I'm sure this has been discussed many times before (apologies if there is another thread), but looking at all the recent pictures shows how magnificent the world is and I think would really benefit from having a free-roam mode. Park your plane up and go for a stroll around the airport or field in which you've landed. Virtually visit some of the locations you've dreamed of going! Of course the quality in places might be a bit hit and miss on occasion, but by adding this freedom it also unlocks some other potential features for the sim:

1) Inspect your aircraft before flying. This is not so much used for the larger aircraft / jets, but for small prop engines you can inspect the fuel in the wing, flaps etc. As a precursor to learning to move from a sim to real-world flight, it would give the user an opportunity to learn pre-flight procedures.

2) Be able to use the terminal / tower (small airports) as a place to create flight plans. Sure you could skip that by using the UI, but imagine filing the plan, walking out to your aircraft from the building at Courchevel, firing it up and thundering down the runway. 

3) This one might be a bit out there, but each airport will likely have stock aircraft parked around (Grand Theft Aircraft anyone?  ). However, although the sim will have a default list of aircraft included, they could have several specialist aircraft which could be "collected" that are not documented but scattered around the world. Imagine flying to Area-51 and finding the SR-71 on the ground ready to go. Once you've "collected" it you can fly it from then on. Just adds an element of exploration as people will want to visit each of the 40k airports and share their findings.

Just a couple of ideas. I know it's probably only a pipe dream of mine, but even at worst just adding a free-roam human sized WASD camera would be nice 

1. P3D has the Avatar which you can use to walk around your aircraft, and I won't be surprised if MSFS have / gets something similar.

2. Please NO, then they'll have to model interiors of buildings, and the more you put in the bigger strain on the hardware, so again, No thanks. It is after all a FLIGHT simulator.

3. Why? Again it's a FLIGHT simulator, not GTA5.

For the walking around argument, I agree. For the rest I think they should focus on polishing the basic software, which already includes a ton of content. And also focus on delivering a proper SDK, as lot of devs whine about that one.

We don't want this to become Star Citizen.

I think for me they were more potentials at some stage in the future rather than "this is what needs to be implemented". The last one I realise was a bit "out there", but it's good occasionally to think outside the box for a bit.

Edited April 24, 20206 yr by tronied

A walkaround mode would be super, as inspecting the aircraft before taxi is part of the flying experience. While I like the idea of taking a virtual walk to the aircraft I agree with jlund that it would increase the strain on hardware without any real benefits. Also, it would probably take lots of developing time.
Your third suggestion is interesting but I'd rather leave that for third parties to develop as an add-on. Perhaps Asobo can put in a few easter eggs for us to find.

Screenshots suggest there is some form of walk around mode, or it is just a camera angle. 

For me, despite being a flight simulator, it is a major wish that there is such a walk around camera option! Park at a lake, walk though the grass towards the beach, enjoy the winds disturbing the water, sun going down, sounds, etc. I really do hope they have implemented this and that they can confirm this somehow. 

P3D has a walk around mode.  Microsoft Flight had one as well and I used it a lot more in that sim.  It can be very useful.

I was walking around in P3D's Avatar mode once and went to examine one of the AI aircraft on the ground.  When I pressed the key command to exit Avatar mode while standing next to the AI aircraft, I had expected to go back to my original aircraft.  I ended up in the AI aircraft instead.

There may be some kind of mission to collect aircraft, but I doubt they would be unique to the collection process.  You could always "make a game of it" even if it's not formalized in the sim. 🙂

I think we're already seeing some building interiors, at least on hangars.  I wouldn't mind having interiors of at least some other buildings, which wouldn't have to be loaded until you were going inside that building so shouldn't have much effect on performance.

Hook

2 hours ago, jlund said:

3. Why? Again it's a FLIGHT simulator, not GTA5.

I think it's already obvious that this is not going to be JUST a flight simulator.

There are a lot of things you could do with a world simulator besides flying.  This might be something interesting for the third party developers to work on.

Hook

This is starting to sound like a modern-world version of Red Dead Redemption II ... 😄

 

Edited April 24, 20206 yr by anden145

3 minutes ago, anden145 said:

This is starting to sound like a modern-world version of Red Dead Redemption II ... 😄

 

Sounds like a good thing to me! 😄 

When I saw the harbors in the first trailer, the first thing I thought of was, "We could make a good sailing simulator with this."  

Hook

1 minute ago, LHookins said:

Sounds like a good thing to me! 😄 

When I saw the harbors in the first trailer, the first thing I thought of was, "We could make a good sailing simulator with this."  

Hook

LOL! I completely agree! 

When I saw these screenshots from yesterdays update, I just thought "Oh well... if things are looking like that, I probably won't be flying anywhere...". I mean, just sitting on the tarmac in your plane (or next to it), listning to the trees, the water, the wind and watching the airport movements... or next to a lake in the Alps and watching the mountains, the wind and seeing the clouds drift by and watching weather systems develop... Wow... Can't wait! 🙂  

2 hours ago, tronied said:

I'm sure this has been discussed many times before (apologies if there is another thread), but looking at all the recent pictures shows how magnificent the world is and I think would really benefit from having a free-roam mode. Park your plane up and go for a stroll around the airport or field in which you've landed. Virtually visit some of the locations you've dreamed of going! Of course the quality in places might be a bit hit and miss on occasion, but by adding this freedom it also unlocks some other potential features for the sim:

1) Inspect your aircraft before flying. This is not so much used for the larger aircraft / jets, but for small prop engines you can inspect the fuel in the wing, flaps etc. As a precursor to learning to move from a sim to real-world flight, it would give the user an opportunity to learn pre-flight procedures.

2) Be able to use the terminal / tower (small airports) as a place to create flight plans. Sure you could skip that by using the UI, but imagine filing the plan, walking out to your aircraft from the building at Courchevel, firing it up and thundering down the runway. 

3) This one might be a bit out there, but each airport will likely have stock aircraft parked around (Grand Theft Aircraft anyone?  ). However, although the sim will have a default list of aircraft included, they could have several specialist aircraft which could be "collected" that are not documented but scattered around the world. Imagine flying to Area-51 and finding the SR-71 on the ground ready to go. Once you've "collected" it you can fly it from then on. Just adds an element of exploration as people will want to visit each of the 40k airports and share their findings.

Just a couple of ideas. I know it's probably only a pipe dream of mine, but even at worst just adding a free-roam human sized WASD camera would be nice 

Some people want their limits on the edge of their chair. Others at the door of his plane. Others at the airport gate and others without borders. So it seems to me an excellent idea to be able to walk around the city once a flight has been made.
Like the best ideas, it could be optional. Everything optional is good! 🙂

Just now, anden145 said:

next to a lake in the Alps and watching the mountains, the wind and seeing the clouds drift by and watching weather systems develop

I spent an hour once in Microsoft Flight next to a town just watching a sunset and the transition from day to night lighting.  Plane spotting at an airport should be fun.  I'd occasionally do that in FSX from tower view.

Hook

Just now, LHookins said:

I spent an hour once in Microsoft Flight next to a town just watching a sunset and the transition from day to night lighting.  Plane spotting at an airport should be fun.  I'd occasionally do that in FSX from tower view.

Hook

Me too... I really liked using PSXseeconTraffic and RealTraffic and then just sitting at the tower and watching the traffic... 🙂

22 minutes ago, LHookins said:

I think it's already obvious that this is not going to be JUST a flight simulator.

There are a lot of things you could do with a world simulator besides flying.  This might be something interesting for the third party developers to work on.

Hook

It sounds very good, but for universally usable world simulator is needed much much more, than approximately 400 photogrammetry small areas. It required the whole world covered by photogrammetry with very much other information obtained by other methods combined together by AI. Otherwise photogrammetry is not usable for close view. Now Is photogrammetry usable only for views from long distances (hundreds meter or more). In shorter distances looks very poor. For example isn't possible drive a car on the streets of photogrammetry city. It will be a very bad experience 🙂 World simulator usable for every kind of transport is in a very far future.