Beta 1 is ready to ship!

[RFields5421 1]

This is just a wild guess - I've not been involved in a Flight Simulator beta, but a few others.A. Somethings are tried in the beta and don't work out and get dropped.B. Somethings are changed / added as a result of beta test feedback.C. Some of the really neat new features are kept under wraps to make the marketing buzz at launch better (the classic aircraft in FS2004 as a possible example)Just for a moment examine the threads over "missions" - well don't actually take time to read the all - the product will be on store shelves before your finish.The MS team has said over and over and over that the missions shown at E3 were almost all quick products but together for the arcade display at E3. Most will not be in the final release.Yet just look at the number of people going on and on about how the missions have corrupted the core of Flight Simulator. They base their total assumptions of what FSX will be based on a short movie and a few screen shots.When people see and hear about something - they form opinions.A lot of screen shots, a lot of "this is what is new", etc. will set opinions and expectations based on unrealistic assumptions before the product is released.I worked with several of the people who looked at AI traffic in the FS2004 beta right after the release of FS2004 - and I'll tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that they did NOT learn enough in the beta to accurately understand AI aircraft behavior in FS2004. Or even user aircraft behavior.Another item - the first post I remember seeing about the real world approach plates built into FS2004 on this forum was almost two months after the release of the software.Even today, very few people realize they can fly real world SID / STAR and approach procedures with the default GPS and flight planner. Yes it takes a little work to make your flight plan - that's also what real world pilots do. They don't walk into the cockpit, punch in an automatic routing plan and start the engines. They PLAN their flights.The FS2004 GPS is an amazing quantum level improvement in capability and an extremely powerful tool - yet how many people have really explored it in FS2004. No, they rush out to buy "realistic" addons without even examining what they have free at their finger tips.Sorry for the long rant. A beta is to see if the product actually works as planned on a wide variety of hardware. A final chance to find and correct problems.A lot of public comment and discussion leads to misperceptions and unrealistic expectations.

[slashed2 53]

Thanks for the explanations, very much appreciated. It's an interesting process and I'm not a big poster on the forums but since I'm excited about the release of FSX it has been interesting to see the reaction to tidbits of information that get stretched and skewed into something completely different and to actually participate in some of the discussions (or arguments depending on your viewpoint).I've been using flightsim since the old C64 and sublogic flight simulator when I was 12 and I sit back and marvel at how far it has come and the potential for the future. It is really a pleasure to see the developers involved with discussions on different aspects of flight simming and I hope they continue to do so as it helps enlighten this ever dynamic and passionate hobby of ours.Ian.

[Guest JuiceRabbit]

Good pointsI just hope MS makes a big effort to ensure the FSX SDK is powerful so that 3rd parties can continue to "fill in the gaps".

[Guest sssummer]

>This is just a wild guess - I've not been involved in a>Flight Simulator beta, but a few others.>Why not? Tdragger, get on that will you please? Reggie Fields and Jim Vile are the two most knowledgable people in the AI business in FS. We need these two on the team!

[Guest]

Controlling the information stream is also vital for the marketing effort.If every tester were to post a complete videodiary of his activities, and massive lists of everything he "discovers" and sends in as bugs that would be disastrous for product positioning.It would also prevent things that are flawed enough to need removal before final release (because to fix them would be too costly in resources or time) from being removed, delaying product launch.And that's just a few reasons.

[Guest]

Personally, if I were asked to take part in an MSFS beta program (I haven't) I'd likely refuse.I know I don't have the time to put the needed effort into it, and I'd be doing the community and Microsoft a disservice by signing up for something if I can't live up to what's needed to make the beta work.Whether I have the skills and other expertise needed to be an efficient tester are not an issue in such a situation (I too have been involved in testing software at all levels, being a software engineer pretty much guarantees that, so I know what testing means).

[Mace 1,951]

>>Not possible, your lips are glued.Use the toes...I'm tellin' ya...Rhett

[Guest JoJoDawg]

>>>>>Not possible, your lips are glued.>>Use the toes...I'm tellin' ya...>>>RhettLOL #### forgot the lips being glued. Mace I think you are right, the toes it shall be.

[RFields5421 1]

Among the most useless things I've seen in the past and will probably see this time again is a thread about the hunt for "bugs" in FS.And most of them are not bugs but people not willing to learn how the program works.

[scott967 62]

I have to admit I have never understood the concept of commercial software "beta testing". I have some experience with "free play" testing, and I guess it can give you some gut feel, but it isn't generally repeatable so it is very difficult to do anything with the results. I can see from the standpoint of testing usability of the user interface free play has value.scott s..

[ejoiner 21]

Just look for the conspicuous absence of specific people when the beta is released... they'll be too busy to come here! That was what happened with FS2004 anyway!!

[RFields5421 1]

Here is one example from my work which might be applicable to FS.The company I work for has several thousand PC's in the US and over a quarter million world wide.Just something as simple as monthly security patches involves testing by us IT types on several hardware types and with several applications.What works, what hangs up the install, what ceases to work with new security holes plugged?But we know for certain that our laptops, desktops and test computers do not match the full range of our team members setups. And we have a very common system compared to many companies.We run a test group which includes all sorts of people in different groups, some who connect only over dial-up, some remote folks with broadband, etc..I'm sure one of the goals of a major software beta is to see what hardware does not function correctly with software, what application combinations break the software, what problem the software can cause on other applications.The only way to do that testing is to get the software out on a wide variety of computers.

[Guest jboweruk]

I'll be the first to admit that it would be cool to be on the Beta team, but like many others here I would not have the necessary time or skills to do that. So like many of us and in spite of some of my earlier reservations I shall still be here wishing my life away till it comes out and will probably get 'bored' with Fs9 in the last few weeks before FSX comes out. It's gonna be a long and bumpy road ahead, with highs (some of the early screenies) and lows (some of the misenterpretations of the missions), but hopefully will be worth the wait when it gets here.