FSX-SE Kudos to DoveTail and Vendors

[Jon 4]

XPlane is this way since it´s born. I think the vendors can live with that.

Not just that, but it's also not that different than the way MSFS used to be. Even service packs would significantly mess with how add-ons work. No, it wasn't quite the same as now where updates can be pushed rapidly, but it's still the same concept.

 

Not having a "moving target" is simply something we've taken for granted with FSX boxed being the end of the line at that point.

[Bjoern 1,157]

I think it's safe to say that DTG way exceeded the (admittedly low) expectations most of the community had about the FSX re-release.

 

 

 

Wait until the 4th or 5th update cycle that breaks everything and let's see what the vendors think of a moving programming target.

Only until the 4th or 5th cycle?

As an avid KerbalSpaceProgram player, I can only laugh about this. Every new version breaks at least 70% of add-on content I have installed.

Fortunately, the source code for all add-ons is freely available and there's always someone who'll at least compile a working interim version within a few days.

[JSkorna 137]

 

 

As an avid KerbalSpaceProgram player, I can only laugh about this. Every new version breaks at least 70% of add-on content I have installed.
Fortunately, the source code for all add-ons is freely available and there's always someone who'll at least compile a working interim version within a few days.

 

That's nice, and you can laugh all you want, but I'm sure a company such as PMDG MIGHT get pretty tired of this IF this happens. I know of one major FSX company that didn't even have a patch for the original SE released yet and now you have SE1. I'm sure they are just sitting there laughing their collective heads off.

[htuna 2]

Doesn't prepar3d do updates? Isn't PMDG moving into Prepar3d soon?

[AviatorMoser 353]

That's nice, and you can laugh all you want, but I'm sure a company such as PMDG MIGHT get pretty tired of this IF this happens. I know of one major FSX company that didn't even have a patch for the original SE released yet and now you have SE1. I'm sure they are just sitting there laughing their collective heads off.

 

I don't understand. Don't people want to see FSX updated to have it run better with less bugs? Or have I been hearing the wrong things for the last six years.

 

Anyway, it's PMDG's business to lose if they choose.

[Guest]

 

 

The way it's going to be...

 

Agree, in the my world it has been this way for a long time ... even more so with web development. 

 

As far as SimConnect for FSX ... that'll only work if you don't want or need the changes in the newer versions of the managed SimConnect.dll provided in the equivalent SDK.

 

But other option here is to deploy the SimConnect.dll version you use along with your application, just make sure it's in the root of your apps dir/location so it's used.  This is what GoFlight (GIT) does and they're using a much older SimConnect.dll ... and they have NOT needed to update for each P3D V2.x release.

 

Personally I think the best approach is to operate separate EXE using whatever SimConnect.dll you want, runs in a separate address space so reduces VAS footprint.

 

My 2 cents.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

 

Don't people want to see FSX updated to have it run better with less bugs?

 

It's called P3D v2.4 and soon v2.5

 

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[JSkorna 137]

Doesn't prepar3d do updates? Isn't PMDG moving into Prepar3d soon?

Do the P3D updates break stuff each time? I have no idea and have NO interest in finding out.

 

 

I don't understand. Don't people want to see FSX updated to have it run better with less bugs? Or have I been hearing the wrong things for the last six years.

 

Anyway, it's PMDG's business to lose if they choose.

I'm sure they do want updates, but at the POSSIBLE cost of things being POSSIBLY broken each time?

 

FYI, I was just using PMDG as an example, reading that some of their stuff was not working in SE. I have no idea what their official plans are for SE or what they think about SE.

[SeanPinn 0]

 

 

It's called P3D v2.4 and soon v2.5

 

Not in my opinion. Sorry , couldnt help it?

[htuna 2]

You don't "have to" update your Steam, you can turn off updates.. I think that it is great that someone is trying to fix this old platform, I'm sure the updates will taper off at some point, when they've done as much as they can with this 'old' engine.

 

On the other hand, it will bring new Simmers into the hobby.. Yes, maybe a very small percentage of the people who buy on Steam, but that small percentage could end up being a pretty large amount of simmers number wise.

 

I mean I owned FSX for probably 5 or 6 years (maybe fired it up once or twice and didn't stay in it very long)  before one day I got sucked into the addiction last year!

[nickpap89 2]

Wait until the 4th or 5th update cycle that breaks everything and let's see what the vendors think of a moving programming tYo

You wish.

You'd better stay with your old over-tweaked FSX mess you have

[JSkorna 137]

You wish.

You'd better stay with your old over-tweaked FSX mess you have

LOL, you mean my FSX that hasn't been tweaked in years, never OOM's, been re-installed 3 times in 8 years, and where every add-on I want works straight out of the box? OK, I think I will, thank you very much!!

[Aamir 2,907]

w/ regard to whoever implied that PMDG or any other commercial devs would be uninterested/irritated with development for a "moving target", I disagree quite strongly. While the statement above may hold true for freeware developers, I honestly don't think that the payware folks would complain much. FSX:SE is bringing in a fair few extra simmers. A bigger market means more scope for sales, i.e more revenue.

If you're in the commercial game, you should be prepared to expand and move with the industry. Dinosaur businesses that refuse to adapt to the game are the ones that end up failing, or becoming irrelevant.

Commercial devs, in my mind, should welcome the opportunity to sell more units of their product, and expand their firms, even if it is at the cost of doing some extra work. 

[Guest]

The exact same arguments users are making today to keep FSX unchanged are the exact same arguments users made to keep FS9 unchanged ... apparently many of those users didn't find their own reasons compelling enough to stay with FS9 and the majority of users did eventually move to FSX.  3rd party shifted with the majority.

 

Growth can only come from significant change that addresses platform limitations.

 

Cheers, Rob.

[Orbx 123]

We love that DTG breathed new life into FSX with SE but we're not offering our products as DLC for Valve and DTG to take margins off, it's just not a good business move for us, especially when they run 80% off snap-sales. We just don't want to compete with Steam for the same business.

 

What we have found though, is that Steam users know how to use Google and we're getting a bunch of incremental business anyway because regardless of whether DLC is on Steam, customers will look for 3rd party addons from wherever they are available.

 

And yeah, continually changing exe version numbers are a PITA. With P3D it generally only changes quarterly or less, and we can re-sign our DLLs quickly for that, but FSX:SE is proving a little trickier.

 

I am more interested in what DTG does next. That should get my interest, not FSX-redux.

[Pastaiolo 1,688]

We love that DTG breathed new life into FSX with SE but we're not offering our products as DLC for Valve and DTG to take margins off, it's just not a good business move for us, especially when they run 80% off snap-sales. We just don't want to compete with Steam for the same business.

 

 

 

Sales are decided by the developers i believe. If you don't want your product to be discounted, you won't get it discounted.

 

Steam takes at least 30% of the selling price as far as i know