FSX-SE Lockheed Martin VS Dovetail Games ?

[WarpD 824]

Ok... not a very worthwhile discussion to begin with... but it's falling into crazy argument zone at this point.

[FINXPAS 5]

What matters here are the development teams and their respective backgrounds. I'm curious to find out whether there will be some form of technical cooperation (fixing core bugs) between the two teams or will the platforms branch out into separate lines serving clients at different levels of expertise.

 

You would think, the game distribution license (Dovetail) and some kind of professional exploitation license (Lockheed) using the same core engine should enable the creation of a third entity coordinating the development of that core. You wouldn't want duplication of effort trying to build a 64bit iteration of FSX ? But then again maybe flight sims are easy to produce ?

[Wobbie 938]

Dunno if anyone said anything of a FSX 64bit. An 8 year old game upgraded? P3D..Yes,are looking for into it. An online gaming distributor & LM collaborating? Surely, you jest!

You are aware, that even though FSX & P3D come from the same family, they are streets apart now?

[FINXPAS 5]

Dunno if anyone said anything of a FSX 64bit. An 8 year old game upgraded? P3D..Yes,are looking for into it. An online gaming distributor & LM collaborating? Surely, you jest!

You are aware, that even though FSX & P3D come from the same family, they are streets apart now?

 

In essence, you're saying that Dovetail's efforts will be limited to recompiling and testing 8 year old source code under current and upcoming operating systems. If that's the case, then their job is relatively easy.

 

So the real competition in flight sim development (new core features) will still remain between Xplane and P3D then

[Wobbie 938]

I think you have summed it up correctly.

I still think that MS made a great business decision to give FSX to Dovetail. It saves MS inventory as well as world wide distribution costs, so they can get on with their core business. Let's face it, without the payware & freeware developers out there, FSX would have sunk when MS dumped it. At least, the P3D (& XPLANE) developers are constantly upgrading the core program.

[SpeedBird4509 0]

24hrs before launch and no mention anywhere on Steam, lol and no PreOrders.

[Wobbie 938]

And the excitement is..?

[vololiberista 205]

And the excitement is..?

Desert Bus!

[Dutch727 543]

In thinking about what companies are going to do with a particular technology, keep in mind that the decision makers in these companies are concerned with profit.  Follow the money and you will be more right than wrong.

Sometimes, this isn't completely true.  I believe (without any insider specific knowledge, but I have heard and read this) that Flight Simulator became the franchise it did within Microsoft due to the personal interest of the chairman at the time (one Mr. Gates).  When he left and others took over the day-to-day leadership of the company, an objective assessment of the profit potential of the pure flight simulator market caused them to drop it pretty quickly.

 

What many of us want is an aviation simulator.  What we have is a flight simulator, but enhanced by many add-ons into something closer to what we long for.  I personally am thankful that MS made it as open as they did.  It's a pretty small market to a large entertainment gaming company.

I would say that if a professional level sim is what you want, LM is going to be your best hope.  I would doubt that Dovetail sees much profit potential in making this thing more authentic and complete.  Probably the opposite, sadly.

The model of a basic open environment supported by smaller companies making high-precision add-ons is probably the best we can hope for, realistically.

[shivers9 1,174]

Ok... not a very worthwhile discussion to begin with... but it's falling into crazy argument zone at this point.

LOL...You are correct sir! This is only or should only be a light hearted discussion. Really nothing new here at all. It is still kind of a funny or perhalps a strange take on things that we in this community have. We should all know by now that there is not going to be some silver bullet  show up that somehow makes the now very old and dated FSX fly with the eagles on our old outdated lower end systems. That train left the station many years ago.

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

In thinking about what companies are going to do with a particular technology, keep in mind that the decision makers in these companies are concerned with profit.  Follow the money and you will be more right than wrong.

 

LM is not into PC based Flight SIm for the money....That company made $2.981 billion in profits last year and the sale from one F-35 will probably have more profit then P3D will over its entire life span when you factor in the sale of an F-35 plus training and service contracts and support over the life span of the aircraft.

 

P3D is peanuts and I bet a lot of people at LM don't even know about it. Their primary reason for it is to offer it as a training tool to their customer base....Selling it as an academic licence to us the public is something they could pull the plug on at any time.

[WotanUK 289]

LM is not in Flight SIm for the money....That company made $2.981 billion in profits last year and the sale from one F-35 will probably have more profit then P3D

 

Yes very true, so what do you think their motivation is?  As you say, it's a multi-billion dollar weapons company, so they are hardly going to be altruistically providing a service to the simming community.  It genuinely puzzles me, there is no way P3D can perform specialist training, so that would leave commercial general training, is that a big market?

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

Yes very true, so what do you think their motivation is?  As you say, it's a multi-billion dollar weapons company, so they are hardly going to be altruistically providing a service to the simming community.  It genuinely puzzles me, there is no way P3D can perform specialist training, so that would leave commercial general training, is that a big market?

I had already said as a training tool for their customer base or for trade shows to show off their product lines. It would be primarily used to support their products. If they have a product in develop it is a great platform to start showing it to customers before a proper training program can be implemented.

 

Why they do offer an Academic Licence to the public is beyond me, I can only think they have a few people that got started with MSFS and built a career in Aviation at LM from that, and felt it was a good thing to have it public to support a next generation of Aviation Enthusiasts......just what me thinks is all

 

But I wouldn't be surprised if one day they pull the plug on selling that Academic Licence to the public.

[JSkorna 137]

 

 

there is no way P3D can perform specialist training

 

They do that every day with P3D software, not the software you see, but with P3D as the base.

[Don t moderate me this way 882]

(...)

Why they do offer an Academic Licence to the public is beyond me, (...)

 

But I wouldn't be surprised if one day they pull the plug on selling that Academic Licence to the public.

 

 

Public beta testing?