MS Flight continues... new rumours

[stonelance 136]

ESP and the FSX tech Dovetail games got are likely similar (ESP1 and FSX are basically the same, although ESP2 and the TS2 source Flight is based on are the same), but essentially Dovetail has the entertainment license, and Lockheed has the commercial one.  Most likely, Dovetail is not supposed to make or market products for training\military\companies, and Lockheed is not supposed to make or market it's products for entertainment.

[nathanpinard 0]

People that buy simluators generally understand the limitations of graphics for simulators. The bugs however? They will tear it apart for that.

[rhumbaflappy 113]

The technology of Flight is basically the same as FSX. A bit stripped down and a bit refined... but essentially the same. The technology has been evolutionary from day one... with perhaps CFS3 being slightly outside the development cycle.

 

The Dovetail announcement stated they had license to use the flight technology from Microsoft. That could be anything from the first flight sim, the CFS series, or the latest from the Flight development team. License, but not exclusive development rights. ( That's obvious as Lockheed-Martin already have a license to use Microsoft's flightsim technology ).

 

They also have distribution rights to FSX:Gold. No rights to distribute anything else... and that would include Flight. I believe this is exclusive, and Microsoft will no longer distribute FSX:Gold. I don't think Microsoft are distributing new copies of FSX anyways.

 

And Microsoft retains the development rights of flightsim technology for themselves. Should they decide to try another run at flight simulation, they can go right ahead and compete with Dovetail. Or sell further licenses to other companies.

 

Sounds like a safe and easy way for Microsoft to raise some cash from the FS archives, with no risk or restriction to themselves.

 

Dovetail is taking the risk... they need to get a marketable sim out the door by the end of 2015. They are betting new development costs, and distribution of the old FSX:Gold, against the cost of the license from Microsoft.  I'd say they need to hit a homerun here... but then I don't know what they paid for the license.

 

Dick

[cfsops 0]

The technology of Flight is basically the same as FSX. A bit stripped down and a bit refined... but essentially the same.

It is a lot refined. One of the people you all know from here did a huge amount of awesome work on the graphics code and is responsible for a great deal of the performance improvements seen with Flight.

 

The Dovetail announcement stated they had license to use the flight technology from Microsoft. That could be anything from the first flight sim, the CFS series, or the latest from the Flight development team.

The phrase "flight technology" refers directly to the Flight game. Anything else would rightly be referred to a "flight simulator" technology.

 

License, but not exclusive development rights. ( That's obvious as Lockheed-Martin already have a license to use Microsoft's flightsim technology ).

Prepar3D is based on ESP, not FSX, and is for commercial rather than entertainment purposes. While ESP has some relationship to FSX, the two are separate products.

 

And Microsoft retains the development rights of flightsim technology for themselves.

That's interesting. Where did you hear that?

[Wobbie 938]

ESP has been licensed to Lockheed Martin, as we all know. Steam will be distributing FSX... They will also be distributing X-Plane. Flight, before it was dumped, was free. Why would anybody buy it now? Steam is a distribution company, not a developing one. Methinks it's a lot of smoke & mirrors.

 

So, for those that have FSX, will it affect us? No! For the newbies? If you want a 5-6 year old program, go for it when it is released. 

 

BTW..where in the world did you come to this deduction?

The phrase "flight technology" refers directly to the Flight game. Anything else would rightly be referred to a "flight simulator" technology.

It is obvious, by so press releases so far, that the "flight technology" refers to FSX .

 

It's obviously a good business plan for both Microsoft, as well as X-Plane, to give distribution rights  to Steam. It saves on inventory, worldwide shipping, etc. At the end of the day, Steam is a distribution company, NOT a software development company, so, those that are expecting new products developed by Steam, compared to established developers (freeware & shareware)... I think not! 

[goates 576]

It's obviously a good business plan for both Microsoft, as well as X-Plane, to give distribution rights  to Steam. It saves on inventory, worldwide shipping, etc. At the end of the day, Steam is a distribution company, NOT a software development company, so, those that are expecting new products developed by Steam, compared to established developers (freeware & shareware)... I think not! 

 

This license deal is between Microsoft and Dovetail Games, not Steam. Dovetail is the one who will be distributing FSX Gold through Steam, and then, per the news release, bringing something new to market next year. As Dovetail's current business revolves heavily around a core sim product with supporting DLC, Flight would be the obvious choice for them to build off of. Of course, there is little detail beyond the brief announcement to go on.

 

And as for Steam, it is owned by Valve Software, who also develop their own games.

[ChaoticBeauty 6,692]

That's interesting. Where did you hear that?

 

I read an article a few days ago where it said that Dovetail Games have the right to produce new flight simulation games using Microsoft's technology, but Microsoft retain the right to the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise, which means they're not prohobited from making a new MSFS if they decide to. If I find the article again I'll post the link.

 

At the end of the day, Steam is a distribution company, NOT a software development company, so, those that are expecting new products developed by Steam, compared to established developers (freeware & shareware)... I think not! 

 

They are actually game developers, when you consider that Steam is a service (not a company) which is operated by Valve Software.

[KavindaJD 31]

 One of the people you all know from here did a huge amount of awesome work on the graphics code and is responsible for a great deal of the performance improvements seen with Flight.

 

     Well done Steve! Until to this day, he is still supporting the game.

 

@cfsops, do you have anything from the Microsoft Flight development days to help us out here (i.e. Tools)? 

[cfsops 0]

@Kavinda, much of what I did with Flight revolved around automating the internal build. That functionality isn't available in the release build, so none of the utilities would work. I did a debugger that would be usable, but if you need a debugger it would be better to use something like NTSD or Windbg, which are freely available from Microsoft.

 

What sort of tools are you looking for? If there's a specific requirement, I might be able to help.

 

Edit: to avoid misunderstanding, if there is a specific tool requirement, I might be willing to create or help create such a tool in my spare time.
 

[Wobbie 938]

Sorry for the errors.. basically, very basically, Steam will be distributing FSX. As far as them developing FSX... we will see, bearig in mind that the program is about 5 years old!. & we have P3D!

My impression is that MS$ has given distribution rights to a 3rd party, thereby getting out of carrying inventory, world wide distribution etc.. as well as putting up with all the petitions, demands & moans. We can do all that to someone else now & MS$ breaths again. (Phew, they can say, we got rid all those whingers... let them moan elseware)

 

Remember.... Microsoft ONLY gave us the simulation/game engine... it is those freeware & payware developers that have made our hobby so exciting. 

[goates 576]

 

 

As far as them developing FSX... we will see, bearig in mind that the program is about 5 years old!

 

We know they won't be developing FSX as they are not allowed to.

 

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsoft-flight-simulator-series-to-live-on-but-n/1100-6421000/

 

However, Dovetail did say they will be releasing something new in 2015 based on the licensing rights they acquired. Flight matches their Train Simulator product and business model very closely, and is a newer code base to work from. Perhaps they can fix one of the biggest flaws in Flight, the very limited content that was available.

[Manny 1,293]

If they developed 64 bit version, its worth looking into... otherwise it won't be able to catch up to P3D V2.3 for another 3-4 years and in the meanwhole P3D would have moved on with V3 or something

[stonelance 136]

Flight is much more optimized than FSX and P3D, so making it 64 bit doesn't matter for at least the next 5 years.  The largest memory use in flight sims is the textures, those are stored on the GPU memory which is not limited to the address space of the OS in Win7 and later.  Also, if you look at the probable market for any Flight based product the majority of them do not have more than 4GB of ram, although that will shift past the 50% mark fairly soon.

[styckx 1,871]

 Steam is a distribution company, not a developing one. 

 

 

Actually. Some of the constant biggest sellers on Steam are Early Access titles.. These are titles that are in alpha or beta stage that people pay money for and get updates as the developers further develop the game to a (hopefully) finished product. 

 

http://store.steampowered.com/genre/Early%20Access/?snr=1_earlyaccess_4__12

[KavindaJD 31]

Actually. Some of the constant biggest sellers on Steam are Early Access titles.. These are titles that are in alpha or beta stage that people pay money for and get updates as the developers further develop the game to a (hopefully) finished product. 

 

http://store.steampowered.com/genre/Early%20Access/?snr=1_earlyaccess_4__12

 

      True. For those that may not know.... Steam is a platform, made by Valve, who released their games onto Steam. Steam is not actually a company, it was developed by a company... Valve runs it and manages it!

 

http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/