work to get the global quality that FSX has.

Glad you're picking up what I've been covering at our site (and copping flak for it!). I'm very much a futurist, always looking for the next big thing, and I think we've stumbled on it. No it's not YET a sim for navigation etc, but they are building a massive base that will eventually fund such expansion.

 

The graphics are leaps ahead of anything, and fps very high. Flight feel excellent. Yes, between DCS and this, the next gen is looking amazing. I hope this spurs along P3D v2 to be even more of a leap.

Sadly I can't imagine in my wildest dreams that a handful of people over at Lockheed Martin is going to rewrite ESP into anything near a modern game engine.

 

Just flew around in War Thunder tonight for the first time, and it looks pretty good, but lacks variety. If you add a super detailed scenery with massive amounts of varied autogen, complex weather, full scale flight dynamics etc. I'm sure the ride would have been less smooth, but I maxxed almost everything out and it ran fine from the get go @ 60fps. Would have been nice if they made it into something "civil".

Has anyone actually downloaded this and joined the beta? I am curious what it would be like in person - FSX had great screenshots too for its day, but it took a while for systems to catch up with it.

 

John

Of course, look up my WT coverage at our site. All vids are either live or replayed at imperceptibly lower fps, generally 60fps at max settings. Latest FXAA AA settings are crazy good.

Of course, look up my WT coverage at our site. All vids are either live or replayed at imperceptibly lower fps, generally 60fps at max settings. Latest FXAA AA settings are crazy good.

 

I signed up and I am trying to download the beta now to see how it runs on my system, which although a few years' old runs FSX fairly well. But the download is taking quite some time--it's only transferring at <1MBS. Hoping it finishes with enough time for me to try it out today, but I usually turn in for the night fairly early since I wake up early so I can make my 50 mile commute to my office.

 

The youtube videos on your youtube page look good. I generally don't try out combat games but the graphics in this game look interesting and I'd like to try it out in free flight mode.

 

John

John, good luck in your exploration. But it's dog eat dog out there, you will need to go to Missions and edit a new one to create a free flight mode that minimizes unforeseen enemy attacks.

 

You can set up flights in dawn, dusk (both superb), day or night. Weather presets too

John, good luck in your exploration. But it's dog eat dog out there, you will need to go to Missions and edit a new one to create a free flight mode that minimizes unforeseen enemy attacks.

 

You can set up flights in dawn, dusk (both superb), day or night. Weather presets too

 

I gave the program a try--while the graphics looked nice, even at reduced levels, I could not get the program to read my joystick settings correctly. For instance, I assigned the throttle to the throttle axis on my joystick and moving the throttle even showed properly in the "autodiscover", but when I moved the throttle in the tutorial, it did a view "pan" instead. In addition to that, the server kept dropping my connection even though my internet connection was fine. I don't have these issues with other sims I've used, such as XPlane and MSFS and even a combat sim I no longer play. So I think a few kinks still need to be worked out.

 

I don't give up easily however--tonight I will have some more time to tinker--maybe I will have better luck.

 

Unfortunately the sim won't let me create a custom mission until I reach "Level 1" but if I can get things to at least work right in the tutorial, that's a start. As I said though, the graphics are brilliant and I was hovering at 30 fps with my graphics level set to high.

 

John

Yes, I found JS setup a pain too. It does eventually save, make sure you click ok after each axis setup?