Ask Dovetail Games about DTG Flight School & Flight Simulator

[DTG Martin 213]

Morning all, 

 

I am back again and going to be working my way through all of the other questions that have come in since yesterday. I will do my best to answer as many as I can, so please bear with me as it will take some time to get through them all.

 

- Martin 

Will 'external' flight model's be possible?

 

Could you please expand upon what you mean ErichB? I am sorry but I don't follow what exact it is you are asking. 

 

- Martin 

what about the core of the game, will you use real ungine 4 like TS2016

 

No, we are not using the Unreal Engine for this one. We did use it for Euro Fishing and the upcoming Train Simulator 2. Instead both are based on updated FSX: SE technology. In 2014, we acquired the rights to develop and publish new flight products based on Microsoft’s genre-defining flight technology. Both Flight School and Flight Simulator are the result of that work. 

 

- Martin 

 

Perhaps over-specific at this point but it includes the kinds of things that are on my mind...

 

Flight School

-------------

 

Will there be interactive lessions along the lines of Rod Machado's lessions in FSX?

 

Will the reading and use of VFR, IFR and approach charts be covered?

 

Will navigation be taught in detail e.g. including DR, pilotage, NDB navigation?

 

Will IFR flight and instrument appraoches be included?

 

Will there be simulated emergencies and failures for the student to deal with?

 

What range of aircraft will be included?

 

Will there be a logical progression from simple single engine aircraft to muliti-engine turboprops and jets?

 

Will there be assessments and milestones along the lines of checkrides, cross country flights?

 

Will proper engine managaement be taught (with consequences)?

 

 

Flight Simulator

----------------

 

Will the following features be present...

 

Thermals and ridge lift?

 

Windhear and microbursts?

 

Realistic turboprop modelling?

 

Realistic engine management?

 

Failures?

 

Better ATC?

 

Modelling of sea states (not full bathymetry but enough to matter to float planes)?

 

Flame-outs in thunderstorms?

 

Sloped runways?

 

Runway contamination effects?

 

Improved crash detection?

 

Which aircraft are planned to be included?

 

Will there be planet-wide scenery coverage?

 

 

Thanks

 

 

Thanks Paul, but as you say that is lot of very specific details you are asking there and I am not in position to talk about many of these things at this stage of development. Partly because many of these features are still being developed and subject to change, partly because we are holding back some details at the moment because we want to announce them closer to the launch window. 

 

The best I can say is that many of the things you have mentioned have also crossed our minds and are certainly being considered for long term development if they are not being worked on directly at the moment. 

 

- Martin 

[ErichB 3,638]

ErichB, on 16 Feb 2016 - 3:40 PM, said:

Will 'external' flight model's be possible?

 

Could you please expand upon what you mean ErichB? I am sorry but I don't follow what exact it is you are asking.

 

- Martin

The ability for third party aircraft developers to create an aircraft specific physics engine running outside of the core flightsim engine that controls the 6DOF velocities/behavior  of the aircraft, rather than the physics calculations being controlled by the core sim engine. Much like Majestic achieved with their Dash 8.  This would allow the aircraft to do things which the core sim physics engine won't necessarily allow/know how to do.

[DTG Martin 213]

Hi Martin,

 

The AI and ATC systems in FSX are a bit of a mess.  Although they were designed with a solid foundation, they were basically left incomplete.  Do you have any specifics you can share on any improvements DTG intends to make regarding these two areas?

 

Thanks,

MD

 

I don't have any exact details MD, as this is an area which is very much still in development for Flight Simulator. I can confirm that both are being looked at very carefully. 

 

- Martin 

Will developers be required to sell via Steam or will simmers be free to purchase from existing distribution websites like flightsimstore, simmarket etc?

 

I have already answered several questions similar to this one ErichB, so please see my answers about them. 

 

Ta

 

- Martin 

Hi Martin. Virtual reality is the future of flight simmulation. Are you planning any support or working closely with Flyinside?

 

There are no plans to have any VR content in Flight School. 

 

Something we don’t talk about much is the fact that we do have long history of working with VR. Last year we worked with Valve to convert Euro Fishing into an early prototype to demonstrate their new VR technology at one of their conferences. It was never planned to be a full game but rather a tech demo of sorts. Train Simulator 2015 also contained a not very secret oculus rift development kit mode that we added as an experiment.

 

At the moment we not working on VR for Flight Simulator directly, however it is definitely on our radar as a possibility for long term development. 

 

- Martin 

Thanks a lot for opening this thread, Martin.

I have a very basic question that I hope you can answer next time you come around here.

 

Can we realistically expect a rock solid, stable, smooth platform? I am surprised that nobody mentioned this item so far in any of the threads I followed here, on Steam and Facebook. While I share the thoughts of most of the users in the posts above and obviously would like to see their requests implemented in DTG Flight Simulator whenever possible, I think that smoothness and stability are an absolute priority and an essential requirement for a new 64-bit simulator.

 

Can we reasonably expect this from both your new simulators?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

That is absolutely our top priority. We can talk about features and content all day long but if the underlining technology is not stable then nothing else matters. 

 

- Martin 

Martin,

 

Thanks for creating the new thread regarding DTG's new sims and for the promise to pop in and answer questions from time to time. Having an actual developer make time for this is always appreciated.

 

Q's from me:

 

1) Will graphics, scenery and aircraft features be scalable as it is in FSX? (ie, the amount of autogen, density of clouds, AI traffic, etc.)

 

2) In regards to Flight School, do all of the training scenarios take place at a specific airport or can the entire process be done from an airport of the player's choosing? I'm aware that Flight School will include the whole world but curious about where training takes place.

 

3) Last, will Flight School have seasons or be limited to just one (summer for example).

 

Thanks in advance, and I hope it won't be too long before additional screenshots of Flight School begin to appear to help build the excitement of this new sim offering. Many will be looking forward to that.

 

My pleasure, we know it is important to reach out beyond our own websites to places like Avsim. The av community is far bigger than our own little world. 

 

In terms of your questions...

 

1. Yes, there are options in flight school to adjust all of these things. So for example, you can select a low density of scenery detail. 

 

2. All of the training is based around flight schools. These in turn are based at specific airports. In free flight mode you can fly from and to any airport you like though. 

 

3. Yes Flight School will have seasons and these can be set in free flight mode similar to FSX: SE.  

 

- Martin 

[JSilva 42]

Will DFS support SLI?

[DTG Martin 213]

Hi Martin, thanks for this thread

Are there plans to upgrade the airspace definitions which like navaids, are a) incomplete and B) 10 yrs out of date? I've updated my UK airspace to current specifications in the eAIP as far as is possible in FSX/P3D by creating an automated utility to output the correct xml code for compilation, but are DTG going to do similar in DFS and simulator? Correct airspace is critical to correct ATC provision, radio procedure and basic flight schooling, so it would be nice to see it simulated correctly You can have my code for the uk...

Cheers Kev

 

Hi Kev, 

 

As you say much of the core data that runs behind FSX is out of date. We are definitely looking to update that data and are currently exploring the options open to us to do just that. The best I can say at the moment is that we want our virtual world to reflect the modern real world and this feeds into our long term plans to have Flight Simulator based in a "living" world of aviation. 

 

- Martin 

[pmb 5,137]

Hi,

 

I would like to support Slayer's question above: I own a (X-top) hardware panel including Cessna Yoke, Pedals, Trimwheel, TPM, Saitek Radio etc, Panels, plus 9 Saitek Flight Instrument Panels. While not everyone might have the full monty, I understand Saitek is heavily used hardware today.

 

I understand this would require early work with Saitek, as they've been a bit, let's say reluctant, concerning driver development in the past.

 

Do you intend to support these devices? (Which question concerns both the FlightSchool as well as DT FS.)

 

Thanks and kind regards, Michael

 

[DTG Martin 213]

Hey Martin,

 

Great to have you here and open up to Q&A right here on Avsim. I'll have to say though, its extremely brave of you. The bombardment of questions has only started and will continue to flood. lol. We are a passionate group but also very demanding, just ask 3PDs haha.

 

Perhaps someone could undertake gathering all the questions and answers and put them in one thread, pinned. I see alot of repeat Q&A.

The new graphics and rendering engine seems to be good. The old BGLs files seem to be a hindrance to the whole process. With it going to 64bit, it sounds like it will be open to make OSM and orthoscenery similar to xplane. Is that the route you are taking?

And wouldnt it be alot easier to have an incredibly strong core foundation with a great SDK and other dev tools in order to let the 3PDs who have the best experience to what they do best?  weather devs fousing on weather, aircraft for aircraft etc.  Have you had any feedback from current devs?

Good to see your working on AI. Will be nice to see the aircraft 'artificial unintelligent' have some actual intelligence.

 

Thanks for your time and again welcome.

 

It is either very brave or very stupid of me. 

 

For reasons I hope you understand, we don't want to lift the lid about all of the technical bells and whistles running behind the technology in Flight Simulator at this stage. While we want to talk about the work we are doing, we also want to protect it at the same time too. As we get closer to launch we will be able to talk more openly about the fine details of the technology. 

 

"an incredibly strong core foundation with a great SDK and other dev tools in order to let the 3PDs who have the best experience to what they do best" That is exactly what we plan to do. We are indeed working with a number of very well known third party developers on both Flight School and Flight Simulator. Because of some very boring business and legal reasons I can't give any names but again, as the dust settles and we get closer to the launch of these two titles we will be able to talk about this more freely. 

 

- Martin 

I have to agree with this. I would not expect such a big game studio to open a thread like this but I think it goes to show the commitment DTG has to the community and I for one really appreciate the effort! I wont blame you if you get burned out though, lol. 

 

Also, I would recommend that others read through the other questions and answers posted here first before they overwhelm Martin with the same redundant questions and unnecessarily fill up this thread. Lets do our best to welcome this kind of effort in a responsible way.  

 

Thanks Josh. 

 

We consider ourselves very lucky to be part of such a dedicated community of aviation enthusiasts. Everyone has been so supportive towards us regarding our work on FSX: SE and so, where possible, we are extremely keen to be as open and direct about our plans and future flight simulators as we can be. We are very aware that flight simming as a whole would not be what it is today without people like yourself keeping it alive for the last ten years with very little official support.

 

This is why bringing new people into flight simming and in turn the wider world of aviation is such a big part of what we plan to do moving forward. It is such a rich, diverse, rewarding and positive hobby which has been sadly somewhat overlooked by the mainstream of late. If we can put flight simming back at the forefront of people's mind once more, like it was over a decade ago, then we will be happy with what we have achieved. 

 

- Martin   

Hello Martin,

 

I can fully understand your reasons for not giving to much away at this point in time.

However, can I ask if we are going to have anything like photoscenery available in the new offerings? For instance, showing what's actually below us in real life as we fly, or is it simply just going to be generalization?

 

Thanks

Phil

 

Not so much photoscenery Phil but we have something very exciting we are working on in terms of scenery in general. The details are still being settled, which means I can't tell you about it just yet. However, if all goes to plan we believe that most simmers will be very pleased. 

 

- Martin 

Will DTG Flight Simulator include water that looks decent above 1000 feet? Well, I had to ask...

 

I have spoken at length about scenery in general in few of my other answers so please see those for the detail Chris. The short answer is that we working on the scenery and looking to improve how things currently look in FSX: SE. 

 

- Martin 

1)You mentioned that Flight School will include the user's transition from "humble beginnings" to "accomplished pilot". What default aircraft will be included in Flight School? For that matter, what default aircraft will be included in DTGFS? I assume that it'll be at least a month or two before we start seeing any addons so it would be nice to know what we'll have to keep us occupied in the meantime. Of course, I'd love to know specific models but just general info (light GA only, turboprops, small jets, big jets...) would be good too. 

2)Will there be damage modeling that physically shows itself on the aircraft/affects the flight model? As a GA pilot it would be very valuable to simulate a bird/RC plane strike in safety in case it happens in real life. 

 

Hi hamoody,

 

Flight School is based around GA aircraft. General aviation aircraft is where you begin to learn to fly in real life. It felt like a natural starting point for Dovetail Games Flight School. One aircraft has currently been confirmed, the Piper PA-18 Super Cub.

 

We intend to carry this approach over to the bigger Flight Simulator. Although the final line up is still being worked on, we are not aiming to try and be all things to all people at launch in terms of the content. instead we want to make sure that the platform as a whole is stable and provides the necessary functionality for both third parties and ourselves to build upon in the future. 

 

Flight School will model engine failures as part of the lessons/license acquisition process. These are scripted however and not random events. Again, this is something we will be looking to expand upon in more depth in Flight Simulator. 

 

- Martin 

[DTG Martin 213]

Welcome Martin, 

 

Thank you so much, as others have said, for putting time into getting back to the community. It is extraordinarily appreciated! We don't always see developers reach out to us! I also thank you for creating this thread, because I myself am guilty for unknowingly reposting redundant information!  :smile: Just a side complement... I really thing the name "Dovetail" fits the sim world a lot better than "Microsoft."  :wink: 

 

Anyway, on with a few questions if you can spare more time (I can imagine work + a thread like this will be hectic): 

 

- I've heard of a potential Xbox One release. I've always been a PC simmer and I intend to stay that way, but I know others who are interested, and I am genuinely curious how you might pull this off. Would a console version of DTG Flight Simulator essentially be "watered down"? What would be expected of a console release? Is there going to be a console release at all, or am I talking gibberish? This is a curious question. 

 

- This is a broad question, but under what code language/languages (unless flight sims have some sort of native language) would a flight simulator of such complexity be comprised of? Is it more a matter of coding each individual part or putting together, to an extent, "pre-coded" puzzle pieces of sorts (i.e.: moving micro surfaces on a model around to form macro surfaces). I've been enthused with coding for quite some time. I can't comprehend how difficult it can be to make a flight simulator. 

 

- How many people are on the DTG flight simulation development team? Are different aspects of the simulator developed amongst specific groups/people, or does everyone collectively work on one aspect at a time? 

 

 

That's it for me right now. I really look forward to the simulators and I'm glad you've continued to invite third-party support, as well as reaching out to the community! Many thanks! 

 

 

   Joe. 

 

Hi Joe, how are things? 

 

We are working with Microsoft to bring Flight School and Flight Simulator to the Windows Store. This also means that we have the option to consider bringing both or one of the titles to Xbox One too. We recently announced that we would be doing just that with Euro Fishing. However, this is just an option and not something we are actively working on at the moment. For now all of our efforts are firmly focused on PC only. Both Flight School and Flight Simulator will support the Xbox controller for Windows and there really isn't much difference between the OS in an Xbox One and Windows 10 these days. In theory this means that a full port is possible but again I would like to make it clear that this is just a possibility and not something that we are actively pursing at this time. 

 

I am not a coder by any means Joe so I am not the ideal person to talk about this. If there is some demand for such details we can consider doing some sort of in-depth look at the underlining tech later in the development cycle. If you want to know about Commodore 64 BASIC however, then I am your man.

 

The development team is currently made up of around 20 people who work on the project full time. Other people from the studio also work on certain sections as need be. For example model makers, gameplay designers, sound engineers and so forth. We are also working with a host of external developers and aviation experts. Generally speaking the team is broken in to smaller specialised areas, for example one set of people are working on the core game engine code while others are working on the building aircraft. If you are interested we plan to do a "meet the team" series of posts on our Facebook page as we get closer to launch. 

 

- Martin  

 

Hi guys, and thanks Martin for this opportunity to correspond with the DTG development team. You're so welcome here.

 

Will multi-monitor support be a feature of the new sim as was the case with FSX?

 

 

It is certainly something we are keen to have in there. It might not make it into Flight School but the chances are high for Flight Simulator. If not at launch then certainly as part of our long term development plans. 

 

- Martin 

[hadoken 1]

Hello Martin.

 

Who is your competition? Is DTG trying to stay competitive with Lockheed Martin's P3D v3.1 and their pricing strategy (specifically the Academic license that's widely used due to the price point)? Or do you view P3D as a non entertainment license version of FSX-SE with no direct competition to what DTG is doing?

 

Thanks

[andy1252 3,772]

HI Martin,

 

just discovered this thread so have come to add my welcome to you. Very noble (and bold) of you.

 

I won't add to the list of questions, but will just say that I, like I suspect many, many others, appreciate both the announcement about the new sims and your participation here, and will follow this thread with great interest. There is potential in the DTFS for both a game-changing future and huge disappointment, but we're all obviously hoping for the former.

 

Good luck!

 

Andy

[Wobbie 938]

Hello Martin.

 

Who is your competition? Is DTG trying to stay competitive with Lockheed Martin's P3D v3.1 and their pricing strategy (specifically the Academic license that's widely used due to the price point)? Or do you view P3D as a non entertainment license version of FSX-SE with no direct competition to what DTG is doing?

 

Thanks

As an ' on-looker' on this forum, I cannot understand why there are still questions about DTG being competitive with P3D.The DTG's offerings are for entertainment, with P3D being a ' not for entertainment'  product.

 

It should not be hard to understand that these are thus not competing products, pricing, therefore, is irrelevant, & P3D was released long before FSX:SE, & thus cannot be compared as a ' not for entertainment' product  with a product that came after.

 

Yes, I await, with bated breath, for DTG's releases. Great excitement for all.

[DTG Martin 213]

So Martin,..how are your interview skills? :wink:

 

Tell us about yourself. Why an FSX rebirth as opposed to other options? What makes you the best person, and the team as well, to make the newest must have Flight Simulator to own? What is your, and you team's aviation background? When will you know DTG has made something special for the next generation of simmers?

 

All a little tongue and cheek or course, but I'm curious what makes the DTG group tick.

 

Mike

 

Well Mike, I am an Aquarius and I hope to save the dolphins through my professional career as a model. 

 

Joking aside, I am the flight simulation community manager here at Dovetail Games. I am responsible for all community engagement for FSX: SE, Flight School and Flight Simulator. That sounds very posh but what that means is it is my job to convey the studios thoughts, plans and ideas to all of you and then to listen to what you have to say about them and pass that back to the studio. i have been with Dovetail Games for five years now, I started back when we were called Railsimulator.com and there were only 25 of us working out of three small rooms. There is now over 150 of us spread over two studios! I started working with the Train Simulator community and for the last two years I be focused on flight simulation mainly around FSX: SE. That was of course until we could lift the lid on these two titles. 

 

We have been specialists within the simulation genre for almost a decade now and our flight development team is made of up of a range of experienced developers from across the games industry.  Combined with the lessons we have learned from working with both the FSX: SE and the wider aviation community, we feel that we are ideally suited to bring a new flight simulator to would-be simmers of ages.

 

We are not a studio that fancied having a go at making a simulator, we are simulation studio. Simulation is all we do because that is what we are passionate about. 

 

When will you know DTG has made something special for the next generation of simmers? I am not sure I can answer that. We already feel that way to some extent. Our goal is not to make another flight sim game but rather to create a brand new platform that allows for continued development and growth for many years to come. I guess we will all know if in ten years time simmers are still enjoying what DTG Flight Simulator has to offer. just like they currently do with FSX. 

 

- Martin 

[gingerterry 16]

Hi Martin,

               I have a huge amount of money invested in photo-scenery that I have collected over the years. will I be able to use this in the flight sim when it's released? as far as I am aware this does not need converting to 64bit or is my understanding wrong. regards, terry

[DTG Martin 213]

The ability for third party aircraft developers to create an aircraft specific physics engine running outside of the core flightsim engine that controls the 6DOF velocities/behavior  of the aircraft, rather than the physics calculations being controlled by the core sim engine. Much like Majestic achieved with their Dash 8.  This would allow the aircraft to do things which the core sim physics engine won't necessarily allow/know how to do.

 

Thank you. That makes more sense now. While we will provide developers with all the tools, documentation and support they need to create great new content for this new platform, if we do our jobs right then the physics shouldn't need additional engines like you say. One of the reasons developers had to go down that route with FSX was because FSX didn't have that functionality in it to begin with. We hope to address that with Flight Simulator. 

 

Regardless, we intend to work closely with developers to ensure that they have all the tools and options that they need. 

 

- Martin 

[DTG Martin 213]

Hello Martin.

 

Who is your competition? Is DTG trying to stay competitive with Lockheed Martin's P3D v3.1 and their pricing strategy (specifically the Academic license that's widely used due to the price point)? Or do you view P3D as a non entertainment license version of FSX-SE with no direct competition to what DTG is doing?

 

Thanks

 

We don't really see ourselves as being in direct competition with anyone hadoken. We are not very big on keeping up with the Jones as they say. To this end we don't drive motivation from what everyone else is currently doing. 

 

Instead we have spent the last two years listening to both existing and would-be simmers alike. We have been intent on discovering what keeps you all simming, and what stops those who would like to get into flight simulation from doing so. 

 

It is aim to make a new true next gen flight simulation platform that you all want. That is what drives us, that is what motivates us to do what we are doing. 

 

- Martin 

HI Martin,

 

just discovered this thread so have come to add my welcome to you. Very noble (and bold) of you.

 

I won't add to the list of questions, but will just say that I, like I suspect many, many others, appreciate both the announcement about the new sims and your participation here, and will follow this thread with great interest. There is potential in the DTFS for both a game-changing future and huge disappointment, but we're all obviously hoping for the former.

 

Good luck!

 

Andy

 

Thanks Andy. Something we have said time and time again is that we are committed to this for the long run. We are realists, by that I mean we know it will take years to build up this new platform and the infrastructure around it to match the current landscape of flight simulation. However, with the help of the flight sim community and developers alike that is exactly what we plan to do. It will all just take time and a lot of hard work. 

 

- Martin