https://www.gameswirtschaft.de/marketing-pr/microsoft-flight-simulator-2020-aerosoft/

Article is all in German, but basically we can expect to see airports, aircraft, sceneries, & routes brought to MSFS by Aerosoft.  If I am reading it correctly, about 30 in the first year.

22 minutes ago, ual763 said:

https://www.gameswirtschaft.de/marketing-pr/microsoft-flight-simulator-2020-aerosoft/

Article is all in German, but basically we can expect to see airports, aircraft, sceneries, & routes brought to MSFS by Aerosoft.  If I am reading it correctly, about 30 in the first year.

The article says Aerosoft, in general, as a publisher, normally releases 30-35 add-ons per year, counting all their existing product lines.

1 minute ago, virtuali said:

The article says Aerosoft, in general, as a publisher, normally releases 30-35 add-ons per year, counting all their existing product lines.

Ahh, thanks for the correction Umberto!  As you can tell, my German skills are quite rusty.  As long as your great new ORD will come to MSFS I will die a happy man 😉

One sentence in the article caught my eye:

'Allerdings wird Microsoft das Produkt zunächst nur mit einer begrenzten Zahl an Flugplätzen und Fliegern ausliefern, für die eigens separate 3D-Modelle erstellt wurden.'

It means the sim will release with a limited number of airports and aircraft. That means enhanced airports than I hope? Or is that journalist as keen on speculation as we are 😉 can't wait for the official Microsoft update tomorrow.

Edited August 28, 20196 yr by Rimshot

Just now, ual763 said:

Ahh, thanks for the correction Umberto!  As you can tell, my German skills are quite rusty.  As long as your great new ORD will come to MSFS I will die a happy man 😉

Well, of course, assuming it will be possible to create add-ons for 3rd parties, and all the signs MS sent out so far seems to confirm that, KORD V2 would be the first candidate to be released there, since it enjoys the fairly unique feature to be one of the very few (I'm not aware of others) airports out there which started as a pure PBR-only project, so it won't look out of place in a next-gen graphic engine.

I changed the title of this thread...the original title "Confirmation From Aerosoft of MSFS Involvement" is misleading...the article (auf Deutsch) says that Aerosoft plans to produce products for the new sim, but it does not actually confirm any sort of established involvement with Microsoft. 

Backwards compatible?

1 hour ago, Greazer said:

Backwards compatible?

I very highly doubt it, but it might be fairly easy for developers to port already existing addons into MFS format.

3 hours ago, Rimshot said:

It means the sim will release with a limited number of airports

If this is true (but I think its false), MS may as well forget about any long or short term success....

I don't think MS is foolish enough to limit airports but yet add slope, flamingos with shadows, and weeds. 

18 minutes ago, pracines said:

If this is true (but I think its false), MS may as well forget about any long or short term success....

The way you quoted me above makes it seem like I claimed this, while I was actually just translating the statement in the German article...

Besides that I think you're right. I doubt it's true...

It's confirmed to be a world simulator. There's a zero percent chance they say "here's all this great scenery the world over, but no airports to land at in this area."

Whenever you read these kinds of articles, remind yourself that they don't know anymore than you do. Anything they say is supposition. MS is not giving random writers in Germany the inside scoop while keeping the Insider program in the dark. 

Edited August 28, 20196 yr by bonchie

50 minutes ago, pracines said:

I don't think MS is foolish enough to limit airports but yet add slope, flamingos with shadows, and weeds. 

Don't forget the rodents.

I'm serious MS need to build the sdk's, frameworks and tools for the core sim. And then leverage the community to build out the 35000 airports (content). This is the way.

Once any developer freeware or payware finish or update their scenery it should be saved to the cloud. The freeware shared assets and textures and objects should be automatically updated on the users computer and when flying the airports (relatively small files) should download when within a radius of X miles. This is next gen, users won't need to download or configure each airport one at a time or be checking if they have the latest versions. 

Much like P3D today addons do not need to be installed in the sim just linked, you could have a basic install of folders for the sim like FSX, MSFS exe will fire up the sim from cloud.

UK2000 intends to work on MSFS addons when released.

Edited August 28, 20196 yr by rjfry

2 hours ago, Rimshot said:

The way you quoted me above makes it seem like I claimed this, while I was actually just translating the statement in the German article...

Besides that I think you're right. I doubt it's true...

I can confirm you translated that correctly.

And I assume it means that there will be a few airports in very high quality included whereas the rest of the world's airports will be quite basic, but probably still better than the default airports of P3D.

 

1 hour ago, Greazer said:

Don't forget the rodents.

I'm serious MS need to build the sdk's, frameworks and tools for the core sim. And then leverage the community to build out the 35000 airports (content). This is the way.

Once any developer freeware or payware finish or update their scenery it should be saved to the cloud. The freeware shared assets and textures and objects should be automatically updated on the users computer and when flying the airports (relatively small files) should download when within a radius of X miles. This is next gen, users won't need to download or configure each airport one at a time or be checking if they have the latest versions. 

I may be misunderstanding you here but:

There would/could be a few problems with this method.

For example, history shows us that as soon as KSFO (as an example) is complete and released, they already have to update it, but it takes 1-3 years to update it and the cycle never ends. The update could be from real world gate rearrangements, or developmental/technological improvements to enhance performance, or any number of things. In this example a large developer is consumed to the point of getting to a few airports over 10 years. There are not enough developers to get to the whole world in 50 years. However if the development tools (SDK) make it possible to create major hub airports in days/weeks rather than years, then that is another matter, but not likely. 

-Will any private farm strip (emergency landing option/VFR checkpoint) get any attention at all?

-How long will it be for every flight simmer to have their home airport?

-How about water landing strips or heliports/pads and facilities for them?

The number 35,000 can rise fast if the word "simulator" is key.

We have had a massive freeware database here at Avsim and several other very large sites for decades (anybody remember CompuServe and the .edu servers?). All of them, plus all the payware/donationware developers combined for all this time, have barely scratched the surface of building 35,000 airports and they've had the basic airport & location in place too.

*****The word "leverage" would need to be backed by a very healthy "paycheck" with benefits because most if not all of the developers are part time; they have day jobs. And that is the main reason why MS has to cover the world with airports from the start. *****

From FS4 with ASD we've never had all airports detailed until MS Flight, but it only covered Hawaii and Alaska, which lacked in so many other areas, so the airport detail did not matter.

MS can do it. There has to be a will, and I think there is this time around. If MS leaves it to the community it will not be able to be done....failure will result, because of time and money.