3 minutes ago, ChrisDa said:

I'm thrilled to bits with this announcement, time will tell how it turns out.

I'm used to waiting.  Here is my first installation.

I just fired up the Apple IIE, just to see how far we have come.

Chris.

.

That’s pretty awesome that it still works. I have an old Windows 95 system that was my first PC in 1996 that I boot up every now and then to keep the hard drive magnetized.

Edited June 10, 20196 yr by z06z33

3 minutes ago, Matthew Kane said:

Oh yea I forgot about those combat sims, they were a lot of fun. I seem to recall they did some futuristic alter world flight sim as well but I forget what they called it, I didn't buy it but I think it was the flight sim engine as well.

You thinking of Space Sim?

 

Remember this ??

 

Running MSDOS

Chris.

 

.

Edited June 10, 20196 yr by ChrisDa

Please, please, please don't be another MICROSOFT FLIGHT. 

7 minutes ago, ccb777 said:

You thinking of Space Sim?

 

Nope it was Crimson Skies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimson_Skies_(video_game)

But yeah that Space Sim was awesome. I was addicted to that one 😎

Edited June 10, 20196 yr by Matthew Kane

24 minutes ago, Matthew Kane said:

Microsoft Flight Simulator Releases:
Flight Simulator 1.0
Flight Simulator 2.0
Flight Simulator 3.0
Flight Simulator 4.0
Flight Simulator 5.0
Flight Simulator 5.1
Flight Simulator for Windows 95
Flight Simulator 98
Flight Simulator 2000
Flight Simulator 2002
Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight
Flight Simulator X

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Microsoft_Flight_Simulator#Microsoft_Flight_Simulator

Technically 5.0 and 5.1 were two separate releases as the 5.1 was a major improvement, not sure why the numbered it that way. I bought them all from release 2, release 1 I had a bootleg copy 

FS1 and 2 were released under the SubLogic name for at least the Apple //e line, even though it had already been licensed to Microsoft.  I can't speak for the IBM PC line, never owned it.

There was also an FS5.0a in there if you really want to be technical.  And FSX: Acceleration.  Splitting hairs though.

A lot of people are skeptical about the the new Microsoft Flight Simulator's performance but I'm confident it's going to be the easiest to run flight simulator yet. Microsoft is releasing this Flight Simulator for PC and Xbox. If they want to get the game running at an acceptable frame-rate and resolution on an Xbox One (Not particularly powerful hardware), they're probably doing some serious optimizations to achieve that. Optimizations for the Xbox One version will reflect on the performance on the PC version.

The most important thing is that Microsoft keeps the in-depth features of their previous Flight Simulators like FSX and FS2004. Given that this game is coming out for an Xbox, where the input method is a simple gamepad controller, they're probably going to make the game "noob-friendly" for the Xbox version, which I don't mind as long as a more in-depth version of the game exists in parallel to the "noob-friendly" version.

That's my 2 cents. The trailer looks great and hopefully the final game will reflect that.

6 hours ago, Ron Attwood said:

Won't be able to tweak that bugger to death!

no no dont worry someone will find the time to make graphs, 0001100011 tweaks and then tell us they can get 345 fps into KLAX at night 

1 hour ago, signmanbob said:

Microsoft is just money hungry and can't stand the thought that they let the whole flight simulator concept slip through their fingers and left all that money and committed followers on the table.

I'm leaning more and more toward X-Plane every year. When MS support of FSX dried up, they gave X-Plane a big booster shot and it just keeps looking better and better all the time.

Even if MS came out with a flight simulator in 2020, I wouldn't even consider trying it until about 2027, knowing how they are so quick to pull the plug on anything that they do if they think the green-backs aren't rolling in fast enough.

the only thing propping up LM and p3d is the military and flight schools, its not the home based casuel flight simmer

45 minutes ago, Mengy said:

Imagine an MS Flight Sim where all of the addons would be available to buy & install via the main menu.  Even third party addons from developers like PMDG or A2A could submit to MS who would then put the addons up for sale on the main menu store but take a percentage of each purchase.  We might see something like that in this new sim.

If I recall correctly, PMDG were rather vocal about not liking the idea of such a sales DLC model when it was mooted for MS Flight and they were not the only ones, although oddly enough PMDG did seem to be a bit more amenable to the idea when Dovetail tried to get Flight Sim World off the ground with a vaguely similar model which would have functioned through Steam.

I think that was largely because it was not Dovetail's intent to force such a sales model into being something which TPDs would absolutely have to commit to in order to be in on the party. Certainly it was tempting enough to see involvement from quite a few big players in TPD including Just Flight, Orbx and Carenado among others. FSW was actually looking promising for a while, but as we know, it fell by the wayside, so it will be interesting to see if this new MS offering fares any better for having learned from the hard lessons other attempts, including one of their own, have made at getting such a thing to fly in the past.

What they will have to decide on however, is whom they are attempting to attract in terms of development and end users. There is clearly, or at least potentially, money to be made from such a venture, for if that were not so then TPDs would have ceased to exist years ago, so really, the problem, or challenge if one prefers to call it that, would appear to be how the pie is divided and whether the pieces of that pie can be divided into ones large enough to attract people into developing for it in the long term. We all know that people who frequent flight sim websites and who spend vast amounts on hardware and software for flight sims will cheerfully pay 100 quid for an add-on aeroplane, but you don't see much stuff in that price range as DLC on Steam. Thus it would seem a fine line may very well  have to be trodden...

What one has to remember is that when a simulation has the capability to display vast detail and move around complex polygons in a way which P3D and FSX cannot with their current dated graphics engine capabilities, there is by definition very much more work to be done in creating content which can do justice to any such improved capabilities. At present, developers of content for FSX and P3D quite literally have a built-in excuse for not going over the top with things, but with a 64 Bit new sim platform which also doesn't struggle to process things visually, that excuse goes out of the window. So, it'll be on users as well, to accept that any such efforts involved in having made more complex content will come at a price too, and if they don't accept this, or simply can't justify the price of accepting it even if they would like to, then such a platform is never going to fly.

Edited June 10, 20196 yr by Chock

11 minutes ago, fluffyflops said:

the only thing propping up LM and p3d is the military and flight schools, its not the home based casuel flight simmer

You would need the sales numbers to know. Even if this department runs at a loss it is supporting their other products they sell like F-35s etc as they use it for more serious combat training.  What is absolutely true is the home based user is not their demographic, but maybe more of a financial top up for that department. But it also creates potential future aviators which is more important then anything. It is great ambassadorship for their company

I just do not see anything but the most advanced hardware being able to run the sim with Avatar like graphics.  Microsoft will shoot themselves in the foot if they create a sim like that, unless they have somehow refined the flight engine to compensate.  I will hold out final judgement until the few and the brave purchase the sim, but I am already so heavily invested in P3D and Xplane11 that I cannot see myself going further with a third sim, especially if I had to replace the choice of having two sims, each which fulfills a different mission category for me.

John

1 hour ago, HiFlyer said:

Would we really be naive enough to trust ourselves solely to the hands of Microsoft once again?

Microsoft, that regularly shrugs and walks away from stuff, leaving purchasers high and dry?

I don't think MS is stupid enough to once again rely solely on the gamer to sustain this (huge) project, only to fail again. It would be a foolish waste of time, effort, and money.

I don't think we will hear the phrase "grab a mouse and go" this time around. 😂

I think MS Flight, Flight School, and FSW lessons may have been learned. The gaming industry/gamers will simply not support a flight simulator under any circumstance.

Perhaps MS announced at E3 because they still don't feel very welcome in this community. Maybe they feel the need to earn attention/respect back....perhaps a humble strategy; one which I would welcome.

 

 

 

31 minutes ago, pracines said:

I don't think MS is stupid enough to once again rely solely on the gamer to sustain this (huge) project, only to fail again. It would be a foolish waste of time, effort, and money.

I don't think we will hear the phrase "grab a mouse and go" this time around. 😂

I think MS Flight, Flight School, and FSW lessons may have been learned. The gaming industry/gamers will simply not support a flight simulator under any circumstance.

Perhaps MS announced at E3 because they still don't feel very welcome in this community. Maybe they feel the need to earn attention/respect back....perhaps a humble strategy; one which I would welcome.

 

 

 

Lotta implied perhaps(s) and maybes in there......

I hope the community does not once again build a fantasy hardcore castle based on pure speculation just to rage (again) if the butterflies and unicorns don't appear......

Again.

Yes, MS and the world may have learned a lesson (And who knows what that lesson was?) but I wonder...... have we?

I do not get all the negativity around a new Flight Sim. Nobody is going to take your P3D or X-Plane away from you. How about embracing new technology that might take us somewhere nice.

Look at all the great looking AAA titles around with amazing graphics, why can it not happen in Flight Sim as well? Software optimization is 13 years further down the road from FSX. FSX was old unoptimized tech even in 2006.