New MS Flight Sim shown at E3

[Dom74 14]

18 minutes ago, Wobbie said:

As I've mentioned before, Microsoft have new tech to show off...high speed data streaming for one...so what better way to promote that. Sometimes the product you see at the forefront is not necessary the main aim or objective of the company in question.

And what about users who have poor internet and can't get optical fiber ?

Edited June 14, 2019 by Livingston

[Wobbie 938]

True, nobody can guarantee anything at this stage.

[Airboeing 87]

5 minutes ago, Livingston said:

And what about users who have poor internet and can't get optical fiber ?

I assume there will be an option to permanently download regions, but there also need to be some kind of generic textures (just like in any current flight sim) to cover regions where no orthophots are available or the exisiting ones are intentionally blurred or of very bad quality.

[G-RFRY 1,712]

1 hour ago, Wobbie said:

Lol, nothing to be proud of. More likely up to 19 months, after the new Xbox is released.

PC first XBOX later.

[Wobbie 938]

4 hours ago, JuliusC said:

In which store will the game released?

Microsoft Store?

Steam?

Epic Game Store?
Thanks you

Xbox Game Pass Store...

 

https://www.pcgamer.com/xbox-game-pass-pc-game-list/

Announced at the Microsoft E3 press conference, the Xbox Game Pass for PC has entered into open beta today—meaning you can get access to around 100 PC games for $10 a month (there's a deal to try it for just $1 as a special E3 promotion). That's a pretty significant value—and it gives other similar subscription services like EA's Origin Access a run for their money.

E3 is all about announcing new games, and Microsoft laid out 30 upcoming releases that will all be available through Xbox Game Pass at launch, meaning you don't have to shell out upwards of $60 for each game. Here's the full list of upcoming PC games that will be available on Xbox Game Pass at launch along with their expected release date.

• Killer Queen Black (fall 2019)
• Microsoft Flight Simulator (TBA)
• Nightcall (summer 2019)

So, no doubt that it will be a subscription service!

That's the access cost to the Games platform, NOT the cost of the game!

Edited June 14, 2019 by Wobbie

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Flamingpie said:

When the first frames of the MFS trailer filled my computer screen all my currently installed flight sims automatically uninstalled themselves. They knew resistance was futile.

In all my 30 years of flight simming I haven't seen a more wonderful and exciting video of actual flight sim footage than this one. MFS seems to offer a lot of the things I've been waiting and hoping for all these decades! But even though awesome graphics are very, very important to me there is more needed to keep me entertained, so I found out over the years. The cockpit shots do look promising but after reading 59 pages of (often hilarious) personal opinions and (often extremely) wild guesses (flight simmers are a special and funny breed, that's for sure) I am really looking forward to some more facts from MS. One thing's for sure though: not a dime will be spend on my current sims anymore until I know what MFS has in store...!

I haven't shown the MFS trailer video to my installed P3D V4.5 and FSX + Acc +DX10Fixer. I don't won't to embarrass them. They'll be quietly uninstalled and purged from the Recycle Bin when the time is right.

[ckyliu 1,749]

4 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

The launch trailer is very impressive, but it is way too early to tell if the rest of the feature list in this new Microsoft Flight Simulatior is going to match the graphics. That being the case, I have no intention of halting the (admittedly few and far between) purchases that I make for P3D. ORBx TrueEarth GB Central is top of the list (I wish we had an update for this), followed by the recently announced Professional version of Aerosoft Dublin.

That's because you're like me, tight careful and spend your money wisely  🤣

5 hours ago, Wobbie said:

We will have to see.. Maybe streaming access for scenery & possibly add-ons will be cancelled, or be unavailable without a subscription.. We'll know during the next 17 odd months.

I have a theory (or should that be wish) based on absolutely nothing, that there will be landclass scenery to a similar standard as ORBX OpenLC+Vector included, built upon Bing maps data. Possibly with more accurately sized and positioned positioned buildings in many areas, again using said map data. Then the 3D photoscenery data will be streamed on a subscription basis. Thus MS would keep everyone happy, the base game not requiring a subscription to work and being a lifetime licence, but allowing an upgrade to photoscenery on a monthly payment basis, no doubt with a free trial period when you first get the game to whet your appetite.

I can't see there not being an API, MS created Simconnect in FSX specifically for third party developers to use. I'm almost certain MS will offer a marketplace for DLC, I don't think they'll force developers to use it but I can see all those new to flight sim using it exclusively to find DLC so most vendors will be forced to list on it, and MS may say if you're listing through their channels you cannot sell elsewhere. As an example I know quite a few people who started out with FSX Steam and it was a long time before they realised there were quality payware addons outside of the Steam environment for it. As others have said, they may restrict API access until release to avoid support issues arising from third party content.

Much they did with FSX, I can see MS publishing their own mission packs (a la Acceleration) and some aircraft DLC. Navdata and real world weather might be on a subscription too, so if you don't subscribe it regresses to nav data it shipped with.

One thing that does make me think the base game will be a subscription (software as a service) is the lack of version number in the title, makes it seem like they're going to continually roll out updates.

Edited June 14, 2019 by ckyliu

[KBUR 178]

Have a look at here:

Insider Program

 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, KBUR said:

Have a look at here:

Insider Program

 

Have a look here:

 

 

[Mengy 814]

There has been so much conjecture, suspicion, dread, wonder, and opinions stated as facts in this thread that it’s almost bewildering!

Here’s all we know for certain so far:

 

• MS is making a new Flight Simulator to be released sometime in 2020.
• It will be on PC first, followed by Xbox later on.
• It will be available on Xbox Game Pass (note this does NOT preclude a standalone product too!!!)
• It’s trailer looks beautiful.
• They’ve talked to at least Aerosoft during development.
• It uses the Cloud and Azure AI in some fashion.
• It is using satellite imagery for scenery and autogen work.

 

There we go, we really don’t know much more than that for certain.  We don’t know if it will be subscription based.  We don’t know if third party addon devs will be supported.  We don’t know third party devs WON’T be supported either.  We don’t know if it will be always online or not.

Simply put, we will just have to wait until more information is released in order to have a better understanding of what this new sim will be.  Until then, can’t we all just be optimistic about the potential at least?  It might turn out to be a dud in the end, but lets wait until we KNOW it’s a dud before we call it one?

I for one am excited about the prospects.  At least we have a chance to actually move flight simulation forward in a big way.  Finally.  Let’s savor the moment for now, while we safely can please?

[TechguyMaxC 516]

Here's my suggestion to any developer that wishes to weigh in on this subject:

Tread carefully. 

Perhaps a vague statement of support along the lines of "We look forward to partnering with Microsoft as they launch this new, highly-anticipated flight simulator".

All the negativity that has been brought to the table thus far is rather transparent.  You're afraid for your job.  We get it, that's only natural.  However, to succeed in this particular industry it is necessary to evolve with it.  Ask yourselves this: do you think PMDG, ORBX, or any other successful developer you care to name would make more or less money if they decided not to support P3D and X-Plane and stubbornly clung to FSX? 

We're at another crossroads in this industry as MS re-enters the market.  Some people think this simulator will fail because Flight failed.  Every other variant of MSFS has been a success, however.  If your track record were 12 successes and 1 failure, no one would call you a failure.  Flight Sim World was a failure, but it was clear to just about all of us from the beginning that Dovetail had bitten off more than they could chew, and literally no one was surprised when they cancelled it.  X-Plane has seen growth in the recent past, as has P3D.  Overall, the industry has grown since MS killed Flight.  There is room for another competitor.

In the end, if for some idiotic reason MS truly decides not to create a public SDK, P3D, and X-Plane will continue to exist.  All the simmers that demand the most from their simming experience will just continue onward with these sims, buying whichever add-ons suit their needs.  Your jobs are safe.  It's not like the hardcore simming audience that spends thousands on add-ons is going to abandon their existing sims for a stock simulator with no high fidelity add-ons.  

[patrickbc 33]

25 minutes ago, Mengy said:

There has been so much conjecture, suspicion, dread, wonder, and opinions stated as facts in this thread that it’s almost bewildering!

Here’s all we know for certain so far:

 

• MS is making a new Flight Simulator to be released sometime in 2020.
• It will be on PC first, followed by Xbox later on.
• It will be available on Xbox Game Pass (note this does NOT preclude a standalone product too!!!)
• It’s trailer looks beautiful.
• They’ve talked to at least Aerosoft during development.
• It uses the Cloud and Azure AI in some fashion.
• It is using satellite imagery for scenery and autogen work.

 

There we go, we really don’t know much more than that for certain.  We don’t know if it will be subscription based.  We don’t know if third party addon devs will be supported.  We don’t know third party devs WON’T be supported either.  We don’t know if it will be always online or not.

Simply put, we will just have to wait until more information is released in order to have a better understanding of what this new sim will be.  Until then, can’t we all just be optimistic about the potential at least?  It might turn out to be a dud in the end, but lets wait until we KNOW it’s a dud before we call it one?

I for one am excited about the prospects.  At least we have a chance to actually move flight simulation forward in a big way.  Finally.  Let’s savor the moment for now, while we safely can please?

Even though all signs points to Aerosoft has talked with Microsoft. I'd not call it something "we know for certain".

[eslader 1,783]

12 hours ago, irrics said:

Fully agree about barebones P3D.

But - wouldn't we say a lot of the 3rd stuff is really needed only because the base offering is so old, non-updated and barebones? 

That was not the case back in the mid life cycle of MSFS.   I think the hope is that MS may be getting back in seriously here and the core offering is going to be far more feature complete than anytime in the last 15 years.

Midlife cycle as in what, FS2002/2004? yeah, they had fair number of planes, but I had a lot more planes that I downloaded from BBS's and the internet. The Concorde was pretty good, but the default 747 was atrocious, as was the 737 and 777. The Lear wasn't great either. And a bunch of the other planes were fine, but... Really, who's gonna spend hours tooling around in the Wright Flyer?

Of that era my favorite default plane was probably the DC3 (still is). But without addon makers (all freeware in those days, for me) I'd have probably lost interest because the fidelity wasn't there. The fidelity largely wasn't there in the freewares either, but at least you could get a new plane every few days and play with it.

At any rate, yeah, I would expect the new offering to not be barebones, but it's simply impossible to scratch every itch with a single release. Some people like flying vintage aircraft. Think MS is going to include *all* of them? Same for military planes, or tubeliners - there are a *lot* of commercial jets out there and there's no conceivable way that MS is going to depict them all, even if it reverts to its old FS4 tricks of having a default cockpit that's used in almost every plane.

I mean, some people get a charge out of flying Santa's Sleigh around, or the Delta Flyer from Star Trek Voyager - MS is definitely not going to be making that! There will always be some level of demand for stuff that is not included in the released sim, and that will continue to be true until we invent the holodeck and can call up anything we want by yakking at a computer.

11 hours ago, LHookins said:

My P3D is mostly stock.  I have a few aircraft, Active Sky, and Accu-Feel. 

Active Sky alone transforms the sim experience. It doesn't make sense that you're so angry that 3rd party developers are charging money for their work when you admit to enjoying their work. I don't work for free. I'm sure you don't work for free either. I don't expect 3rd party developers to do it - in fact I want them to be well paid and happy with their wages because otherwise they'll get tired of being poor and go do something else, and then I won't get any good addons anymore.

[LHookins 3,103]

13 minutes ago, eslader said:

Active Sky alone transforms the sim experience. It doesn't make sense that you're so angry that 3rd party developers are charging money for their work when you admit to enjoying their work. I don't work for free. I'm sure you don't work for free either. I don't expect 3rd party developers to do it - in fact I want them to be well paid and happy with their wages because otherwise they'll get tired of being poor and go do something else, and then I won't get any good addons anymore.

Uh... I'm not the one who is angry.  

I've already posted that I don't mind spending a bit for a good aircraft, and a bit more for a good study level aircraft.  If it's not obvious, "a bit" means "quite a bit" in some cases.  

Actually, I'm surprised at how low priced some of the addon aircraft are.  I haven't seen any addon aircraft that weren't reasonably priced for what was included.  And yes, I checked the PMDG store page, but I don't fly jet airliners.

Edit:  I just added up everything I've spent for software addons since I started with FSX.  It comes to $808.  Only one was a regretted purchase.  That doesn't include $400 for two versions of P3D. 🙂

Hook

Edited June 14, 2019 by LHookins

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, LHookins said:

Uh... I'm not the one who is angry.  

I've already posted that I don't mind spending a bit for a good aircraft, and a bit more for a good study level aircraft.  If it's not obvious, "a bit" means "quite a bit" in some cases.  

Actually, I'm surprised at how low priced some of the addon aircraft are.  I haven't seen any addon aircraft that weren't reasonably priced for what was included.  And yes, I checked the PMDG store page, but I don't fly jet airliners.

Edit:  I just added up everything I've spent for software addons since I started with FSX.  It comes to $808.  Only one was a regretted purchase.

Hook

Yes, I did some sums last night and came up with a little less (not much less) than your figure. 

I reckon I've had the enjoyment money's worth out of all these addons and I've built a couple of sims for other people with my knowledge gained along the way. The LM license type I have means P3D doesn't owe me much and FSX when put up against the enjoyment I've had from it - as far as I reckon - owes me nothing. I've enjoyed them both very much and I don't mind paying for my hobby.

Edited June 14, 2019 by Guest