On Saturday I attended a live online airshow, organised by a guy over @ bobholland.com. It got me thinking about multiplayer, currently if you don't have the model somebody else does, you will see some plane that fs decides to substitute, usually the Cessna but not necessarily.I wonder if in FSX that will alter, so that you can see the other person's plane regardless, ie if they have an F18 and you don't you will still see and F18.In Unreal Tournament you don't have to have the same skins etc. as other people to see them, somehow they just seem to get broadcast, I used to see people with models/skins that I know I didn't have, and wonder where to get them as they looked cool. Some I never did find so were probably clan members.Don't you think it would be cool now FS is going to have full built in MP capability if it followed the same route?

>On Saturday I attended a live online airshow, organised by a>guy over @ bobholland.com. It got me thinking about>multiplayer, currently if you don't have the model somebody>else does, you will see some plane that fs decides to>substitute, usually the Cessna but not necessarily.>>I wonder if in FSX that will alter, so that you can see the>other person's plane regardless, ie if they have an F18 and>you don't you will still see and F18.I sure do know what you mean, actually I have heard nothing about that regarding FSX yet, but I suspect the reason why it has not been done before is the fact that models and especially textures in FS are huge - file size wise - and not everyone would want to wait in her/his 10+ player MP game for every single custom model to download. *:-*

Ok, how about if developers start making two versions of their textures and models: one full quality set for the aircraft you are flying and then a 1/4 quality set for multiplayer aircraft. This way, developers would not fear the downloading of full quality textures and models to non-paying users and everyone would be able to see the correct aircraft at a fraction of the full quality and therefore increasing speed.Also, You could then go to the options menu and specify weather to download other players textures and models that are meant for multiplayer only.It would be a tall order for the FS Team to allow the sharing of sizable data during a multiplayer session. But if developers step up and offer the data already lower in size then I see no reason why it wouldn't work.This all leads into the "One World" idea of say MS building a single server that contains every connected player so that if you connect and fly around, you get to see every aircraft that is with a visual proximity of your aircraft, where ever you are in the world.It makes sense to me!

I know exactly what you mean, and I too think it would be very cool.But as was said, the texture sizes might be the problem. Maybe there is a way around it, such as a way for the program itself to shrink the textures down, for package transfer to the other person's rig.Rhett

I am hoping that all this will be a mute point since the multiplayer aspect of FS has been totally redone, we shall see!Even though totally unrealistic flying, it's pretty sweet to fly a blackhawk in BattleField 2 with 6 of your teammates onboard. Imagine how cool that would be in a 412 or Huey over the Alaska wilderness on a SAR mission in FS.Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/tfbeta.jpg

When FSX comes about.. lets all have an AVSIM meet at the virtual Oshkosh.It would be sweet if we can see each others duds. Even otherwise... to see 2000 Cessna's in one airport would be a sight to see.:)Manny

I'm definitely up for that, though if it's going to be a late one like the Moffett Virtual Airshow was then a Saturday night would be good, at least I can make arrangements not to have to get up in the morning. :(

>I am hoping that all this will be a mute point since the>multiplayer aspect of FS has been totally redone, we shall>see!>I think you mean 'moot point' Michael. :)I'm thinking this summer we should be getting maybe a little more info about (multiplayer in) FSX shouldn't we? I mean, it seems to me like since E3 there really hasn't been much new. That's good I guess. Leaves more for later. Rhett

thus doubling the effort developers have to put in...Are you willing to pay twice as much for your addons so others can see you flying around as you see yourself?

yes, it's all because of the massive amount of data that would have to be transmitted.For example the F1 ATR has a 2.8MB model file, and over 55MB per texture set on average.That's close to 60MB that would need to be sent over the net to every person in a session. Even with a DSL connection with a 1MBit upstream line (pretty standard for DSL) that would take 8 minutes per connected player in the session even if the entire connection were used just for that (which it won't be).Many people have slower connections, many aircraft are larger. If you have 10 people in a FSHost session and the sender is on dialup, do you want to wait several hours before seeing his aircraft?

>Ok, how about if developers start making two versions of>their textures and models: one full quality set for the>aircraft you are flying and then a 1/4 quality set for>multiplayer aircraft. This way, developers would not fear the>downloading of full quality textures and models to non-paying>users and everyone would be able to see the correct aircraft>at a fraction of the full quality and therefore increasing>speed.A good solution would be to assign an AI plane for multiplayer use. There are massive library's to choose from, most of them with only one texture bmp. Gerrithttp://members.chello.nl/g.kranenbarg/gwkh...s/bluesmall.gif