I started flightsimming in 1984 using Sublogic's FS2 on my Commodore 64.  Even had the scenery disks for different areas of the U.S.  I stopped simming around 1987 and didn't start up again until 1995 when I got a Digital brand PC with an Intel Pentium 66 MHz processor.  I got MSFS 5 and couldn't believe the improvements, plus the use of different ground textures and weather effects.  I've gotten every new version since then and have always been impressed with the improvements and increased realism. 

I believe that the next big leap in flight simulation lies with virtual reality.  As this technology matures I think it will offer a level of realism and immersion we've never had before.  To be truly successful will require higher resolution graphics and better performance but I think we'll get there within the next 10-20 years.  Exciting times ahead...

Dave

Dave,

I have to agree with you on all points. 

However LOL ... "exciting times ahead ... 10-20 years."  I think that most of us who started as you/we did so long ago may not actually have the luxury of those 10-20 years ahead. Sad but true.

I do think though that if you ask the younger generation just starting their simming now, their answers in that 10-20 year span will be so completely different to the ones we are reading now, as to to be almost unrecognisable.  

I am actually hoping that some of these revelations occur very much sooner as 10 years hence, I shall be very doddery on my way to the flight sim computer (touching 80 ... ouch)

Regards to all

Tony

2 hours ago, himmelhorse said:

Hello all,

I am amongst, I guess some of the opriginals, as my first simulator was on a Commodore 64 computer with a tape drive.

However, the answer to the OPs question is very easy .....  Yesterday and will all the new releases coming on board recently and in the near future  the answer will be the same next week and the week after ad infinitem.  We are going through incredible hikes in Technology.  One wonders what P3Dv? with Vulcan??? will be like.

Lots and lots to lioik forward toi

Regards

Tony

 

My first computer was actually not a C64 per se', but a Commodore SX64 with a built in 5 inch screen and built in floppy drive, Commodore's idea of a "laptop" even with a carrying handle, but three times as bulky as the bulkiest laptops of today.  It was quite the sight to behold.  So I had to squint to enjoy FS2 on it.  I did not get a tape drive for it, just a cartridge or two.  I bought a book on C64 internals and loved using peek and poke to get the display to do strange things or get the computer to make odd chirps and sounds.  I learned to code in assembler on it and made a program that computed prime numbers in memory, you had to peek at the final result, I used Binary Encoded Decimals: (http://www.6502.org/tutorials/decimal_mode.html)

John

13 hours ago, DavidP said:

I now see complaints on relatively minor things (recently over at PMDG) and I think, my goodness, don't people realise how good it is now? Not to say things can't be improved, but heck, it isn't THAT bad. We are very lucky developers stay in this very niche, fickle hobby and create the things that PMDG, FSL and many others create.

Sometimes simmers need to lower their expectations a bit.

I agree, for sure.

Frankly, when I witnessed the pathetic state of terrain graphics in FS5 through FS2002, I started to wonder whether we would ever see realistic graphics in a flight simulator.

11 hours ago, Cactus521 said:

My first computer was actually not a C64 per se', but a Commodore SX64 with a built in 5 inch screen and built in floppy drive, Commodore's idea of a "laptop" even with a carrying handle, but three times as bulky as the bulkiest laptops of today. 

Actually, my very first computer was also an SX64! I bought it to keep the books for my General Electric Service Station (2-way Land Mobile Radio sales and service). Eventually I installed FS2 on it and several of my employees and I enjoyed "flying" during any down time we had.