What's the difference b/w FSX and MS Flight? And Future of FSX?

[HiFlyer 9,363]

Am I maybe confusing games here? If I am sorry....I said I have never played it before....

 

http://www.techhive.com/article/247260/microsoft_to_give_microsoft_flight_away_for_free_.html

All Im saying is.....You will never go to an actual simulator and see MS Flight installed....Im in Toronto and getting my PPLs and Ratings over the years I have never once sat behind a MS Flight computer....It was all FS9 and FSX for sim training. I did learn however that Flight is a little more serious then I thought. Thank you for sharing that with me.

 

No, you are absolutely right. That's flight all right. But there were a lot of misconceptions about just what or what it could and couldn't do. In the flight forum, people came on fairly frequently saying things like "The radios don't even work!!" And forum members would point out that in fact they did.

 

Then somebody would say "They took out directional sound!!" and we would show how good and detailed the sound was..........

 

Then it would be "The flight models suck!!!" And we would show how detailed they were and all the things you could do......

 

It went on and on.

 

The planes with no cockpits, there was no answer to.

 

"Not enough Planes!!!" True but that was a tragedy of errors, and many more were apparently created and never released.....

 

 

 

Flight is very limited in Comparison to FSX, but its not quite the "toy" that people kept trying to portray either.

 

I thought of it as a potential FSX in its diapers, with the possibility to grow into something great if only given the time and attention. Many in the community seemed to see it as a mortal enemy, and still figuratively spit on the floor if they even hear the name mentioned.

 

We might never know, but I think the community lost a great opportunity, and that there is now a very nice flight simulation engine lying lost right in plain sight.

[yorgosGK 7]

Those are great stills....

 

Sorry to hear about the complaining forum members, thats horrible and it sounds like they ruined it for a lot of people. At least your smarter then that and have stuck with something rather then give up on it.

 

Hope you're having a great time with Flight! Cheers.

[HiFlyer 9,363]

 

 

I would say it makes me slightly sad about the opportunity we all lost. Right now there is an attempt being made to open FLIGHT up to allow the import of Planes from FSX and even eventually scenery, new planes, mission creation.....

 

It makes me smile at how the graphics of P3Dv2 are causing such excitement... when Flight can match a lot of it.... with better frame-rates. Oh well. 

 

It could be (its even likely that) FLIGHT is dead forever, and that's the last we will hear of it. But maybe, just maybe there is the smallest of chances that the community will pick up the reins that Microsoft dropped and make something great one day........

[anthony31 63]

Hypothetical situation.

I grab my football and invite my friends to go outside to:

 

1 Play a Game of Soccer

2 Play a Simulation of Soccer

 

Please explain to me what the difference is ?

 

I believe that you play a game of soccer but if you fall over, roll around on the ground in pain clutching your leg,then that is a simulation.

[styckx 1,871]

It really did serve its purpose.. My first stint with Flight Simming was casual.. I tried getting into back in the FS9 days but the community..  How do I put this nicely? `Has a reputation' and even back during FS9 I didn't have the `stones' to sign up to these places not knowing anything "by procedure".  So I went through FS9 and FSX without learning much because both are intimating at first glance and eventually packed it up. When MS Flight came about it had sort of open arms feeling around it.. The long term FSXers were snippy but I signed up anyway because the Flight folks all seemed to be on the same page of community awareness and taking care of each other.

 

Long story short..

 

It was MS Flight I learned basic flight planning and navigation using VORs.

 

It was MS Flight I learned ILS in..

 

 It may have been a neutered FSX but they left just enough in it where I actually learned more in my few months using it then I ever did in my time w/ FS9/FSX before it. 

 

All that carried over into FSX and then finally Prepar3D 1.3 when I moved from FSX and now it's not so intimating at all here and happily co-mingle around everywhere.. 

[HiFlyer 9,363]

It really did serve its purpose.. My first stint with Flight Simming was casual.. I tried getting into back in the FS9 days but the community..  How do I put this nicely? `Has a reputation' and even back during FS9 I didn't have the `stones' to sign up to these places not knowing anything "by procedure".  So I went through FS9 and FSX without learning much because both are intimating at first glance and eventually packed it up. When MS Flight came about it had sort of open arms feeling around it.. The long term FSXers were snippy but I signed up anyway because the Flight folks all seemed to be on the same page of community awareness and taking care of each other.

 

Long story short..

 

It was MS Flight I learned basic flight planning and navigation using VORs.

 

It was MS Flight I learned ILS in..

 

 It may have been a neutered FSX but they left just enough in it where I actually learned more in my few months using it then I ever did in my time w/ FS9/FSX before it. 

 

All that carried over into FSX and then finally Prepar3D 1.3 when I moved from FSX and now it's not so intimating at all here and happily co-mingle around everywhere.. 

 

Yeah, I think the lack of content has made many move on for now..... I am using Aerofly, X-plane, War Thunder, Wings of Prey, Rise of Flight, DCS.......etc.

 

But I still have a special place for FLIGHT.

[styckx 1,871]

Yeah, I think the lack of content has made many move on for now..... I am using Aerofly, X-plane, War Thunder, Wings of Prey, Rise of Flight, DCS.......etc.

 

But I still have a special place for FLIGHT.

 

I was thinking of re-installing it again for old time sakes but the thought of GFWL gracing my PC again made me nauseous so I decided against it.   :lol:  I'm having fun in FSX again till LM do something about P3Dv2..  I didn't feel like re-installing 1.4 even though I logged the most hours in it.. FSX is treating me nice this time though.  :lol:

[HiFlyer 9,363]

I was thinking of re-installing it again for old time sakes but the thought of GFWL gracing my PC again made me nauseous so I decided against it.   :lol:  I'm having fun in FSX again till LM do something about P3Dv2..  I didn't feel like re-installing 1.4 even though I logged the most hours in it.. FSX is treating me nice this time though.  :lol:

Its weird. I am enjoying X-Plane 10. FSX works great for me, and Aerofly is just flat out beautiful.

 

But when I go back into Flight occasionally, I am stunned yet again at the FPS that is so fast on my system that there is no apparent framerate. You're just hanging there in the sky while the ground drifts nearly imperceptibly slowly past beneath you.

 

Its kind of...... soothing. 

 

Add in the shadows, the beautiful vistas, trees blowing in the wind, the weather/fog, etc...... and the suspension of disbelief is near total. If Flight never rises again, it will apparently be a long time before any civilian sim matches that absolute smoothness and feeling of rightness.

 

It seems I will even put up with GFWL to get my occasional "Fix"  :lol:

 

 

 

[jcomm 5,939]

There are two aspects of MS FLIGHT. One is what it really ended up being, the other is the potential behind what we users were allowed to taste.

 

Even if MS FLIGHT's approach to the market felt far from what we expected, and 3pds expected FS11 might be, we can't close our eyes and senses to the many aspects of that flight simulation game ( aren't they all games ?  aren't we all playing games ? are some of us threatned by the "GAME" designation, and why should we feel that way? How many of us are using fsx, x-plane, p3d, for trainning in the scope of a pilot carreer ? What are we doing when we use those amazing AI addons, ATC addons, cabin crew sounds and actions addons, etc... ?  I am playing games when I do that - I'm pretending that I am a pilot... I even read those complex manuals and browse the pprune forums looking for hints and additional knowledge... and ask many questions to my fellow glider pilots who happen to fly airliners for a living... I've being doing it for years - strangely I seldom used soaring simulators or soar in fsx or x-plane ( and if I do, I do it mostly to test flight dynamics or a weather injector program I am beta testing...) !

 

Sorry... back to the main topic...

 

MS FLIGHT's flight dynamics model IS NOT what we have in fsx or fs9 or p3d - it is a different, much more detailled and at the same time open approach, to modelling different aircraft types. Those of you who tried to inspect the file structure and contents that make up an aircraft model in MS FLIGHT will be able to understand better what I am talking about...

 

If what the initial project was aiming to become had reached the market, I strongly believe we would not be where we are now. X-Plane 10 might still be good alternative, but that's all, IMO. Unfortunately that was not what happened, but this doesn't mean that even just as it was released MS FLIGHT can't provide us, flight simulation fans, aviation fans in the 1st place, a very enjoyable experience, made up of scenery details and overall graphic quality, flight and overall physics modelling including weather modelling, and even mission-oriented challenges.

 

I have long uninstalled MS FLIGHT, and although I did re-install it a few times to test some excellent utilities made available by tallented people who keep supporting the MS FLIGHT user community, I really fealt so bad about it's fate, and the causes of it, that I decided to "ban" it from my disk, but the truth IS that nor X-Plane 10, nor fsx with the best prop aircraft add-ons, have given me the sensation of "being there" like flying for real that MS FLIGHT gave me.  That is probably a problem of mine, because I confess the only addon sceneries I ever bought for fsx were a couple of Aerosoft airports ( LPMA and Lukla ) and the magnific FTX Gloibal!  I never had one of those high definition sceneries available on the market, and I would probably find there a higher level of immersion than what I canI get from FSX in DX10 mode or X-plane 10.

 

Yes, Aerofly FS brought me a similar sensation, that's true, but while the photo scenery looks beautiful, the details of the autogen and detailled places in MS FLIGHT, the weather, the colours according to time of day, day of year, etc.. still make me prefer what I had in MS FLIGHT.  Ah!  And there's also DCS World - that one, with the upcoming EDGE, could change my mind, but unfortunately, it's a military sim, and I really do not like air combat, and even less modern air combat, although I acknowledge the high fidelity ( high above that of any other flight simulator ) of it's flight and aircraft / war systems modelling...

[Wobbie 938]

Very very correct.

 

 

 

 

Its called Microsoft Flight Simulator not Microsoft Flight Game. All the missions and scenarios that FSX has ARE or WHERE real world scenarios & emergencies....the flying through squares thing is for practice if you needed it....Im guessing you didn't click on "I am a real world pilot" when you first installed the SIM.

 

I have never even played MS Flight but I don't even have to just by hearing info from ppl and knowing that its FREE.......I can't confirm but I HIGHLY doubt in MS Flight you will be able to pick up a real world chart and fly a SID or STAR with VOR Radials, DME's etc......That right there sums it all up....

 

Im done comparing MS Flight to FSX....Theres nothing to debate. MS Flight=Game FSX=Sim

 

This is not in english but its a major news network in Greece having it on the news saying its not a game and being PRO simulator not game....Sorry you wont understand this but it gives you an idea at least of where it stands. 

 

LOL... I believe, that if a program comes from a GAMING studio, ACES, is sold as a game, played with gaming joysticks (& with keyboards -some guys still do), is not recognised by the FCC as a simulator, is sold for 'entertainment' ie gaming, IS a game.

 

LOL again, if a major news network in Greece... well, if it was seen on the internet, it must be true. In any case, that does not justify a product from a gaming studio being called a simulator!!

True, I'm also done!

[StoreyedTrain 13]

Simulations and games are very much different in their purposes. While a simulation is designed for evaluative or computational purposes, a game is designed for entertainment and educational purposes. While accuracy is the upshot of simulations, clarity is the upshot of games

 

here also.....

http://www.edutopia.org/sims-vs-games

 

 

For human being`s (and all other mammals) every Game is a form of pretend.

 

Monopoly = pretend to be a real-estate agent

Scrabble = pretend to make your own crossword puzzle

Just Cause = pretend to liberate a small island country

Kerbal Space program = pretend to be a space-agency

Civilisation = pretend to be England/France/Spain and kolonise the world

 

Young Lion and Tiger siblings play a game of friendly "battle/cathing each other" to prepar3 themselves for hunting and fighting when they are grown-up.

 

Game and Simulation are one and the same thing. (Both are the attempt at "gaining a skill/comparing skills" with repeatable play because there are no longterm consequences)

 

What is usually causing people to see a difference between the 2 is the amount of information you can take from the played/trialed environment into the real-world.

So if you have played Scrabble every day of your life before you go work for a newspaper making crossword puzzles, you would have a big advantage, which means Scrabble is definitely a Sim.

[Azone 39]

yorgosGK

 

"I have never even played MS Flight but I don't even have to just by hearing info from ppl and knowing that its FREE.......I can't confirm but I HIGHLY doubt in MS Flight you will be able to pick up a real world chart and fly a SID or STAR with VOR Radials, DME's etc......That right there sums it all up...."

 

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7 posts and you never even tried it!

 

 

lol you were done before you even started as you haven't a clue as to what you are talking about.

[188AHC 2,138]

Really guys?   Do we need another in depth analysis of which simulator is the "best"?  How many times do we need to go through this?

 

I think it's pretty clear what has happened in the flight simulation arena over the last few years and beating that horse again doesn't accomplish anything except to raise people's simulated blood pressure.

 

It is what it is.  We can all hope for great new things to happen but we'll just have to enjoy what we have, whichever sim it might be, and see what the future brings.