It looks really amazing, but I was hoping for more information about what moves, what changes or fixes have been made, and so on. I'm really much more of an IFR kinda flyer, so I want to know if the AI and ATC have at least been improved.For the screens themsleves, I was sad that the seagulls don't look like real seagulls. Will there at least be reflective textures where their eyes are?

Jason,The link on the AVSIM homepage to the Microsoft site will most likely have the recording later, give it maybe about a day or 2. I noticed they had lots of other recordings of Bill Gates speeches from other occasions. Just put a link in your favorites to the MS site.Cheers,

Water not running up the side of the terrain.I am wondering, seeing empty ships in some screenshots, and full ones on other ones, if we will see more 'behind-the-scenes' animations that will assist to bring realism to the sim. It truly is amazing and I am personally very excited! MS seems to have given us quite the teasers within the screenshots and a good idea of what is to come if you look close enough.

It looks rather obvious that terrain textures will finaly be higher res than 4.6-5.2 m/p and/or allowing 512x512 or more for terrain.Moving to higher res will aid much much more to that "feel its real" scale that is missing.Nice use of fully programable shaders.Looks like I'm going to want a new 64bit system with two new NV8800GTX cards running SLI, but will settle for the older and cheaper (by then) 7800GTX512 cards. :)

HI Paul, "It looks rather obvious that terrain textures will finaly be higher res than 4.6-5.2 m/p and/or allowing 512x512 or more for terrain."And maybe they did not have choice to store these to a DVD, Nice to see you here again! :-beerchugThanksChris Willishttp://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6...development.jpg http://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-proud.jpg

>And maybe they did not have choice to store these to a DVD,>Nice to see you here again! :-beerchug>>Thanks>Chris WillisThanks Chris, always a pleasure. :-beerchugYeah, just one DVD and perhaps FSX is twice the size of FS9 right out of the box! Texture heaven!

Heh, being on 56k, looking at these screens is a torturous ordeal.The screens have given me a bit of a mixed impression, but this is probably the alpha build, so there's still plenty of time for new features to be added. Ground textures were something I was pretty big on in FS2002 at the end of its life, and throughout FS2004. I'm glad to see some improvement in that respect.. they at least look a bit less repetitive. That shot of Ayer's rock shows bump-mapped too, which is kind of nice to see. It also looks like the aircraft textures are bump-mapped as well, which is killer, and will help bring a lot of life in the hands of talented texture artists.To be honest, I'd like to see higher-resolution ground textures, but I guess it might be out of the question, given the range of accessibility that the flight simulator team strives to achieve in terms of hardware requirements. Lock-On, for example, had some incredible urban and rural texturing. I don't know if it's fair to compare the two, but I'd still like to put that point out there.I was also kind of disappointed that the atmosphere hasn't been touched, but I'm still hopeful that it's on a to-do list somewhere. It's an area that I think needs a ton of work.Overall, I guess I'm slightly relieved that MS is starting to bring the franchise to the next step, but there's still a great deal of improvement to be had before it's a worthy installment.

>To be honest, I'd like to see higher-resolution ground>textures, but I guess it might be out of the question, given>the range of accessibility that the flight simulator team>strives to achieve in terms of hardware requirements. >Lock-On, for example, had some incredible urban and rural>texturing. I don't know if it's fair to compare the two, but>I'd still like to put that point out there.Well from some of the pics it looks as though this has been addressed as there are much higher res ground textures as part of the terrain.

Very exciting. I'm excited. But as much as exciting as the new features are, like the water reflection for example, remember that this type of reflection has been in used since Call of Duty 1, ie 2003.

>new features are, like the water reflection for example,>remember that this type of reflection has been in used sinceWater reflections can be easily overdone. I see very little subtle effects here, that worries me, they may cater this eye-candy to teens who play video games where all reflections, bump effects, over saturated coloring are maxed out (my son plays Call-of-Duty2 so I know where they may be coming from).Michael J.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/pmdg_744F.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_beta_member.jpg

MichaelYou are absolutely spot on. Too often big shiny waves look like they are from a model railway with cast resin water. The shot with the helo approaching the boat by the jetty looks great, except for the wave effect.I think you`re right about the teen audience.. Next they`ll put guns on the front! James

ChrisAny observations on the weather / cloud /sky invironment. The terrain looks stunning and much brighter.Especially like the snow capped mountain shot with the aircraft on skisPeter

My main impression is that the childish attitude of trying to find something to kick Microsoft with, imagined or otherwise, among the punters here hasn't changed a bit in 3 years.I wonder ever more why they keep putting out new versions as the kiddos will just say "it's just a souped up older version and I can have the same now with addons".

Yes, I too think it is "too much", but we'll have to see where the MSFS team takes us.I don't expect the FS to come out "the best" anymore. I expect the FS to provide platform for add ons to make it the best.

"3 GHz system would be my recommendation for a basic place to start.""My best recommendation is a system with an Intel Pentium 4 Processor 670 that runs at 3.8 GHz with an 800 MHz front Side Bus (FSB)"Even today i know that i'll not be able to even "run" this baby.It's sad!:(