I really dismiss a lot of the doomsayers and those who place reasons why something might not work.

 

 

Clarke's Three Laws are three "laws" of prediction formulated by the British writer Arthur C. Clarke. They are:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist (Or maybe developer! ^_^) states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

I keep at least two of those laws in mind in situations like this.

 

“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” ― George Bernard Shaw

Edited February 25, 201412 yr by HiFlyer

Hi Brano,

 

Do you have sense of what components should be present in the complete flight simulation core product, versus what components would require robust SDK's for?  How far out do you think you are from preparing a robust enough prototype?  I think coming up w/ a vision that really has thought thru what the core feature set would be to give the project a scope that virtually assures depth & longevity would be fabulous to get community input on.   If you look at XPlane you can find reasons the simulator has not fully attracted the biggest users set it could and hopefully the Outerra FS would address these areas up front in the initial mission statement.   The whole concept of fabulous complete core w/ robust SDKs spells a very long period of service life upwards of 10y if done well, who knows maybe much longer ;o)

 

Hi Noel!

Just in case this interesting question(s) should eventually get lost unanswered here, maybe consider also asking over at the Outerra forums directly:

http://forum.outerra.com/

I've been excited about the possibilities of Outerra for flight sims.. I had the chance to interview one of the developers Brano Kemen about a year ago.. He's added quite a bit to the engine since then.. it continues to get better.

Edited February 25, 201412 yr by theskyisthelimit

Here is the Podcast mentioned above:

 

 

Nvidia 650 with TrackIR. This is pretty much the same thing I did when I really tried the MIG-29. Only at a better framerate (and grinning from ear to ear) Isn't this what we all imagined as we whoooshed trough our houses as children with our arms spread for wings?  :lol: 

 

This and Occulus rift are such an obvious marriage that I wont be the slightest bit surprised if I ever hear something about them working together with Outerra.

 

This and Occulus rift are such an obvious marriage that I wont be the slightest bit surprised if I ever hear something about them working together with Outerra.

 

 

I swear this is ridiculous!  What kind of trickery is involved here?  Why, in simple terms, does this simulator perform so much more robustly than the competition?  What is the explanation for this what amounts to quantum jump in efficiency?

I swear this is ridiculous!  What kind of trickery is involved here?  Why, in simple terms, does this simulator perform so much more robustly than the competition?  What is the explanation for this what amounts to quantum jump in efficiency?

 

It's just a demo. Whenever the world of Outerra gets populated with dense realistic scenery, weather, AI traffic and a complex aircraft things will change. Hopefully by then we'll have 10GHz CPUs and monster GPUs

Remember though that programs like this run mostly on the GPU, with the intent to leave the CPU(s) free for exactly the things you mentioned.

 

Our experience of how traditional sims handle things is probably not all that indicative of how a procedural world will use resources.

It's just a demo. Whenever the world of Outerra gets populated with dense realistic scenery, weather, AI traffic and a complex aircraft things will change. Hopefully by then we'll have 10GHz CPUs and monster GPUs

 

Not necessarily at all!

I mean, just look at the videos posted here at #160 - and this is just one example.

It shows complexe structures, basic physics and movements - and all running together super smooth!

Or please feel free to check out the Outerra webiste and see for Yourself what can already be done there by now.

 

Now before any missunderstanding occure:

No one - not even one of the main developers from Outerra himself (post #154 here) - said that it will be an easy undertaking to have it all put together super nicely over night.

But it is cerainly possible and doable to get and gain a real lot of the best out of current soft- and hardware - if - from the scratch n engine is newly designed and really able to take full advantage of it all (current soft- and hardware) properly.

And that is - believe it or not - the case with Outerra.

No legacy code to take care of and all that - and most important of all:

An advanced approach towards "generating" and/or "rendering" any environment in a sim or a game for instance, which completely differs in many cases from anything we flightsimmers are used (forced) to use now.

Sure and again saying:

All no easy task, but certainly doable - and definitely not requiring a 10GHz CPU!

I know flight simulation is the common thread that brings us all to Avsim, and naturally, most are looking at Outerra from that standpoint, but my head is spinning off in another direction. Another hobby of mine is playing large scale combined arms battles in Arma (v. 2 right now, slowly switching to v. 3), and the idea of going insanely large scale in an Outerra landscape is mindblowing. Even though Arma 2 and 3's landscapes are relatively huge for the style of games they are, you still start to feel boxed in, particularly during air engagements. With this... hell, I'm just picturing multiple fronts with battles raging with tanks, infantry, artillery, aircraft, logistics-- all over miles and miles of realistically portrayed terrain that renders Arma 3's Altis the size of a postage stamp.

This really does need to be the next Simulator engine of choice.

I love the idea of this and possibly Aerofly as the future of flightsim.

 

I don't even think ******* could get P3DV2 anywhere near this kind of quality :rolleyes:

This really does need to be the next Simulator engine of choice.

I love the idea of this and possibly Aerofly as the future of flightsim.

 

I don't even think ******* could get P3DV2 anywhere near this kind of quality :rolleyes:

 

My feelings exactly. How much more can Prepar3D 2.x progress with such an outdated engine? The future lies in aeroflyFS and Outerra (maybe FlightGear too, haven't looked much into it) because they have great foundations.

 

 

An advanced approach towards "generating" and/or "rendering" any environment in a sim or a game for instance, which completely differs in many cases from anything we flightsimmers are used (forced) to use now.

 

This is the real question:  is the Outerra engine fundamentally much more efficient than current offerings from P3D V2.x?  Others have pointed out the issue how what we are seeing is not the full depth environment of P3D V2 or XPlane.  If, somehow, it is fundamentally much better than truly it is the direction to exploit.

My feelings exactly. How much more can Prepar3D 2.x progress with such an outdated engine? The future lies in aeroflyFS and Outerra (maybe FlightGear too, haven't looked much into it) because they have great foundations.

 

I agree. There's a way sims have been done for years and years, and whatever the name of the sim or the company that makes it, its always pretty much the selfsame techniques, aided by faster processors and super-fast GPUs. There hasn't been anything really new in the world of sims in a long, long time, and even FSX in the hands of Lockheed Martin can only accommodate a limited amount of extra lipstick.

 

Call it momentum, Inertia or whatever, but the traditional outlets seem hesitant to step too quickly or fully into this unexplored new territory, so its probably going to develop without us and we will have to belatedly catch up. My one fear, as I've mentioned before is that right now Outerra is interested in us and we are in turn intrigued by the possibilities of Outerra.

 

We have the opportunity to help embed the groundwork of a flightsim indelibly into the basic code of the program at an early stage here, even if things take a long time to come to fruition. That way, if the company grows or is purchased, at least some work will be done that makes it easy to go ahead and finish a sim.

 

If not, Outerra could go off to other Military or gaming genres, and a great ground-floor opportunity might be lost. My hope as an enthusiast is that we get our foot in the door now!

If not, Outerra could go off to other Military or gaming genres, and a great ground-floor opportunity might be lost. My hope as an enthusiast is that we get our foot in the door now!

 

Unfortunately that's very likely to happen. Civil flight simulation is a very niche market and Outerra might never find enough people to support it as a flight simulator. Other gaming genres on the other hand...