Any feedback will be nice to hear if Microsoft said something about the next MSFS and did you see any Beta's on the upcoming PMDG 747-400 and Wilco/Feelthere 737-400 ...?RegardsTerblanche

The only news I have seen was from one of the crew that released the stand alone combat sim, Falcon 4.0 Allied Force. He said based on the screen shots, FS10 was going to look great. He also said it had not been "locked down" yet, implying it is still a work on process.Tony

It's not much but is worth reading:http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaB...;num=1121031813Cal (CYXX)

Having attended the Sunday seminar that account at Simviation is a pretty good summation of things.The amount of data, the way it is obtained and the various sources, illustrated well why we sometimes see airports in a 500ft 'hole' or perched on a hill all on its own.The SRTM terrain data from the shuttle illustrates the 'hole' problem.If the radar is looking towards a hill or mountain then it will pick up the height of that hill/mountain but the immediate far side is in radar 'shadow' so the data will show a value of zero or MSL, hence the 'hole'.There was a lot of talk about off loading the CPU wowrk load by using DX9 shaders etc and using the power of modern graphics cards to do more of the rendering so the CPU can carry on with the physics side of things.There were some nice demonstrations of reflections. Clouds reflected in water, better representations of moving water and reflections off wet surfaces such as runways.The speaker did admit that FS has always been programmed with a long shelf life in mind which is why you cannot have full eye candy and a smooth, high frame rate flight. So just accept that the sliders will need to be pulled back from full.I thought the talk was very interesting and not full of the usual marketing BS, just a straight forward 'as it is' explanation from the FS team leader.

It was an excellent talk about Flight Simulator presented by two members of the FS development team. As mentioned we saw some stunning pictures of what may be features, in particular the water on runways, new autogen and new environment effects such as lighting effects, some fantastic reflections and shadows. As the team said, sit back and enjoy the current FS and wait patiently for the next version. Let them get on with the job they are doing to create the next instalment.

>we saw>some stunning pictures of what may be features, in particular>the water on runways, new autogen and new environment effects>such as lighting effects, some fantastic reflections and>shadows.Was there any picture showing clouds casting shadows on the ground as in real life? Would be a nice feature.

Yes the shadows also shone on other 3d buildings and objects and all reflections such as buildings and clouds could be seen in the water.

"Yes the shadows also shone on other 3d buildings and objects and all reflections such as buildings and clouds could be seen in the water."Ouch. That's going to stress some computers out there. Bring it on, that's what the sliders are for!Tony

I don't suppose they mentioned anything about jagged mountain peaks, did they?

... kind of ashame that they did not mention anything about simulating aircraft flight :-roll

FPS FPS FPS FPS FPS FPS FPS FPS FPS FPS FPS FPS FPSWhat about: FPS FPS FPS FPS FPS FPS FPSBarry

Hey Mike what do you mean by this "kind of ashame that they did not mention anything about simulating aircraft flight "I dont get it care to explain??.Best regards:Alexander

Hi,I can probably anwer on this...>Hey Mike what do you mean by thisFPS is a crusial issue. Meaning that there should be more interest in keeping those framerates down.>"kind of ashame that they did not mention anything aboutsimulating aircraft flight ">I dont get it care to explain??.After all, this is still called "Flight Simulator". The thing is that there is a trend in talking about everything but the actual aircraft/panel structure. I am somewhat also surprised that the focus very much fades out from what the Flight Simulator really should be all about.....For example: the lac of reality of how FS handles the EPR engine gauges, fuel handling, loading editor,..etc. etc......;-)However, what I am happy to see, is that MS finally understands that clouds also makes shadows on the ground/water. This is something I have been asking for since FS2000.Fly safe, Staffan AhlbergSweden/Stockholm/ESSAhttp://www.scandicair.com/images/dc9_banner.jpg"I will come and cut your lawn for a high quality DC8-63 system"[/color]My specs are:Dell Dimension 4600 P4/3.0 Ghz1024 Mb DDR333 Dual channel memory (2x256,1x512)128 Mb ATI Radeon 9800 ProOmega 2.5.58DirectX 9.0cW XP Home with SP1E171FPb Flat panel monitor 17"240Gb (2x120) 7200rpm HD

They said they were working their hardest to get FS running smoothly but made it very clear that they were creating next versions that were designed to best run on computers a few months/years? after release, this is because technology is constantly improving and the because of the shelf life of FS it has to last a long time. They kept saying they were moving lots of things to the graphic card using the benefits of DX9 and taking pressure of the CPU

Don't suppose anything was mentioned regarding possible improvements to ATC.Thanks,Adam