How Can Other Sims Compete With MSFS?

[irrics 1,517]

In X-Plane, weather and ATC should have been dealt with many versions ago.  It’s always been baffling that Austin doesn’t care more about weather in particular.

I have very little faith in XP delivering the goods long term.  It all just takes too long with them.  It always has.

Anyhow, I’m off topic rambling about XP - wrong place for that.

Edited October 7, 2019 by irrics

[aleex 551]

Well, their companies should have made changes on previous versions (especially XP in ATC system and that AWFUL weather). Maybe it’s not to late for them, but MSFS is going to be a serious hit for those sims. 

And honestly, if I, as a consumer, get some benefit with the change (and from what I have seen, I will) I will forget those sims really fast. 

Edited October 7, 2019 by aleex

[nas123 160]

I do not see that LM will loose much, as they are not in the consumer market. During the years they have just used the the large community as beta tester for their commercial product.

They have even got us to pay for being beta testers.

 

At some point in time they will probable license the WORD, WEATHER, AERODYNAMIC and COCKPIT features.

Edited October 7, 2019 by nas123

[Greazer 1,341]

 I will not ditch XP completely when add-ons like Hotstart TBM 900, REP PC-12, Zibo Mod etc only work in it. I will be torn in half between 2 sims, unless there is some kind of XP compatibility mode.

[Casualcas 830]

50 minutes ago, irrics said:

In X-Plane, weather and ATC should have been dealt with many versions ago.  It’s always been baffling that Austin doesn’t care more about weather in particular.

I have very little faith in XP delivering the goods long term.  It all just takes too long with them.  It always has.

Anyhow, I’m off topic rambling about XP - wrong place for that.

Yes, yes, and another yes. Funny story xp. Someone posted a topic, "how well do you know yourself" I didnt. In June I switched to xp thinking FSX was showing its age and it was about time.  I did..... and enjoyed it for a week. Then the AI do nothing but spin on the map view. And crash into the ocean just to take off from there. Lol , the ATC,  um don't go there, weather, eremmm,  ground handling, eeeek. So after I finally got flyinside working in fsx. I went back. I really, I MEAN REALLY missed the ATC, and AI. 

[Claviateur 789]

We must not compare other sims to the upcoming MSFS based on the components that other sims can implement.

It's a competition on the level of a World Engine that is a technology by itself. If the whole weather system looks and feels and behaves in a specific way in the upcming MSFS, it does not mean a similar complexity in the other simulator engines would give the same results, effect, realism, immersion, performance etc.

Same goes for photogrammety or even live satellite tile feeds... It's all part of the global engine technology.

Yes I am a fan of Unigine, but it's the only world engine that delivers an earth and skies real time rendering similar to what the MSFS engine is showing in the videos...

So even if LR for example revamps its  weather system in future version of X-Plane to get a similar complexity, the engine itself is from a diffierent generation and technology and won`t deliver the same immersive experience...

In other words, if the competition (other sims) want to match, they would need to license an engine from the same generation/technology in my opinion.

Otherwise, competition will be in specific strong positioning (ex: X-Plane would increase the focus on virtual aerodynamic engineering through fancier refinement of the Blade Element implementation).

Edited October 7, 2019 by Claviateur

[mwilk 1,107]

2 hours ago, irrics said:

In X-Plane, weather and ATC should have been dealt with many versions ago.  It’s always been baffling that Austin doesn’t care more about weather in particular.

I have very little faith in XP delivering the goods long term.  It all just takes too long with them.  It always has.

Anyhow, I’m off topic rambling about XP - wrong place for that.

Who uses the stock weather and ATC in any of the popular sims. I never have. If they were viable, programs like Active Sky and Pilot 2 ATC or Radar Contact or any of the 3rd party alternatives would be necessary.

[Casualcas 830]

12 minutes ago, mwilk said:

Who uses the stock weather and ATC in any of the popular sims. I never have. If they were viable, programs like Active Sky and Pilot 2 ATC or Radar Contact or any of the 3rd party alternatives would be necessary.

We're talking about base sim. Let's pretend theres no such thing as addons

[Bert Pieke 7,590]

8 minutes ago, Casualcas said:

We're talking about base sim. Let's pretend theres no such thing as addons

That makes no sense to me.. Part of what makes each sim unique, is the suite of addons that are available for it.  My expectation is that over time MSFS2020 will have addon airplanes, addon airports, addon ATC?? etc  Just like every MSFS before it..

[HiFlyer 9,371]

All I see is the high probability that a lot of well known developers are about to die. Those that remain will be eating out of Microsoft's hand, which is something they fought tooth and nail against not all that long ago.

[nas123 160]

Good developers are not going to die. They will adapt to the new situation and make other good addons.

[HiFlyer 9,371]

9 minutes ago, nas123 said:

Good developers are not going to die. They will adapt to the new situation and make other good addons.

Lets see if these good addons will be dependant on a microsoft store.

[Milviz 919]

3 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

LM bought the original ESP license from Microsoft.. they could do that again if Microsoft offers an "enterprise version of the new MSFS"..

Pretty sure that MS can't actually do a commercial version... reason:  Because if I know LM (and I do, fairly well) they would NEVER have agreed to a partial or buyback or takeback license to the code they have.  Which means, it's likely that MS isn't ALLOWED to do a commercial version as long as they are using ANY code that is from ESP in any way.  In fact I would be surprised if there wasn't a rider that specifically prevented MS from ever doing a commercial sim....  My opinion only...

[bonchie 2,305]

I think photogrammetry on a large scale is simply not going to happen with other developers.

Clouds are doable, but it's not just the clouds with MSFS. The atmospherics are next-gen, including how they are handling wind, humidity, dynamic visibility, visible rain shafts, etc.

The main thing I could see other sims moving toward is machine learning to produce autogen. Even that is a long shot though.

Edited October 7, 2019 by bonchie

[stephenbgs 169]

Could MS persuade ( Not enforce ) LM to axe or have tighter restrictions on the Academic version of P3d in return for some payback down the road such as exclusive rights to a professional MSFS. This would leave LM with P3D still existing from $200 up, with near term updates such as V5 coming from in house, while simultaneous development for a V6 or re brand being developed at MS