The real question is how much space are users going to be willing to devote.

 

Any one user having the whole world (unless you are a government or corporation) is probably not reasonable, but it is reasonable to take the fact that users generally fly in defined areas of interest, and let them choose those areas in whatever resolution they want.

 

To that end, I'm kind of expecting megascenery and other ortho-scenery providers (and there seem to be a lot of them) to eventually step in, and let people buy on a state by state, or country by country basis.

 

http://www.megasceneryearth.com/store/cart.php?target=product&product_id=723

Flying over low resolution scenery like that is of no interest to me. AeroFly FS2 is about super high resolution regional areas, not global low res.

The real question is how much space are users going to be willing to devote.

 

Any one user having the whole world (unless you are a government or corporation) is probably not reasonable

 

Just for fun, I made an approximate calculation of how much disk space is needed to have the whole world at various zoom levels (just land, no sea/oceans):

 

ZL19     0.3 m/pixel     2200    TB

ZL18     0.6 m/pixel       550    TB

ZL17     1.2 m/pixel       137    TB

ZL16     2.4 m/pixel         34    TB

ZL15     4.8 m/pixel           8.5 TB

ZL14     9.5 m/pixel           2.1 TB

ZL13   19.1 m/pixel       550    GB

ZL12   38.1 m/pixel       140    GB

 

As of today, the whole world at ZL14 is already feasible in terms of disk space. The limitation is probably the bandwidth cost for a product shipping such a large data.

 

ZL12 would be feasible for a Steam product today. Probably ZL13 in a few years.

ZL14 for the whole world can be shipped on 2TB hardrive, which is way less than $100 each today. 

 

Higher zoom levels should be made as selectable downloads, charged based on bandwidth?

 

But again, just like J van E I don't like pure photoscenery with no 3D autogens. Based on XP11/Ortho4XP, those autogen overlay files are of very small sizes.  

Once again, I suspect we are probably at something close to the size of a current Orbx region as the most likely reasonable Steam download..

 

100 or so gigabytes at a time......

Once again, I suspect we are probably at something close to the size of a current Orbx region as the most likely reasonable Steam download..

100 or so gigabytes at a time......

Yes, and that is more than fine with me! Can't wait to see it happen!

We need multiplayer so that we can all start flying together.

 

To me it looks even more important than having AI around... and the burden of implementing it.

 

Wonder if IPACS is really having MP in their TODO list right now ?

 

Biggest problem for me after starting to use those other sims is that I don't have much to play in a civil sim... Should a good weather generator be available I could at least try to simulate soaring in AEFS2 - the glider flight dynamics in AEFS2 have been tuned up from their predecessors in AEFS1...

 

Approaches in bad weather conditions is another great chance to use a flight simulator with a believable FDM but the weather modeling in AEFS2 is still limited, with not many types of sky coverage, rain or snow, more thrill in the turbulence and variable winds, thunderstorms :-)  And temperature is always ISA... and Atmospheric Pressure... Yes! we also need better weather modeling!!!

 

But being able to fly with someone, online, would be tempting.... with nice weather!!!  That's it - Weather and MP for AEFS2 will turn me on again :-)

 

Ah!  And those lights at night.... XP is the night sim, AEFS2 is becoming a day / dusk /dawn sim, but more of a day sim... Even in the vicinity of airfields it is a bit disappointing I must say, when no plausible night ligfhting can be seen around :-/  That's not how we see it IRL... and if scenery realism is something that makes up one of the strong points in this sim then I believe it requires some attention from the developers....

ipacs aerofly  [developer] 1 hour ago

 

[Official] Aerofly FS 2 further roadmap 2017

 

Dear Aerofly users,

As we begin to move into more of the advanced features,
that you are all looking forward to, we wanted to give you
an insight to what you can expect in the coming months.

We can assure you that we are quite busy here at IPACS studio,
working on some new exciting big features that are going to
take some time to get just right for you, so please be patient.

One of those new features is of course ATC, probably the most asked
feature so far. To understand why we need time for this,
please keep in mind that we want to do it right and that it
is also a very complex thing to implement, to say the least.
Due to the complexity of this topic we will split it up into
different sub projects. If possible we will try to let you
have a sneak preview on ATC, whenever we reach a milestone
that can be published without breaking any existing program
functionality. So stay tuned, we will keep you updated on ATC
as development progresses.

But don't worry, expect to see some smaller updates and new
and free content as well soon, like new airplanes, more regions
and of course more features.

We will also publish a new version of our SDK, that allows you
to create your own liveries for our stock aircraft. Anybody
with a good drawing program can then create her/his own repaint.

We thank you for your continued support while we work hard
to raise the bar for Aerofly FS 2 in 2017.

Great news! I'm really looking forwards to what Ipacs will be able to deliver in this regard. VR and ATC is going to be very impressive.

Thanks very much for the update, looking forward to AFFS2 living up to it's big potential

Wonder if IPACS is really having MP in their TODO list right now ?

I would think multiplayer would come after ATC. ATC and European DLC are probably the top two on the list right now. Just behind pushing the Q400 out the door.

 

Regards,

 

Ray

Just for fun, I made an approximate calculation of how much disk space is needed to have the whole world at various zoom levels (just land, no sea/oceans):

 

ZL19     0.3 m/pixel     2200    TB

ZL18     0.6 m/pixel       550    TB

ZL17     1.2 m/pixel       137    TB

ZL16     2.4 m/pixel         34    TB

ZL15     4.8 m/pixel           8.5 TB

ZL14     9.5 m/pixel           2.1 TB

ZL13   19.1 m/pixel       550    GB

ZL12   38.1 m/pixel       140    GB

 

As of today, the whole world at ZL14 is already feasible in terms of disk space. The limitation is probably the bandwidth cost for a product shipping such a large data.

 

ZL12 would be feasible for a Steam product today. Probably ZL13 in a few years.

If you take all the blue water oceans of the world and the North and South pole areas and most of Greenland , and the big deserts and empty quarter out, then you might have a workable area to consider. Maybe if they just do the Euro countries for a start and complete North America, then add Central America and Mexico and surprise us one day with all of South America and the Caribbean it might be workable.

 

Regards,

 

Ray

 

 

Just for fun, I made an approximate calculation of how much disk space is needed to have the whole world at various zoom levels (just land, no sea/oceans)

 

I have all of Europe and Scandinavia at ZL16 and that takes up nearly 2TB and that's only one season, and no night textures. If we factor in night and season variations then it becomes even worse than that. 

 

Personally I'm waiting for someone to come up with convincing ground textures (maybe procedural) that looks real enough. Orthophotos look wrong with baked in shadows, squashed buildings and cars, lighting that never changes and colour differences, but is currently the best option we have. ORBX's approach is also not convincing enough because of the roads and abrupt ending of textures and stretching on mountains.

Aerofly FS 2 Update Version 2.0.1EA3.76

 

Community Announcements - ipacs Aerofly

 

Dear Aerofly users, 

After a longer break, here is another update. The main news is, that you may now use our freely available SDK for creating new liveries for the stock airplanes. We will add more templates in the future, for now you may create new liveries for the C172, B747, C90GTx, Learjet and the Pitts.

To get the SDK just register at this website:
https://www.aerofly.com/aerofly_fs_2/sdk/

 

Registration is free, all we require is a valid Email address so we can inform you when new a new update is out.

2017-02-10

• Improved interior textures for C90GTx and Learjet 45 
• Improved Learjet 45 displays and functionality
• Added Learjet 45 system pages
• Added an option to broadcast current flight position over LAN or Internet so it can be received by compatible apps like ForeFlight, iFlightPlaner and Sky Demon
• Improved HUD can be activated in any view and displays more values and 5 degree ticks for horizon and pitch
• Fixed Saitek panels show blanks for values that are not available in the current aircraft and therefore cannot be changed
• Added new functionality to the SDK. You may now create your own liveries for the C172, B747, C90GTx, LJ45 and the Pitts. More airplanes will be added in the future.

Just a heads up: I've had a chance to play with some of this stuff over the last few days, and in regards to navigation apps, many seem to require fairly expensive subscriptions. One free one that does work well with Aerofly is AVARE https://apps4av.com/avare-overview/

 

Be aware that AVARE requires a secondary app AVARE External i/o plugin to work correctly with your phone/tablet, but once up and running seems to work well, and as advertised, just tell it to look for X-Plane10. If you don't already have one of the other suggested apps, this might be a way to go: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apps4av.avarehelper&hl=en

 

Fantastic update, Devon!

Small "Stealth" update released today with fixes for issues that appeared after the February 10th update.

 

Test and report!