The main issue with Flight was that it was closed to external 3rd parties,

 

It seems flight school will be as well. DTG has behaved more cleverly than MS did though, in that a future carrot is on offer, to hopefully keep things sane. 

 

Had they opened it to 3rd parties, as well as freeware developers, Flight may have had a longer life.

 

FLIGHT was still incomplete. In interviews, the devs said the tools for third parties would come later, but such pronouncements were lost repeatedly in the uproar. 

 

most of that was incomplete, cockpitless default level aircraft.

 

Some of it was explained at the time, but very few seemed to be listening. 

 

As someone who has worked with both the FSX and Flight tools, the Flight tools were LIGHT YEARS beyond what you could do with FSX.  Dev work in FSX takes a LONG LONG time during the "tweaking" phase.  You could not simply change something small.  You need to exit FSX, recompile it, load FSX, then load the asset to see the change.  In Flight, the tools were designed for "agile development".  I would have 3D Studio's Max open in 1 screen, Flight in another, and the moment I saved the file, Flight was updated.  Depending on the side of the project, the change happened almost before I could look over at the monitor.  This really helped in fine tuning things, like textures, animations, and even physics.  Things like oleo compression could be tweaked and tested almost instantly! 

 

The tools were designed from the ground up to help 3rd party dev's design add-on's faster then ever.  To help populate Flight with content!  There were a few big name 3rd party dev's already testing tools, and I even saw aircraft in Flight before it was released in FSX!!!  The 3rd party dev's LOVED these tools, and was chomping at the bit to get content into Flight and ready for sale.  Then something happened.  All communications with 3rd party dev's stopped cold, and they got a cold shoulder from MS.  This is when you started seeing a bunch of hate post's about Flight on many of those 3rd party dev forums.  What happened?  Lawyers happened.  Again, licensing issues cropped up.  If a 3rd party made a Boeing aircraft without Boeing's permission, MS could be on the hook for a lawsuit. 

 

The thing I don't understand is this issue has been worked out with app stores on Android, iOS, and even Windows Phone.  Nobody has sued any of those company's for an un-official app because the TOS clearly states that the DEVELOPER is liable for all licensing rights.  If Boeing has a problem with an iOS Boeing app that's not properly licensed, Apple takes it down.  This would of been a real threat that 3rd party's would need to deal with. 

 

All in all, its a sad sad story.  Lawyers come in scared of a lawsuit, then suddenly your sim gets transformed into a play thing full of warbirds with no cockpit. 

 

Flight had such amazing potential.  The engine was solid, robust, and made to be upgraded and modular.  The SDK and tools were amazingly good and efficient.  It could of been something so amazing... 

 

I wish I could start a Kickstarter, buy the Flight code, and turn it back into its original format.

 

Such a sad story... If only tools were developed with 3pd's in mind Flight could have been a true successor. 

 

They were, actually.  The team just didn't have the time during launch to properly support and document them which is why they were never released.  There were actually major design decisions and changes to the code to better support DLCs and 3rd parties.  Lots of time went into making a good platform for others to use.

  

Lets hope that lessons were learned (by everyone!) and DTG fares much better.

 There seems to be some confusion ... as I understand it, Flight  School being release in April is NOT 64bit and has NO SDK.  The 2nd DTG flight product to be release late this year is a 64bit product with an SDK.

Both will be 64-bit.

And both will run on Windows 7 too.

- Can we expect flight dynamics improves in Flight school and even in Flight simulator?

 

We will not be updating the flight physics in DTG Flight School, however it is something we are exploring for DTG Flight Simulator. Realism is important to me and physics plays a large part in that. - Steve

(I opened a new topic so the info would not be lost in the 30+ pages of the other one, but moderators feel free to join this to the other if you want.)

 

 

 

.) DTG Flight School will have 2 aircrafts available. The first one will be a Piper Super Cub, the second one has yet to be announced.

 

.) It will not be multiplayer.

 

.) It will be available for PC only.

 

.) Flight physics will not be updated in DTG Flight School, but they are exploring updated physics for DTG Flight Simulator.

 

.) The ATC in Flight School will function similarly to that in FSX:SE.

 

.) Flight School will not include sloped runways nor will AI be able to use them, but it's something they're exploring for the future.

 

.) Flight School will be a stand alone product and will not be compatible with existing add-ons.

 

.) It will run on Windows 7.

 

.) it will not support VR platforms (Oculus Rift, etc.)

 

.) It will be released on Steam and Win 10 Store in April.

 

.) They are investigating what would take to update the terrain and airport data, but nothing is confirmed at the moment.

 

.) It will be 64 bits as well.

 

.) It will cover Light Aircraft Pilot Licence and Private Pilot Licence.

 

.) AI traffic has received some improvements.

 

.) The UI has been completely overhauled.

 

.) The posted screenshots were from in-game and unedited.

 

.) It will not have a mission generator.

 

.) It will have an all new, more accessible flight planner.

 

.) It will not have helicopters. However they're looking at what can be done to improve the flight model of the helicopters in the future.

 

.) No damage modeling is planned for Flight School, but they are considering it for the future.

 

.) "DTG Flight School is designed to bring new people into the world of flight simulation and to treat players as if they have turned up at a real life flight school wanting to learn to fly."

What planes will be available in the flight school?

 

Like · Reply · 1 · 1 hr

DTG Flight School Hi Wayne. First question! There will be two aircraft in DTG Flight School. The first is the Piper PA-18 Super Cub. We will be announcing the second one next month. - Steve

 

Like · Reply · 4 · 1 hr

 

 

 

Can you confirm this is going to be Single Player and that Multiplayer will not be available until the future Dovetail Flight Sim arrives?

 

Like · Reply · 1 hr

DTG Flight School That is correct Tristan. Flight School is all about your journey as a pilot. From your humble beginnings as a rookie through to an accomplished pilot. This is a very personal experience and we didn’t feel that multiplayer fitted into that concept. - Steve

 

 

 

Can you confirm that this is or is not going to consoles?

 

Like · Reply · 1 hr

DTG Flight School DTG Flight School will be available for PC only. - Steve

 

 

 

 Will 3rd party like PMDG be able to somehow run their 32 bits products over DTFS 64 bits ? Just like many 32bits software runs smoothly over 64 bits OS. Thx

 

Like · Reply · 3 · 1 hr

DTG Flight School Dovetail Games Flight Simulator will be a 64-bit simulator using DirectX 11 and take full advantage of modern GPU and CPU performance. The advantage of this updated technology is that we have been able to introduce a range of globally applied techniques such as dynamic range rendering (HDR), atmospheric light scattering and physically based rendering (PBR). This means that aircraft and the environment will have the potential to look better than they have ever done before.

The downside of all this new technology is that the code bases are quite different so add-ons from FSX will not just work “out of the box”. 

Naturally we will provide developers with all the tools, documentation and support they need to create great new content for this new platform and will be working closely with them during that process.

 

 

 

Will FSX plug ins work at all with the new Flight Simulator, and what about external hardware and software like FSUPC?

 

Like · Reply · 1 hr

DTG Flight School DTG Flight School is a standalone experience and is not compatible with existing add-ons. Regarding hardware, I know how important hardware compatibility is and we are working hard to make sure as much of it is compatible as possible. -Steve

 

Same FSX engine, identical mesh, objects, rivers and airports 

 

I'm looking at these two shots on my big monitor (had only see them on my laptop) and you are indeed right.

 

Aside from the crazy blue filter and sparser vegetation/buildings, I'm struggling to see the upgrade here. Looking at the airport, you can even see the buildings and runway textures are the same in the DT simulator as the FSX shot, so they haven't even updated that? Same mesh, same landclass, etc. I'm a little confused as to what they are going for here innovation wise aside from the promise of 64 bit (a worthy feature, but many of us no longer have OOMs anymore).

I want to see a video.

 

By the way, DTG is doing a Q&A thread on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/dtgflightschool

I want to see a video.

 

By the way, DTG is doing a Q&A thread on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/dtgflightschool

 

He seemed to say (most of) the right things.

 There seems to be some confusion ... as I understand it, Flight  School being release in April is NOT 64bit and has NO SDK.  The 2nd DTG flight product to be release late this year is a 64bit product with an SDK.

 

The big question is will DTG be able to reach customers willing to pay more than $7 for content.

 

 

It has been confirmed multiple times by DTG that both will be 64 bit with Flight School not including an SDK and being mostly 64 bit FSX with some new rendering tech. The majority of the full evolutionary changes will be reserved for DTG Flight Simulator

 

As I'm sure you know, Flight Simmers spend a ludicrous amount of money on their hobby, so I dont know why that would change now. Regardless of what FSX Steam sold for, it still sold a ton of addons for 3rd parties (John V attested to this) both on steam and in the various webshops out there. So I dont think much will change in terms of spending just because of the distribution platform. If anything, it will solve alot of the piracy issues that exist with current software distribution platforms as Steam is infamously more difficult to steal from. 

At that thread in Facebook apparently it was also confirmed that no changes would happen to the underlying flight model in Flight School, although it was being looked at for the Flight Simulator to be released by the end of the year.

 

No big deal for me, since I still find that my best GA add-ons in FSX were by far the best GAs I ever flew between FSX and X-Plane ( Aerofly FS was another story, it has very interesting flight dynamics, and I seldom refer to it, but I should... )...

 

So... yes, finally all users long claiming for a 64 bit version of FSX can now be satisfied - DTG Flight School and latter the Sim will be 64 bit and DX11. Maybe latter LM also updates their offer to 64 bit, for those who are in school or developers, and that will create competition, which is great in any area :-)

He seemed to say (most of) the right things.

Agreed. He said some interesting things. Like "The data in FSX is somewhat out of date, so we are trying to update as many sources and components as possible. I want it to reflect today's world as much as possible" Now, that 'somewhat out of date' made me LOL (the data is over a decade old) but I like the 'reflect today's world' part. I also like how he seems rather eager to work together with 3PD's to get their addons working in DFS.

Good point, didn't read it Jeroen - that one about updated World data !  I like that :-)

 

Having Flight School, and the Flight Simulator updated to present declination, airport and navdata would be a charm!

 

Yet another positive counting :-)

 

I can't wait for April - just hope it's not on April's Fools.... :-)

Now... The big question is... What do I do when LM decides to release a 64 bit version of P3D...?! Making addons 64 bit requires extremely more work than making FSX addons compatible with 32 bit P3D so, looking a what some developers asked for that (sometimes little bit of) work already, I think we can presume 64 bit addons can be regarded as totally new addons with the to be expected price tag... Let's say LM decides to release a 64 bit version within a few months and addons become available in the months after that: I have to say that right now, after reading some of Steve's replies, I doubt if I will be switching to that 64 bit P3D version... I rather keep what I've got now until DFS has been released and we can really compare both sims. I certainly will NOT pay big money for a P3D 64 bit upgrade, ALL new addons to have to spend all that money once more on DFS plus addons...!

 

This coming year there are big choices to be made. It's a great time for flight simmers but it probably will also be quite a hard time.

I thought Flight was all about that Howard guy who managed to turn both the internal developers and the customers against Microsoft. Job well done as they say... He probably got promoted.

Now... The big question is... What do I do when LM decides to release a 64 bit version of P3D...?! Making addons 64 bit requires extremely more work than making FSX addons compatible with 32 bit P3D so, looking a what some developers asked for that (sometimes little bit of) work already, I think we can presume 64 bit addons can be regarded as totally new addons with the to be expected price tag... Let's say LM decides to release a 64 bit version within a few months and addons become available in the months after that: I have to say that right now, after reading some of Steve's replies, I doubt if I will be switching to that 64 bit P3D version... I rather keep what I've got now until DFS has been released and we can really compare both sims. I certainly will NOT pay big money for a P3D 64 bit upgrade, ALL new addons to have to spend all that money once more on DFS plus addons...!

 

This coming year there are big choices to be made. It's a great time for flight simmers but it probably will also be quite a hard time.

 

A very easy solution in my case: not being - I do not elect for the LM licensing conditions at this state of my life, so, no option there for me...