Oh boy, making a new simulator from scratch with a team of part-timers and (I guess) small budget... because I don't want to be negative I'll just say Good luck! And I mean it.

Carmine,

As well as being a flight simmer I'm also into race cars and that is just as big as flight sims.  Have you considered a concept along the lines of "World of Mass Developement" and their products "pCars"?  People bought into it, and they deliver a beta product to us on a regular basis, they raised a lot of funds that way and the product is very good.

 

Have a look, http://www.wmdportal.com/projects/cars/

 

Forum, see how much funds they raised at the top of the page, http://forum.wmdportal.com/forumdisplay.php?17-WMD&s=8d2899c34164cb8edaa19f2cff8dcf72

 

I would support you the minute you show us where you are going with this, all the power to you my friend and I wish you and your team well!!

I think I have a good idea of an FSX sequel.

The flight sim software should be a complete OS in itself, perhaps based on Ubuntu.

It should have drivers loaded for popular hardware from Goflight, Opencockpits etc.

It should have excellent environmental graphics and weather sim on a par with Orbx and AS2012.

It should have great AI traffic similar to UT2 or Mytraffic pro X.

It should have in-built ATC like proATCX.

It should in-built flightplanning tools like PPFX and Topcat.

The devs should be able to work with PMDG and FS2Crew to deliver awesome planes.

 

I think you are loosing the whole concept.

The flight simulator is stable environment for payware and freeware addon developers to build on with existing and future products, not an "everything to everybody" that would put them all out of business.

I think you are loosing the whole concept.

The flight simulator is stable environment for payware and freeware addon developers to build on with existing and future products, not an "everything to everybody" that would put them all out of business.

I know that the forum is FSX-centric, and its what we are all accustomed too, but is the point really to just pretty much copy the current FSX ecosystem to new housing with everything else pretty much unchanged?

And then they should add a $2000 price tag. Such a simulator will cost say to much for the consumer and at such a price won't appeal to those who either can't afford such a thing or afford a pc to run such a thing.

You can always sell them as separate modules Packages. 

I know that the forum is FSX-centric, and its what we are all accustomed too, but is the point really to just pretty much copy the current FSX ecosystem to new housing with everything else pretty much unchanged?

Yes, as a matter of fact.

The point is to build a NEW ecosystem that will be much more friendly to both payware/freeware developers and users.

The new flight simulation should not be an end unto itself, but a beginning of a fresh new world of free markets, creative and talented hobbyists, and unmatched user experience.

It should be the green earth in open source 64bit, enveloped in atmosphere, covered mostly with water, brimming with land and deserts and ready, like a blank canvas, for the creative and talented hands of both professional and amateur developers. Ready for those who wish to build a career on it and those who just dabble with weekend projects.

That is why FSX has been such a great success.  Although Microsoft's greed for fast money caused it to miss the opportunity, FSX could have had great potential if its present format was built upon.

Yes, as a matter of fact.

The point is to build a NEW ecosystem that will be much more friendly to both payware/freeware developers and users.

The new flight simulation should not be an end unto itself, but a beginning of a fresh new world of free markets, creative and talented hobbyists, and unmatched user experience.

It should be the green earth in open source 64bit, enveloped in atmosphere, covered mostly with water, brimming with land and deserts and ready, like a blank canvas, for the creative and talented hands of both professional and amateur developers. Ready for those who wish to build a career on it and those who just dabble with weekend projects.

That is why FSX has been such a great success.  Although Microsoft's greed for fast money caused it to miss the opportunity, FSX could have had great potential if its present format was built upon.

 

Very well put indeed, what you said here reflects my thoughts 100% !!

Carmine,

As well as being a flight simmer I'm also into race cars and that is just as big as flight sims.  Have you considered a concept along the lines of "World of Mass Developement" and their products "pCars"?  People bought into it, and they deliver a beta product to us on a regular basis, they raised a lot of funds that way and the product is very good.

 

Have a look, http://www.wmdportal.com/projects/cars/

 

Forum, see how much funds they raised at the top of the page, http://forum.wmdportal.com/forumdisplay.php?17-WMD&s=8d2899c34164cb8edaa19f2cff8dcf72

 

I would support you the minute you show us where you are going with this, all the power to you my friend and I wish you and your team well!!

+1

Carmine,

As well as being a flight simmer I'm also into race cars and that is just as big as flight sims.  Have you considered a concept along the lines of "World of Mass Developement" and their products "pCars"?  People bought into it, and they deliver a beta product to us on a regular basis, they raised a lot of funds that way and the product is very good.

 

Have a look, http://www.wmdportal.com/projects/cars/

 

Forum, see how much funds they raised at the top of the page, http://forum.wmdportal.com/forumdisplay.php?17-WMD&s=8d2899c34164cb8edaa19f2cff8dcf72

 

I would support you the minute you show us where you are going with this, all the power to you my friend and I wish you and your team well!!

 

This does indeed look a great way to move forward with input from the whole community.

I don't want to sound rude, but have the "developers" even started making things besides logos?

I don't want to sound rude, but have the "developers" even started making things besides logos?

 

I look forward to seeing some evidence that they've achieved anything.

I look forward to seeing some evidence that they've achieved anything.

I'm looking forward to it as well.

Guys, all in due time you will hopefully be pleased.  Currently work is on the terrain engine and data as well as some FSX existing item testing.  I am NOT going to get into debates with anyone and will reiterate that this project will take some time and I will be MORE THAN HAPPY to share at the right time. I APPRECIATE and take in everyone's opinion good/bad/indifferent as we all have different viewpoints on life and such.  There is a blog here for this project here at Avsim: http://forum.avsim.net/blog/8-id-rather-be-flyings-blog/ which is where you'll need to go for any current updates. There is also a website that will come alive when the time is right as well.  Thanks again and like I said before, we want and enjoy to hear from everyone!

I wish all the best for the project! It is easy to be sceptical with endeavor like this, but small indie teams manage to produce pretty amazing stuff with other games nowadays, so why not here too. If your team just isn't going try to "shoot all the rabbits" at the same time, but instead focus on producing a good simulator engine and leave most of the icing on the cake for 3PDs to make, I don't see why this project couldn't become reality one day. Biggest difficulty I see is to maintain MSFS compatibility without FSX/ESP source. Graphics and sound engines are perhaps the easiest part of all this as that is pretty much common stuff to all 3D games and software. I believe it gets rough when you get to the flight model and how the sim actually handles data.

 

I can tell you that if you pull this through, you will be the heroes of the (civilian) flight simming community.

 

Biggest difficulty I see is to maintain MSFS compatibility without FSX/ESP source.

 

Abd without getting letter from  Microsoft's  and Lockheed Martin's lawyers.