This is what our flight sims could look like

[HansRoaming]

Shift a million units on day one with $1 profit and you're not doing bad, here's an article of the effect of Steam sales days, note the comments by indi developers. Some highlights:

 

"According to indie developer and Super Meat Boy co-creator Edmund McMillen, these promotions can increase sales to an almost staggering extent. His 2D dungeon crawler The Binding of Isaac, for example, saw sales multiply by five when it was marked down by 50 percent, and once it hit the front page as a temporary "Flash Deal" (for 75 percent off), sales multiplied by sixty."

 

Note that 25% of unit price increased by 60 volume means an increase in revenue of 1500%!!!

 

"Rather than looking at it as a 'lost sale' when people wait for these Steam discounts, I think it needs to be viewed as reaching out to a new customer that never would have purchased your game otherwise."

 

Development costs are the same regardless of the distribution model, with Internet download distribution unlike box'd distribution costs to actually ship the product to the customer approach zero (think Amazon S3) and thus the low unit cost high volume model of retail is viable.

 

Couple a sim that looks like the demo linked in this thread with the A2A Cub and you have something very accessible and fun, plenty of LOLs to be had online with a bunch of people flying cubs.

[tonywob]

Such a versatile simulator would be amazing, and one I would pay good money for, i.e. A flight/train/truck etc. simulator rolled into one.

 

Currently I'm flying the Mississippi from North to South in the Maule, reading about all the places I fly over on the iPad

 

I'm doing something similar in France at the moment. Flying around all the areas I have scenery for and learning about the different places and landmarks. This is why real photo scenery (or a close approximation) is super important to me.

[HansRoaming]

Just done a trip from Iceland down to Dubai and currently back to the UK, amazing how when you do stuff like that you tend to read up on the places you're virtually flying to/from/over.

[LHookins]

"I" don't see the point in having flowing grass, swaying trees and butter flies when you are flying along at 110knts at 2000 feet. Such a thing would just kill frames and wouldn't be visible anyway. I admit though that Orbx's airports have a nice atmosphere to them, but a flight simulator is for flying, not walking round an airport :-)

 

Ok, THAT I can agree with. I'm usually flying about half that speed anyway.

 

One thing I liked about Microsoft Flight was that you could get out of the plane and walk around exploring scenery. I only explored a few airports on foot; the rest of the time it was cities or beaches or volcanoes.

 

It's one thing to add these details to an FSX airport and put a huge workload on an already stressed system. It's another when the system was created to do just this kind of thing and is optimized for it.

 

Hook

[VeryBumpy]

There's low flying and there's low flying!

 

Yeah, be a good bird simulator world.

[gizmosellsbunnys]

As I said before, anything is possible in principle. In reality practicality will determine what's actually done - not wishful thinking. I don't believe that there is a viable market now for a new flight simulator with the features required by enthusiasts.

 

 

Agreed, 100% or replacements for fsx would be popping up. Its possible to make the next generation flight simulator, but you need profits to sustain something like that this. Technology needs to improve on data storage and CPU, and also in analytically data gathering to make it cost worthy.

 

 

Such a versatile simulator would be amazing, and one I would pay good money for, i.e. A flight/train/truck etc. simulator rolled into one.

 

 

Think combination is the way to go see on the European Truck Simulator 2 forums users demand real time weather and other things pilots take for granted now days. The truck simmers want real world roads, weather and terrain that flight sims provide.

 

There is way forward but it not going to be geared toward the masses. Gonna require a platform where 3rd party people freeware and payware can be developed to build on basic world or platform. Currently, X-Plane is only one I see this with even if it in beta 10.2 or 10.4 or 12.5. Austin sees 20 years down the road. Soon that terrian is smoother by default start to see piledrivers building roads, dams in X-plane. The future is X-plane not P3d or FSX.

[Rocky_53]

One thing I liked about Microsoft Flight was that you could get out of the plane and walk around exploring scenery. I only explored a few airports on foot; the rest of the time it was cities or beaches or volcanoes.

 

You can do this in FSX also. Just download BOB from the Orbx site...

[mgh]

Shift a million units on day one....

 

That's totally unrealistic for a flight simulator. It's rumoured FSX took a year to sell that number. No small developer could persuade any funders to take that sort of prediction serously.

[HansRoaming]

That's totally unrealistic for a flight simulator. It's rumoured FSX took a year to sell that number. No small developer could persuade any funders to take that sort of prediction serously.

 

I wasn't being literal with shift a million units at $1 profit, however read the linked article and some of the links in it and you'll find plenty of examples of selling high volume on low margin equaling large revenue which is the concept I wanted to convey with my opening statement.

[simmerhead]

Just done a trip from Iceland down to Dubai and currently back to the UK, amazing how when you do stuff like that you tend to read up on the places you're virtually flying to/from/over.

 

Yes, I always end up doing that. I surprise myself sometimes with having local knowledge of the stranges places

 

As I said before, anything is possible in principle. In reality practicality will determine what's actually done - not wishful thinking. I don't believe that there is a viable market now for a new flight simulator with the features required by enthusiasts.

 

I sure hope the next sim won't be targeted at enthusiasts, but rather gamers. That said, a sandbox mode and a decent SDK could cater for the "enthusiasts" down the line.

 

I have a dream of a universal Vehicle Simulator with elements from Sim City, the Sims, Grand Theft Auto and then some thrown into the mix. A simulator where building scenery by users is combined with exiting gameplay (not boring like FLIGHT) and realistic simulation.

[Spook]

You can do this in FSX also. Just download BOB from the Orbx site...

 

Howard ( me 'ole flower,, lol)

 

I have this but havnt used it yet ( you reminded me)

Is it that useing BOB, i can land, get out the plane and turn around and see the plane, or is it more like changeing aircraft to BOB and then being able to walk around?

 

Thanks

 

Sorry to go off topic :blush:

[Rocky_53]

Howard ( me 'ole flower,, lol)

 

I have this but havnt used it yet ( you reminded me)

Is it that useing BOB, i can land, get out the plane and turn around and see the plane, or is it more like changeing aircraft to BOB and then being able to walk around?

 

Thanks

 

Sorry to go off topic :blush:

 

It's more like changing aircraft to BOB and then being able to walk around...

[tonywob]

I find it easier just to switch to the outside view and then slew around. BOB is actually weird to control

[HiFlyer]

I don't see or agree with this strawman characterisization of flight simmers. I see realism argued both ways. Just look at what happens when Carenado releases a new plane and the howls of "eye candy" vs "wonderful plane" go up. The point for now is that current sims are way underutilizing the GPU, and there's a ton of unlocked potential to do so much more. It doesn't have to be made more toy-like, it can progress on all fronts by taking better advantage of currently available and underutilized resources.

 

I've seen those arguments pushed both ways too and I know who generally wins the argument. Over time as I've watched the hobby get more technically oriented I have also seen simulators go from a boom market to a niche as mass market interest was lost. To the point that even the word simulator is now associated in the wider world with complexity/boredom. :unsure:

 

Essentially I worry that even if resources were freed by advancing technology, said resources would have a good chance of getting sucked into the service of our apparently insatiable need for technical fidelity; leaving behind a mathematically beautiful rendition of flight that still lacks the graphic prowess (and other polish) capable of inspiring interest and revenue from the wider markets that could spur true growth to pay for more developement.

 

It's more like changing aircraft to BOB and then being able to walk around...

 

A burgeoning cultural oddness of Flight was the tendency of groups of players to land their planes in one spot and hop out to stand around and shoot the breeze. It was...... odd, but fun.

 

We always hoped Microsoft would eventually give us actual Avatars to meet each other with.

 

There was a growing social aspect to that program that a lot of people missed unfortunately.

 

Missed opportunities. Maybe a new sim would keep that aspect in mind. Social interaction through games is very big, now........

[Spook]

Thanks Howard.