23 hours ago, sjt said:

The latest SimConnect for P3D v4 can only communicate with v4! It can’t communicate lower down the hierarchy

Of course not. Every API is tightly connected to the software it provides an interface for. In fact, it is a part of the software. That is the case with SimConnect too - there is no "SimConnect server" that you can install or uninstall (point in fact there is no separate SimConnect Client for P3D V4 either, not like there was for FSX - all functionality has been incorporated directly into the libraries that you use to compile your addon). There would be no point in offering up the functionality that only P3D can provide on the API and "connecting" it to one of the previous simulators - the old sim just can't do what is requested of it.

I don't think there will be any convergence, and I find it hard to even imagine a viable integration scenario. P3D V4 SimConnect has around a dozen new calls that weren't there before - none of which are of any consequence for MSFS. Microsoft is better off doing their own thing so the API calls just look the same from the outside. If their platform is so different from P3D as they say (=if it is already very different from FSX, then it is 4 times as removed from P3D), it would be more work trying to integrate legacy and foreign code, than just writing everything from scratch.

Best regards

Edited December 11, 20196 yr by Lorby_SI

37 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

Data streaming at the interactive level is still not here yet IMHO, and it has a finite window of operation as local storage technology moves forward at a very rapid pace and will eventually obsolete interactive data streaming (not the same as watching a movie).  There are also other technologies like 8K which is now replacing 4K so data bandwidth requirements will increase significantly on the streaming front and finally, many (not all) have suggested that when they pay for something they want a sense of ownership ... streaming does not provide ownership, it's a rental.

I hate to disagree with you here, Rob, but in my time over the last decade and a half working either in or closely with enterprise datacenters, the rate at which datacenter storage capacities outstrips local storage capacity proportionally continues to increase. The amount of data collected in the enterprise is truly, truly large, and I think we're starting to hit the inflection point where more and more data will not be local simply because of capacity constraints.

With respect, while I think real-time interactive streaming in the xCloud or Stadia sense is not a technology whose time has come yet, certainly architectures that stream game data in real time as the user changes game areas is well, well within the current consumer technological capacity, and that disparity in game area data size versus local storage capacity will only continue as asset sizes continue to increase.

It's possible I'm misunderstanding you, though.

-Matt

Oh, good-old C, plain Kernighan & Richie C....  The rest runined even more what yet another Great language had achieved - PASCAL... Oh, yes, there's Delphi too....

 

13 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

2 PT of data will be affordable local storage in 10 years from now

Isn’t that the point though - why wait 10 years when we can utilise this much information now through a different method?

i also think the “ownership” issue is almost dead now too, you barely hear much noise on that any more, especially from younger generations who are just used to streaming everything. 

This thread has wandered away from the OP's thoughts and speculations. The OP's  guesses have been made before but given how little the flightsim user community knows about MSFS, it's not surprising that people keep proposing the same ideas.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least that there will not be a version 5 of P3d. Or if there is one, it might only be the Pro Plus variety. And that variant could even be a jointly developed enhancement to MSFS. If nothing else, that should eliminate all the nonsensical discussions of EULAs and license types by the resident online amateur attorneys.