DTG: The dawn of a new sim (and the death of the old) ?

[neucoas 82]

DTG makes money selling add ons and that will be their focus with the new flight sim, 32 or 64 bit. Keep your credit card handy, you will need it.

Any difference with nowadays situation?

[AviatorMoser 353]

But more important question for me is, does LM even care about the DTG Flight Simulator at all? I don't think they will speed up working on 64 bit, because of the DTG announcements. Everyone was saying that LM is focused on the different part of the market, professionals and our community is a minority for them. 

 

What do you guys think? 

 

Of course LM doesn't care about any competition from DTG. We know why. Prepar3D is a drop in the ocean to LM. Probably 95% of LM employees haven't even heard of P3D. The money they make on the sale of one F-35 will be more than they will ever make with Prepar3D.

 

The biggest reason of them all: Lockheed is not into the entertainment business. We are not their target market from a corporate standpoint. Sure, the Prepar3D development team takes our feedback to improve their platform, but the goal of P3D is not making a splash in the entertainment market. They are into the enterprise market. I'm talking college programs, FBOs, their own internal divisions, Air Force curriculum, and flight schools. Their goals are large contracts with large scale deployment. Not the residual fanbase of MSFS who pine for anything new!

 

If LM was truly serious about dominating the flight simulation entertainment market, then they would have easily outbid DTG for the entertainment license, and LM would be featuring P3D on the front page of Steam, and sell 500,000 copies of FSX:SE. But they did not even submit a bid. Why? They aren't interested. There is a huge pie of contracts they can make with large programs waiting for them.

 

The DTG announcement isn't even relevant to them. DTG's license is strictly for entertainment and thus LM's primary market is not affected. They're not going to make a v4 with 64-bit support and release this year in response, especially when they are not even competing for the same market. We'll see v4 in 2017 with their business as usual two year release cycle.

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi Folks,

 

Wow - it seems DTG commands far far more enthusiasm here - than they do in the Train Sim market that spawned them... They really aren't known for their attention to detail or realistic performance... Maybe this tiger will change its stripes ? What we've seen in the Train Sim community is multiple sims just fragments the support for a product in a limited market and the available talent is divided among the various sims... I'm not sure more is always better... All remains to be seen though...

 

Regards,

Scott

[MarkW 1,493]

The big question for me is how will DTG position itself with the major addon suppliers that we all know and love.  If their current position is in place and they only allow addons through their closed system then there is a high likelihood developers like PMDG, FSL, etc. will not participate and then why would I want the sim at all with its dumbed down content ?   I guess time will tell.

[Rimshot 1,143]

The big question for me is how will DTG position itself with the major addon suppliers that we all know and love.  If their current position is in place and they only allow addons through their closed system then there is a high likelihood developers like PMDG, FSL, etc. will not participate and then why would I want the sim at all with its dumbed down content ?   I guess time will tell.

 

Well, DTG have stated they're in it for the long haul. They want to build a serious simulator and they have stated it will be open for third party content. It wouldn't make any sense to add to many restrictions that will exlude the major players. Time will tell indeed.

[codechris 9]

You say closed system MarkW, but JustTrains release add-ons (see Advanced RailJet), as do others, for train sim that you can install...so it's not completely closed. Also, if we look at FSX:S, they are interacting with 3rd parties. Would be the point of opening those channels and working with them, to do close them off and do them over in April this year?

[simmerhead 885]

I sure hope they've done major improvements to the scenery, because if it's just the 64 bit part that makes it different from P3D I'm out. After 10 years the default scenery has become pretty dull. A total makeover and improved variety of textures is a must. How about the outdated airport and navaid database? Default aircraft should be scrapped and replaced. The more I think of it, the more I fear this is just more lipstick on the 2006 pig. After 10 years I hope this isn't yet another FSX servicepack.

[JimmiG 244]

But more important question for me is, does LM even care about the DTG Flight Simulator at all? I don't think they will speed up working on 64 bit, because of the DTG announcements. Everyone was saying that LM is focused on the different part of the market, professionals and our community is a minority for them. 

 

What do you guys think? 

 

Indeed, it's possible the focus of addon developers will also shift towards the DTG sim, leaving P3D as the "professional" sim it was intended to be. With fewer people using graphically intensive addons ("professional" users don't care as much about 4096x4096 textures etc.), 32-bit is going to become even less of an issue for them.

 

With the DTG sim, the user base is going to be much, much larger due to the exposure on the Steam storefront. With the regular Steam sales, lots of people are going to pick up the sim. With the Steam DLC model of distribution, installing addons will be much easier even for complete beginners.. finally with 64-bit out of the box, addon developers won't be restricted by VAS limits or have to answer support questions about OOM errors. The only reason this might not happen is if the profit margins are much smaller for addon developers when releasing on Steam (due to Steam and DTG taking a cut of the revenue). Expect every addon to be 20 - 40% more expensive than the equivalent FSX addon directly from the developer.

[MarkW 1,493]

You say closed system MarkW, but JustTrains release add-ons (see Advanced RailJet), as do others, for train sim that you can install...so it's not completely closed. Also, if we look at FSX:S, they are interacting with 3rd parties. Would be the point of opening those channels and working with them, to do close them off and do them over in April this year?

 

 

A better way to state it is that they make the current system appealing to 3rd party developers. Right now they take so much money out that its not worth it.  

[simmerhead 885]

Whatever sim get this kind of scenery design tools and graphics, I'll get behind 100%  

 

[codechris 9]

A better way to state it is that they make the current system appealing to 3rd party developers. Right now they take so much money out that its not worth it.  

 

I see your point, but I don't see them allowing third parties for DFS at first, then start closing it off. For starters, they don't have the dev team size or experience to make the add-ons themselves what we currently have. 

[MichaelAwkward 6]

At the time when FSX was launched, & later, it was regarded as the 'Vista' of sims. Pretty, but a bit of a dog.

That opinion has since changed over the last 10 years.

 

Has it? I'm pretty sure it's still a dog... just look at the amount of threads here and videos on youtube about tweaking FSX. The FSX:SE discussions boards on Steam are full of tweaking too. People just want FSX with the performance and stability of FS2004. If DTG can deliver that, I'm sure they'll have a winner.

[Glynn 405]

 

 

People just want FSX with the performance and stability of FS2004.

 

We already have that with FSX/DX10, no issues whatsoever with performance these days.

[MichaelAwkward 6]

We already have that with FSX/DX10, no issues whatsoever with performance these days.

 

You mean we have that with a third party fix for FSX's broken DX10 implementation that renders a number of addons incompatible? Great...

 

That is not the same.

[Glynn 405]

Which FSX addons does the Fixer render unusable ?

Anyway DX10 is no longer broken thanks to this fix, performs flawlessly with much better VAS usage, cockpit shadows, moving whitecaps on the water ect.

Still if it breaks your FS9 addons maybe it's not for you.