Competition? Really?

[cobalt 800]

9 hours ago, spilok said:

As each day goes by, and as I keep seeing various videos and comments regarding MSFS 2020, I question whether there can really be any competition for this sim.

   I absolutely agree 100%. An indication that the launch of MSFS is more than just a new product, but is in fact an EVENT that is attracting notice, is the fact that national media are paying attention and giving it air time. Even for people with zero interest in flight simulation, the idea of "reality all over the world" (in your words) is an attention-grabber and this is becoming clearer every day.

Edited August 13, 2020 by n4gix
Removed unnecessary long quote!

[ParaMan 53]

I think in time it will force the others to up their game. There's no doubt that out of the box this blows the others out of the water (from the many many vids i've seen so far). Once some addons start rolling in over the next few months I think its going to be breathtaking. My jaw was already on the floor watching someone fly over my home town of Newcastle!

 

It's certainly going to be a big kick up the word not allowed for the competition, but that can only be a good thing! 

[ComSimPilot 623]

It certainly attracts the attention of a wider audience but this is irrelevant to us. It seems to me that most non-simmers see MSFS as an immersive way to see the Earth rather than a new way to fly simulated aircrafts. Something like a game version of Google Earth. After their first excitement I doubt people not interested in aviation will stay to simulate flights as their new hobby. Of course lets not be pessimistic, there is for sure a higher chance to make new people interested in the world of simulation, I just don't believe this will be the majority of non simmers people. Our disagreements on the "one sim only" attitude is also a result of the variety of simmers. Some like to fly VFR some like IFR, some both. Some are addicted to payware quality airplanes some don't mind a more soft simulation. I personally, can do all these and I will fly missions in all default aircraft in MSFS but I will not leave my hardcore simulated P3D/XP aircraft and the type of flights I can do with them either.

Edited August 13, 2020 by ComSimPilot

[Christopher Low 5,388]

Is it just me, or is anyone else not that bothered about looking for their own house? I am more interested in the general view of the entire landscape.

Edited August 13, 2020 by Christopher Low

[Nyxx 6,994]

19 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

Is it just me, or is anyone else not that bothered about looking for their own house? I am more interested in the general view of the entire landscape.

Your right Christopher and knowing what type of flying you do, I watched the video below and I truly thought of you, forget what the video is about just skip to the views of Northern Island. It blow me away and I thought of you 🙂 

 

Edited August 13, 2020 by Nyxx

[joec63 253]

9 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

Is it just me, or is anyone else not that bothered about looking for their own house? I am more interested in the general view of the entire landscape.

It's a novelty if you're in one of the photogrammetry areas that you have to do at least once. The more interesting thing was that every street was recognizable and you can fly VFR. The grocery store is there, etc, etc.

[Marco Manieri 194]

IMO the biggest risk for "competitors" could be third party developers slowing down support on the other platforms.

First of all those working on "eye candy" stuff (airports, not study level planes, etc.) will gain a lot more customers, including those "casual gamers" that might buy the 8/10 bucks addon between flying over their house and jumping to the next big AAA game.

Vendors of "hardcore addons" (study level / hi fidelity planes, ATC, flight planning, etc etc) might find too many "old customer" switched to the new guy to continue development / support in next years.

That is IMO the biggest threaten to us "simmers" having multiple sim platforms available - and usable.

[SierraDelta 1,354]

2 hours ago, ComSimPilot said:

It seems to me that most non-simmers see MSFS as an immersive way to see the Earth rather than a new way to fly simulated aircrafts.

Hence the acronym Microsoft Sightseeing Flight Simulator ...

[Andreas Stangenes 1,628]

10 minutes ago, SierraDelta said:

Hence the acronym Microsoft Sightseeing Flight Simulator ...

Sure, if you want to use it that way, then MS has made sure you will get the assistance you'll need to mostly ignore the airplane and just have a look around the world. For more serious simmers, however, you now actually have something interesting to look at while you are enhancing your proficiency. 

[ailchim 214]

17 hours ago, ryanbatcund said:

I think once we get 3rd party aircraft there won't be much competition.

And AI traffic in real world liveries,  And detailed add-on airports for the routes you want to fly.  And study level add-on aircraft.  And realistic ATC coping with airway routes and dynamically selected SIDs and STARS,  And voice recognition in the cockpit following realistic SOP's,

I haven't pre-ordered.

 

[mtaxp 666]

Yeah..you know there are other ways to render a global scenery, in a better and more consistent manner. Some engines have been doing that for a while much before microsoft.

While MSFS scenery is Beautiful in many shots, it fails with consistency and weird artifacts which KILLS illusion.

 

 

[pete_auau 1,164]

15 hours ago, Ricardo41 said:

What has the "competition" between X-Plane and P3D done for either sim?

For me, the point is extremely simple: looking at all the preview videos, I feel that for the first time in a long time, I can buy the base simulator and not feel the need to immediately shell out $2000 just to get it to an acceptable visual level. 

And, of course, there aren't $2000 to shell out yet. So, double win!

yep  true  for  the  first  time   buyers  that be  true,  for  those  who had  bought  fsx, than p3dv4, xp  etc  and  bought  aircraft  etc  will  already have  spent  enough  money  and  now  they  have  to pay   whatever  cost of  the  new  sim  plus  any extras. So  the  winners  will be  the  first time  simmers

[Ricardo41 5,959]

1 minute ago, pete_auau said:

 So  the  winners  will be  the  first time  simmers

The thing is: when it comes to MSFS 2020 we're all first time simmers.

[TuFun 442]

14 hours ago, spilok said:

Wonder how many simmers qualified for Academic?  I certainly don't.  My P3d's cost me $200 each time.

Stan

I remeber when the P3D 1.0 cost $499. That didn't fly!

ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ — Prepar3D™, Lockheed Martin’s professional training and simulation software, will be available for purchase starting Nov. 1 on www.prepar3D.com for $499 per licensed copy.

 

$499

[eslader 1,814]

14 hours ago, Bert Pieke said:

I think you are underestimating the challenge of creating a convincing flight model...

Creating the sensation of real flight is actually a killer app.. lets see if Asobo delivers..!

🙂

Nope, I'm not. It's very hard. I couldn't do it, probably even if I knew what I was doing in the programming field. 

But once you've done it, you're done. It'll work no matter where in the virtual world you use it.

 

I also couldn't shape and texture all of Connecticut so that the result looks fairly close to reality. And even if I could, once I was done, I'd have 49 other states to do. And when I finished with that, I'd have done all of 6% of the world's landmass and would be looking at trying to figure out how to fill in the other 94% before my great-great-great grandchildren died of old age.

 

The most talented team of 1,000 graphic artists on the planet would take lifetimes to pull it off and then they'd have to start all over again because the planet's going to look very different in the coming century. 😉

This is the kind of thing you can only accomplish if you already spent the amazingly large sum of coin to get good pictures of the entire planet, and then had access to enough extra money to pay for developing an AI that could process it into the results you need.That's where the competition is nearly impossible. There are only a handful of corporations with the resources just to gather the building blocks, and of those there is, so far, only one that has expressed any interest in wading into the field, and their product releases in a week. About the only other organization out there with the resources to do it and a (very, very slight) possibility that it might become interested in making a flight sim is Google, and they've shown no signals that the idea is even on their radar.