Ask Dovetail Games about DTG Flight School & Flight Simulator

[DTG Martin 213]

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.

 

The Ui is certainly an area we are still working on. Some of the UI displayed in the latest video is not the final version. You have raised some great points about accessibility, and I have passed your feedback onto the development team to consider. 

 

Thank you for the suggestions,

 

- Martin 

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

 

There is some limited AI in Flight School. For example you will find other Piper PA-18 Super Cubs and Piper PA-28 Cherokees flying about the flight schools. However, AI is not really the focus of that title and they are really only there to add some flavour to the game world. Instead the focus is very firmly on developing your skills in your aircraft. 

 

DTG Flight Sim will include AI aircraft in a more robust way. At the moment it is too early for me to talk about these in detail. 

 

- Martin 

 

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 ?

 

 

I am not fully sure I understand your question, but I will do my best to answer it. There will be a system in place for people to create content for DTG Flight Sim. How exactly that system works and how it is disturbed is still something we are exploring.  

 

 

 

will be a line drawed by DTG between commercial and freeware developers ?   Or there will be freedom to be one or the other ?

 

That line already exists and always has done. It comes down to the individual developers to decided if they want to charge a fee for the things they have made, or it they want to give them away for free. For example, if Orbx decided tomorrow that they wanted to make all of their add-ons free then that is entirely their business. 

 

- Martin 

[MichaelAwkward 6]

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

 

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

 

Really? You use no addons for MSFS? You're probably in the minority.

[HiFlyer 9,363]

Really? You use no addons for MSFS? You're probably in the minority.

 

Maybe not. I think these things go in stages.

 

1) First discovery of FSX

 

2) Freebie Madnessssssssssss!!!!!! 

 

3) Payware 

 

4) Oops!! Tweaktime!!!!! (can last a few years, and includes purchase of a supercomputer)

 

5) Frustrated, leaves hobby for a while.

 

6) Returns with clean version of FSX, surprised how good it runs without all the extra crap.

 

7) Cautiously begins adding stuff again till it breaks.

 

8) Deletes, starts with clean installation again and only adds trusted favorites.

 

9) Switches to P3D and find its still a tweak-a-paloosa

 

10) Returns to FSX with absolutely minimum addons (if any)

 

11) Sighs with relief, rediscovers real life.

 

12) Hears about DTG sim.... could something come along that actually JUST WORKS?

 

13) Watches cautiously.

[TLight 20]

Apology to mods - this isn't a question.

 

To add to HiFlyer's post.

Add in HDR, ORBX Global, 64 bit engine, enhanced rendering engine with next gen shaders and three beautifully built aircraft, all as default, we have a winner.

 

Don't know where Dovetail want to head in the future with Flight School, from my own selfish point of view, I'm hoping as they improve and add to the more advanced Flight Simulator, some of those advances will filter back into Flight School. For instance, the more advanced flight models, cloud shadows etc.

 

Many years ago, the top camera manufacturers gave away high quality lenses with their cameras, the idea was people would appreciate the superior glass and spend more on their branded lenses later. I'd love Flight School to be used by Dovetail in a similar fashion.

 

Flight School, the gateway drug of Flight sims.

[RichLP 32]

Really? You use no addons for MSFS? You're probably in the minority.

I'm sure I'm in the minority, in the Avsim community for sure. Maybe not in the entire FSX user base, but who knows...

 

I've never spent a penny on add-ons for MSFS since it's primitive Sublogic beginning. In all honesty, years ago, I monkeyed around, adding freeware planes here and there, and a freeware version of my home airport at the time, but that's about it.

 

Enjoyed MS Flight, and bought the expansion and a couple planes for that, in the interest of full disclosure...lol.

 

Yes... I am CHEAP... and apparently, easily amused.

 

But we ARE out there, and we walk among you...

[rtodepart 761]

Hi martin . Have you guys consider the idea of adding more advance packages to flight school in the future ? lets say multiengine lessons or how about release aircraft with specific trainig for that aircraft ???? I think it would be posible to keep flight school alive for a long time aside from the sim just as a learning platform ....

[TheFlightSimGuy 514]

Hi martin . Have you guys consider the idea of adding more advance packages to flight school in the future ? lets say multiengine lessons or how about release aircraft with specific trainig for that aircraft ???? I think it would be posible to keep flight school alive for a long time aside from the sim just as a learning platform ....

 

Here you go sir...

 

 

There are 15 lessons in DTG Flight School based around the basics of the LAPL, PPL, and night flying. Currently, five of these are focused on the LAPL and eight are based on the PPL. There will also be Twin engine lessons when we add the Diamond DA42 update a little after release. You are required to only take the first lesson of each, these act as an introduction to explain the basics. After that you can tackle them in any order. There are also 9 missions you can do at any time and of course Free Flight mode which is unlocked from the start. 

 

- Martin 

[dtrjones 356]

Here you go sir...

 

 

Hi Josh, I think rtodepart has a point. The multi-engine was just an example. I can see further expansion of Flight School in the future for more regions, more airplanes and more lessons. I would like to think the more expansive Flight Simulator would could also feed into (graphics / content etc) the cut down Flight School to maintain it's position as an attraction into the world of Flight into the future. It certainly makes sense to me.

@DTG Martin - I've just seen the close up pictures on Facebook for the Cherokee and Super Cub. I have to say for your first foray into airplane modelling (I know your company have done some wonderful trains!) visually these are really great models both internally and externally.

 

I actually thought the ACES team graphically also produced top notch models but you've raised the bar for base simulation modelling. I'm hoping that this transfers to the Flight Simulation experiance and that you keep the same endevour even if that means less choice. We can always add more planes later, thanks. Keep up the wonderful work!

[TheFlightSimGuy 514]

Hi Josh, I think rtodepart has a point. The multi-engine was just an example. I can see further expansion of Flight School in the future for more regions, more airplanes and more lessons. I would like to think the more expansive Flight Simulator would could also feed into (graphics / content etc) the cut down Flight School to maintain it's position as an attraction into the world of Flight into the future. It certainly makes sense to me.

 

I agree that it makes sense. I was simply help direct his question about multi engine ratings and a aircraft to support it with Martins earlier post. 

[mibmab 6]

 

 

Hi Josh, I think rtodepart has a point. The multi-engine was just an example. I can see further expansion of Flight School in the future for more regions, more airplanes and more lessons. I would like to think the more expansive Flight Simulator would could also feed into (graphics / content etc) the cut down Flight School to maintain it's position as an attraction into the world of Flight into the future. It certainly makes sense to me.

I seem to remember that DTG plan to offer a migration function for the "career" from Flight school over to the full flight sim. So it sounds like any plans for further lessons will be kept for the full flight sim. I could imagine that there would be some more lesson missions built into that full sim from the start, while others might be sold extra as DLC maybe in combination with the respective more advanced DLC planes (e.g. teaching how to properly operate a turboprop or a jet engine plane). I guess much of this is not yet decided for the full sim, but (to stay ontopic in this thread) maybe Martin can comment if their thinking goes in this direction? I certainly would like an overall career/qualification-level function beyond succeeding individual missions in FSX. This was one of the features I liked about MS Flight.

[leonbr 64]

Hi Martin,

 

I will upgrade my video card so I would like to know if you guys are working with Amd or nVidia for optimizations? In recent games I know that working with specific hardware brands makes miracles in performance.

 

Also, do you have any plans for Dx12?

 

Thanks, looking forward.

[marty2756 65]

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 

Hi Martin,

 

I know this is far far ahead... but what "FSCaptain" does is more interesting than what fspassangers do (my opinion of course). I guess you know it too.

[pirata1906 0]

Hi Martin

 

First of all let me just congratulate and thank you for your input and Dovetails input for the upcoming flight sim titles. I see that many of the questions i had, were already answered in this forum. i did enjoy reading all of the posts and all of the questions that our flight sim comunity had to share with you and all of your answers were very satisfying. Of course i do understand that there is some stuff under production that you cannot disclose and there is some things that you just dont have the answer yet. I hope and think that your new flight sim to be released by the end of the year will be a sucess and perhaps set a new flight sim standart. Nevertheless it was with some concern that i read that fsuipc or simconnect will not be compatible with the new FS, i believe that in that case neither will be any type of 3rd party interface of inputs or extractions based on that software in your new flight sim. That means that it will render my home made cockpit virtually unusable with your product.

i've spent the last 4 years learning, prototyping, building and rebuilding a home cockpit based on arduino boards, and despite it's challenges and all the money wasted on mistakes i'm very happy with it and with what i achieved. My home cockpit is supported by 3 computers and 8 arduino boards but they are all programed coded and connected through simconnect and fsuipc. The only thing that would stop me from buying your product would be this reason. so my question for you and i am sorry if someone else already asked this:

will it be available a similar way to interface the simulator as it was in the case of fsuipc or simconnect? 

 

Thank you Martin

Best regards from Portugal

[torium 207]

will it be available a similar way to interface the simulator as it was in the case of fsuipc or simconnect?

 

Earlier Martin said:

 

"It seems crazy to us that you have to use a third party add-on to do the things that FSUIPC does. Why isn't that stuff just build into the sim to start with is the question we asked ourselves. What is even more crazy is that FSUIPC is built and maintained by just one hard working guy, Pete Dowson. Imagine if something happened to Pete? Where would the flight sim community be then? To this end we have partnered with a range of hardware manufacturers such as Saitek and GoFlight Inc. and we are working with them to make sure that all the required features for running hardware are included in DTG Flight Simulator as standard. The end result is that pluggins like FSUIPC will no longer be needed."

 

"There will be a hardware standard that developers can plug into and use. Our goal is to simplify the process so that people don't need to go around hunting for plugins and alike. We are building these tools here in the studio, so I guess they will be up to our standard. We are simply consulting with hardware developers to find out what their needs and requirements are.

 

- Martin"

 

http://steamcommunity.com/app/441920/discussions/0/368542585861880608/#c364040166671718378​

[pirata1906 0]

thank you torium, i've already seen that. i understand those statements, maybe the question i should've asked is if those tools will be accessable through open source hardware, like arduino cards? maybe i'm wrong but it feels like those tools will be directed to specific hardware manufacturers.

 

best regards from Portugal