PMDG 777 Release Bitter Sweet.

[Lawyer+Pilot 126]

P3D is where it's at...if you happen to be the Department of Defense.

[metalmike 34]

Didn't RR mention a while back something about a "secret project" for XPX?

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

My experience with ASE is it won't run without server authentication. Now if Vatsim is down you can use your saved weather but that's only after ASE is up and running.

 

 

When I start ASE offline the only error message is that the AS news cannot be loaded into the browser window of ASE. But ASE works o.k. offline, with stored wx.

 

BTW, I bought ASE for FS9 but it can be used for FSX, as well!  

[edetroit 933]

When I start ASE offline the only error message is that the AS news cannot be loaded into the browser window of ASE. But ASE works o.k. offline, with stored wx.

 

BTW, I bought ASE for FS9 but it can be used for FSX, as well!  

 

Indeed. I use ASE offline all the time. :biggrin:

[pilottj 198]

I am not worried about FSX's future.  I believe it will be a strong sim platform well past 2020.  It is simple, think of all the projects in line from A2A, RealAir, PMDG, Aerosoft, Carenado...etc.  Then think about all the secret projects we don't know about yet.  Each of these developers releases maybe 1-4 releases per year.  So with all that together, we have many years of solid addon development. 

 

Also, these developers have shown many times they can bypass FSX limitations.  Anything FSX can't do, there is a potential fix or bypass for it.

 

Cheers

TJ 

[Dillon 2,197]

When I start ASE offline the only error message is that the AS news cannot be loaded into the browser window of ASE. But ASE works o.k. offline, with stored wx.

 

BTW, I bought ASE for FS9 but it can be used for FSX, as well!

Then something is screwed up on my end. Thanks for the feedback, I'll look into this....

Les (Dillon), I think you spend too much time worrying about the what if's and things that may or may not happen. Some of us or maybe a lot of us just enjoy what we have now and will continue to use it until the next best thing comes out.

 

If I have to use an unsupported Win7 for the next 10 years for FSX, so be it. There will most likely be a way to activate FSX and if not some clever folks will probably find a way to make an activation crack.

 

If someone is that worried about it they can install Win7 and a virgin copy of FSX to a new HD, then activate it and clone it to another HD and your good. Keep the one good install on one HD and use it to copy over to your work HD everytime you need to reinstall.

 

Honestly though, I am not worried about it. If FSX is my only viable sim for the next 20 years I will just keep using it, enjoying it and not worrying about what might happen, I got more important things to worry about.

If that's the case I sure wish some clever folks could have figured out how to open up Flights world so we could add to it. Figured out a way to make Flight FS11 with things like Radar Contact, ASE, Carenado GA birds, Orbix, etc...

[wolke85 150]

Interesting discussion!

 

There have been lots of "work-arounds"  - and indeed:

FSX has been pushed beyond what was imaginable for it, but(!):

Honestly spoken it is also an undeniable fact nowadays that all these great developments demand for a lot - and have their price.

Just to mention one, but definitely uncurably and yet noticeable one here:

The OOM Error!

 

Sure:

It is mandatory to keep a balanced system and some compromise will always be essential.

But then the question arrises:

How far can this compromise go?

I mean:

It is nice to have a "potentially great" sim named FSX, but it is also a matter of fact that FSX is more and more unable nowadays to show and proof this/its full potential!

So:

FSX still has it's time - and certainly a few more years to come, but it also clearly shows its definite limits nowadays too!

 

 

The forthcomming DX10 patch may - most likely i assume - once again breath new life into the FSX engine, but after that, i think, the party will overall come to its end.

 

I just wished - as so many of us - that a proper flightsimming platform which has the potential to replace FSX properly and even outbalance it, would appear on the horizon rather sooner then later.

… so ...

Crowdfunding for a new flightism-engine? ...

Kicking XPlane 10 out of the shadows of FSX and really improve it dramatically to the better? ...

Hoping for P3D? ...

Hoping for Outerra or another engine to evolve? ...

… or whatever it takes necessary to have a dedicated flight-simmingplatform available:

Is it really that hard to be achieved?

Obviously it is ... - but then the question arrises:

What can be done - and/or what can we, the flightsimming community do, to help creating and develope a convincing FSX-alternative-platform and making it become available?

 

Or has flightsimming as we know it today - and as already discussed here - really become a dead end road?

 

Only my 2 cents here though!

Cheers,Christoph

[Boomer 1,619]

 

 

FSX on a dedicated machine with W7 64Bit is amazing. FSX aint going anywhere. Just look at where the big boys are playing. They are playing in the FSX sandpit dude. The best sandpit on the planet.

 

Yes and no.  Hardware h as caught up to be sure to run it well, but still hideous unfinished code.

[Werner747 107]

At the moment I am not concerned.   In a way one can say that the OP's question can be seen as "what if the sky was to fall on our heads today?".   He raises some valid points, but I agree with everyone else here that FSX has many years left still.   Also remember that I was using Win XP for about 9 years before I had to switch to Win 7 due to DEP issues with my newer hardware.

 

So what am I saying?   When I upgrade my hardware from time to time as the need be, and Win 7 does not give me issues with it, I WILL STICK WITH WIN 7.   It is stable, I like it and it has proven it's worth.

 

As for Windows 8, I couldn't be bothered less really - not on the day they released it or now when we are many months and debates down the line!   I think the industry (read MS) has this tendency to expect that people will simply buy something new because THEY released it.   I think that is an expensive mistake they may have realised by now that they had made!

 

This buying something new simply because it is new mentality may have worked in the past, but due to the state the world economy is in forcing people to be more conspicuous about how they spend their hard earned cash, and spending more on necessity rather than what you want, people will have more of a tendency to cling on to what they have if it does not NEED a change.

 

I transitioned to FSX only in early 2011 folks, that's right, before that I flew the faithful old FS9 until I realised that almost ALL the really cool add-ons were being designed for FSX.   That forced the move, and I have not looked back since!   I had my eyes on the NGX and I realised that PMDG was leaving FS9 behind.

 

With the right tweaks and the right hardware, FSX is running very well even with the NGX and the 777X.   I am not interested in massively realistically looking scenery, so I don't buy that either, I use AFCAD's.   Visually, what goes on outside the aircraft doesn't really bother me, it is what is going on inside the cockpit that concerns me!

 

This being the case, I have NEVER fell victim to the OOM issues that many others have reported, not ONCE have I been kicked out of FSX for lack of memory issues.   That being said, I think we all realise that FSX has it's obvious limitations, but the fact that developers are working around this, should give you some indication as to how well developers have come to terms with the platform.   I believe it was PMDG themselves who indicated to us how astronomically difficult it was to transition from FS9 to FSX, liking it to passing a kidney stone!   They have mastered it though if one look at what they are bringing to the market!

 

I have never tried XP, not interested in the least.   LM P3D?   Dude, I only found out a few months ago that there was something like that on the market and then I found out about all the licensing issues etc.   I have to agree that I don't think that is going to be the wide platform that FSX is today.  It is military ain't it???

 

Soooooo...   Moral of the story?   I will ONLY leave FSX behind in the event that a developer like PMDG leaves them behind.   How long will this take?   Who knows!   Could be 2 years, could be twenty years or more, we don't know!  

 

For the moment, I am loving the 777X, I am loving the NGX, and I am anticipating the 744 v2 and the -8i expansion, those will keep me busy until the day I die!   So I spend less time worrying about what MIGHT happen and more time ENJOYING the lovely things that the likes of PMDG are bestowing upon us!

 

If you don't necessarily like the setup, feel free to get a copy of FSX, which by the way, is selling rather cheaply.   You might find it is not as bad and it kind of grows on you!   Which brings me to the last item on my checklist - activation.   MS cannot simply stop providing that, they will have to keep it going or provide a legal work-around.   If they don't they would most likely be breaching the agreement between themselves and us, the end users of the product and they could open themselves to the very least huge criticism, the very worst case scenario, legal action.   Trust me, they are not idiots so to speak, or they would not be the software giants they are today!

 

Kind regards

[Luis_KMIA 242]

Remember that PMDG will convert one of its productgs to XP-10. Right now I'm loving my PMDG 737/777 combo in my FSX, and I intend to get the most out of it. However, I really enjoy the smooth, crash free experience in XP10, plus the fact that it is designed for today's CPUs and GPUs. I hope XP-10 adopts some of the feautres we got used to with FSX, such as terminal buildings, landmarks, seasons, etc. When PMDG (IMHO the clear #1 airplane add-on developer)  finally announces which product they cose for XP10, it could start a slow but sure shift away from FSX.

[quadraspleen 7]

When FSX goes proper abandonware, as has been said, ppl will still continue to use it.

 

And TBH, I reckon MS will somehow just allow it to be installed, or they will just leave the auth servers up so ppl can still run it, OR as has been said, ppl will just use a cracked EXE.

 

But, that day is a way away, I reckon.

 

I'm not really sure what the point of your post is, Dillon, and I'm not knocking it, I just don't get what you are saying? Surely it's up to PMDG, ORBX and most importantly, US, if we want to continue investing in a "dead-end product".

 

I have a lot of vintage music gear, that, every so ofteen, I have to spend hideous amounts of money to have serviced. Like £00's ech time. Some of this gear is from the 80's! (yes, I know that isn't very old) and hasn't been made since then. In fact, a few bits of gear are from companies that don't even exist anymore! But, I love them. That's the driver here for the end users. Love, not money

 

As for the devs, it's been said: they make for FSX coz that's where their driver is. And I bet they all do it for love, too. Love because FSX is where we are all at! We make this hobby what it is, not MS!

 

Anyway, I'll shut up now and continue putting my new studio back together just so I can get the PC running again and download the 777!

 

Well done on the release, PMDG. I salute your patience!

 

jake

 

EDIT: I just bought the 777 and I don't even have a PC set up at the moment to put it on! There's love, right there!

[hoser70 40]

What?

[Dillon 2,197]

And TBH, I reckon MS will somehow just allow it to be installed, or they will just leave the auth servers up so ppl can still run it

 

But, that day is a way away, I reckon.

 

Why do you guys just blindly assume this??? What evidence has MS ever shown they would do something like this for the long haul. Customer consideration and loyalty to the customer is the farthest from their playbook. If they can't make money off of you through continued license fees anything can happen. Look at what happened to the Microsoft Store where users of Flight can no longer get content. There's many other examples where when Microsoft decides to shift gears they just do it and leave the legacy applications in limbo. Cracking the .exe most likely will be the only option. Like some have said here numerous times MS owes us nothing and be glade it ran for as long as it did. Expecting MS to give us install rights so we can still use their old products for the next 20+ years is neive to say the least. We have FS developers that won't do that both freeware and payware (WOAI contributors have pulled their airline packages numerous times when they decided to move on, PSS left us cold with dead installers when they initially closed up shop are two examples).

[RWFeldman 159]

 

 

Why do you guys just blindly assume this???

 

Why do you blindly believe it to not be so???? What evidence do you have ?

[Dillon 2,197]

I have a lot of vintage music gear, that, every so ofteen, I have to spend hideous amounts of money to have serviced. Like £00's ech time. Some of this gear is from the 80's! (yes, I know that isn't very old) and hasn't been made since then. In fact, a few bits of gear are from companies that don't even exist anymore! But, I love them. That's the driver here for the end users. Love, not money

 

The whole computer industry at one point was a big sharing of knowledge and using things for as long as you want. That died with the advent of Microsoft and Apple (watch Pirates of Silicon Valley) which started charging and making a business out of what was once given away for free. Microsoft more so than Apple was built on this. Everything they packaged and sold was originally created by someone else. There wasn't an original idea in the place. Things really got bad in the last 10 years. FS9 and before it we could use software for as long as we wanted, freeware was the rule instead of the exception. Today FSX and many of our payware packages you need the blessing of authentication servers to run software thanks to the uprising of software piracy over the last 10 years (it's gone way past registration keys). Some of these packages actually monitor use and will not run offline. Vintage music gear and software of today are in two totally different classes concerning access to use. As they say you have to read the fine print.

 

To be fare most of our software can be used in the way your describing. When I re-installed FS9 Flight1 products were the main one's that would not work without authenticating the installers to the Flight1 servers. Ariane was the worst and I just gave up (thankfully iFly saved the day). They had some weird crap were you had to contact them for each re-install and actually charged for a new key. I had a problem with ASE not working unless my key was authenticated with each use. Seems like that may be a problem on my end. I don't know how PMDG products work especially the 777. Is it truly yours after you have the installer and registration key or if they went out of business tomorrow you had better take an image of both your primary and secondary hard drives because re installing it would not be an option like what happened when PSS closed up shop...

 

For the record only one developer I know of actually did the right thing when they decided to close up shop and that was 'Ready for Pushback' with their classic 747-200 add-on...