Dovetail Games releasing Flightsim

[Christopher Low 5,338]

He has a point though. ORBx FTX Global textures are not really what I want to see in a next generation flight simulator. Of course, these could be a vast improvement over the FSX/P3D versions. We will just have to wait and see.

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi Folks,

While intrigued - I'm also skeptical given DTG's past experience with Train Sim... They're known for making light fluffy pretty things - not attention to detail study level simulations...

Also - as in Train-Sim - I'm not so sure having multiple competing sims in a niche market is always a good thing as most people seem to think... It just fragments available funds, resources, and limited talent - diluting it for all the sims... Even a mediocre product could  pull enough sales from P3D or XP where they decide there's not enough revenue left and discontinue the products... We have AF in the mix now too... So now we have four serious players at our relatively small private party...

On the other hand - competition puts pressure on to innovate..

Who knows - maybe DTG will prove me wrong and be the revolutionary new product we all jump on ? Only time will tell...

Regards,

Scott

[Alan_A 1,650]

2 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

He has a point though. ORBx FTX Global textures are not really what I want to see in a next generation flight simulator. Of course, these could be a vast improvement over the FSX/P3D versions. We will just have to wait and see.

I could go either way on that.  Any developer that's working off an existing platform, as opposed to building from scratch, will have to make choices about what to keep from the old sim and what to throw overboard.  FTX Global textures could be effective in combination with, say, a new lighting system.  It might be more workable to take that approach - pull some existing stuff in and make it effectively new via new technology - than to start over fresh on everything.  

I don't see enough in the video to be able to judge it one way or the other.  Hope to see more soon.

 

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, scottb613 said:

So now we have four serious players at our party...

That's a good point. From what I can tell there are a lot of people who are committed to P3D and will take the jump to v4. With its high cost of entry and the non-existing marketing to a larger public, the platform certainly does not attract lots of new simmers, yet I cannot imagine that becoming a problem any time soon, because hardcore simmers will be willing to spend top dollar on that platform.

X-Plane has a medium cost of entry (60$ is what an AAA game usually costs), is on steam, yet certainly not heavily marketed. At this point in time, XP has outlived the FSX franchise and with XP11 bringing lots of new simmers in, it will certainly remain a factor for the foreseeable future, especially if they are able to attract even more sophisticated third party developments.

FSW will most likely have a rather low cost of entry (maybe 40$?, 50$ tops, but with discounts in the future) and given DTGs good marketing will certainly attract lots of simmers and gamers. It will probably be the most familiar product for all steam users with workshop integration and lots of DLC distributed via Steam. So If they dont completely mess up, I cannot imagine FSW to vanish any time soon, especially considering some basic compatibility in third-party development due to the shared FSX code base.

Aerofly is the one I'm most worried about: At the moment, it's still got the VR thing going for it as an exclusive feature, but with XP having already announced to aim for native VR support and both P3D and FSW certainly considering it, the market may become very thin for Aerofly. But I'd be happy for them if they'd prove me wrong!

[Alan_A 1,650]

BTW, there's a thread running in the Dovetail Games forum, with DTG reps participating.  Maybe a good place to get answers and get a better feel for the project. 

[JimmiG 244]

43 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

He has a point though. ORBx FTX Global textures are not really what I want to see in a next generation flight simulator. Of course, these could be a vast improvement over the FSX/P3D versions. We will just have to wait and see.

Difficult to tell from the trailer and screenshot, but it does look very similar to the same vector+landclass+autogen system that we've had since FSX (or in its basic form, even since FS8-FS9). It works, but it does have drawbacks. Roads cut across 2D building "imprints" and farm fields, and the vector roads are 2D (meaning interchanges and such look really silly).

The current system was developed to create "believable" scenery from crude data, while minimizing storage space requirements and memory usage. I think that in this day and age, there are better models. Nowadays, computers are more powerful and have much more storage space and memory available than what we had back in 2003-2006 when the current system was developed. The available data is also of much higher resolution. Much more detailed scenery can be generated from OSM data, with or without satellite imagery overlays.

[OneWhoKnocks53 51]

This is exciting.  It looks very good, and I'm really looking forward to trying this out.  

[Zatoichi 45]

3 hours ago, JimmiG said:

I think a healthy dose of skepticism is in order, remembering how the launch of DTG Flight School went. Still, it's very exciting news, and it will be interesting to see how it compares with XP11, P3D and AFS2.

Precisely why I'll stick to FSX for the foreseeable future.

[Rimshot 1,135]

1 hour ago, J van E said:

Seeing that same old landclass scenery was enough for me. Not interested.

We know you are now druling exclusively all over Aerofly's photoreal

[KavindaJD 31]

I don't think they know what "Early Access" is. Well, if they do, they are using it completely wrong.

For TSW, all I can recall, is a month of users giving feedback and improvements on their forums, only to see the simple things fixed. The fixes that needed a vast amount of technical expertise and coding adjustments, for instance, was simply assumed to be occurring for those with lower-end PC's. Big Mistake.

After 3 hours of releasing the product, the reviews just plummeted and Steam users were asking for refunds.

 

God forbid that there are no FPS issues with this one and they actually take the time to optimise the game!

We have FSX:SE, now for FSX:SEv2 with addons!

Can't wait.

 

[carlito777 712]

Why do people get excited about something that we already have? This thing offers NOTHING that X-Plane 11 doesn't already offer. Plus XP is not based on this crappy landclass approach. Once you have seen photoreal with OSM based overlays then landclass scenery just looks horrible. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Rimshot said:

We know you are now druling exclusively all over Aerofly's photoreal

LOL Yeah, if it has generic landclass ground textures and no VR I am out, no matter what.  Simple as that. Not that flat photoreal is perfect, far from it...  but together with VR it really makes you think you are out there. I will nevertheless keep an eye on DT's sim though: always interesting to see what is happening in the flightsim world. And there is a LOT happening which is absolutely great!

[Bobsk8 12,580]

One thing I noticed in the video, is rain on the windscreen which people have been asking for , for ages. 

[angeli662 43]

Let's be positive, I will definitely give a try.

[ZKOKQ 984]

4 hours ago, JimmiG said:

Difficult ttell from the trailer and screenshot, but it does look very similar to the same vector+landclass+autogen system that we've had since FSX (or in its basic form, even since FS8-FS9).

According to DTG it is updated FSX code. 64bit version of FSX ?