Ask Dovetail Games about DTG Flight School & Flight Simulator

[BaronKen 144]

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.

[wizzards 99]

I think Martin has gone to get some aspirin,seems like his headache is about to start LOL

Peter

[kevinfirth 1,394]

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Are there plans to upgrade the airspace definitions which like navaids, are a) incomplete and b) 10 yrs out of date?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

[WebMaximus 372]

Lets see...

 

Flight School is very much aimed at anyone who has ever wanted to give flight simming a try. Flight Simulator meanwhile is being designed with existing simmers in mind.   We are not aiming to compete with any other developers but rather do our own thing. That said we are certainly focusing on the small details that our upgraded graphic engine allows for like dynamic range rendering. 

 

Flight School will not feature multiplayer. Flight School is all about your journey as a pilot. From your humble beginnings as a rookie through to an accomplished pilot. This is a very personal experience and we didn’t feel that multiplayer fitted into that concept. 

 

There are currently plans to include multiplayer in Flight Simulator but we are not discussing the details of that just yet as it is very early in development. 

 

Both Flight School and Flight Simulator will feature the whole world. 

 

We are very much working with well known developers just like we have been doing with FSX: SE. 

 

Flight School is due for release around April, Flight Simulator is due for release towards the end of the year. 

 

I hope that covers it. 

 

- Martin 

 

Thanks alot Martin, interesting times ahead indeed and I wish you the best of luck with this HUGE project!

[HighTowers 1,434]

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.

[TheFlightSimGuy 514]

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.

 

 

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.  

[philmurfin 73]

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

[Pastaiolo 1,688]

So, i guess this is the topic to follow

[Christopher Low 5,353]

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

[avgaskoolaid 292]

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. 

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

I did remember at one point, FSX was going to have Cloud Shadows but was scrapped.

The beta version of FSX actually had a Cloud Shadow check box in the UI, but like you said it was scrapped, probably due to time and budget constraints to get it working with good performance.

 

The folks over at REX actually posted some screen shots of FSX with cloud shadows as they were considering adding it in as an REX feautre, but also scrapped it due to performance issues.

 

Hopefully the new version of from DTG will have cloud shadows as its one of the visual features I find important to the sim.

[Slayer 190]

A lot of us have invested heavily into hardware( Saitek, Goflight etc.) is there going to be an interface that will allow any of it to work ( such as simconnect) and are you working with hardware vendors to assure compatibility?

[Joe Flyer2 3]

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. 

[Highmike 68]

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?

[Sticky 267]

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