Don't get me wrong, I am an IT guy and I know what Azure is. It is one of the largest groups of datacenters in the world. If there is any company that can handle large amounts of data then it is Microsoft. Still, at releasedate we might see over a million people flying this sim. Nobody has at that point data cached. We know that besides downloading the software, a user that is flying with the highest level of detail, will use on average around 10 Mbit/s.1 million x 10 Mbit/s = 10 Tbit/s. That is more then what is ever used on the AMS-IX, which is one of the biggest Interne hubs in the world. I really wonder if this will work out that wel. 

You’re assuming they will all be pulling from the same data centre. I would expect they will be using regional data centres to spread the load out.

You won't have 1 million users on release date probably 150,000 in which 3/4 of users will connect to the american server and a quarter will connect to the european server. Your computer will probably get in charge of your plane and all the rest isn't that heavy in terms of size as it is lite data  transferred throught the internet, represented as a projection on your monitor on pre baked graphics so it is like watching a video really.

I suspect the scenery server load will be leveled by the download of the sim itself. You know that's gonna take forever for most of us because everyone and his dog will be d/ling it not just on release day, but on release *minute*.

 

AWS has been around longer than Azure and due to demand has had to reduce bandwidth Netflix down to 2k, due to company's having staff work from home in the lockdown, what Azure was originally designed for and is the big money spinner for tech industry renting space in the cloud storage.       

If Data centres can cope in the present circumstances with most of the World staying at home because of Corona Virus, release day for MSFS will be a doddle, anyhow the recent launch of COD Warzone will dwarf data centre usasge when compared to MSFS. 

13 hours ago, mp15 said:

You won't have 1 million users on release date probably 150,000 in which 3/4 of users will connect to the american server and a quarter will connect to the european server. Your computer will probably get in charge of your plane and all the rest isn't that heavy in terms of size as it is lite data  transferred throught the internet, represented as a projection on your monitor on pre baked graphics so it is like watching a video really.

There will be way more than this.

The video referencing the American + European server is for multiplayer experience. They'll have many CDN's all around the world serving content to customers in respective regions. 

Edited April 1, 20206 yr by flightskyc

21 hours ago, mp15 said:

You won't have 1 million users on release date probably 150,000 in which 3/4 of users will connect to the american server and a quarter will connect to the european server. Your computer will probably get in charge of your plane and all the rest isn't that heavy in terms of size as it is lite data  transferred throught the internet, represented as a projection on your monitor on pre baked graphics so it is like watching a video really.

Can you tell me how you get to this estimate? Most people that buy a game do that on release day and most of them will try it out. If there would only be 150.000 people that buy this sim then I can't imagine that they work on this project for years with a pretty large team of developers. If the game costs 100 dollar / Euro then you have a total budget of 15 million. That seems very little for such a big project. How many developers can you hire for 5 years for 15 million Euro / dollar, including office, salary, equipment, supporting personnel etc? 

@eslader Nobody is going to download all the scenery. I can't imagine any home user with so much hard disk space in his computer. 

@G-RFR I am not trying to underestimate wat Azure can do but if there are actualy going to be a million people who will use 10 Mbit/s then you are putting a lot of stress on the Internet. 

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 20206 yr by RazorBlade

5 hours ago, RazorBlade said:

Can you tell me how you get to this estimate?

 

 

@RazorBlade Do you know what is the actual internet vibe on MFS? You can measure by the number of active members on this  Forum, Google analytics, Reddit suscriptors, Facebook members in the group and other simulator current users so forth and so on. Do you think everyone can fly? Do you think all pilots are into simmering? Did you know that Google maps work with VR headsets and this been around for sometime now?

 

Edited April 2, 20206 yr by mp15

4 hours ago, RazorBlade said:

I am not trying to underestimate wat Azure can do but if there are actualy going to be a million people who will use 10 Mbit/s then you are putting a lot of stress on the Internet. 

Netflix has over 160 million users right now and even allowing for a lower average bandwidth usage (5 Mb/s is recommended for HD streaming), will still dwarf MSFS2020 when it comes to internet load. Provided MS/Asobo properly scale up the servers and spread it out across different regions, this shouldn't be a big issue.

Here's a map of Azure data centers: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/global-infrastructure/regions/

Although things look pretty sparse in the Southern Hemisphere there should be enough bandwidth to go around.

Asobo have also said that there will be a mode where the sim caches scenery for offline use so for people who fly in the same area regularly will not be consuming that much bandwidth.

There will not be 1m MSFS users on day 1.... How long do you think it will take to process payments for the sim?

Not everyone here, or any of the other sim forums will rush to buy MSFS.

Downloading ALL the scenery is nonsenicall . It has been said that, as you fly, you can optionally download the scenery, or cache it.

I'm sure there will be a fair amount of guys that will play the wait & see, to read reviews & to see what hardware is required.

I'm not aware that ASOBO has servers, so it's up to MS & as well as local infrastructure. Also, note that MS are releasing games, that have been far more popular, & have a larger user base than flight simming.

MP15's quote is great!

 

14 hours ago, RazorBlade said:

@eslader Nobody is going to download all the scenery

Never said they would. I was talking about people downloading the sim itself.

 

20 hours ago, RazorBlade said:

Most people that buy a game do that on release day and most of them will try it out.

I have never bought a game on release day, nor do I pre-order.  I wait for reviews.  It is not wise for me to buy a game based on hype and hope, not to mention so many games have been disappointments.  And there are a lot of people that wait for reviews.  Plus there are the ones that wait for sales.

Edited April 2, 20206 yr by GlideBy

Azure has a huge global CDN, they can push a lot of the data close to users so it's not all pulling from one central place.