3 minutes ago, ark said:

So the DVDs do not represent a 'solution' for those without an internet connection which I had thought was at least one reason they were being made available.

The absolute absence of an internet connection in 2020 pretty much means you can't own modern games (I'm sure there are some rare exceptions, but as a rule). MSFS will be no different.

What the discs do, however, is allow someone with very slow internet to install a very large portion of the initial files without needing to use the internet. Then, as updates occur (and yes, they'll be needed right off the bat for those w/ the discs), they'll have much smaller downloads to deal with over the course of owning the software. 

It'll be a pain for anyone w/ slow internet, but that's just a fact of life at this point in gaming history.

7 minutes ago, OzWhitey said:

 No, CD is antiquated, if not quite extinct. I’d have to go back 3 PCs to find one that even has a CD drive. Look at cases from the past 5 years, it’s rare to find this even as an option now.

Technology moves on, CDs are archaic in 2020 just like floppy discs before them.

Perhaps this is the case for you. For 10's of millions of other pc users around the globe... not so much.

If it is possible to pre-order the DVDs at this point, I'd be interested to read the information provided by MS or Aerosoft to the potential buyer. And, it now occurs to me, you likely need an internet connection to order the DVDs!   🙂  I also just reread the minimum specs for the sim which does include a bandwidth of 5Mbps.

Al 

Edited July 17, 20205 yr by ark

2 hours ago, ark said:

So in this scenario the DVDs do not represent a complete 'solution' for those without an internet connection, which I had thought was at least one reason they were being made available. Or, perhaps, the needed additional DVDs will eventually be made available.

My guess would be the initial set of DVDs will 'get you flying' in some manner although it may be at the latest Alpha version level.

Al

Possibly, though in most sims, the “brains” (the executable files and associated DLLs that actually make the sim function) are usually the smallest part (file size wise). Mathijs Kok from Aerosoft did say in his post about their partnership with Asobo/MS that when release day arrives, the first thing that the program will do on initual run is to go online and download additional files and updates from Microsoft.

I doubt very much that the DVD’s contain any executable code. That part is not yet finished, and probably will not be finalized until very shortly before release.

I was still tossing up whether to dive into the new sim before I read this thread (and Matthias's quoted post in particular). But it cemented in my mind the clear quality of the sim as I saw it in the trailer (which in my case is the first time I have seen real time footage of the sim running on a state of the art machine).

I was only going to hold off because quite honestly I have FSX running as well as I could ever wish for now and had got around all the idiosyncracies and shortcomings. Yes, I obviously would have moved to the new sim at some point but perhaps not till my next hardware build.

But this has now given me confidence enough to give it a go right now - as I mentioned in another thread this will very likely be by far the best performing version of the sim ever released relative to contemporary hardware.

I remember for every other previous realise (have been at it since CFS1 / FS98), my rule of thumb was the base sim would run very well on hardware three years into the future. I think this new sim will break this personal "rule" of mine wide open.