Dovetail Games Direction

[eelis 42]

Wait. Please help me understand if I get you right.

So, all this drama because DTG will use FSX as a base instead of MS Flight? Is this really the reason why some people here are declaring themselves disappointed?

 

Since DTG announced their plan to release a new simulator in 2016, many people criticized it based on the (unconfirmed) speculation that it would be built on MS Flight, a platform that many simmers considered as dead and unusable. Now the bashing will be based on the fact that DTG will not use MS Flight as base?

 

Puzzled.

 

Yes you understood it right. Many of us here at Flight! section of this forum, consider Flight! to be the far superior product than fsx, and are really really sad if it's potential is not used, but I guess again, you go there where the fence is lowest.

 

-eelis-

[barrel_owl 304]

Yes you understood it right. Many of us here at Flight! section of this forum, consider Flight! to be the far superior product than fsx, and are really really sad if it's potential is not used, but I guess again, you go there where the fence is lowest.

 

First. It was not DTG who killed MS Flight. It was Microsoft and the community itself, who rejected its business model.

 

Second, while I concur that MS Flight had a good potential and I would not be sad if DTG used it as the base for their flight simulator, I remind you that potential does not mean being actual. There are a lot of graphic and game engines out there who have the potential to become the base for a far better flight simulator than FSX, P3D, MS Flight and probably DTG Flight Simulator itself, yet most of them probably never will. The reasons that determine the success or the failure of a project are very complex. X-Plane, in my opinion, would have had the potential to thrash all the flight simulators mentioned above, yet it did not for a lot of complex factors.

 

And finally, I remind you that we are judging DTG Flight Simulator from one screenshot and one announcement. In my opinion, it is a bit too early both for enthusiasm and for desperation. We don't know anything yet. I will judge it when it will be released.

[jcomm 5,890]

Will they create realistic sloped runways and taxiways, like we already had in MS FLIGHT ?

 

What disappointed me the most now is learning that they had a great opportunity of picking up where MS FLIGHT stopped ( officially, because indeed by the hand of "Stonelance" and others it is still pretty much alive and kicking ), they chose to use FSX....

 

I'll wait and see :-/

[tonywob 4,768]

I'm actually quite amazed about all of the negativity here. One of the biggest complaints we have about P3D/FSX is the memory limit and everyone is always asking for P3D to be ported to 64-bit, and now we will likely have a consumer 64-bit flight sim by the end of the year, and surely that's something to be happy about. This also likely means:

 

• Some existing scenery addons will probably work (scenery which doesn't require executable code). Of course this depends on whether they purposely lock down the sim to steam, but we don't know yet. The free transition of X-Plane to 64-bit was actually pretty painless and I believe almost all addons were upgraded for free.
• It will likely cost much less than the professional edition of P3D, and you will be able to use it for entertainment without feeling guilty and running onto the forums and consulting our group of arm-chair lawyers  :wink:
• It's a consumer flight-sim, which means developers won't have an excuse to charge professional prices for their addons.
• It will likely be improved over time which us simmers/gamers in mind and not military contracts. 

However, on the other side of the coin:

• We will likely be charged again for our addons, especially the complicated ones like PMDG. I also wouldn't blame ORBX if they did the same, since they'd need to port all of the *Flow technologies, etc.
• DTG make money from DLC. I suspect all DLC will have to go through them in some shape or form.
• In the beginning it will likely still be 99% FSX, same physics, same landclass type scenery, etc..

At the end of the day, it's still far too early to tell. Even once this is released, it will be sometime before all of our loved addons become available (if they ever do), but I also don't think we'll see the death of P3D or FSX either. P3D will go off in a different direction, but will likely become 64-bit at some point as well. 

[Heimi 91]

I`m disappointed too.

They again just squeeze out a 10+ year old software. It will look almost the same and behave almost the same.

The Flight Engine really has so much potential. Anyone who used MSFlight can confirm that, regardless of the "missing" features at that time.

 

I think DTG is just a doing a Service Pack 3 (64Bit compatible) for FSX, sell all Add-On`s by themselves and call it DTGFS.

And that 64Bit thing is also a fraud to me: One thing is to do a 64 Bit software, but it`s another to make a 32Bit compatible to 64. Anyone who has basic programming skills knows that.

[eelis 42]

First. It was not DTG who killed MS Flight. It was Microsoft and the community itself, who rejected its business model.

 

I did not say that. I was just disappointed that Flight!'s potential probably wouldn't be used, but who knows maybe they will, we don't know yet, as you said and as I stated my earlier post on page 1.

 

I was just amazed, that someone would find that unbelievable, that some of us find it disappointing that Dovetail's simulator will probably be based on FSX and not Flight!. But I understand that we are minority, and that is also very sad.

 

-eelis-

[jcomm 5,890]

Well,

 

 

Tony and all of those ( me still included, although as usual, my mind changes rapidly, at the pace of a Pulsar... ) who feel happy with DTG's upcoming flight simulation platform starting with Flying School have reasons to feel that way.

 

1) There is finally going to be an MSFS 64 bit and DX11

2) I'm sure the mainstream developers will adapt to the new platform, and upgrade their products to 64 bit, and most of us will buy them again, just as some of us ended up doing just recently with P3D :-/

3) The new platform, when released as a flight simulator, will apparently be open to third parties.....

 

Being in active development this means that probably the update to 64 bit will not only mean it'll be 64 bit and thus present less OOM problems but also they will take the opportunity to try to fix / add to FSX some features long being asked by it's users....

 

The idea of "Flight School" sounds great to me, and as I have wrote above in this same thread, I am really looking forward to buy it... So... I am waiting... and will see... 

[Wobbie 938]

Shame, tissues for the guys crying about broken expectations. Sure, DTG is going where the money is. They are a commercial business that will target the majority.

 

And for the guys that expect a free upgrade for their existing add-ons to work with a brand new sim?

 

You expect a freebie for your stuff, written for Microsoft's 33bit DX9 software to now work on a 64bit DX12 engine from a totally different developer?

 

Sometimes, there are a lot of really dumb expectations.

 

I'm also sure that if LM's commercial clients had a requirement for 64bit & DX12, they would have developed something earlier.

 

It was, or should have been pretty obvious that, as DTG had the licence for FSX, that their new sim would be an extension of that. Sorry for the Flight! diehards, but money, for a commercial venture, does speak, & loudly so! (no matter how good the engine is)

[eelis 42]

 

 

Shame, tissues for the guys crying about broken expectations. Sure, DTG is going where the money is. They are a commercial business that will target the majority.

 

Thank's, I'm much happier now, I'm waiting in hope.  :smile:

 

-eelis-

[tonywob 4,768]

Ha ha Jose, I like your signature

[HiFlyer 9,343]

 

 

Shame, tissues for the guys crying about broken expectations.

 

I was kind of thinking that about all the crying about FLIGHT not being FS11.

 

 

 

And for the guys that expect a free upgrade for their existing add-ons to work with a brand new sim?

 

Like all the complaining about having to pay to have addons updated for P3D?

 

 

 

It was, or should have been pretty obvious that, as DTG had the licence for FSX, that their new sim would be an extension of that. Sorry for the Flight! diehards, but money, for a commercial venture, does speak, & loudly so!

 

So I'm sure we will all understand if they do the minimum amount of updating, since that's obviously cheaper........  :p0502:

 

Should be an interesting year.

[Christopher Low 5,341]

With respect to sloped runways, I assume that DTG Flight Simulator will have some kind of AI system? That being the case, how complicated would it be to write AI code so that the AI planes could use sloped runways?

[Pastaiolo 1,686]

Microsoft Flight was interesting, probably would have been better if they started with that engine. However i can't really judge what DTG plans are, how they worked and will work on their Flight Sim so who knows?
 

[barrel_owl 304]

I did not say that. I was just disappointed that Flight!'s potential probably wouldn't be used, but who knows maybe they will, we don't know yet, as you said and as I stated my earlier post on page 1.

 

I was just amazed, that someone would find that unbelievable, that some of us find it disappointing that Dovetail's simulator will probably be based on FSX and not Flight!. But I understand that we are minority, and that is also very sad.

 

 

Minority or majority, I understand your legitimate frustration, which is also mine, in part. I was not criticizing MS Flight enthusiasts for their disappointment at all. I was and am only puzzled how quickly many people (in general, not you) change their minds. I read a lot of criticism during the last year based on the speculation DTG would build a new sim based on MS Flight. It is surprising at the very least to see such reaction now when they announced they will not.

 

Fact is, everybody of us would like a custom new flight simulator based on his/her own preferences and legitimate expectations. Possibly with nearly professional features at the cost of an entertainment product. Problem is, all this must fit into a profitable business model or it will simply not happen. DTG listened to the community. I read tons of users' posts on their forum during the last months, not to mention the numerous threads opened here and in other forums about this topic. Some users wanted a brand new groundbreaking simulator featuring the most advanced technologies, many others, however, were scared to lose their addon investment and asked for a more conservative solution. Both aisles raise good points. However, at the end the developer has to make a decision, either way. And such decision will inevitably make somebody unhappy.

 

Let's wait and see. A 64-bit flight simulator built on FSX does not mean it will be like the FSX we all know. I would not draw early conclusions, as many are doing here, based on one single screenshot and one announcement raising more unanswered questions than the information it shared. Time will tell.

[shivers9 1,174]

With time and money it is possible to take FSX and make it better than Flight, P3D, etc.  They are just starting many years behind.

Sorry....that makes no sense. You are assuming that P3D will not continue to change and improve. 64 bit opens some possibility for improvement but it is not the holy grail. Many folks do not realize that the internet is loaded with programs that have been 64 bit for years. For example, many of the hotel reservation sites use 64 bit.