Hello everyone,Forgive me if this has been posted elsewhere, but I just found a blog from the FS Lead Project Manager, and I thought you all might be interested...Specifically, he mentions the "Backward Compatibility" threads found here on AVSIM.Take a look here: http://blogs.msdn.com/tdragger/default.aspxRegards,Nick

Thanks for the find!As a developer, it's nice to hear things straight from the horse's mouth.Bryan

Nick:Whoa... very enlightening blog post. Thanks for the link on this one!

It's pretty sad he had to defend his identity in this latest writeup.Great read and I for one appreciate the time and effort he took to post that. Nice to know that MS is listening, even if things don't get implemented in the next version, at least we know they are aware, thanks Mike!Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/mcdcvabanner.jpgCalVirAir International

Nice that MS not only listens, but also offers a bit of information that helps some have a better understanding of how the product works:-)

Interesting comments re Far Cry etcSo flightsim recreating the entire world/atmosphere as a single game 'level' makes it more of a challenge to render without crippling current h/w?I thought so - that this must be the reason other games are said to look so much better.Or have I completely misunderstood?regards,MarkXPHomeSP2/FS9.1/3.2HT/1GIG/X700pro256

Excellent find!!!I bookmarked this blog and will read it regularly.Glad to know the FS folks read here too! I beta tested CFS2, CFS3, FS2002 and FS2004. The MS guys always were great to deal with IMHO.Eric

>> Forgive me if this has been posted elsewhere, but I just found a blog from the FS Lead Project Manager, and I thought you all might be interested...C'mon people. It's *Program* Manager!

Mike, I am sure he will get the title right next time :(

HI Mark,"Interesting comments re Far Cry etcSo flightsim recreating the entire world/atmosphere as a single game 'level' makes it more of a challenge to render without crippling current h/w?I thought so - that this must be the reason other games are said to look so much better.Yes you are correct, this is what's I always said in the past, you simply cannot compare a world wide X,Y,Z rendering software from the sky to the ground with tons of things running and able to handle tons of 3rd party addons at the same time and compare to others type "ground game with lower terrain drawlow distant rendering", these ground games does have advantage and does push the graphics to the limit with these "ground rendering game". After when you came with flight sim, some compromise need to be made to covers many things at the same time with high range rendering and overall visibility. The web page explain clearly, thanks Mike!ThanksChris WillisHiFi Simulation Software Team Developerhttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpg http://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_proud_supporter.jpg

Maybe I'm old and cynical but would the Flight Simulator Project Manager run a blog?

Thanks for the find! Bookmarked this link immediately.Again sad to see that somebody of a flighsim community has to clarify his identity to others to get some respect. It is the contents that matters as far as I know. (But then again, those flamers are not reading this post as they would not care less... and cannot stand somebody has some real knowledge of how flightsim works)Anyhow, I am very happy to see that the staff of Flightsimulator are taking effort to listen to their customers and still are able to ignore the flames coming towards them.Good luck Mike!Update: Now I know it is this persion, funny to read quotes from tdragger:'... I got this information from "a friend of a friend of someone who really knows" so you'll have to take my word that it's the truth....' LOL

>Interesting comments re Far Cry etc>>So flightsim recreating the entire world/atmosphere as a>single game 'level' makes it more of a challenge to render>without crippling current h/w?Have a look at this excerpt from my August 28 message, that got pretty much confirmed by Mr. Gilbert on his blog on August 31 :)------------------First, it's not a "level" based engine, like Unreal or Far Cry. These programs are assuming the playfield is limited in scope. No need for a global coordinates system, no need for the need of having, say, 60 miles of visibility. You can easily put a fog layer 2 km away from the player, and still having a lot of good-looking stuff around you, in a ground-based sim.The scenery has to look belivable at both low, mid and high altitude.The enviroment has to be live and dynamic. Take PS2 Gran Turismo 4. Sure, it looks stunning, at least a couple of generations ahead compared to FS. But, for example, when you load a racetrack in GT4, the season, time of the day, the lights, it's all staged and precalculated. You can't choose to race at Laguna Seca at noon, if the scenery has been designed for 15:00 PM, it will always look ( stunningly ) the same.FS engine has to be able to deliver a belivable enviroment that changes globally, reacts to seasons, weather, local areas. This goes against any possible pre optimization. So, for example, some light effect that can be pre calculated in a game were it's exactly known the time of the day for each scenery, in FS have to be calculated in real time. So they will be either slower, or they will look worse.Think Splinter Cell, sure it look incredibile, but that night mission will *always* take place exactly at that precise time.And, you can easily force the player, by means of goals and/or closed paths, to go in a specific direction, when you have put the nice stuff. In FS, because of the free roaming nature of the game, it's by definition impossibile to anticipate where the player will want to go, so the scenery needs to have a reasonably even quality, worldwide.regards,Umberto Colapicchionihttp://www.virtualisoftware.com