I know I won't need a 3rd party add-on for the weather. 😉

About the aiports or the scenery in general, of course there will space for the 3rd party devs, but not at the same scale as we have now, as it's pretty underwhelming to fly on 99% of the default airports of the current sims. I wouldn't buy an airport unless I REALLY know the real one and would like to fly there a lot. The defaults will serve me well, as they are pretty good and have a lot of features I like to use.

1 hour ago, Kopteeni said:

So the default airports have been created by people working for 9 pounds an hour who know how to use MS Word. They must be running some awesome Azure AI magic if people are now saying we don't need airport addons either.

I think you're reading too much into that job offering. I'm pretty sure the default airports, if this Facebook post even means Orbx are creating default airports for MSFS, aren't entirely developed by some part-time temps that know just how to use MS Word and connect dots with the mouse. I'm more inclined to think they are letting the easy and tedious things like AFCAD drawing and some other stuff that merely requires connecting dots be handled by those temps to speed up development and free resources while the actual Orbx developers work on the more demanding things like proper textures, animations and effects that really make an airport scenery shine. Bit like an airport hiring students and other part-timers to load bags into airplanes while the actual full-time employees do things like pushbacks or de-icing.

12 minutes ago, threegreen said:

I think you're reading too much into that job offering. I'm pretty sure the default airports, if this Facebook post even means Orbx are creating default airports for MSFS, aren't entirely developed by some part-time temps that know just how to use MS Word and connect dots with the mouse. I'm more inclined to think they are letting the easy and tedious things like AFCAD drawing and some other stuff that merely requires connecting dots be handled by those temps to speed up development and free resources while the actual Orbx developers work on the more demanding things like proper textures, animations and effects that really make an airport scenery shine. Bit like an airport hiring students and other part-timers to load bags into airplanes while the actual full-time employees do things like pushbacks or de-icing.

Did you read the Job Description. No, you didn't because;

Job Description;

Orbx Simulation Systems based at Langstone Technology Park in Havant (PO9 1SA) has an immediate requirement for temporary contractors to work on airport design work for a large client.

We are offering £9 per hour with flexible hours at our Langstone office. If you know of anyone who meets the requirements below, please ask them to email [email protected]
Be at least 16 years old
Be computer literate (Microsoft Windows, opening and saving documents, using a mouse to edit points on a screen)
Be available at least 3-4 days per week within 9:00am - 5:00pm
Have own transport by car or public transport (Havant train/bus station 3/4 mile away)
Will need to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
Understands this is a temporary contract only with no guarantee of full-time employment
Be available immediately or within a week or two
Positions will be filled on a first come, first served basis. Training will be provided.

The assumptions are coming strong and fast...like a torrent of misinformation and we're better than that here. Let's be better.

I think the job would probably entail not Word related activities - especially as Word is not mentioned in the job description at all.

I think the task would have been dragging dots across satellite imagery to establish initial contours of airfields and airports exactly as you say.

Edited June 14, 20205 yr by Will Fly For Cheese

4 minutes ago, Will Fly For Cheese said:

Did you read the Job Description. No, you didn't because;

Job Description;

Orbx Simulation Systems based at Langstone Technology Park in Havant (PO9 1SA) has an immediate requirement for temporary contractors to work on airport design work for a large client.

We are offering £9 per hour with flexible hours at our Langstone office. If you know of anyone who meets the requirements below, please ask them to email [email protected]
Be at least 16 years old
Be computer literate (Microsoft Windows, opening and saving documents, using a mouse to edit points on a screen)
Be available at least 3-4 days per week within 9:00am - 5:00pm
Have own transport by car or public transport (Havant train/bus station 3/4 mile away)
Will need to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
Understands this is a temporary contract only with no guarantee of full-time employment
Be available immediately or within a week or two
Positions will be filled on a first come, first served basis. Training will be provided.

The assumptions are coming strong and fast...like a torrent of misinformation and we're better than that here. Let's be better.

I think the job would probably entail not Word related activities - especially as Word is not mentioned in the job description at all.

I think the task would have been dragging dots across satellite imagery to establish initial contours of airfields and airports.

They demonstrated this workflow in the airports feature discovery. The work consisted of outlining all the different surface types/buildings/taxiways/runways etc. I hope all of the people doing the work for the tens of thousands of airports are still sane today 😬

This monstrous work alone wouldn't take the default airports much further than xplane scenery gateway airports, though.

40 minutes ago, Will Fly For Cheese said:

Did you read the Job Description. No, you didn't because;

I think you quoted the wrong person.

Also keep in mind that MSFS weather (and scenery etcetera)  will be hosted on worldwide Azure data centers which makes one think that the weather system could be available for many revenue streams.  These could include broadcast media, the military, education and even the movie industry.  Besides the obvious gaming industry which could offer titles that require live weather even Bing could benefit by providing live weather simulations.

AFAIK Microsoft is already providing weather to many venues.

 

Interesting times.

bs

 

1 hour ago, Kopteeni said:

They demonstrated this workflow in the airports feature discovery. The work consisted of outlining all the different surface types/buildings/taxiways/runways etc. I hope all of the people doing the work for the tens of thousands of airports are still sane today 😬

This monstrous work alone wouldn't take the default airports much further than xplane scenery gateway airports, though.

I’m wondering if the tool they used to modify airports will be made available to end-users of the sim as part of the SDK? It seemed to have some features similar to ADE, and others appeared to more like X-Plane’s WED.

3 hours ago, Kopteeni said:

Either there's something they haven't shown or the Alpha testers with loose lips here have low standards.

Well, if the standard to beat is default P3D and XP Lego bricks that people have been happily living with for years.....

 

...Then we're good to go flying cat!...

Edited June 14, 20205 yr by Will Fly For Cheese

On 6/13/2020 at 5:01 PM, Afterburner said:

I indeed watched the latest video, and I do have a high esteem for Meteoblue as a source for weather information. But the question remains how well will Microsoft actually implement the weather in the simulator from the given data, especially the points that I outlined above. We will know once the new sim will be released.

I will be more than happy if the default weather engine turns out to be so good that no add-on will be needed. When I mentioned AS having a competitive edge over default sim weather, I didn't necessarily mean that the weather graphics in P3D is currently better than in the upcoming FS2020, but rather that AS has the experience to improve the weather in a given simulator. It is not a coincidence that in all MS/P3D simulators during the last 20 year (and recently also XP), users ended up buying weather add-ons, and almost no one looked back to reverting to default weather.

Another benefit I see from using Active Sky: If there are problems, you can contact their support, and I personally got help when I needed. If there are shortcomings in the default weather engine, who do you consult?  The MSFS team?  How quickly will they respond?

1. Do you have access to the Tech Alpha?

2. All I can go by is the customer support with MS products, and every time I've had to use it, it's been excellent. So i'd assume that if you had problems with things like weather you'd get first class technical support from MS/Asobo.

53 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

Well, if the standard to beat is default P3D and XP Lego bricks that people have been happily living with for years.....

 

Soooo... MSFS: Lego bricks with sharper textures?

1 minute ago, Kopteeni said:

Soooo... MSFS: Lego bricks with sharper textures?

There are at this point tons of MSFS videos showing planes taking off from various airports all over the world. Not to even mention the numerous leaks. It would not be hard to get an idea of the general state of things from watching those carefully.

7 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

There are at this point tons of MSFS videos showing planes taking off from various airports all over the world. Not to even mention the numerous leaks. It would not be hard to get an idea of the general state of things from watching those carefully.

I have to assume that in the Airports Discovery Series episode they were showing us the best they had since they weren't telling us otherwise.

12 hours ago, johannes1337 said:

And when I'm thinking about mods in other games I'm thinking about things like Skyrim, GTA5 roleplaying, Minecraft.

Well that's the problem, isn't it. Those games aren't realistic. It's easy (relatively) to make a mod for Minecraft because Minecraft users are cool with getting construction lumber by punching trees with bare fists. Give 'em an unobtanium pickaxe that never breaks and they're happy.

Try convincing someone used to flying PMDG planes that a freeware 747 is every bit as good, realistic, and complete and they'll laugh you out of the room. It's quite a bit more involved to make an addon airplane that flies realistically, has realistic systems, look good, etc than it is to make a Minecraft mod, or even a GTA mod.

Every great once in awhile a freeware modder comes along who's willing to put in the scores of hours that would be required to develop a high-end payware-quality addon, but even when that happens the dev houses who have multiple employees are leaving him in the dust. I remember Alejandro Rojas' Citation X that I used to fly before I switched away from FSX. That was a bloody good free/shareware aircraft. Really great. But compared to Carenado the textures were clunky, and compared to PMDG, Leonardo, Flysimware stuff the plane itself was subpar. Now, it cost between $50 and $150 less than those other guys, which made it a much better bargain, but no one, most likely including the dev himself, would try to convince anyone that the CitX was the equal of a high quality payware plane.

 

 

12 minutes ago, Kopteeni said:

I have to assume that in the Airports Discovery Series episode they were showing us the best they had since they weren't telling us otherwise.

Well why would they not put their best foot forwards?

I would only say that the various leakers are unlikely to have a similar mandate to show the sim in only its best possible light, yet despite all the leaks so far, none have shown anything contradicting in any way the information/pictures/videos distributed to date by the developer.

That being the case, there appears to be no valid reason at this point to assume that what we are seeing is anything but what we will by and large actually get.

 

Edited June 14, 20205 yr by HiFlyer