A convincing scenery is not only an aerial image

[Tuskin38 6,458]

People really need to stop responding to m_sparks

[Claviateur 789]

4 hours ago, Sasyska said:

Avoid orbx like plague. All they're doing is combining ortho which is free with their low quality assets. MSFS doesn't look flat. It looks real.

Ortho is not free.... And Quality Ortho is even more expensive than the already expensive low res Ortho...

OrbX regional addons are in my opinion (and I don't work for them) wonderful if you happen to live in a specific region they cover. I would love to have one of their regional scenery for the areas where I live/fly virtually...  Now few years ago, I got some global packages OrbX released for FSX (when I used to fly in FSX ). However, I did not buy anything they released for the Other Simulator  simply because none of their released regions is where I fly/live...

Yet I think they are one of those developer groups who have their in-house tools to go beyond the basic public SDK capability. I presume (not 100% sure) they developed their tools to automatically retouch and enhance the Orthophoto they aquire, to create and place custom vegetation and infrastructure proceduraly and manipulate the terrain etc. They could use OSM data but I have the feeling they also have tools to enhance and improve and retag the data etc.

Now perfromance is another topic... Yes you need a good machine for their regional packages I suppose.

But we must admit that in terms of immersion, their regional packages (they released for the other simulator) are pretty immersive, as far as we can see in the reviews videos and from users feedback.

But let's not forget that their immersion factor and realism is certainly relative to the platforms for which they are developing and the default scenery. Thus these custom areas are very true to life in comparision to what these platforms deliver as a default (generic and dull VFR) scenery... 

Now back to MSFS, if we count on what we are witnessing in the preview videos, the new version of MSFS will make the virtual world delivers a rewarding VFR experience, by default, that we did not have out of the box in any previous simulator...

However, and probably, let's say a year after MSFS release, who knows, maybe addons would raise the bar even higher than this already very impressive default VFR scenery and bring us even more and more refined and detailed areas we can't immagine now for the actual simulator platforms.... It's all relative.

[azulkb 302]

what we often forget is that a part of the public can be very well skilled in simulation and airplane control, while being null in the use of computers outside the screen sim.

It's the case of my father for example, a fan of modellism , able to make airplanes, to control them, (to break them too and that doesn't please everybody), but he's 70 years old. He's not capable of installing an addon. Not due to his age, but as much as he is comfortable with engines, electronics, aerodynamics, etc, he doesn't know anything about computers.

So this default VFR is something great. I also hope that the user interface will allow you to install addons without necessarily having computer knowledge.

 

[Claviateur 789]

18 minutes ago, azulkb said:

what we often forget is that a part of the public can be very well skilled in simulation and airplane control, while being null in the use of computers outside the screen sim.

It's the case of my father for example, a fan of modellism , able to make airplanes, to control them, (to break them too and that doesn't please everybody), but he's 70 years old. He's not capable of installing an addon. Not due to his age, but as much as he is comfortable with engines, electronics, aerodynamics, etc, he doesn't know anything about computers.

So this default VFR is something great. I also hope that the user interface will allow you to install addons without necessarily having computer knowledge.

 

I agree 100%... The addons installation is not only quirky and not user friendly but requires sometimes a lot of trial and error to make it fit within the ecosystem of other addons...

 

[Anthracite 131]

1 hour ago, Claviateur said:

I agree 100%... The addons installation is not only quirky and not user friendly but requires sometimes a lot of trial and error to make it fit within the ecosystem of other addons...

 

This is me. I appreciate all the work third parties do but it is rare that I will take the time to install additional content that isn't quick and simple. I'm loathe to even open config files or change my settings/controller options because kids eat into my time and I want to do what I set out to do rather than setup what I set out to do.

[Casualcas 830]

It should just work. 

[Claviateur 789]

54 minutes ago, Anthracite said:

This is me. I appreciate all the work third parties do but it is rare that I will take the time to install additional content that isn't quick and simple. I'm loathe to even open config files or change my settings/controller options because kids eat into my time and I want to do what I set out to do rather than setup what I set out to do.

Usually freeware developers like myself have no choice but to write 1000 lines explaining how to install a scenery sometimes composed of multiple packages + make modifications here and there etc.  This is the price to pay, for us freeware devs, if we need to create scenery with the complexity of commercial products, using the SDK limiations and the 3rd party tools available... 

I am not happy or proud of this creation or installation method but unfortunately, scenery addons with straight forward installation are usually the commercial products of important commercial addon groups.

As I explained previously, commercial groups create things in ways that go beyond the common SDK available to us and have their developers who create for them in-house tools to allow them to craft custom and complex scenery and tools to easily install scenery packages while also automatically modifying and edit configs files if required, etc etc,

In the future, with the internet allowing games to be streamed super fast etc I see freeware or commercial addons being on a server, and users can activate or deactivate what they want (after purchase if commercial). It's a little bit like many DLC games now and just like what we used to do with Google Earth desktop version, for example, where we enable or disable the layers of features...

This is when the developers will have the responsability to make their addon fit withing the ecosystem once enabled while having a visibility on similar addons for the same part of the simulator. Also, the user can preview for a very short and limited time the different commercial addons available for a specific part of the simulator and then select the addon they wish to purchase and enable. And then users won`t be able to enable 2 similar addons that cover the exact same part of the simulator (ex: 2 addon for the same airport etc).

 

 

Edited January 8, 2020 by Claviateur

[GlideBy 324]

Mods/Addons - Microsoft have already stated they will have a store for addons.  So maybe it will include freeware as well as payware.  In theory it would autoinstall from there.

If this is on Steam, then steam does DLCs, and for mods there is the Steam Workshop.

[nikita 241]

21 hours ago, Claviateur said:

Usually freeware developers like myself have no choice but to write 1000 lines explaining how to install a scenery sometimes composed of multiple packages + make modifications here and there etc.  This is the price to pay, for us freeware devs, if we need to create scenery with the complexity of commercial products, using the SDK limiations and the 3rd party tools available...

This is why one of my greatest wishes for MSFS is an X-Plane like addon system. Just drop a folder in and you're done, everything is self contained.

Edited January 9, 2020 by nikita

[Tuskin38 6,458]

9 hours ago, nikita said:

This is why one of my greatest wishes for MSFS is an X-Plane like addon system. Just drop a folder in and you're done, everything is self contained.

They said in an interview, I don't remember where, that they're going to be using a package system.

[Claviateur 789]

17 hours ago, Tuskin38 said:

They said in an interview, I don't remember where, that they're going to be using a package system.

 

On 1/9/2020 at 11:33 AM, nikita said:

This is why one of my greatest wishes for MSFS is an X-Plane like addon system. Just drop a folder in and you're done, everything is self contained.

Packages like the other simulator are more practical than FSX scenery installation if you want to drop an airport, open the sim and fly.

However, I much prefer FSX (or similar) in-sim scenery order and activation management UI. In the other simulator the .ini file must be manually edited and sometimes difficult to manage unless you use a 3rd party tool.

This being said, even with Packages, you need sometimes multiple packages installed in a specific order + extra libraries + a plugin or two to make your airport and a city display and work properly in the ecosystem of other scenery... And it's never guaranteed.

Oh and you need to write a 1000 lines for users to follow a propoer installation order of all these stuff...

Ideally, the future should allow seamless server located DLC like scenery activation (freeware or commercial)

Edited January 10, 2020 by Claviateur