So finally my question. What plans to DTG have for persistence for DTG Flight School and Flight Simulator if any, thanks.

 

I shortened your post Dave to just the question. I hope you don't mind. It is a great one too. 

 

There are no plans to have any sort of persistence in Flight School. That is not really the focus of that title. DTG Flight Simulator is another story however. 

 

I need to make this very clear (look I got out the underlining pen again!), our focus for Flight Sim first and foremost is building the game engine that runs the sim. Contents, gameplay and specific features are all important of course but if the actually game engine is not solid then you are just building on bad foundations. This mean that persistence is not going to be at the top of list of things day one of release. 

 

That all said, we are deeply committed to flight simming moving forward. I have said time and time again that we going to be supporting and developing DTG Flight Simulator for years to come. We don't view it as a static game. We are not making Call of Duty 4 and then moving on to COD 5. We are building a platform which can be continually expanded. We view it almost like an OS. 

 

To this end we have lots of what we call long term ideas. Those "wouldn't it be cool if..." features that we are not actively developing but would like to have in there one day. Persistence is definitely part of that and many of the ideas you mentioned are certainly ones that we have considered ourselves. 

 

- Martin 

 

 

Martin, I do apologize for some of the arrogance seen here.

 

No need to say sorry for anything. Everyone has their own ideas and points of view. It is important that they get expressed and shared. The only thing I won't stand for is anyone being abusive or swearing at me. Other than that I am happy to discuss anything. I just can't promise that I will have all the answers or what I say will please everyone. 

 

- Martin 

 

 

 Scenery devs like Orbx can't do anything about it other than some texturing tricks to mitigate the issue, and I'm pretty sure I have read statements by JV to that effect in the FTX forums.

 

Hence the question: Since the scenery devs can't do anything, are DTG addressing the issue in any way. Osm?

Question for Martin: Will DTG be re-writing the terrain engine for the new flight simulator?

 

Quoting the ESP SDK: "The terrain system is optimized to minimize disk space". I think it's fair to say that a number of the constraints the team at Microsoft were working under are no longer applicable and a rewrite is probably due. Some things I'd like to see is more detailed data for the entire world, a wider LOD radius, and an engine that is more vector-based so that we don't see the problems of blending raster and vector data as mentioned in some posts above.

Very exciting news indeed.

 

Will the sim be broad enough to cater for underwater events?

Yes, I know this has been done before, but it can open a whole new immersion factor that could include multiplayer missions. it could be interesting, & fun, to have a sim that includes cars, boats & subs to add to our fun factor. The purists might/will disagree, but a new sim should be able to cater for all of us that often just want to have a bit of fun.

 

We are sticking to the skies for now. 

 

- Martin 

JV just confirmed those screenshots are just FTX Global, which is pretty disappointing. If DTG really does intend to update LC as they said, it would only make sense for them to also use Orbx's OpenLC and Vector.

 

But at this point, that's not part of the screenshots.

 

Our partnership means that we will using and evolved version of Orbx Simulation Systems’ FTX Global technology for scenery in DTG Flight School and DTG Flight Simulator. 

 

- Martin 

Martin, thank you for clarifying the roll of Flight School. I feel vindicated.

 

Anyhow, thanks for explaining.

Will the simulator itself have tutorials & lessons as well?

 

That is the plan but I have no hard details on them at the moment. 

 

- Martin 

 

 

Our partnership means that we will using and evolved version of Orbx Simulation Systems’ FTX Global technology for scenery in DTG Flight School and DTG Flight Simulator. 
 

 

Considering that Global Vector is actually a PILOT's product, I don't think Orbx is even in a position to provide that material.  Not being a huge fan of Global Vector (the quality is very hit-and-miss), I'm wondering if DTG may be looking at obtaining vector/mesh data through other sources - a lot of that data is public domain.

 

MD

Martin: new question for you...

 

Will the Cub and Cherokee have more than one paint scheme provided in Flight School? I surely hope so, and if you weren't planning to, could you consider adding at least a few different liveries to choose from?

 

BTW, great news about partnering with Orbx for global scenery textures! Don't know what you have planned for vector and landclass unless it's the default FSX:SE data, but having Orbx textures and I will assume autogen to go with it will make scenery look terrific from the start.

 

Thanks for the update!

Martin,

 

How will the partnership with Orbx affect/constrain other 3PDs that want to provide scenery/terrain enhancements to DG Flight Simulator?

Will the Orbx scenery be optional? I personally am not a fan of the overly green saturation in their products.

 

Also, I noticed that the top section of this screenshot (http://285.dbd.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/05.jpg) has a sharp change of color. Was this a small editing mistake or is something else causing this?

....our focus for Flight Sim first and foremost is building the game engine that runs the sim. Contents, gameplay and specific features are all important of course but if the actually game engine is not solid then you are just building on bad foundations.

 

 

Martin, that sentence and the announcement that your are partnering with ORBX are the best things I read in these 18 pages by a wide margin.

 

A lot of developers are having to use hooks and tweaks with FSX to get around the limitations of the old code and provide the wonderful addons that they produce.

 

1) Is DTG working with the established leading developers to optimize the core code to allow for more flexibility, access, and options for the developers to do what they do best?  For example, ORBX changed some core files to achieve their beautiful scenery but it caused issues with other developers' products. Is DTG working with ORBX and other developers to improve the terrain and scenery system or just using ORBX textures for scenery?

 

2) Is ORBX the only scenery developer that you are working/consulting with?

 

I'm glad to hear you are working with ORBX and look forward to hear about your relationships with other developers in other areas such as aircraft, weather, and ATC. Again, I would be most interested in hearing about your plans and progress with these developers in addressing the limitations of the FSX code that restricts the capability of the addon developers.

 

Thanks for joining us on the Avsim forums and sharing your plans and enthuiasm,

 

Ted

OSM is promising as a cost-effective GIS data source that has global coverage. It also strikes me as the "Wikipedia" of GIS data and all that implies.

 

In any case OSM data can be used today in FSX. Hopefully the DTG sim will also have tools to process real world GIS data into their terrain system.

 

OSM is a great way to fill in "plausible" 3D objects in built-up areas. Just to clarify though, it's not exactly "global"... not yet. Some areas like Europe have tons of data, but the USA is still sketchy away from major urban areas, and many other parts of the world have no data at all.

 

I've been waiting to add OSM scenery to my hometown USA area in X-Plane, but the data just isn't there yet. Anyway, it seems like a no-brainer to have this capability at least as an option in the DTG sim.

 

So (to keep this on topic), Martin, what are the plans, if any, to allow users to add and update Open Street Map data as roads and building objects in the DTG Flight Sim?

Will this partnership with Orbx also lead to new and improved default airport buildings and textures?

Hi Martin,

 

Are there any plans in the pipeline to run an open/closed beta? If so can I sign up now please 

 

I'm by no means an expert but have been simming since FS95 out of Meigs... Hey now that you have ORBX on board you could bring that back too!

Hi Martin,

 

Great news about your collaboration with Orbx. The screenshots look great. I miss cloud shadows however. Will these be included in Flight School and the full flight simulator?

Hi Martin,

 

Let me start off by saying that I'm extremely excited to see Flight Simulator series back in development. This is just what (most of) the community have been waiting many years for following the failure of flight. Thanks for taking the time to answer questions here.

 

A few questions if I may and apologies if these have already been covered:

1. Why have DTG chosen to stick with updating the core FSX engine rather than build a new engine utilizing new tech, does using the old engine limit development in any way?

2. As we all know all too well FSX still requires some heavy computing power, what are the expected requirements for flight school/flight sim?

3. A feature that I would love to see is the ability to move around the aircraft on foot. Just think of the possibilities for ground checks, sitting in a passenger seat whilst auto pilot cruises at 35,000ft. is this something that has been considered?

4. Damage model was limited or non existent in FSX, I'd love to see something similar to DCS's model applied. Is this possible?

 

Any new screens or even a video clip coming soon?

 

Didn't I answer these already? It feels like I did. At this point I have answered so many questions that I have lost track. Right then, from the top....

 

1. We are not updating the core FSX engine. We are using it as a starting point to build upon. All game developers do this. They take the best of the existing technology they have and develop it further. If it is not broke, don't fix it as they say. For example, take Unreal Engine 4. When Epic made that they didn't just throw Unreal Engine 3 out of the window and start from scratch. Instead they took all the things which were great and worked well in UE 3, then built upon them and added new features. As part of our partnership with Microsoft we have access to all their flight sim technology. Having reviewed it and look at our options, we felt that FSX offered the best foundations for us to build something new on. It also helped that we had lots of experience using it from our work on FSX: Steam Edition. 

 

2. Systems specs for DTG Flight School are going to be released soon. Specs for Flight Sim will follow later in the year. 

 

3. It is not being considered for Flight School but has been discussed for Flight Sim. It is unlikely to be a day one feature though. More a of a long term idea that we are excited to explore. 

 

4. There are no plans to model aircraft damage in either Flight School or Flight Sim. The focus of both sims is keeping aircraft in the sky, not crashing them into things. 

 

- Martin 

What kind of performance (fps) are you seeing in the situations the screenshots were taken?

 

Will you improve on the dark, contrasty and over saturated look / make it adjustable to the user?

 

Very good performance. The sims was running very nicely at the time. It still a development build though. 

 

There will be options for players to adjust the display and graphics. 

 

- Martin 

 

 

Are Orbx actually developing new scenery for the DTG sims, or are they implementing stuff they've already developed for existing sims into the DTG sims?

 

The screenshots show an evolved version of Orbx Simulation Systems’ FTX Global technology. It is mixture of their technology and our own. 

 

 

 

Do you guys by any chance need someone to produce music for DTG? I'm a musician looking to find a way into professional music composing for games, and people recommend me to do some networking to get that ball rolling.. so here I am

 

You are always welcome to send in examples of your work and CV. You can reach us here - http://www.dovetailgames.com/contact

 

- Martin