An Interesting Future for Outerra

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

This is where I have always seen Outerra heading. But they have to keep in mind that there are other innovative programmers out there, and if they take too long, somebody just might eat their lunch!

 

 

Those videos look great!

[twiggys 41]

 A lot of people have worked over the years to draw FSX past its original limitations, and I don't think even its creators ever imagined many of the things it can do now. But as an older program, there are some inherent design decisions that restrict how far it can be enhanced and still keep backward compatibility.

 

The attraction for me of Outerra and programs like it is that they approach things from an almost entirely new angle, taking much greater advantage of modern hardware. It offers the possibility of a level of realism that it would be hard for any older program, FSX included, to match.

 

If the tools eventually match the looks, people will come.

+1

[Datalink 26]

A lot of people have worked over the years to draw FSX past its original limitations, and I don't think even its creators ever imagined many of the things it can do now. But as an older program, there are some inherent design decisions that restrict how far it can be enhanced and still keep backward compatibility.

 

The attraction for me of Outerra and programs like it is that they approach things from an almost entirely new angle, taking much greater advantage of modern hardware. It offers the possibility of a level of realism that it would be hard for any older program, FSX included, to match.

 

If the tools eventually match the looks, people will come.

Very very true, I've been keeping my eye on outerra pretty much from the off, it has so much potential for many applications . I wish I had a system capable of running the demo though.

[CyberMike 18]

If you can run FSX you can run the demo at around double the FPS or more. Also OpenGL 3.3 is old, for ex. Nvidia supports OpenGL 4.* for maybe around 2-3 years even on Ubuntu.

 

If only they can put together a flightsim team and bring on the kickstarter. Imagine to land on a runway in such stormy weather with the trees waving alike. A whole new level of realism is waiting. I only feel sorry for the folks that bought sluggish FSX and no I won't update my PC again only for FS11. :angry:

[John514 3]

If you can run FSX you can run the demo at around double the FPS or more. Also OpenGL 3.3 is old, for ex. Nvidia supports OpenGL 4.* for maybe around 2-3 years even on Ubuntu.

 

If only they can put together a flightsim team and bring on the kickstarter. Imagine to land on a runway in such stormy weather with the trees waving alike. A whole new level of realism is waiting. I only feel sorry for the folks that bought sluggish FSX and no I won't update my PC again only for FS11. :angry:

 

Yeah, I`ve been there. I got a new gfx card, a new motherboard, RAM, a new CPU Cooler and I overclocked my CPU, just to get 5-7 more frames in FSX. While the upgrades worked just fine for any other game (almost doubling my PC`s performance), FSX was stubborn to the old ways, and will always will. Time for an upgrade, I say.

[John514 3]

Now, Levi, the guy who imported the Beasler and the Ilyushin has gained permission from Project Airbus to convert their A380. The visual results put FSX to shame even now.

[Baber20 1,438]

Now, Levi, the guy who imported the Beasler and the Ilyushin has gained permission from Project Airbus to convert their A380. The visual results put FSX to shame even now.

 

OMG !!!! Mind = blown !

Project Airbus A380 full gallery can be viewed here. http://minus.com/mDXYpngbrYIUM

[NATK50 8]

Will Outerra be a Flightsim like FSX/Prepar3D or is it just like a "game" with no flight physics?

[HiFlyer 9,361]

Will Outerra be a Flightsim like FSX/Prepar3D or is it just like a "game" with no flight physics?

 

I'm gonna be really precise and give you some wiki info, since this question keeps coming up. First, Outerra is not a flightsim.

 

It does however use JSBSIM which is an open source Flight Dynamics Model (FDM) software library that models the flight dynamics of an aerospace vehicle. The library has been incorporated into the flight simulation packages FlightGear and OpenEagles. It can also be called from a small standalone program to create a batch simulation tool. JSBSim has been in development and use since 1996, and has been built on all of the most popular platforms in use today including those running Linux, Macintosh, and Microsoft Windows operating systems. JSBSim is written in C++ and uses XML configuration files.

 

Outerra is:

 

3D planetary engine for seamless planet rendering from space down to the surface. It can use arbitrary resolution of elevation data, refining it to centimeter resolution using fractal algorithms. It features unlimited visibility, progressive download of data, procedural content generation as well as Integrated vehicle and aircraft physics engines (JSBSIM and BULLET) as well as an embedded web browser for web service integration and more.

 

The conclusion is:

 

Outerra has the potential to be a lot of things, one of which could be a flight sim, once additional tools become available. In the meantime, creative and enthusiastic people are pushing the boundary's and generating some impressive user generated content while the developers continue to implement more and more features.

 

My personal feeling is that Outerra will probably only reach the level of FSX default planes (eventually) and then hover there for a while until the "professionals" take an interest and get in there to get their hands dirty.

[P*Funk 9]

Looking at what Outerra is and can be makes me realize how limited current 3D game design is, and I'm not just talking about sims with old men playing them who wouldn't know an Xbox from a toolbox. Console games are inherently generationally behind. They in turn slow the pace of development of PC based gaming. As a result you see how much the big dollars go into doing basically what we do with FSX: drawing out the potential of inherently limited and older concepts.

 

Its pretty obvious that the tech we have today is well ahead and only just being caught up to by the software. Legacy software, empires of customer brand loyalty, all rely on investments in software that is basically obsolete on some levels. Pushing things forward is slow progress. The hardware is here but the software is taking forever. Outerra is incredible but looking at who is making it and seeing the comparison with what is being done with budgets consisting of tens of millions dollars its really exciting, not just for Outerra but for the concept of gaming in general. Its also kinda sad realizing how much potential is basically ignored because all the talent and the money is tied up in safe bets and there isn't a lot going into risky ventures.

 

The future is ready we just have to wait for someone to take a crack at a business model for it. I don't think we'll be flight simming as we should be able to for at least 10 years. The inertia of what we already have will choke the pace of things. Nevertheless Outerra is thrilling to look at. Just get it to 64 bit pl0x.

[wolke85 150]

Now, Levi, the guy who imported the Beasler and the Ilyushin has gained permission from Project Airbus to convert their A380. The visual results put FSX to shame even now.

 

... This is just amazing!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[HughesMDflyer4 470]

Just get it to 64 bit pl0x.

 

I can't understand why everyone thinks that a flight simulator HAS to be 64 bit to be successful or good. It's all about resource management. If the engine does not dispose of unneeded resources quickly enough, or doesn't ever dispose of some, you'll end up with an OOM in ANY game. Take a look at Microsoft Flight. It can render so much more detail (higher resolution textures, more objects, greater draw distance, more clouds, etc) and it's only 32 bit. I've never heard of anyone having an OOM. An engine like Outerra that has been built from scratch to take full advantage of modern hardware and with no regard to backwards compatibility or within any strict limitations will not even need to be 64 bit. Sure, it would be nice to have a 64 bit version for the extra wiggle room just in case, but it is not absolutely necessary.

[John514 3]

Yes, 64bit is not necessary. More like a "really recommended feature"

The logic behing it is, why leave so much available resources go to waste?

Although Outerra has a small issue when using the Google Maps overlay, it gets an OOM error.

[tttocs 301]

 

 

Outerra has the potential to be a lot of things, one of which could be a flight sim, once additional tools become available. In the meantime, creative and enthusiastic people are pushing the boundary's and generating some impressive user generated content while the developers continue to implement more and more features.

 

Well summed up.

 

Like you, I continue to be almost giddy at the prospects of what this could become.  The potential is amazing, and in the meantime it's a lot of fun seeing what creative and talented folks are doing as the platform develops.

 

Thanks for keeping the discussion alive.

 

Scott

[P*Funk 9]

I can't understand why everyone thinks that a flight simulator HAS to be 64 bit to be successful or good. It's all about resource management. If the engine does not dispose of unneeded resources quickly enough, or doesn't ever dispose of some, you'll end up with an OOM in ANY game. Take a look at Microsoft Flight. It can render so much more detail (higher resolution textures, more objects, greater draw distance, more clouds, etc) and it's only 32 bit. I've never heard of anyone having an OOM. An engine like Outerra that has been built from scratch to take full advantage of modern hardware and with no regard to backwards compatibility or within any strict limitations will not even need to be 64 bit. Sure, it would be nice to have a 64 bit version for the extra wiggle room just in case, but it is not absolutely necessary.

The reason is simple. Future proofing.

 

If they don't make a step towards 64bit early then everything they do from now on is subject to the limitations of the engine at a 32 bit level. This means that any point in the future where they want to make the step forward will create a situation where they either dump a lot of the things they've incorporated into it and start again with a more bare product or they spend an inordinate amount of time updating what they have added. Whats more products built based on it will need to themselves be independently updated.

 

Looking backwards towards what FSX is capable of is a mistake. This is about the future. The current state of computer software is only beginning to fully adapt itself to the potential of technology thats been around for a comparatively long time. Things like multi-threading and full use of available system memory are slowly becoming automatic in many games but we're still living with the legacy that these limitations creates.