Ask Dovetail Games about DTG Flight School & Flight Simulator

[Paraffin 2,197]

An earlier reply indicated there would be no visible damage from things like scraping a wing on a crosswind landing. However, visuals, aside, what are the plans for giving the pilot feedback about damage from hard landings in both sims, especially Flight School?

 

I assume there must be some way to let the student know that a landing was too hard, including the range from blown tire to full crash? Or will the plane be indestructible, and you'll just get a tongue-lashing from the instructor?  :smile:

 

This is one of my peeves about X-Plane; the way the damage modeling for hard landings isn't very granular. It tends to be all or nothing -- too forgiving or a full crash. There is a 3rd party plugin that shows vertical speed and G force at landing, so you can rate yourself. But it seems to me that this should be something that's part of the core simulation. Especially for a training sim.

 

[Angelo Cosma 61]

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 

 

Hey Martin check your PM when you can. 

Edited February 19, 2016 by n4gix
Removed excessing quote.

[TheFlightSimGuy 514]

I've never understood this whole damage modeling thing. When people talk about "arcade" flying vs "simulation" especially in GA/Commercial flying, damage modeling leans more towards the "arcade" side of things. Sure, blown engines are helpful, but we don't need wings falling off or visible damage to control surfaces. In real life, people become pilots without having never seen these incidents, and if half of them were to happen, it would likely end in catastrophic loss of the aircraft. I just don't see how anyone would want or need a plane crash simulator. Basic mishandling physics and maybe some visual at most should suffice, because anything past that and the only thing to see is heaven.

[hairyspin 4]

Thanks for this opportunity Martin, it's good to hear from the horse's mouth. :smile:

 

A great strength of FS over the past 15 years or more was being open to third-party developers at little cost. Many of today's top-flight developers started this way and if DTG FS is to be here for the long term you'll need more people learning the craft. Groups like PMDG or A2A don't appear from nowhere fully-formed, nor do people spend thousands on software for a passing hobby.

 

Please ask the team to provide a plugin/toolset/viable SDK for a low-cost or freeware 3D modelling package: there are several possible candidates. I know it isn't going to be Gmax, that road closed years ago.

[jonesrob 97]

Do you think you can fix the clock so if set as GMT/UTC, it will stay as GMT and not start wandering off to local time?

 

Rob.

[TheFlightSimGuy 514]

I went to my local WHSmith store and brought a copy of the newest issue of PC Pilot. Liking the work-in-progress shots of the control tower and the Super Cub (cockpit and outside view).

 

I saw that too. The control tower looks great and the interior mesh of the cub looks outstanding.

 

Question for Martin - From those shots, it looks like you guys arent simply porting over those models but are building them from the ground up, is that correct?

[Heimi 91]

Hello Martin,

 

thank you for answering question from the commmunity.

 

 

1. Why doesn`t Dovetail integrate DTG:Flight School into DTG:Flight Simulator but release them seperate?
2. Are there plans to build a new Sim from scratch in the future instead using decades old software as starting point?

[TheDanger 182]

Added question again here as was moved into discussion thread by somebody

 

 

 

Can't see if this has been asked already -

 

FSUIPC by Pete D - Is this being implemented into the new sim or will there be a similar facility developed by DTG therefore making FSUIPC redundant?

[ayousry 32]

Hi Martin,

Thanks for listening

 

Just 3 simple questions

 

I read on a facebook comment that sloped runway wont be there in

DTG flight school , will that be the case for flight simulator?

 

Weather engine has always been unreal , boring and too much forgiving in fsx and p3d

, Whats new in this area for flight simulator ?

 

Will rain droplets, snow, dust ...etc be visible on the windsheild while in virtual cockpit view?

 

Thanks

[euroau 1]

Do you guys plan on pulling something like BF3 where even on "Low", the textures look stunning?

Also, am much excited for more news on this!

[Duncan Odgers 131]

 

 

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

 

Hi Martin,

 

Thanks for the reply I think maybe we have crossed wires. My question was asking about the business model NOT content. Simply put will customers who purchase your "new" flight simulator later this year get FREE future updates year on year which add features to the simulator. OR will they have to buy each new release?

 

You have done this with Train Simulator so someone buys TS2013 and gets 2014, 2015 and some parts of TS16 absolutely free with all the additional features included.

 

Thanks

 

Duncan

[magnetite 38]

Hello Martin,

 

Will either new sim have a hardware cursor?

[DTG Martin 213]

Hi everyone, 

 

Sorry I have not been about for a few days. I came down with a cold which took me out of action for a bit. I am back now and just working my way through your various questions. As always I will do my best to answer as much as possible but there are few things I will not be able to answer at this stage of development. 

 

- Martin 

An earlier reply indicated there would be no visible damage from things like scraping a wing on a crosswind landing. However, visuals, aside, what are the plans for giving the pilot feedback about damage from hard landings in both sims, especially Flight School?

 

I assume there must be some way to let the student know that a landing was too hard, including the range from blown tire to full crash? Or will the plane be indestructible, and you'll just get a tongue-lashing from the instructor?  :smile:

 

This is one of my peeves about X-Plane; the way the damage modeling for hard landings isn't very granular. It tends to be all or nothing -- too forgiving or a full crash. There is a 3rd party plugin that shows vertical speed and G force at landing, so you can rate yourself. But it seems to me that this should be something that's part of the core simulation. Especially for a training sim.

 

You are correct that damage is not something that is currently modeled in DTG Flight School. In terms feedback this will come from your instructor and various on screen prompts. We will have lots more information about how the actual lessons work over the coming weeks. 

 

In terms of the bigger DTG Flight Sim, damage is not completely off the cards but it is something we are thinking carefully about. We are trying to be mindful about building a simulator which focuses on celebrating aviation. We don't really want to create something where we end up with thousands of YouTube Videos of people blowing up aircraft by flying them into buildings. We hope you can all understand the reasons for this. It is tough a balance to get right. Long story short it is on our list of long term considerations but not something we are actively developing at this time. 

 

- Martin 

Yet FSX did include the Red Bull air show, where precision flying in unusual circumstances was/is a valid test of piloting skill. I would actually be happy to see something similar (but updated) in flight school. How about it, Martin?

 

I can't go into the exact details of the lessons in DTG Flight School at present HiFlyer. The best I can say is that we will be covering them in lots of detail over the coming weeks as we get closer to launch. 

 

- Martin 

Agreed. Let's keep the focus in this topic purely on questions we have and the answers Martin will give. This is not a topic for discussion of any kind and it will only complicate Martin's job. If you want to discuss something do it in another topic indeed. Perhaps a new 'Ask Dovetail Games discussion topic' would be the best idea where we can discuss everything related to this topic without totally confusing Martin and anyone who is interested in what he has to say.

If you all don't mind I would suggest that one of the mods moves all 'discussion posts' to the suggested (yet to create) topic...? I would love to see this topic being a Q&A topic ONLY.

 

Martin gets very easily confused. It is probably his age and a lack of coffee. 

 

- Martin 

Thanks for this opportunity Martin, it's good to hear from the horse's mouth. :smile:

 

A great strength of FS over the past 15 years or more was being open to third-party developers at little cost. Many of today's top-flight developers started this way and if DTG FS is to be here for the long term you'll need more people learning the craft. Groups like PMDG or A2A don't appear from nowhere fully-formed, nor do people spend thousands on software for a passing hobby.

 

Please ask the team to provide a plugin/toolset/viable SDK for a low-cost or freeware 3D modelling package: there are several possible candidates. I know it isn't going to be Gmax, that road closed years ago.

 

Some very good points hairyspin. We couldn't agree with you more. I have spoken a lot about third party developers, freeware and a possible SDK already in this thread. There is not much more I can add to those answers at the moment. It is certainly something we take very serious and we will be considering developers of all levels as we continue to work on DTG Flight Simulator. 

 

- Martin 

Do you think you can fix the clock so if set as GMT/UTC, it will stay as GMT and not start wandering off to local time?

 

Rob.

 

I have passed that on to the development team to have a think about for you Rob. 

 

- Martin 

[DTG Martin 213]

I saw that too. The control tower looks great and the interior mesh of the cub looks outstanding.

 

Question for Martin - From those shots, it looks like you guys arent simply porting over those models but are building them from the ground up, is that correct?

 

It is really a mixture of things Josh. 

 

Both DTG Flight School and DTG Flight Simulator will include the whole world. That is a lot area to cover. While we will be building a lot of things from the ground up we simply can't rebuild everything ready for day one. For that reason we will be using some of the existing models and alike found in FSX: Steam Edition. This is particular true for DTG Flight School, much less so for DTG Flight Sim.  

 

What we have done instead is try to introduce global changes which affect many areas rather than just one. So for example, we could spend weeks building a certain rural airport or we could build a brand new lighting engine which applies to the whole world. We only have some much development time, so we have gone for things like the later where possible 

 

That said a lot of models are new. Aircraft are being built from scratch, we have built new airports models for the main flight schools in FS and so forth. We also have some very exciting scenery technology in general that we will be using but can't tell you about just yet. 

 

Something I have mentioned before several times is that DTG Flight Simulator is not a static sim. We have some really big plans of what we would like to see in there both at the day of launch and five years from now. We will be continuing to develop it and add new features for many years to come.

 

- Martin 

 

Hello Martin,

 

thank you for answering question from the commmunity.

 

 

1. Why doesn`t Dovetail integrate DTG:Flight School into DTG:Flight Simulator but release them seperate?
2. Are there plans to build a new Sim from scratch in the future instead using decades old software as starting point?

 

 

Hi Heimi, always happy to answer what we can. 

 

If I have understood you question correctly, you are asking why is DTG Flight School and DTG Flight Simulator two separate simulators? We have spent the last two years listening to existing and would-be simmers alike. We have been intent on discovering what keeps you all simming, and what stops those who would like to get into flight simulation from doing so. We have learned that flight simulation appeals to an incredible amount of people, but a lot of them find it too hard to get started with. It is our aim to reclaim and attract those would-be simmers, but in order to do so, we need to present flight simulation in a way that doesn't initially overwhelm them.

 

That is where Flight School comes in.  We wanted to create an experience which makes flight simming accessible to anyone who wants to try it. Doing this as a standalone release allows us to focus on tailoring the experience more at these players.

 

We currently have no plans to build a brand new flight simulator from scratch. For the foreseeable future we are committed to developing DTG Flight Simulator only. 

 

- Martin 

[Ops Normal 57]

Hi Martin, MS flight simulator had a lot of detail and attention placed on North America and Europe. Regions like Africa had very little attention i.e outdated airports,navdata,landclass etc. Is there any plan to give African Region a complete makeover in DTG flight Simulator? Will the New Simulator be truly international Simulator where we could set visibility to meters, different transition altitudes/Levels etc?

 

Thanks..