Ask Dovetail Games about DTG Flight School & Flight Simulator

[DTG Martin 213]

This is the point where somebody asks Martin to step in, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that DTG sim ends up as an evolution of whats seen in Flight School. I'm thinking of Flight school as a trial run of their techniques and technology.

 

Dovetail Games Flight School and Dovetail Games Flight Simulator do share the same underlying technology. DTG Flight Simulator is still in development and is planned to be a much more encompassing experience compared to the focused pilot training of Flight School. 

 

Flight School has been designed to teach players the basics of flight simulation in a compelling and accessible way, rather than offering the wider scope of aviation simulation found in Flight Sim. 

 

- Martin 

[TLight 20]

Martin -

The shadows are in there, likewise there are also things like scratches on the glass. The time of day and the lighting in the video didn't show these off particularly well. Balancing these out so that they look realistic, but also visible is one of the areas we are currently working on.

 

Thank you Sir.

 

Onto a completely different subject.

Have you changed the old FSX Flight Planner for flight school? I found the old one a little boxy.

[MikeT707 1,181]

 

 

Dovetail Games Flight School and Dovetail Games Flight Simulator do share the same underlying technology. DTG Flight Simulator is still in development and is planned to be a much more encompassing experience compared to the focused pilot training of Flight School. 

Are you able to give us a time frame of when we might start to see some screenshots of the DT Flight Simulator?

[DTG Martin 213]

Whilst unlikely, this is something that I actually think could work very well. Essentially you could have DLC for Flight Simulator that works the same way as for Train Simulator. You get say, a few different routes that go in the same direction (London, Southampton - Paris, Brussels, etc.), and a couple aircraft that would typically operate those routes (737, a320, E190, DHC8 etc.) but the entire package is polished to a high level and guaranteed to work. The areas surrounding the flight could be more detailed since the entire world need not be modelled. Extra sounds and effects and weather could be included too.

 

Of course many users would not want such a thing and would want to still fly wherever they want. Fortunately for them it seems DTG aren't going down such a path and will offer a product more similar to MSFS games.

The current long term roadmap for how exactly DTG Flight Simulator will be structured is still something we are working on with our partners.

 

I can't give you exact details, but I can talk about some general points.

 

Flight School is standalone title with a very specific goal - to introduce people to the world of flight simming at a low risk and low cost. The idea is to bring lots of new players into this hobby we all feel so passionate about. We want to put flight simulation at the forefront of peoples’ minds once more, and present the genre in a way that doesn't initially overwhelm new simmers. It therefore makes perfect sense that there is no DLC for this title, and of course we not expecting anyone to uninstall their copy of FSX: SE, or any other flight sim for that matter, and suddenly focus on Flight School. We have tried really hard to get the message across that Flight School is not aimed at existing flight simmers. While established simmers will likely already know what we are aiming to teach, it is a chance for you to preview some of the technology we have implemented which will be carried over to DFS. Of course if you fancy brushing up on your skills, or putting them to the test then Flight School has a range of pilot licence tests and missions which will do just that.

 

Meanwhile, DTG Flight Sim is the big one. It is our take on a next generation flight simulation platform and is planned to be a much more encompassing experience compared to the focused pilot training of Flight School. The key word here is "platform". We have said this many times before, DTG Flight Sim is not going to be all things to all people at day one of launch. Yes there will be lots of great new features and content in there for you to enjoy, but we can't put everything in there day one. If you try to do a little of this, that and the other without a clear focus you end up with something which is average as best. It is easy to look at the world of FSX, see all the add-ons, developers, a huge choice of content and everything else that makes that sim so fantastic. What is often overlooked is it has taken ten years to get to this point thanks to a lot of hard work from developers and the community alike. The truth is if you are expecting all of that to be in place day one then you will most like be disappointed. It is going to take time and a lot ongoing conversations between us, you the community and the wider world of flight sim developers to build DTG Flight Sim into the new platform we all want it to be.

 

So what does this all mean in real terms? DTG Flight Sim will be a much more detailed and feature rich sim than the narrow scope of Flight School. Our focus is on getting the underlying game engine to where we want to be first. Naturally, we will also include some great content for everyone to enjoy. Unsurprisingly there will DLC for Flight Sim. Flight simulation would be nothing without all the hard work of third party developers, be them big companies or bedroom coders. Over the past 2 years, we have made our intentions clear with respect to welcoming and working with developers, both big and small, on FSX: SE. We fully intend to continue those relationships and looking forward will be welcoming both existing and new developers to the Dovetail Games Flight Simulator platform. We will provide developers with all the tools, documentation and support they need to create great new content for this new platform and will be working closely with them during that process.

 

There will be updates to DTG Flight Simulator just like there were for FSX: Steam Edition and our other titles like Train Sim. We are deeply committed to DTG Flight Sim, and we are here for the long run. Some of these will be free, some of these will be optional. For example there will be free core updates to the simulation engine, then there will be paid updates which might only appeal to people who like a certain type of aviation. To expand upon this, there is talk of possibly adding a mode where you could run your own airline and manage the economics of that (again, only an idea at this stage). That is not going to appeal to everyone, so it could be offered as an optional paid expansion.

 

We recognise the passion that exists in the flight simulation community around enabling players to create user generated content. We will be introducing and providing players with tools and mechanism to do just that. Steam Workshop is an obvious example we might explore for example.

 

At this stage it far too early to say for sure what exactly the flight sim landscape is going to look like two or three years for now, and everything I have said above should be taken as a rough outline and not a set in stone plan. There is still lots of things to be decided before and after the release. For us, releasing DTG Flight Simulator is just the beginning. All of the really hard works comes afterwards once you and developers get your hands on it.

 

Again, none of this should be take as a final plan, but it is certainly where our thinking is currently heading.

 

- Martin

Martin -

Thank you Sir.

 

Onto a completely different subject.

Have you changed the old FSX Flight Planner for flight school? I found the old one a little boxy.

Yes we have, DTG Flight School has a brand new UI and a new flight planner is part of that. We will be showing this in some upcoming screenshots, and maybe a video if we can squeeze it in. We are really focusing on gameplay in videos as our top priority at the moment.

 

- Martin

Are you able to give us a time frame of when we might start to see some screenshots of the DT Flight Simulator?

Not for a while yet. Currently, all of our effort are focused on talking about DTG Flight School.

 

- Martin

[MichaelAwkward 6]

Awesome to get a reply of that detail, Martin. Many thanks! All sounds very promising and I can't wait to try it.

 

Regarding the idea about owning an airline, I assume you've heard of FSPassengers? If not, that's essentially what it does to FS9/FSX. http://www.fspassengers.com/ Would definitely be worth a look at whilst you're thinking of adding such a feature down the road to get ideas of what works and what doesn't.

[arsenal82 120]

Based on what you just said Martin - DTG would like to create 2 kind of developers categories :

 

Official Developers - payed and selected by DTG full tools provided

 

Non Official Developers - users that want to add a house here and there - some kind of tools provided

 

bit like trainsim 

 

correct me if i understand wrong -

[DTG Martin 213]

Awesome to get a reply of that detail, Martin. Many thanks! All sounds very promising and I can't wait to try it.

 

Regarding the idea about owning an airline, I assume you've heard of FSPassengers? If not, that's essentially what it does to FS9/FSX. http://www.fspassengers.com/ Would definitely be worth a look at whilst you're thinking of adding such a feature down the road to get ideas of what works and what doesn't.

 

We know FSpassengers well. Other inspirations are things like Euro Trucker 2 for example. As I say, at the moment these are just ideas we are keeping at the back of minds for the future. It is far too early to say what exactly the next few years will be like. Our focus is very much on the core simulation platform. 

 

- Martin 

[DTG Martin 213]

Based on what you just said Martin - DTG would like to create 2 kind of developers categories :

 

Official Developers - payed and selected by DTG full tools provided

 

Non Official Developers - users that want to add a house here and there - some kind of tools provided

 

bit like trainsim

 

correct me if i understand wrong -

It is not about creating two different types of developers, maybe I didn't explain it very well.

 

There are people who are obviously creating content as a living or run companies around add-on production, Orbox A2A and so forth. Then there are people who are creating liveries or making things as an expansion of their flight sim experience. Most of which gets released as freeware or community content. 

 

- Martin

[Thane46 3]

Hi Martin,

 

Thanks for all of the information you have been giving us. I have one question/concern/comment for you. It's about visual contrast as it relates to someone (e.g., me) who has eyesight that is not the best. I was a little worried when looking at the screens of lessons and the two flight schools. The text to background contrast is such that there is no way I can read it. But, I was relieved to see in the approach and landing video that the text is white on black (great contrast!), and everything looks good even to my aging eyes. I could hope for a slightly larger font, but I can live with what I saw. I'm also hoping that there will be a way to turn on instrument lighting in the daytime. That should be easy enough as I'm sure there is nighttime lighting.

 

I last flew an airplane in 1989. I won't be able to do that again because I could not pass the vision part of a medial exam, but I can fly in simulation. I have used X-plane, and I can take off, land, and get from place to place VFR, but I'm sloppy and have forgotten too much of what I learned long ago in flight school. I had set up a plan to relearn in x-plane, and then to move to new topics like how to fly tail-draggers, use variable props and retractable gear, and multi-negine flying. DTG Flight School ticks all of those boxes, so I am really looking forward to it. I will take what I learn back into x-plane, but I am definitely open to DTG Flight Simulator when it comes out. If it has a nice UI (x-plane does not for me), and a better way to add aircraft and scenery so that I can spend less time messing with files and settings and more time flying, I will most definitely be open to switching. Maybe there are others like me, not exactly newbies, but people looking to brush up on skills in Flight School. If they are anywhere near as ancient as am I, then giving some thought to visual accessibility might pay off, and I would personally be grateful.

[LostTrucker 0]

not sure if this has been asked yet but here it goes anyways....lol.  What type of ai aircraft will be in both flight school and the sim?  Any way of getting something like the freeware ai like "world of ai" incorporated into the sim?  I makes it alot more realistic flying into an airport with ai from actual airlines flying actual flights

[ca_metal 2,029]

not sure if this has been asked yet but here it goes anyways....lol.  What type of ai aircraft will be in both flight school and the sim?  Any way of getting something like the freeware ai like "world of ai" incorporated into the sim?  I makes it alot more realistic flying into an airport with ai from actual airlines flying actual flights

As far I remember, there´s no A.I aircraft on Flight School. And it´s too soon to talk about Flight Simulator, but certainly will have A.I.

[RichLP 32]

How long are people going spend flying wherever they want in a game with just 3 aircraft and explicitly no addons?

 

I can, and have spent hundreds of hours doing just THAT!

 

Give me a plane, and the world, and I am good to go.

[arsenal82 120]

Thanks to Martin for explain and go over your line of duty - maybe can also clear this point:

 

There are people who are obviously creating content as a living or run companies around add-on production, Orbox A2A and so forth. Then there are people who are creating liveries or making things as an expansion of their flight sim experience. 

 

this is what we have pretty much now with fsx etc etc - there will be a line drawed by DTG between commercial and freeware developers ?   Or there will be freedom to be one or the other ?

[TheFlightSimGuy 514]

 

Thanks to Martin for explain and go over your line of duty - maybe can also clear this point:

 

There are people who are obviously creating content as a living or run companies around add-on production, Orbox A2A and so forth. Then there are people who are creating liveries or making things as an expansion of their flight sim experience. 

 

this is what we have pretty much now with fsx etc etc - there will be a line drawed by DTG between commercial and freeware developers ?   Or there will be freedom to be one or the other ?

 

 

You are asking the same question different ways. Martin has already answered this a couple of times now. They are working with 3rd party devs that are companies as well as looking at ways to allow independent content creators to share their work. 

 

Over the past 2 years, we have made our intentions clear with respect to welcoming and working with developers, both big and small, on FSX: SE. We fully intend to continue those relationships and looking forward will be welcoming both existing and new developers to the Dovetail Games Flight Simulator platform. We will provide developers with all the tools, documentation and support they need to create great new content for this new platform and will be working closely with them during that process.

 

We recognise the passion that exists in the flight simulation community around enabling players to create user generated content. We will be introducing and providing players with tools and mechanism to do just that. Steam Workshop is an obvious example we might explore for example.

 

- Martin

[arsenal82 120]

For that case i did not ask the same question again.

 

I asked Martin (not you) if dtg draw a line between the two