These tech demos are great, but what happens to all that visual fidelity when you have to also calculate physics, fluid dynamics, avionics logic, and all those other under-the-hood details involved in simulating flight?

 

Not so much. These modern graphics engine offload almost everything to the GPU, freeing your CPU for AI and other tasks.

 

Keep in mind that modern first person shooter games feature physics, advanced AI etc. which is at least on the same level as FS.

The AI in FSX is quite simplistic, dating back to FS2002 which ran on Pentium II's. The "physics" model is even older, using lookup tables just like in the 1990's.

 

Not so much. These modern graphics engine offload almost everything to the GPU, freeing your CPU for AI and other tasks.

 

They dont offload flight dynamics, avionics (and other) systems, ATC,, etc.

They dont offload flight dynamics, avionics (and other) systems, ATC,, etc.

But they certainly take better advantage of multiple cores, and even multiple GPU's

They dont offload flight dynamics, avionics (and other) systems, ATC,, etc.

Not sure I understand your point as with the graphics load mainly on the GPU and multi threaded support baked into say the Uningine engine on like for like hardware they are better set up for a modern desktop than the over 6 year old FSX.

Not sure I understand your point as with the graphics load mainly on the GPU and multi threaded support baked into say the Uningine engine on like for like hardware they are better set up for a modern desktop than the over 6 year old FSX.

 

My point is exactly whay I said.  Flight dynamics, avionics (and other) systems, ATC,, etc are not offloaded onto the GPU and still have to be handled by the CPU.

 

Many of the impressive video clips presented are from systems dedicated to rendering and displaying 3D objects. Practically the only other task required is moving the eye-point in three dimensions at about walking space. That's a fairly trivial task.

My point is exactly whay I said.  Flight dynamics, avionics (and other) systems, ATC,, etc are not offloaded onto the GPU and still have to be handled by the CPU.

 

Many of the impressive video clips presented are from systems dedicated to rendering and displaying 3D objects. Practically the only other task required is moving the eye-point in three dimensions at about walking space. That's a fairly trivial task.

 

I think of it this way: FSX is so CPU bound that it takes only marginal advantage of the features on a modern graphics card. Those features (and that power) are going almost completely to waste right now and at the same time, we have demos that show the steadily increasing capabilities of those cards and the type of environments available in other genres using today's hardware.

 

Especially for those unfamiliar with just how far things have come, these demos are a good demonstration of the possibilities available in any hypothetical new sim, and of how far we've fallen behind, at the very least graphically, in our current ones.

 

Partially opposed to that is the familiar community perception that these levels of graphics come only at the cost of "Deeper" simulation elements, but while that may have been true once upon a time, its important to make the point that this is no longer necessarily the case.

 

Even now, DCS and its super-detailed flight models and avionics coupled with complex AI behaviors, sophisticated weather modeling and increasingly detailed graphics indicates that the compromises/bottlenecks we've had little choice but to accept with FSX are a result of an outdated engine much more than any insurmountable resource allocation trade-off. (And even DCS is decidedly last gen in many respects)

 

I think videos like those of the OP are indicative of real possibilities

My point is exactly whay I said.  Flight dynamics, avionics (and other) systems, ATC,, etc are not offloaded onto the GPU and still have to be handled by the CPU.

 

Many of the impressive video clips presented are from systems dedicated to rendering and displaying 3D objects. Practically the only other task required is moving the eye-point in three dimensions at about walking space. That's a fairly trivial task.

Apart from the impressive video clips and shots of flight simulators if you look specifically at the Unigine showcase you'll see a number of games and simulations.

 

As someone pointed out modern games such as FPS are simulating physics at a greater complexity than flight sims such as FSX are. 

 

Still not sure what you're arguing as modern engines offload graphics to the GPU and make use of multi core CPUs, how would that not improve over FSX with its CPU bound, mainly on one core engine.

 

BTW here's some buildings.

 

Speaking of City Modeling in real-time, Watchdogs, A game designed for the upcoming PS4 release (But in this demo running on a PC) allows you to wander a sandbox of the entire city of Chicago looking for adventure while enjoying state of the art visuals. Take a look.

 

Its mind boggling to imagine a Flight Simulation world that could access even a quarter of this pure polygon pushing power and visual sophistication.

 

Warning for some very brief language.

 

Still not sure what you're arguing as modern engines offload graphics to the GPU and make use of multi core CPUs, how would that not improve over FSX with its CPU bound, mainly on one core engine.

 

Where am I arguing that?

That game looks amazing Dev! Hmm, a little derivative though. Who cares, esp. if like the original game, it....includes.....helicopters!!

That game looks amazing Dev! Hmm, a little derivative though. Who cares, esp. if like the original game, it....includes.....helicopters!!

 At least one police helicopter is listed as a controllable vehicle.  ^_^

Came across this flight sim porn by Binary Orchestra and had to share.

 

 

 

Came across this flight sim porn by Binary Orchestra and had to share.

 

That is truely awesome! I am sure it is from the makers of Wings of Prey.

Can't remember the name of the dev. but they are doing some really real looking historic flight combat games.

 

I have Wings of Prey and it is fun but it is no FS its a game.

It's IL2 Cliffs of Dover and it's a very pretty game with good FMs and DMs. It was also just patched so looks even better and has lost the microstutters you can see in that vid. Only $20 on Steam so run and get it now boys.

This is what our flight sims could look like ...  if only someone would put up the money to develop it.