40 minutes ago, tronied said:

There's definitely evidence of autogen here as I'm sure has already been mentioned:



Also interesting to note is that you can see where the AI is coming into play:

Yep, this is certainly not a 3D scan like the others.. Actually if you go to Bing maps and check around Dubai, the buildings match the building footprints they have exactly in this shot above.. I had a look around some other areas, and it seems the buildings come from various sources, including OpenStreetMap (I added my own home and surroundings and surely enough it's now there in Bing Maps exactly as I mapped it many years ago). However, the downside is that there lots of gaps with no coverage, and Google's building data seems better at the moment. If anyone has used Simheaven's scenery on X-Plane, then my guess is it will be quite similar to that, but with better data

 

11 minutes ago, tronied said:

[EDIT] Can't seem to fix those embedded images for some reason. Will work if you click on them though

Clicking on the image filename doesn't work here. Takes me to a "Sign in to your Microsoft Account" page.

46 minutes ago, F737NG said:

As a Limey, I could get upset about the way you 'bailed on us' in 1776.

Ah man Sorry about that. Our bad!! LOL!!!

37 minutes ago, Paraffin said:

True, but it's still fun to speculate!

Scenery can be streamed on a "look ahead" basis for the flight path, and buffered on the hard drive. Current sims like X-Plane already do that with files on the hard drive, pre-loading landclass, terrain mesh, and autogen for a smooth transition. You can't do that kind of buffered pre-loading with the entire game engine running as a streamed service, so maybe the bandwidth requirements won't be as high as they are for those types of "games as a service."  

An interesting wrinkle, assuming it actually is a streaming model, is that flying military fast movers and airliners would need to download and buffer much more scenery data per flight minute than flying a Piper Cub. I assume MS will make sure that's built into the minimum hardware and bandwidth requirements. Or, maybe you'll just have to fly a Cub if you have a lousy connection. 😄

This is the way I think it will work as well, i.e. all of the simulator elements will be stored on your local machine with only the photoscenery being downloaded. 

Dave

10 minutes ago, tonywob said:

Yep, this is certainly not a 3D scan like the others.. Actually if you go to Bing maps and check around Dubai, the buildings match the building footprints they have exactly in this shot above.. I had a look around some other areas, and it seems the buildings come from various sources, including OpenStreetMap (I added my own home and surroundings and surely enough it's now there in Bing Maps exactly as I mapped it many years ago). However, the downside is that there lots of gaps with no coverage, and Google's building data seems better at the moment. If anyone has used Simheaven's scenery on X-Plane, then my guess is it will be quite similar to that, but with better data

 

We're talking an interesting new Graphics Engine here. Thank God.

Where did you hear that Rob? I hope it's not true 😞

5 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

I just heard a rumor MS are not going to provide an SDK??  Can anyone confirm and provide a verifiable source?

Cheers, Rob.

Where did you hear the rumour Rob?

Simple question. A simple answer will do.

Edited June 13, 20196 yr by Guest

46 minutes ago, Paraffin said:

An interesting wrinkle, assuming it actually is a streaming model, is that flying military fast movers and airliners would need to download and buffer much more scenery data per flight minute than flying a Piper Cub. I assume MS will make sure that's built into the minimum hardware and bandwidth requirements. Or, maybe you'll just have to fly a Cub if you have a lousy connection. 😄

Or it's adaptive, pulling down lower LODs since it's zooming by so fast anyway. Flying the Cub might mean you're always pulling down the highest LODs which might slow the sim down with all the extra detail to render.

I noticed Nvidia has some streaming features that send data straight to GPU memory off the network. Don't know if that's Infiniband only (RDMA) or if it works over ethernet. Anyway if this new FS does that it'll take a huge load off the CPU.

@Rob_Ainscough

lol - Did you just yell "fire" in a crowded theater there?

 

2 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

A friend thru FSElite ... I have no other sources of this rumor, hence my question .

Cheers, Rob.

What's your friends source?

MS directly?

I have to think anyone who hasn't heard it straight from that Dev team is guessing, especially in light of this whole thing being a surprise to seemingly everyone.

No telephone game stuff here hopefully..

Edited June 13, 20196 yr by irrics

Just now, irrics said:

I have to think anyone who hasn't heard it straight from that Dev team is guessing, especially in light of this whole thing being a surprise to seemingly everyone.

Anyone who does know is under NDA, so until we hear it from the horse's mouth, it's somebody guessing 🙂

3 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

A friend thru FSElite ... I have no other sources of this rumor, hence my question .

I know if I were a scenery developer, which those are the people FS Elite is in contact with the most, I would certainly push this rumor.  Probably saw a quick dip in sales this past week while the hype is so high.  Get those rumors started that there will be no SDK, you know MS isn't going to come out and confirm or deny anything in this community.  People will focus back on P3D and feel more comfortable shelling out $25 for an airport.

MS aren't stupid. I'd be very surprised if they repeated the exact same mistakes as Flight, especially when it appears they are trying to roll this into some kind of subscription service via Xbox Pass. They have every incentive to keep material flowing into the game from as many places as possible.

Just now, TravelRunner404 said:

I know if I were a scenery developer, which those are the people FS Elite is in contact with the most, I would certainly push this rumor.  Probably saw a quick dip in sales this past week while the hype is so high.  Get those rumors started that there will be no SDK, you know MS isn't going to come out and confirm or deny anything in this community.  People will focus back on P3D and feel more comfortable shelling out $25 for an airport.

I had this exact thought, especially as it relates to OrbX and with their TE WA product releasing in like a week.

It can't help at all that many out there are comparing Seattle in the trailer to Seattle in the TE WA videos they have on their site...and the trailer blows it away (as one would expect of a next gen offering being teased)

😮

I'm not taking a shot at them by the way - just calling a spade a spade.  

TE WA looks excellent - just not as excellent as the trailer.

33 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

I just heard a rumor MS are not going to provide an SDK??  Can anyone confirm and provide a verifiable source?

Cheers, Rob.

I think we can safely discount that one then.

This is MSFS - there has to be a SDK.