Is the pic of the aircraft taxiing on the cover page an in-game screenshot?

 

No, it is a photograph. If you look closely the guy in blue top is our own Steve Hood out for a spot of practice. 

 

- Martin 

 

 

So for example, one idea we had was that each aircraft in the Flight Sim world will have a unique identification number, it won't just be generic Piper it would be your Piper. The sim would then track the history of that aircraft, how old it is, how long and how far you have flown it. Perhaps even requiring you to perform maintenance on it over time as it ages and parts break down. Once again to be clear (look I have got my underlining pen out again!) I am not promising that this will be in Flight Simulator day one but it is certainly areas like this that we are keen to explore long term as part of our goal of creating a living world of aviation.

 

I really, really, really, really (did I say really already?) love the 'living world' idea you are talking about all the time!!! I myself always fly from A to B without saving in the middle of a flight and then save the flight with my plane cold and dark parked at my destination and the next time I proceed from that exact point. I also fly ONE plane for months. All this makes it more real to me. As if I am really out there with my OWN plane. What you said earlier on about keeping the data up to date and now this, about having your OWN plane, really get's me excited! I don't know if 'your' sim will totally replace my current sim (that depends on more factors) but as it is now already this Dovetail sim will be a must buy and a no brainer for me. 

Hi Arwen,

 

Flight removed many of the elements we believe necessary for the flying experience we wish to convey.. ATC and AI traffic being great examples. It made more sense for us to focus some of our efforts on necessary graphical improvements and build on top of the complex systems already inherent within FSX. Rather than try to build them all over again or find a way to integrate them back into Flight.

 

Flight School will not feature helicopters and at the moment it is looking like DTG Flight Simulator will not included them on day 1 either. It is certainly an area we want to explore long term though,

 

- Martin

Thanks so much for your answers. I understand your reasons for choosing to build off the esp that already has ATC and AI traffic; I certainly want these features as well! (I was just assuming/hoping that they were still in Flight's esp, even thought these features never made it into flight. My mistake.)

 

And I totally understand not having helicopters in your initial release. I'd much prefer to wait for helicopters, and have them done properly. I also like that you are focusing on having fewer aircraft, if I understand you correctly, and focusing on quality (of each individual aircraft) rather than on quantity. I'm totally all for that!

 

Your "living world" concept is something that I'm really excited about! I've always thought that this has been a major element that is missing from flightsims. For many, flying sims are boring because they are too static . . . you are flying around in a sim world, where you are the only "live" being. AI traffic and ATC does make the simulator feel more alive, but these elements have never been done right in a released sim (at least none that I have ever tried). This is one of the reasons that many of us spend sooo much money on third party add-ons for FTX/P3D . . . to make our sim experience feel more alive. I would love using a sim where my actions actually have consequences (like getting in trouble if I make a mistake).

 

I thinking that one way to make your Flight School a more integrated part of your Flight Simulator, would be licensing exams/requirements (as an option), where you would not be able to fly without first obtaining the required license/rating (such as not being able to fly at night on in lower visibility conditions if you were not rated for instrument flying).

 

Martin, the more you post here, the more excited I get about the potential of this new simulator. I am totally in favor of being able to "own" my own unique aircraft, including being responsible for its maintenance. This is one of the reasons that A2A's aircraft are so popular (beyond their excellent flight model and model details). In addition to having our own unique aircraft, I'm hoping/wishing that you will consider including an option to have our own unique pilot/avatar. As a female flight simmer, there are way too many aircraft where the pilot (me) is only depicted as a male. I have not even considers some add-on aircraft just because they did not include a female pilot option.

 

Is there any chance that your flightsim will include an (optional) economic model, such as having to pay for fuel and maintenance, while collecting fees for transporting passengers and/or cargo?

 

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just very excited about what I'm reading in this thread!

*tin foul hat on*

 

Is the imminent Orbx integration to a single lclookup file etc merely co-incidental? Seems like that could be a necessary pre-requisite for incorporating it as all/part of your stated new scenery for DTG Sim, that may not be complete worldwide by release, just like Orbx's regional lc products?

 

*tin foil hat off*

Cheers K

How will "Weather" work in DTG Flight School ?  Pre-set situations, or also "real world weather feed" ?

 

What about navaids and World magnetic declination databases - will they be made up-2-date ?

 

Martin. thx for getting together with us at this thread :-)

Hi,

 

(leaving aside the Saitek thingy for now...)

 

Given there is now quite some information available on FlightSchool, the official Hompeage http://dtgflightschool.com/ still looks a bit poor. First, I use a portrait monitor for office work (no, not flying). This is the result:

 

 

Second. I left my mail address there, but didn't even get a confirmation mail nor anything else (not even in the Spam folder). And third, as I said, it could benefit of a bit of contents.

 

Thanks for considering.

 

Kind regards, Michael

 

 

That all said, something we are really keen to do is find ways to increase the connection between simmers and their aircraft. We don't want you to feel like you are just flying Aircraft A from options A,B,C and D. Instead we want you to feel like you are flying your aircraft. So for example, one idea we had was that each aircraft in the Flight Sim world will have a unique identification number, it won't just be generic Piper it would be your Piper. The sim would then track the history of that aircraft, how old it is, how long and how far you have flown it. Perhaps even requiring you to perform maintenance on it over time as it ages and parts break down. Once again to be clear (look I have got my underlining pen out again!) I am not promising that this will be in Flight Simulator day one but it is certainly areas like this that we are keen to explore long term as part of our goal of creating a living world of aviation. For now they are just ideas.

 

Sounds really cool and like others already said myself included I find your plan for this "living world" very exciting!

 

One thing I think was already asked in an earlier post but can't remember I ever saw an answer. Will you visually model damage to an aircraft such as dipping the edge of the wing into the ground during a bad crosswind landing for example?

 

And to take this question even further and referring to this "living world" such a mishap should of course force you to do some repairs to your own aircraft before you can take it to the skies again.

Thanks so much for your answers. I understand your reasons for choosing to build off the esp that already has ATC and AI traffic; I certainly want these features as well! (I was just assuming/hoping that they were still in Flight's esp, even thought these features never made it into flight. My mistake.)

 

And I totally understand not having helicopters in your initial release. I'd much prefer to wait for helicopters, and have them done properly. I also like that you are focusing on having fewer aircraft, if I understand you correctly, and focusing on quality (of each individual aircraft) rather than on quantity. I'm totally all for that!

 

Your "living world" concept is something that I'm really excited about! I've always thought that this has been a major element that is missing from flightsims. For many, flying sims are boring because they are too static . . . you are flying around in a sim world, where you are the only "live" being. AI traffic and ATC does make the simulator feel more alive, but these elements have never been done right in a released sim (at least none that I have ever tried). This is one of the reasons that many of us spend sooo much money on third party add-ons for FTX/P3D . . . to make our sim experience feel more alive. I would love using a sim where my actions actually have consequences (like getting in trouble if I make a mistake).

 

I thinking that one way to make your Flight School a more integrated part of your Flight Simulator, would be licensing exams/requirements (as an option), where you would not be able to fly without first obtaining the required license/rating (such as not being able to fly at night on in lower visibility conditions if you were not rated for instrument flying).

 

Martin, the more you post here, the more excited I get about the potential of this new simulator. I am totally in favor of being able to "own" my own unique aircraft, including being responsible for its maintenance. This is one of the reasons that A2A's aircraft are so popular (beyond their excellent flight model and model details). In addition to having our own unique aircraft, I'm hoping/wishing that you will consider including an option to have our own unique pilot/avatar. As a female flight simmer, there are way too many aircraft where the pilot (me) is only depicted as a male. I have not even considers some add-on aircraft just because they did not include a female pilot option.

 

Is there any chance that your flightsim will include an (optional) economic model, such as having to pay for fuel and maintenance, while collecting fees for transporting passengers and/or cargo?

 

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just very excited about what I'm reading in this thread!

 

Never be sorry for asking questions! I just can't promise that I can answer them all. 

 

We have been thinking about an economic model like you have described. Something a bit like the one in Euro Truck Sim 2, to use an example. At the moment it is just an idea and is unlikely to make it for day one. It is certainly a long term consideration though. What we would like to do is link that to multiplayer so that a group of you could run your own virtual airlines and airports. 

 

- Martin 

Hi Martin,

 

Thanks for answering all the questions so far.

 

Just another quick question. Will the business model for your new Flight Simulator be based on your model for Train Simulator in that once you buy the core program lets call it TS12 you get a brand new version all the way to TS2015 until you build a completely earth shattering new version and again for example your next gen train sim.

 

It would be really good to know

 

Thanks

 

Duncan

With Flight Simulator the code base is quite different from FSX due to conversion to 64-bit so add-ons from FSX will not just work “out of the box”. This means that at present Flight Simulator will not be backwards compatible.

 

Does such non compatibility also apply to base scenery textures and mesh files, such as photo Scenery and other base textures such as ORBX global, and various Add-on Airport scenery?

 

Having spent hundreds over the years on various Scenery upgrades, particularly photo Scenery and Airports which vastly improve FSX, it would be great to be able to use such photo Scenery, or provide developers with conversion tools to convert tiles etc.

 

Any advice on this front?

 

Stuart

A lot of us are now using 4k monitors and TVs (3840 x 2160).  I was wondering if you plan on making the menu bar and notifications scalable so that they can be read on these monitors.  Right now none of the flight sims on my computer are very legible except for P3Dv3.1.  It is the only one that I can read while sitting at my computer.  The rest of them I have to stand up and lean in close to read. 

 

Thanks a lot,

So far, games based on MS flight simulation tech have been similar enough in their file structures to interfere with one another if installed at the same time. It's a bit of a pain right now having both P3D and FSX or FSX-SE installed at the same time, for instance.

 

Will DTG make sure that its new offerings will not interfere with older MS flight simulation titles if installed on the same machine?

Hi Martin

 

Again a very warm welcome and Thank You for taking the time to come to Avsim and answer questions as we are like a bunch of excited schoolchildren.. After so many years of not being able to talk to Aces/Microsoft you never knew what was in the pipeline and never knew that if you had a suggestion if anyone was listening so I will take a bet that this thread may become over time one of the largest on Avsim if you have the patience.

 

Like many here I cannot say that there is anything that you are doing that does not sound pretty fantastic. You guys seem to be taking a very balanced view of what you can achieve and also knowing that it does not have to all be ready Day 1.

 

It would be great if you are in the future able to give us a few updates from the team on how the DTG Flight Sim Updated Code is progressing in terms of performance and what added graphics you have been able to achieve. On a personal note I have always wished for better Overcast Conditions at higher altitudes if you want to fly IFR and would love to have better VC rain for more immersion but these are small things.

 

2016 will be a great year we may see the DTG Flight Simulator and the PMDG 747V2 though I imagine not working togther or maybe we can dream.....

 

Hamish

Hello Martin!

How is night lighting being handled in the new simulator?

This one area is a biggie and would really give your new sim a chance to shine, literally  :wink:

If it is at least equal to what X-Plane 10 offers you will have a winner!

 

Thank you Sir!

How will "Weather" work in DTG Flight School ?  Pre-set situations, or also "real world weather feed" ?

 

What about navaids and World magnetic declination databases - will they be made up-2-date ?

 

Martin. thx for getting together with us at this thread :-)

 

The current plan is to have a mixture of the two. You can set the weather as you like in free flight or use real world weather just like in FSX: SE. We are just going through the process of trying to acquire the necessary rights to use the weather feed so it really depends how that goes. It is certainly our intention to include it if we can. 

 

We are also exploring our options to update all the world data that runs behind the sim. We will have more news on this as we get close to the launch date. At the moment it is a work in progress. 

 

- Martin 

Hi,

 

(leaving aside the Saitek thingy for now...)

 

Given there is now quite some information available on FlightSchool, the official Hompeage http://dtgflightschool.com/ still looks a bit poor. First, I use a portrait monitor for office work (no, not flying). This is the result:

 

 

Second. I left my mail address there, but didn't even get a confirmation mail nor anything else (not even in the Spam folder). And third, as I said, it could benefit of a bit of contents.

 

Thanks for considering.

 

Kind regards, Michael

 

Fear not Michael, we have plans to update the website with more content over the coming months. 

 

- Martin 

Sounds really cool and like others already said myself included I find your plan for this "living world" very exciting!

 

One thing I think was already asked in an earlier post but can't remember I ever saw an answer. Will you visually model damage to an aircraft such as dipping the edge of the wing into the ground during a bad crosswind landing for example?

 

And to take this question even further and referring to this "living world" such a mishap should of course force you to do some repairs to your own aircraft before you can take it to the skies again.

 

This is not something we are actively developing at this time. It is an interesting idea though. 

 

 Martin 

Hi Martin,

 

Thanks for answering all the questions so far.

 

Just another quick question. Will the business model for your new Flight Simulator be based on your model for Train Simulator in that once you buy the core program lets call it TS12 you get a brand new version all the way to TS2015 until you build a completely earth shattering new version and again for example your next gen train sim.

 

It would be really good to know

 

Thanks

 

Duncan

 

We are currently exploring a range of different content models for the future. It is not something I can going into at length at this stage of development. Again, it is something we will be talking about in far more detail closer to the titles launch. 

 

- Martin 

Does such non compatibility also apply to base scenery textures and mesh files, such as photo Scenery and other base textures such as ORBX global, and various Add-on Airport scenery?

 

Having spent hundreds over the years on various Scenery upgrades, particularly photo Scenery and Airports which vastly improve FSX, it would be great to be able to use such photo Scenery, or provide developers with conversion tools to convert tiles etc.

 

Any advice on this front?

 

Stuart

 

At present there are no plans to offer any backward compatibility for any type of add-ons Stuart. However, we will be continuing to support FSX: SE for the foreseeable future so if you have a large collection of add-ons you can continue to use just like you can now. 

 

- Martin