Future of X-plane

[VFXSimmer 1,310]

11 minutes ago, Murmur said:

If you mean improved lighting, atmosphere, weather, clouds, etc., the "unofficial" rumor is that they're all being targeted for the next release of XP. I'm also optimistic about the performance that LR will manage to squeeze out after the switch to Vulkan.

That image is unmistakable though: lighting and other rendering effect make for 90% of the final visual result.

"That's true if you ignore the rest of my statement.' [Mahatma Ghandi]

 

(sorry, couldnt resist.. love your sig)

[peroni 541]

Plenty of interesting points!
I hate to be the pragmatic one here but does anybody have any indication of when all these goodies are coming? Is it 2021, 2022 or spread out in the next decade?

Laminar is super tight lipped, waiting for the MSFS hype to die down etc but come on, last public Q&A was over a year ago and was eventually pulled because of the hard criticism from people less than impressed with their format.

 

[1st fltsimguy 466]

https://imgur.com/9FvLbjIhttps://imgur.com/a/7hEGuQB

https://imgur.com/a/7hEGuQB

I maintain two sims at the moment. P3Dv4.5 and XP11.5+.

I can't install MSFS2020 because of complicated errors related to upgrade from Win7 to Win10, and my PC is $2,700 powerhouse of other software and hardware.  So I have to wait a bit longer before diving into MSFS2020 and that is too bad because it looks great.

But, in XP, with a little work and freeware addon's mostly.  One can have a sim experience out the window similar or better than my screenies attached.

Attached is Portugal Ortho with Overlays and to compliment the amazing freeware updates associated with ongoing Gateway updates to airports, I have added some 50 custom freeware apts.  The experience along with my great suite of payware planes, yes its a bit costly but well worth it.  I use UltraWeather for XP.  I use the absolutely essential XPRealistic, by far the best motion, movement addon ever,

I'm sure MSFS2020 has great stuff happening, but I have never ever had a good flying as my robust XP11.5+.

I look forward to the day I can afford a new PC, fully loaded and up todate.

[Murmur 3,941]

1 hour ago, VFXSimmer said:

"That's true if you ignore the rest of my statement.' [Mahatma Ghandi]

I didn't get what you mean. 🙂 If you're referring to the fact that XP is missing streamed photoscenery, that's already been discussed, and it's a given that LR hasn't the resources to do that.

I just think that, if all the rest is brought up to par (I agree that XP visuals are lacking in many things), the lack of streamed scenery is not as big a deal as many think.

 

[mSparks 2,086]

back on topic.

Now that theyve mastered the flight sim part, and the looks are almost sorted even for the most vain of flight simmers (even if they dont know it yet).

I think maybe they should do  little more on the roads, simming the drive to and from the airport is by far the biggest weakness in the sim at the moment.

 

also might inspire a greater desire for more collisions

Edited January 28, 2021 by mSparks

[VFXSimmer 1,310]

34 minutes ago, Murmur said:

I didn't get what you mean. 🙂 If you're referring to the fact that XP is missing streamed photoscenery, that's already been discussed, and it's a given that LR hasn't the resources to do that.

I just think that, if all the rest is brought up to par (I agree that XP visuals are lacking in many things), the lack of streamed scenery is not as big a deal as many think.

 

No worries 😉   I just liked your Abraham Lincoln "quote" and tried lamely to pay homage to it.

I just meant that it depends on the eyes of the beholder.  If the goal is just a good approximation of a location, then yes, realistic lighting even on generic assets will help a lot.  If you want the ACTUAL buildings as opposed to generic approximations, however, just improving the render model wont cut it.

For me now, what PG is bringing is similar to how I feel about VR vs 2D.  I didnt know how much I needed it until I saw it.  Now that I have, and can, for example, see my pool and pergola upgrade in the backyard of my house, its hard to go back...

 

[VFXSimmer 1,310]

1 hour ago, mSparks said:

back on topic.

Now that theyve mastered the flight sim part, and the looks are almost sorted even for the most vain of flight simmers (even if they dont know it yet).

I think maybe they should do  little more on the roads, simming the drive to and from the airport is by far the biggest weakness in the sim at the moment.

 

also might inspire a greater desire for more collisions

I actually did use to do this in Xplane.  It is fun.

In the meantime, since MSFS is built on the Forza Tech engine, if Asobo wanted to make this a priority it would probably look pretty awesome.  Until then, not a deal breaker for me.

[mSparks 2,086]

56 minutes ago, VFXSimmer said:

I actually did use to do this in Xplane.  It is fun.

In the meantime, since MSFS is built on the Forza Tech engine, if Asobo wanted to make this a priority it would probably look pretty awesome.  Until then, not a deal breaker for me.

Yeah, the deal breakers would be things like borked taxi lighting, missing water towers, vors and other essential flight sim items like... you know... airports and heliports.

definitely not things like being able to drive to the airport, how nicely the grass is shaded or the level of detail in the forests from 5000 feet up.

But since Laminar already did the hard bits and the rest is soon to follow (Ben has as good as confirmed they are laser focused on raymarching right now), its time to wish after them improving on the finer details like named street signs on the drive to the airport and even more wild life on the way there. I still fancy adding flying debris and other FOD as well (and i dont mean sticking a marshall under your wheels msfs style neither)

You can pretty much forget about msfs now they finally confirmed in the recent dev twitch that the only way you'll get a semi realistic flight model in their sim is to log data in the real aircraft, I said all along that would be their achilles heal. Although maybe Asobo could recommend developers build in xplane first to see how it should fly rather than spend hundreds of thousands of dollars burning aviobenzine.

Edited January 28, 2021 by mSparks

[VFXSimmer 1,310]

21 minutes ago, mSparks said:

Yeah, the deal breakers would be things like borked taxi lighting, missing water towers, vors and other essential flight sim items like... you know... airports and heliports.

 

Nah, not deal breakers either - they're all close enough for now.  And the superior imagery outweighs any shortcomings there anyway.

[GoranM 3,762]

4 hours ago, peroni said:

Laminar is super tight lipped, waiting for the MSFS hype to die down etc but come on, last public Q&A was over a year ago and was eventually pulled because of the hard criticism from people less than impressed with their format.

Exactly why they're likely not doing any more Q & A's.  They're just going to let the work do the talking.  

Edited January 29, 2021 by GoranM

[mSparks 2,086]

19 minutes ago, VFXSimmer said:

superior imagery

If that's what floats your boat, you should try

https://support.google.com/earth/answer/148089?hl=en

Its free, and so much better visually there is a whole organisation of people porting its assets into msfs trying to get what they paid for....

13 minutes ago, GoranM said:

Exactly why they're likely not doing any more Q & A's.  They're just going to let the work do the talking.  

I suspect there might also be a pre marketing NDA in place as well.

Edited January 29, 2021 by mSparks

[Murmur 3,941]

2 hours ago, VFXSimmer said:

I just meant that it depends on the eyes of the beholder.  If the goal is just a good approximation of a location, then yes, realistic lighting even on generic assets will help a lot.  If you want the ACTUAL buildings as opposed to generic approximations, however, just improving the render model wont cut it.

Yes, satellite scenery and photogrammetry is very nice, although it has its shortcomings. I think a flight sim is much more than streamed scenery though. I can already use Google Earth to see my house.

[VFXSimmer 1,310]

8 hours ago, mSparks said:

If that's what floats your boat, you should try

https://support.google.com/earth/answer/148089?hl=en

Its free, and so much better visually there is a whole organisation of people porting its assets into msfs trying to get what they paid for....

I suspect there might also be a pre marketing NDA in place as well.

Google earth IS better looking than xplane, but not as good as msfs.  Its a shame that you cant get the google assets into xplane.  You might be able to post better screen shots next time.

You are indeed right, there is a great community doing amazing things for msfs.  Its exciting times indeed. 

And I think you did have one good suggestion earlier.  Xplane would be a good place for developers to test their airframes since its main purpose is an engineering tool as you've pointed out.  3DSMax, followed by Xplane, and finally sell it to customers in MSFS where it actually looks good.  You should work for the marketing team my friend 😉 

[mSparks 2,086]

2 hours ago, VFXSimmer said:

Google earth IS better looking than xplane, but not as good as msfs.  Its a shame that you cant get the google assets into xplane.  You might be able to post better screen shots next time.

You are indeed right, there is a great community doing amazing things for msfs.  Its exciting times indeed. 

And I think you did have one good suggestion earlier.  Xplane would be a good place for developers to test their airframes since its main purpose is an engineering tool as you've pointed out.  3DSMax, followed by Xplane, and finally sell it to customers in MSFS where it actually looks good.  You should work for the marketing team my friend 😉 

That just demonstrates a deep misunderstanding imho.

first, thats a link to google flight simulator.

Second, all that kind of user content is submitted to

https://gateway.x-plane.com/

Then included by default for everyone. which is why I said

is what to expect from future xplane default scenery (only better).

still waiting for the msfs version, so simple to upload to imgur I can only assume its really bad or you would be leaping all over the opportunity to prove me wrong.

Edited January 29, 2021 by mSparks

[Janov 2,383]

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