What if? Just What if?

[HighBypass 2,339]

Ah. I see where you were going. Thanks.

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Hello all,

Thousands and potentially millions of people have Covid-19,

Thousands and potentially millions of people have died from Covid-19.

Thousands and potentially billions of people have lost or have no jobs, (sorry to hear about you, Chock)

Thousands and potentially millions are going to lose homes, cars, other major possessions and their self respect due to Covid-19

People are going to be going hungry tonight and possibly for another 6 months with some starving.

This is all doom and gloom, but the OP is concerned about the fact that some people may not like MSFS2020 and be forced to reinstall old and previously loved Flight Sim platforms.

Get a grip mate.  Regardless of motive, this, I believe is in fairly poor taste.

It does however, allow for some more free and unnecessary publicity for the new sim. (have I mentioned this before???)

I sincerely hope that all of the Sim community are able to ride this deadly virus out with an absolute minimum of drama and inconvenience. We are living in a troubled world ... spare a thought for others.

Tony 

[Noodle 626]

Why are you on a flight sim forum if you're so afraid of "billions" of this and that. If you're too scared to enjoy FS that's fine, but dont infect this place with your fear.

Edited March 21, 2020 by Noodle

[Skywatcher 133]

1 minute ago, Noodle said:

Why are you on a flight sim forum if you're so afraid of "billions" of this and that. If you're too scared to enjoy FS that's fine, but dont infect this place with your fear.

You beat me to quoting him! I sure hope you weren't hoarding himmelhorse???

One or two decent people here, one or two I haven't figured out, one or two that may have some grumpy moments!

Mods did well, I thought this thread was going to vanish a few hours ago but we've actually had some good discussion with opportunity to put across some thoughts on the new sim.

Times won't be good. Has to be some relief somewhere.

[HighBypass 2,339]

I'm not sure the post was in poor taste, Tony. I kind of understand what you mean, however there are still many countries where starvation has been a real issue for years not just due to a new viral outbreak.

I've been gladly enjoying my time on my flight sim recently, posted up another set of screenshots, doing what I wanted to do. Is that poor taste considering all the people who are in a far worse place?

Is it wrong of any of us to question "mundane" subjects such as virtual aviation and its forthcoming products?

[irrics 1,517]

15 hours ago, Max50 said:

What if you don't like FS2020? Then what?

Some of you have already wiped all your other sims.

 

 

I will go back to what I’m doing now...

”Not flight simming at all”

 

This isn’t like food.  I do not actually “need it” in my life.

Edited March 21, 2020 by irrics

[Chock 17,769]

I fail to see how the topic is in poor taste. Yes people are having a bit of a cack time of it at the moment all around the world, but that is a completely unrelated issue to whether people will like the new MS flight simulator. There is no denying that the COVID-19 Virus is a serious event, and by comparison the fate of a bit of entertainment software is indeed a trivial matter. But are we supposed to wail and gnash our teeth and not derive any pleasure from anything, nor ever discuss anything other than the bad things in the world? There really wouldn't be much point in going on at all if that was how we conducted ourselves all the time.

You can pick out pretty much any moment in time and somewhere in the world someone will be, or have been suffering a terrible fate, that is just the way the planet is. I don't like it any more than anyone else, and I wish it were not so, but being overly-sensitive to it all the time, to the detriment of everything else is just not the way to deal with it or help in a practical fashion, nor is it healthy in terms of one's mental well-being to be 'all work and no play' about matters.

 

Edited March 21, 2020 by Chock

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Guys, 

I really think you are misunderstanding what I was trying to do.

I was simply trying to put this into some sort of perspective. 

The intention was not to spread doom and gloom and I sort of hinted at that in my response.

Further, I was not making the OP a "target"  Anybody, I call "mate" is not an enemy.

Noodle, I am not at all sure where you are coming from.  I did not, to my knowledge indicate any form of fear "billions", nor can I find any reference to being scared to enjoy FS. Again, all these figures are projected/estimated facts (not scaremongering) and again, it was simply done to put the post into some sort of perspective.

Max,

I am not hoarding mate,  If you lived in the village I am living in, you would know just how laughable that is. Just for an instance ... Toilet paper.  We do not use it here.  we have "bum guns" which are basically a portable spray type tap connected to the mains water supply. This is a bit like a more concentrated bidet system I guess. Most household articles are always in short supply .. Coronavirus has not made much difference except to make things more expensive (read unaffordable for most of the local population.) This brings up "face masks" The normal price of those are about AUD2.50 for 50 masks. the price for them now is AUD 30.00 for 50.  In a place where the average wage is about AUD100 per month, that price simply makes them more available fr those who can afford them. The same principle applies to most of the "hoardable products.   Canned food too, is very limited as the locals do not usually use that sort of product.  Any product that sits on a shelf for more than 20 minutes is not normally stocked or sold because most of the sellers are tiny and very primitive operations with only the owners as staff. No cash registers in sight etc. Local produce is still plentiful and always fresh (rice fruit, vegetables and meat) It is fresh because most people cannot afford fridges let alone freezers. So, no, hoarding is not a factor here fortunately.

Again, I stress the fact, that this was not a grumpy or bad hair day response to your post.  

If anything at all upset me to any degree, and I have to say that this is quite silly on my part, is this.  "with opportunity to put across some thoughts on the new sim"  I only state this because I could not find in this post, any new thoughts that have not been expressed before.

I say again, I am not angry, grumpy, scared, or anything like that, with any of this posts content.

Regards

Tony

[himmelhorse 1,276]

Just as a further and irrelevant aside.

The aforementioned "bum guns" are a great and cheap invention.  Mostly used in the tropics.  Not for the fainthearted in a wintered Britain. 

Regards

Tony

[n4gix 4,947]

36 minutes ago, himmelhorse said:

Just as a further and irrelevant aside.

The aforementioned "bum guns" are a great and cheap invention.  Mostly used in the tropics.  Not for the fainthearted in a wintered Britain.

Oh, they are wonderful if connected to both hot and cold sources!

[GlideBy 324]

2 hours ago, Max50 said:

If you look at the trees around the wheels, you will see the area where the trees a little beyond the wheels (moving up or right across the mountain) connect with the other trees. Completely different color and contrast from one photo to the other.

I see about five colors of trees.  But yes I do see an area that when viewed from above looks like it could be a 90 degree angle, like the corner of a square.

2 hours ago, Max50 said:

Regarding shadows, it simply is not possible to remove and replace them with anything accurate across the entire global surface.

I think they are trying to use AI to remove shadows.  If they can't the we would only be able to fly at certain times in those areas other it would look like we had two suns.  So I think this is a big priority for them.

2 hours ago, Max50 said:

The clouds in general are absolutely without doubt blurry.

Some clouds look OK.  But I have seen clouds that should look sharp but are blurry.  I think it depends on the cloud and how close you are to it.  But overall, I wouldn't mind seeing better clouds.

[Skywatcher 133]

2 minutes ago, GlideBy said:

I think they are trying to use AI to remove shadows.  If they can't the we would only be able to fly at certain times in those areas other it would look like we had two suns.  So I think this is a big priority for them.

Can't be done with realism. You can't replace what wasn't there in the first place, you have to make it up. To make things up for every shadow area across the planet, no method will have enough variety. The shadows areas will have to have some kind of generic look to them. Sometimes the match may be close to the surrounding textures and sometimes it may be way off. This part I am guessing as I don't know exactly how the shadow removal gets processed. I would imagine I am very close to correct.

What may turn out to be a major issue for some users is if they have removed shadows from somewhere the user likes to fly regularly. If the user happens to notice an area that would've had a shadow and can see that it was removed, that area might bother them forever. Once you've seen it, you can't stop looking at it type of thing. If they don't like the look of the fix, even worse!

[GlideBy 324]

2 hours ago, Max50 said:

Will that new PC, those early investments in add-ons all come crashing down on me 12 months later when MS pull the pin on MSFS?

Microsoft have made various statements to the effect that they will be in for the long run, and ten years has been mentioned a few times.  While I don't think they have actually said ten years, it has been implied.  So while they may pull out after seven years, I have a hard time believing they would pull out at even five years.

Here they talk about already building timelines for the next two years.  https://youtu.be/y32E3ff7neg?t=588

Here he answers what if MS abands it.  https://youtu.be/a-ppN8HjZGk?t=1169

And here is an article where the author says it will be supported for ten years, or years to come.  https://www.vg247.com/2019/10/01/microsoft-flight-simulator-promise-support-for-10-years/

Another ten years article https://www.gamepressure.com/newsroom/microsoft-flight-simulator-2020-with-10-years-of-post-release-sup/z61221

There are other places they mention long term support.  I am not aware of one directly from that is specific on the ten years though.  Does someone else have that?  But these are pretty close.

 

 

[GlideBy 324]

17 minutes ago, Max50 said:

What may turn out to be a major issue for some users is if they have removed shadows from somewhere the user likes to fly regularly.

You do know that areas won't be one to one to real life.  For example a building in real life may be brown on the sides, but white in the sim.  Or may look very different to real life.  The AI is just trying to match the satellite photos, then create something that looks good.  So that it would fool someone that doesn't know the area.

This gap in detail is an area that 3rd party devs can fill.  They can fix the airports that aren't the 80 handmade ones.  The can fix buildings and landscapes that look wrong.  I still believe we should report what we see now so they can fix as much as is reasonable.

[Skywatcher 133]

3 minutes ago, GlideBy said:

Microsoft have made various statements to the effect that they will be in for the long run

You need to see statements they made 2 hours ago and they still will count for nothing. Where the gaming market will be in one or two years time nobody knows. Just like many businesses in the world right now, their predicted future's are very different to what their predictions were last month. MSFS potential success is no different. The economics are all changing.

Games will have to be viable to continue after the Coronavirus affects are felt. Any statements made before today, or tomorrow, or in 2 weeks from now are irrelevant. There are no guarantees anything will be viable to continue into the future as it was expected a month ago. Business models will have to see what the future will be and then determine what products are viable moving into the new times. MSFS may no longer be viable for MS by that point.

We will lose airlines for example. It's a certainty.