As a developer, it was always easy to take a sceptical view of the screenshots and blurry videos released - after all, I'm so close "to the metal" of FS9 that coming up against the limitations in the architecture had created a healthy (or undeserved) cynicism of the new version's features.But a week on, and having studied the screenshots, read various commentaries and discussed it with fellow developers, I have to say I am looking forward to getting my hands on FSX because it's in the subtleties where the new marvels are. Just looking at the quality of the new ground textures alone is enough to have me keen to work and extend the world using that rich new pallette. There are many things that the devs have not yet completed, and they have 11 months to go, but even then, there will always be room for 3rd party payware and freeware devs to add to FSX even within days of its release. I can think of autogen textures, accurate local geodata, landclass redefinition, enhanced airports, cities, towns - the list is endless. All of those things are waiting to be either ported from FS9 or created using the new pallette of features.So for me, I will be in the queue on release day with my wallet in hand. To the devs ... it's taken a week to sink in ... but I *am* excited by what I see and 2007 will be an amazing year for addons!

I wholeheartedly agree!

I read a blog from one of the FS developers. He had been reading the forums of a different website and stated his favorite quote. Which was, "If FS9 looks like FSX with a $100 worth of addons, just think what FSX will look like with a $100 worth of addons." I may have gotten that a tad wrong and maybe should not have quoted, but you get the idea. I think some great FS times are on the way. Scott

>There are many things that the devs have not yet completed,>and they have 11 months to go...Not really... Realize that there's certainly a window of some months for further refinement, but realistically I would venture a guess that it is much closer to four months than eleven...Subtract the lead time necessary for publishing the product on DVD(s) of say - two months - and now you're down to nine...Subtract the beta testing/tweaking/testingtweaking/testing/finalizing of say - three months - and now you're down to only six...Subtract the alpha testing/feature-revision/testing/tuning cycle of say - two months - and now you're down to only four... :)

>Not really... Realize that there's certainly a window of some>months for further refinement, but realistically I would>venture a guess that it is much closer to four months than>eleven...Bill,I have to disagree.I was betatester on FLY!II and we were doing extensive beta and literally within 2-3 weeks of us finishing the beta the product was released to the public by the publisher - Take 2. I very much doubt Microsoft would be so bureaucratic and deprive itself of revenue for months. In today's world - publishing of games is almost an instant proposition. If Take 2 can do it I have no doubt Microsoft can do it too.Michael J.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/pmdg_744F.jpghttp://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpg

Believe me - if MS said Q4 2006 it will be Q4 2006.... no sooner....certainly not this side of JulyBesides Vista needs releasing first seeing that FSX will be optimised for it....

According to one of the developers blogs, it may be around September or October. the trend for holiday releases:Combat Flight Simulator 1 --- holiday '98-- October 7 1998Flight Simulator 2000 --- holiday '99-- September 29, 1999Combat Flight Simulator 2 --- holiday '00-- September 20, 2000Flight Simulator 2002 --- holiday '01-- September 24, 2001

Bill's timeline sounds about right to me. That's been the case with the last few versions and I don't think this one will be much different. In fact, given the high-profile MS has placed on FSX I would guess that the testing may be a little more lengthy and extensive this time around. But, in any event, I wouldn't bet on anything hitting the shelves before October at the earliest.Doug

Well, given what you have achieved with the current (2004) product, I reckon that VOZ will be pretty darn perfect with the new higher res ability with FSX. I wonder if the textures will be regionalised to a greater degree so we won't have to VOZ and UNVOZ them.On a side note, I wonder what a "number of postings" per day graph looks like at AvSim. They sure have tailed off at the moment. I guess everyone's pretty much speculated and ranted out.Can't wait for the next set of screenie and/or info releases to get the whole ball rolling again LOL.Cheers,Chris Porter:-outtaPerthWestern Australia

Not to detract from the topic at hand, but what does VOZ mean?

>Not to detract from the topic at hand, but what does VOZ>mean?What's VOZ? Click on my sig :)Yeah I have been experimenting with 1024x1024 ground textures in VOZ 1.1 and unfortunately FS9 simply does not render them at native resolution, but dithers them back to 256 - hugely disappointing, but this is where FSX has gotten me all excited.FSX will be backward compatible with FS9, so that means VOZ, BEV, FScene, Ground Environment etc etc - will all run unaltered in FSX - but why would you? All those addons are at 256x256 so you'd take a huge visual drop in quality running those in FSX.I hope too - that the MS devs have added more regions and textures for the landclass to call; it would eliminated the switcher in our product. Time will tell what they've done.

>I have to disagree.Well, we'll just have to wait to see who's guesstimate is the more accurate then, won't we? ;)I've based my "guesstimate" on experience with past releases of MSFS, where you've based your's on past experience with another (albeit similar) product and publisher.

Hmmm, I don't think this thread was a discussion on release date speculation... oh well ;)

well this is all very nice but most important thing for me is:=> get rid of blurries once and for all.What's a 2000x2000 texture good for if you see blurries all over the place ?

I see blurries all over the place when I go up in a real aircraft...