New MS Flight Sim shown at E3

[Tomaz Drnovsek 440]

11 minutes ago, IG_ said:

Why do you think the simulator looks like an impossible goal? Is it because of the graphics?

This level of detail in computer video game graphics has long been achieved and running this level of fidelity can be done with reasonably priced consumer parts, you don't need a super computer.

Well, yes. You do know how P3D and X-plane look, right? Before saying P3D runs on an ancient engine... X-plane doesn't. And it doesn't look anywhere near what I just saw in the video. We also had many many posts why flight sim doesn't look like Battlefield or GTA.

But if the final product actually looks like this and it will have the features a serious flight simmer wants, well, I'm all in! It will be glorious!

[Sethos 4,335]

14 minutes ago, 0Artur0 said:

runs on an ancient engine... X-plane doesn't

Yes it does.

Edited June 10, 2019 by Sethos1988

[tonywob 4,769]

This probably took most developers and simmers by surprise (and probably changed the mood a bit at FSExpo) 🙂. 

It looks to me like a monthly subscription with possibly the scenery streamed. Third-party partnerships will be in the realm of paying for an SDK/Royalty etc, although I'm just speculating, because we really know very little about it. Third-time lucky, I'm hopeful Microsoft know what they're doing this time. It's hard to analyse the video really as they've obviously only showed the best bits (the custom 3D model cities), and being a game trailer, there is probably some artistic license in there, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't stunning.

If anything, it should be a wake-up call to Laminar Research who have been riding a wave of increased popularity lately, only to have this bombshell dropped on them. LM, I'm not too worried about, it's a different market and niche. iPacs additionally can't be feeling too great about this news as well. Laminar Research have ignored requests for too long on improving glaring visuals and many other issues, and kudos to Microsoft for seemingly appearing out of nowhere and doing something better.

 

[IG_ 2]

2 minutes ago, 0Artur0 said:

Well, yes. You do know how P3D and X-plane look, right? Before saying P3D runs on an ancient engine... X-plane doesn't. And it doesn't look anywhere near what I just saw in the video. We also had many many posts why flight sim doesn't look like Battlefield or GTA.

But if the final product actually looks like this and it will have the features a serious flight simmer wants, well, I'm all in! It will be glorious!

I think the biggest hurdle with achieving the visuals we saw is the amount of actual human labor it will take. Covering scenery from all around the world is no easy task. Games like Battlefield or GTA, relatively speaking, create small worlds. This is also ignoring the amount of physical space these sceneries need to occupy on your storage.

I guess that's what the "Powered by Satellite Data and Azure AI" at the beginning of the trailer is referring to. The computers are probably helping a lot in creating the pretty looking scenery we just saw and the humans just polish it up.

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

6 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

I'm wondering after the abandonment of FSX and what happened with FLIGHT, what Microsoft's financial incentive would be to go down this road again.....

How about marketing - a showcase of what Azure AI can do? They have been promoting it for the last 6 months as the next generation of business intelligence, machine learning and whatnot. That would explain the prominent use of the term in the initial presentation, knowing that from the actual target audience for a flight sim few people will be aware of what it actually is. That will also generate a lot of search requests about it on the net, which are always welcome.

Best regards

Edited June 10, 2019 by Lorby_SI

[Zangoose 1,631]

You also need to remember Microsoft has changed over the recent years after Microsoft Flight - Especially management roles. Let's just see what happens and hopefully we will see more information regarding it soon. 

[HiFlyer 9,358]

Well.....

I've grabbed some high-res screenies so you can nitpick away, and drool as well. Lots good and some interesting observations to be had, such as this is real Google-earth type scenery with buildings that apparently to not have night illumination. I see street lights that illuminate the buildings instead, but no glowing windows.

 

[Pastaiolo 1,688]

8 hours ago, Montie said:

MS has announced that all future releases will be available through Steam and their own store.

Thank god, that is so much better.

 

Dropping in here screens from the official site too.

Edited June 10, 2019 by france89

[G-RFRY 1,711]

SONY APPLE and GOOGLE are all working on there own streaming platform, this is Microsoft getting in first the PC Game pass will be available first now, a survey on steam some time ago found that most gamers still use a desktop PC.  

[jcomm 5,928]

I can't see anything wrong with monthly subscriptions, provided the price is acceptable.

That's actually the best approach for an unstable / bi-polar simmer like me... and mostly what I use whenever I install P3D using the dev 1 month license 🙂

Regarding the quality of this flight simulator, it's so so early to be able to comment on it with informed talk that I just hope it drinks from where MS FLIGHT flushed... 

MS FLIGHT FDM was ahead of FSX. That would be a great start.

[Bryn 72]

The transponder code on the airbus is 2019... i'm not sure whether to be excited that it might hint at a 2019 release, or disappointed that the transponder allows the entry of a 9...

[G-RFRY 1,711]

Titles will be available from next month for the PC game pass which went live yesterday.

[Montie 124]

4 minutes ago, Bryn said:

The transponder code on the airbus is 2019... i'm not sure whether to be excited that it might hint at a 2019 release, or disappointed that the transponder allows the entry of a 9...

It’s a 2020 release.

[jcomm 5,928]

10 minutes ago, Bryn said:

The transponder code on the airbus is 2019... i'm not sure whether to be excited that it might hint at a 2019 release, or disappointed that the transponder allows the entry of a 9... 

Ehehehe !  😎

[Woozie 732]

1 hour ago, Egbert Drenth said:

And why is that 'for sure'?..

Microsoft particularly hasn't a good track record regarding their Flight Sim products, compared to others.
In the past they released a version and if you were lucky 1 patch after a year, fixing only a few issues.
After that it was: 'good luck, this is all you gonna get'. 
Also their 'Flight' release was abandoned after a year or so, just like that.

 

Did you follow MS closely over the last 5-7 years? After several fiascos and market losses, they completely revamped their internal structure and product portfolio and many key positions have been replaced. Within just a few years they became market leader in global map data (Bing), run the most powerful cloud computing environment (Azure) and completely reshaped their console business and gaming platform. They mean business again, and based on how they radically changed their long term strategy, i'm pretty confident that this isnt going to be another "Flight", which was merely a test balloon for free2play gaming in general. 

After the last title was simply called "Flight" they put the "simulator" part back into the title, i dont think this is just a marketing stunt

Edited June 10, 2019 by Woozie