This is what our flight sims could look like

[HiFlyer 9,359]

very true, though consider the difference in budgets and timeframes required to do this.

 

In the video on the page at the top, nothing cost more than 25k aud to produce (which included design).

 

GTA IV - $100,000,000. USD

 

 

Yup and there are other AAA games that are pushing close to the same budget levels, which kinda shows the type of money they must be expecting to get back from it......

 

My point was really that that level of graphics (and more) was absolutely possible in real-time on present-day PC's.

 

But while you are here, how would you assess Unigine and your programs suitability for a flight sim?

[Nat Harrold 0]

 

Yup and there are other AAA games that are pushing close to the same budget levels, which kinda shows the type of money they must be expecting to get back from it......

 

My point was really that that level of graphics (and more) was absolutely possible in real-time on present-day PC's.

 

Yes, soon that processing will be available on any device (yes even your crappy old iphones ) with a good enough internet connection and the super computing of the cloud graphics warehouses working the hard stuff.

I know of a few companies working at this goal (with successful alpha testing), where they will stream video output to your device from the cloud and be interactive via the realtime input from your device.

 

Bye Bye hardware upgrades...

 

Hello to big data ISP plans...

 

That is the future for gaming...

No more mine is better than yours...

 

Coming soon will be large unlimited detail voxel engines breaking the boundaries as well as unbelievable lighting coming from the unbiased rendering of the raytracers...

 

In addition to the headmounts with near to zero latency.

 

Prepare for the matrix v1.0

[aalawand 3]

I doubt it

[Nat Harrold 0]

I don't mean to highjack, i was not joking or playing make believe.

 

I doubt it

 

Better do some research to get up to speed.

This tech is already advanced.

 

You have to remember how much money is in this, and how much all gamers appetites for best quality graphics are never quenched.

 

Cloud Gaming:

http://www.nvidia.co...oud-gaming.html

http://techpinions.c...e-consoles/6898

 

Voxel engines:

http://www.euclideon.com/company/

http://www.atomontage.com/

 

Raytracing engines:

http://raytracey.blogspot.com.au/

 

Headmounts with near zero latency:

http://www.oculusvr.com/

 

Granted, it won't happen overnight, but it certainly is not far.

[HansRoaming 73]

I have to back up Nat here and say from an enterprise architecture point of view we're doing a similar approach to be completely scalable and to reach as many channels as we can. Today it is straightforward to say deal with something going viral and to scale on demand using cloud resources where nearly infinite computing power can be had for next to zero cost.

[HiFlyer 9,359]

Last I knew, euclideon was still more than a little controversial as to some of its claims..........

 

The real time GPU tracing you linked looks like a mod of an old scene demo named fr-041_debris done by one of my favorite scene groups, farbrausch etc..... (I still have that demo on my machine, but its from years ago)

 

I will look into the rest, but these claims have been around for some time with little practical to show for it...... :(

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some cool info for those unfamiliar with the Demoscene: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene

[John Trim 0]

This is beautiful graphics but I'd rather be riding my horse through it than flying high over it.

[Robert McDonald 167]

Yeah, but what's like on frames? B)

 

Here are the results I obtained using a EVGA GTX690 dual-gpu card on i7 2600k running 4.7ghz 16GB ram:

 

 

Anti-Aliasing set at 4x for the benchmark. Unigine's game engine technology is used in several video games at present. I think it would be insane if a flight/rail/boat sim could be built on this - but the scope of rendering the entire planet in photo-realistic scenery - that would be something in the 'highly unlikely' realm. File sizes alone would probably be prohibitive... that said, it would be LIGHTS OUT better than Microsoft Flight, eh? Picture this as a VFR flight in MS Flight... a bit better scenery?

 

Note to self: FINALLY something I can use my GTX690 on! Thank you Howard, for posting.

[Guest]

Interesting stuff. One remark: why do some people say creating a flight sim with this engine is impossible because it would take a life time to create the entire world with this kind of scenery....? Who ever said a flight sim HAS to have the entire world in it in order to be a flight sim? Release something with the size of Flight unlimited with this engine and you've got one copy sold!

 

In other words: try to think a bit out of the FSX-box. ^_^ If a small company can come up with something like Aerofly FS another small company should be able to come up with something similar but with real next gen graphics. ^_^

[tttocs 301]

Release something with the size of Flight unlimited with this engine and you've got one copy sold!

 

In other words: try to think a bit out of the FSX-box.

 

I don't think it has as much to do with "FSX-box" thinking as it does broad appeal. Some people (and I'm one of them :mellow: ) want to fly where they want to fly, in my case the western US and Canada. Others want fly in Europe, or Australia or.. While I would certainly TRY a good looking sim platform initially limited to a different area if it offered sufficient interest, I can't imagine committing to it if it didn't offer the areas I want, or at least a planned enhancement to allow it..

 

Remember, there are a lot of different reasons we sim, and for many of us location is critical.

 

Scott

[HiFlyer 9,359]

Hmmmm....... Barring an Outerra style engine, I can't imagine who would tackle the whole world again anytime soon. Microsoft had the money, and pulled it off at a time when sims were still popular, but I think even they did it more as a prestige project. The next nearest competitor hasn't even tried to match that as far as placing all airports and anything resembling worldwide landmarks, not to mention seasons and such........

 

When Microsoft did wander back onto the field, their goals were a lot narrower (and probably more realistic) and after failing, they've departed the scene apparently permanently........

 

So........ who else would attempt anything that ambitious again? Especially when the market is so much smaller and presumably the financial rewards as well? Aerosoft is doing the Schrodingers "Cat is both dead and alive" thing on their project, and if P3D covers the world it will only be be by dint of reviving FSX's remains........ :unsure:

 

Aerofly? I am gonna say they are too small, and while War Thunder is going like gangbusters and seems cash flush, I suspect they are not "simmy" enough.......

 

I am tending to agree with Jeroen that it might be time to rethink things......

[tttocs 301]

Aerosoft is doing the Schrodingers "Cat is both dead and alive" thing on their project,

 

Too funny! I love it. So as long as we don't check - there's hope. :lol:

 

Scott

[Simmo W 24]

I just logged into War Thunder to check out their player numbers after your comment Devon. Before going Open Beta, I was quite pleased at around 2500 online. Just now it was almost 9000! At peak I'm hearing it's around 50,000.

 

I doubt they'll be going GA soon. If only. A couple of random pics I just took. Arrgh, you'll make me get back into playing it!

 

Notice the wildly fluctuating FPS, it can't cope with my maxed out settings :lol:

 

 

[HiFlyer 9,359]

Yup

I just logged into War Thunder to check out their player numbers after your comment Devon. Before going Open Beta, I was quite pleased at around 2500 online. Just now it was almost 9000! At peak I'm hearing it's around 50,000.

 

I doubt they'll be going GA soon. If only. A couple of random pics I just took. Arrgh, you'll make me get back into playing it!

 

Notice the wildly fluctuating FPS, it can't cope with my maxed out settings :lol:

 

Yup. Its the trend. They have gone the middle route, and have the reward; lots of users=money=resources=progress=sky's the limit.

 

We have gone the high route=less users=less money=less resources=limits to growth. :(

 

I think I will get into War Thunder a bit more again as well. Its so prettiieeeeeee!!!!

 

And so nice to just kick back and soar without having to tinker.

 

More in the context of this thread and possible game engines, though.... The War Thunder engine is an obvious possibility and custom designed for Flight, and since they have no apparent interest themselves in the civilian market, it might be possible to license their technology engine for that....... Or not. Who knows?

 

Meanwhile, if anyone has not seen it, here is War Thunder, full realism mode. It really is very nice........

[Simmo W 24]

I was thinking just the same thing! Just for testing their latest beta of course, not at all for enjoyment..