"With the news that Microsoft may skip its traditional Flight Simulator 2006 in preference to a bigger, better upgrade further in the future..."Has anyone else heard this news?The source is the October 2005 issue of Aerospace Professional (a publication of the Royal Aeronautical Society in the UK) which has occasional items on flight simulation. It appears in a review of Airliner Pilot by a Tim Robinson. In a review of X-Plane 8.0 he also says "Possibly the only other feature it needs to dethrone FS2004 is some kind of interactive flying lessons..." I have no experience of X-Plane.

What the news in all likelyhood is referring to is the fact that "FS2006" won't be released this year - if you remember, FS2004 was released in 2003, FS2002 was released in 2001 and so forth, so the expectations late last year / early this year were that FS2006 would be released this year.Instead, what we'll likely see is Microsoft "skipping" its traditional release schedule and go for "FS2007" (or "FS10" or whatever it'll be called) in late 2006.This is no new news.

Was it ever news or just speculation?If news what's the source?

Just specualtion. Bear in mind this was a `non-expert` on simming matters writing in a periodical that doesn't have a vested interest in the subject, printed under normal publishing schedules - the article might have been written several months ago, when all there was was speculation!You will find the facts on Avsim! - have you checked the news pages? MS have already provided a glimpse as to possible enhancements for the next generation and likely arrival times. Allcott

Thats fine with me. For once maybe the minds at MS are waiting on this release to coincide with these large leaps of technology instead of always being a year or so behind. That would be dual core CPU's,dual PCIe cards running in SLI mode and other advances. I don't care if they wait until this time next year if the version makes use of the technology that will be there instead of just wishing it did.David

Yes, I am aware of the current position as set out in AVSIM. My point was to clarify that there was no "news".

That technology may be there, but how much of Microsoft's target market will have it? I suggest very few Microsoft will be targetting the majority.

Microsoft are in business to make money, not to cater to tech junkies.They therefore plan their release to coincide with a point in time when the technology that release required is in use with a large enough customerbase to make the product a feasible purchase for as many people as possible.If they were to release FS10 requiring dual multi-core 4GHz CPUs, Vista, 512MB videocard, 4 19" TFT screens, 2 DVD-ROM drives, and 200GB harddiskspace they'd not sell very many copies.Far better to have it require a single singlecore 2.5GHz CPU, 128MB videocard, 1 CD-ROM drive, a single 17" screen, and maybe 4GB harddiskspace as there's millions of potential customers who have that kind of hardware and millions more who can actually afford it.

From the German FlightXpress Magazine, which interviewed some MS Developer on IFC Blackpool 2005:Release Date:Autumn 2006 ?Name: FS10Performance: The Hardware available on release date will not be sufficient for FS10, maybe in 2 years (2008). FS10 will use DirectX10 (new graphic features in FS10 will be Bloom, Bumpmapping,special Reflections,new hardware shaders HLSL 2.0 etc).Lefteris Kalamaris (PMDG) said in this Interview the PMDG 747 has already some features only available in FS10 on board, and needs only to be activated. (Who knows)!!!I have seen some very nice screenshots from FS10 in the FlightXPress Magazine. Airplanes are reflected on wet runways, also the sky. Much better autogen and scenery design (Buildings and sky reflected on a lake). Looks very impressive.Hope this helps,Ron

>From the German FlightXpress Magazine, which interviewed some>MS Developer on IFC Blackpool 2005:>Release Date:Autumn 2006 ?>Name: FS10>Performance: The Hardware available on release date will not>be sufficient for FS10, maybe in 2 years (2008). FS10 will use>DirectX10 (new graphic features in FS10 will be Bloom,>Bumpmapping,special Reflections,new hardware shaders HLSL 2.0>etc).>RonI think thats meant to read:Performance: The Hardware available on release date will be sufficient for FS10... In other words, what you've got now will be more than capable of running the next version. MS would be foolish to rule out the non-enthusiast mass-market (more than 90% of the customer base remmeber) by making hardware requirements above the `average` user.Thats not to say that FS10 wont take advantage of the developments offered by the new DirectX version but if you read elsewhere the new version of DirectX does NOT offer compatibility with older versions, so it's likely most of FS10 will be constructed around DirectX9, with enhancements available to users with the appropriate level of hardware and software - in other words, business as usual, just a small step forward, not a big leap. I have read elsewhere that the developers are keen to offload more of the current sim load onto the graphics card, rather than the CPU, simply because the capabilities of modern graphics cards are not even touched by FS9, but FS is limited by both CPU and GPU, and even if the emphasis changes frm 60/40 to 40/60, it's really a moot point. The real question is just how much of the core code will be changed. That's the only way MS can improve the sim to a sigificant degree, and as that will be a strict commercial secret until probably just before release, I don't think there is any point in speculating at this stage. Wouldn't it be nice if FS drew a line in the sand and said: All change, no retro-compatibility and started from scratch? We'd whinge and moan to start with, but a fresh start is really what the sim needs.Allcott

>Lefteris Kalamaris (PMDG) said in this Interview the PMDG 747>has already some features only available in FS10 on board, and>needs only to be activated. (Who knows)!!!In other words, they got bump-map / normal-map textures ready.. ;)

How will bumpmapping and shaders help? I hope they will give scenery a more 3D appearance. FS9 still looks rather 2D to me.RH

>I have seen some very nice screenshots from FS10 in the>FlightXPress Magazine. Airplanes are reflected on wet runways,>also the sky. Much better autogen and scenery design>(Buildings and sky reflected on a lake). Looks very>impressive.Those aren't FS10. They're just from a development of the FS9 engine using a new version of DirectX, if memory serves.

Allcott,How do you know that Tim Robinson is a "non-expert" on simming matters? Are you a member of the Society? The periodical concerned is called "The Aerospace Professional" and is issued along with "Aerospace International" each month by the Royal Aeronautical Society. The society that issues it is a well respected organisation with some pretty well qualified aerospace individuals who know what they are talking about. I'm not sure at all that Tim Robinson would write any non-expert stuff in such a well respected magazine.KFD (MRAeS)

>Those aren't FS10. They're just from a development of the FS9 engine >using a new version of DirectX, if memory serves.The pics i´ve seen were from FS10, weeks ago someone posted some of those pics (photos) from the same magazine. I´ve also read the whole interview ( 4 Pages)that the FlightXpress-Team did with the MS-Developers, if no one believes or thinks he knows almost everything about FS10 lets wait until autumn 2006.And yes, the interviewed developer from MS said the available hardware in autumn 2006 will not be sufficient for FS10, the same as FS9 was released, no one had the hardware to play on a sufficient performance level.Ron