I wasn't able to get the webcast feed, but from what I've heard so far from this community their really isn't that much to be excited about ? Looks so far like more eye candy.ATC, AI, 3D Clouds, VC, and Autogen. These were major improvements and although not great something for 3rd party developers like LDS,PMDG,ASV6,BEV and UT etc.. to improve apon.How about HDTV output for home cockpit visual screens, HDTV's and projectors ?Tower views that aren't a joke.Fix those FS limitations I'm always hearing addon aircraft developers talk about.MS needs to do a better job. The fact that addon developers in the community do a much better job modeling aircraft and airports, textures, weather enviroments, flight planners, flight dynamics and active cameras, and we need guys like Matthias Neusinger to bring us much needed utilities like the excellant recorder for replay is ridiculous.What will the this years wait bring us ? I hope it's not more default aircraft I never fly. My FS looks great now!, thanks to all the great addon developers. I don't need more eye candy. I wish for a new FSX that will allow me to fly my LDS/PMDG aircraft in AI filled GMAX airports without the lousy frames and slow texture loads dispite me buying a new super computer every year. :-( Steve

Hi Steve I don't know what you have added to your FS2004 -- but I do know that the preview pics of FSx sure as #### beat the views that I have on my screen! I would like to see some screenshots of the a/c panels though - the exterior eye candy looks great to me - if the 3D panels are as good, I'll be a happy camperBarry

I really hope there is something in FSX when it ships that appeases you Steve. No I'm not being sarcastic, I really mean it.I'm all for expanding the scope of people interested in FS, it's a fantastic hobby.But I don't want to lose anyone already in our community either. I really hope that doesn't happen.The FSX team walks the line with every new thing they make. Who will get the most out of this? Who will notice it? Who will even take time to expand upon it?Some of the issues you bring up I cannot begin to fathom the answer. However they did stress that they are fully aware of the importance of sustaining the add-on community. I have a feeling that not only will FSX allow more powerfull capabilities, but will ship with awesome tools as well for developers, or they will be made readily available for download. I really think that FSX will be even more mod-friendly than the current offerings. And I doubt there will be tons of default aircraft we'll never fly. I could be wrong, of course. :)But seeing the steps the FSX team has taken to get graphics at the level shown in the screenshots is telling me that they aren't going to stop there and lose one of the single most important parts of FSX, whether we are the minority or not: customisation. FS is huge because of US, we need to remember that. If someone bought FS2002 just to mess around and crash with got dissapointed, they're not going to line up and buy FSX. Chances are they'll not get any FS again. It's US who will be lining up to offer support and inspiration to the developers and the FSX team, and it's US who will be lining up to test the next FS with a microscope, ready to rip it apart and scrutinze it's most minute details and flaws with our shrewd and very picky eyes.We, the modders, the VA pilots, the hobbyists, the developers, the painters, the scenery designers and the Avsim members, are the driving force behind FS. Minority makes no difference in the amount of word of mouth, put-up-or-shut-up influence we have on Flight Simulator.I firmly believe the FSX team are going to try their best to make us nitpickers' jobs a bit more difficult in this next FS, because they are like us too. They want everything we want. And just as with previous versions, what they don't do, others will. What they can't find a way to do, others will. My opinion, that's all. No more important or significant than yours, just taking advantage of the internet to share my opinion with all my friends and fellow hobbyists.And that is why I don't want to see any of us leave. May FS strive to keep us old-timers and nit-pickers in their folds.http://home.earthlink.net/~dawgfighter/sit...es/swvasig1.gif-Jeremy BurchSWVA4806 http://www.virtualswa.com/home.phpThe Ozark Dogfighter http://forums.avsim.net/images/wedge.gifHappy Flying!

Well Steve, you just might get all your wishes, I mean they MSFS team has around a year to let us know about the program. These are just screenies( very nice ones at that) I am sure in time we will know much more. In the mean time enjoy LDS and PMDG and all the great things about FS9. This Hobby Just Keeps Getting Better... :-yellow1Take CareRoberthttp://img320.imageshack.us/img320/1269/rob4gv4jj.jpgRadeons ROCK The FS World http://www.emotipad.com/newemoticons/Guitar.gif[/img]

Well stated Jeremy. I would add that the greatest news is that there will be a FSX. I was worried that MS would cut back or pull out all together. This entire community of ours has been validated once again for the foreseeable future.Long live Flight Sim!

My main concern....is there a usable EPR variable in FSX :-hmmm

regardsEd

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v640/edetroit100/edley.gifAMD Athlon 64 3500+, 1024Mb PC3200 DDR, 300Gb HD 128Mb DDR Nvidia 6600GT PCI Express, Audigy 2 ZSCH Products Yoke, Pedals and Throttle Quadrant

I guess there is for some, a glass that is half empty, and for others a glass that is half full. For me right now, it is overflowing...Cheers,Chris Porter:-outtaPerthWestern Australia

Th next version of FS can't come soon enough. The water looks much better, and the graphics are up-to-date, rather than FS9's 2003 graphics technology!---------------------------------------"If it doesn't have a VC, I won't be flying it http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v615/DarrenA300/smug.gif" ... hang on a minute .... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v615/DarrenA300/unsure.gif ... that is too restrictive! Most flight simulator planes don't have a fully functional VC .... I'm happy to fly non-VC planes such as the brilliant iFDG range, Samdim's fantastic aircraft, POSKY's wonderful planes, and many many others! I'm the richer for it :).

"..Most flight simulator planes don't have a fully functional VC...."well, it's high time they did!:) ;-). Having said that I still enjoy certain 2D panels but they gotta be very, very good otherwise I'm just not there.

To each his own I guess, I for one am THRILLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!From the shots - the water looks much better, DENSE clumps of trees (Michael did you see that?), realistic (photoreal) scenery areas, more realistic colors on textures (looks bumppedmapped also in places, sweet!), more eye candy (birds, traffic, etc), improved shoreline/beaches, new aircraft, (for those that fly the defaults)From the QnA - improved multiplayer (big one for me since I don't do VATSIM, but other online servers), doesn't require VISTA even though I am excited about it.I just built a new rig, by default all my games, such as Battlefield 2, DOOM3, half life2, Pacific fighters, now all default to the highest settings and look amazing, yet FS9 still struggles with detailed addons, traffic and weather all working, so I am hoping I get a better experience with the new version. THANK YOU MS!!Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/mcdcvabanner.jpgCalVirAir International

As I said; I gather from all the posts in this forum, including the screenshots provided by MS, nobody has given me a good reason to get excited about the new FSX. Sure it's good to hear there will be a next version and yes, I'll buy it if I'm still kicken by the time they release it. But all I've heard so far with years more development is reflective water textures, more autogen (which by the way I already have to tone down the sliders to get better frames), and updated land textures. Come on people, where is the goods stuff. I like the eyecandy too but unless there are improvements to the code all this is good news to painters and screenshot takers. Those of us that really enjoy flying complex aircraft at busy airports are left disappointed by poor performance. :-(I guess as I get older I'm less influenced by all the marketing and hype we get inundated with in this day and age. What MS has done with the XBox 360 shortage is a shame and disgrace.To announce FSX at this late date, offer Q4 2006 at best and promise a better FS with pretty pictures is not much to get excited about IMHO.Steve

>As I said; I gather from all the posts in this forum,>including the screenshots provided by MS, nobody has given me>a good reason to get excited about the new FSX. Sure it's good>to hear there will be a next version and yes, I'll buy it if>I'm still kicken by the time they release it. But all I've>heard so far with years more development is reflective water>textures, more autogen (which by the way I already have to>tone down the sliders to get better frames), and updated land>textures. Come on people, where is the goods stuff. I like the>eyecandy too but unless there are improvements to the code all>this is good news to painters and screenshot takers. Those of>us that really enjoy flying complex aircraft at busy airports>are left disappointed by poor performance. :-(>>I guess as I get older I'm less influenced by all the>marketing and hype we get inundated with in this day and age.>What MS has done with the XBox 360 shortage is a shame and>disgrace.>To announce FSX at this late date, offer Q4 2006 at best and>promise a better FS with pretty pictures is not much to get>excited about IMHO.>>SteveI totally agree with you.

Yep i agree with you too steve. The view is ok. But what about cars on roads, not seen on screens? The world looks as much as boring as FS9.I would realy like to know what MS has done with the multiplayer option as this is the mode i always play. I hope they build a huge ingame community around it with one massive server where all players are on. How about ingame multiplayer ATC so you dont have to log on teamspeak anymore? (ex.: if you change freq. you change channel).I've got one relief in the FAQ avsim gave us you can read this:Q: How many airports are included in

Well I looked at all the screenshots and was initially impressed but after 2 seconds it dawned on me that what was being demonstrated was nothing more what we have already in FS9 with addons such as BEV, Misty Fjords, FE, ASv6e and now VOZ etc etc, where is the great leap forward? Hopefully the many other inherent limitations in the FS9 code that developers are always complaining about will be fixed and FSX will not just be an eye candy make over.Bruceb

Hey Steve,<You should be able to do this now, HDTV output is a function of the video card, not our software. I know several of the ATI cards have an addon adapter you can buy from ATI that will allow them to do Component Output to an HDTV at 720p or 1080i, and FS will run at whatever resolution(s) your card can support (my laptop, one of my FS dev machines, does 1680x1050 to a 17" widescreen LCD display and when I run FS full screen, this is the res it runs at).<>Most of those add-ons you mention took their individual dev teams (or solo devs in some cases) many man months to do (for each individual addon) - if you want to wait 5 to 10 years between updates to the program we could probably match most of those addons, but where they devote all that time to one aspect of the program or one scenery area, we have to balance changes to the entire program and scenery for the entire world. As Jason said in one of his blog entries (http://blogs.technet.com/pixelpoke), we certainly have the talent inhouse to match most of the addons individually, but we have a much larger area to content with, not to mention things like business constraints (yes, this is a business, we make money doing it, they have to pay my salary somehow :-> ) - I don't think management would like it much if we said "Yes, we can make a really great new version of FS, but we're gonna need 8 years to do it" :->Tim