20 minutes ago, rka said:

Tell me about the company that offers 100% availability, please? 

 

Ok. Laminar research. They have online activation that hasn’t failed since I’ve been in X-Plane. 
Regardless, I’d expect Microsoft to have multiple redundancies in place. 
 

Outside of flightsim?  I haven’t seen Amazon go down. Google. Yahoo. Bing.  NASA. They’re just off the top of my head. 

Edited July 26, 20214 yr by GoranM

I think what Gulfstream hints at is that X-Plane can´t compete because it does not have satellite scenery.

This point we see very often, the reasoning is that without satellite scenery, the scenery in the simulator can never look as the real earth does.

The need for satellite scenery over databased procedural scenery is debateable, though - and obviously it is not a "must have" requirement for everyone. A lot of users are "ok" with the procedural approach!

And I said in another thread: MSFS has nothing over X-Plane besides visuals at this point. All other categories they are the same or X-Plane has an edge.

Humans are mostly visual beings, and it is not surprising that most users prefer the better looking choice (about 65%, by the look of the Steam charts). But there are a lot of users that highly value the other areas that X-Plane excels in...and this will carry LR as it always has.

The usual reply is "but MSFS has all these features planned!!" - Hic Rhodus, hic salta!

I do agree with jarmstro (yikes!): I expect XP12 to pull even in the "visual output per framerate" equation. (Don´t confuse this with "it must look as good"!). If XP12 has a visual that looks half as good as MSFS - it must run twice as fast. It is the same hardware, and right now XP11 is looking about one third as good as MSFS and does NOT run three times as fast.

It will be interesting to see what the 27th brings. If the word on the forums is right, MSFS will pull even further ahead performance wise.

Edited July 26, 20214 yr by Janov

28 minutes ago, GoranM said:

Ok. Laminar research. They have online activation that hasn’t failed since I’ve been in X-Plane. 
Regardless, I’d expect Microsoft to have multiple redundancies in place. 
 

Outside of flightsim?  I haven’t seen Amazon go down. Google. Yahoo. Bing.  NASA. They’re just off the top of my head. 

Laminar Research, Google and NASA.

The three pillars of IT availability since 1618.

Seriously. Stop now. Please.

 

 

4 minutes ago, rka said:

Seriously. Stop now. Please

I think you need to take your own advice. 

1 hour ago, Gulfstream said:

And just to show that I have at least some credentials here, I was always in awe of Austin for 3 things:

• X-Plane
• Xavion
• That personal plane of his

X-Plane has done him well.  I am not sure what (if any) path forward there is here.

Forget desktop PCs.  If Microsoft takes over the ground-based sim market that X-Plane has and gets the regulatory approval ...

And I've trained on my fair share of X-Plane based sims.

MS won't get that while marketing to tweens with Xbones

59 minutes ago, Gulfstream said:

I am a senior software engineer and I do know a lot about these mysterious "lighting engines".

You mentioned it multiple times...you are not the only in expertise.

Nothing in MSFS lighting or clouds, water, grass or trees is not, already for years, industry standard in AAA engines and games.

About the AI system for terrain analyzing and art work, is indeed a great achievement and unique to them, but very far from a seamless experience, not sure the art assets that MSFS has will make to quality management even for a decade ago, it just fine for flight simulations, next generation graphics, not really.

42 minutes ago, Janov said:

The need for satellite scenery over databased procedural scenery is debateable, though - and obviously it is not a "must have" requirement for everyone. A lot of users are "ok" with the procedural approach!

Personally, I would take a seamless and high quality procedural approach every day.

Orthos are not seamless, to make them seamless you have to work harder to achieve worse results than what can be otherwise achieved in procedural.

In graphics, there is a hall lot dedication towards: "this scene makes sense to the eye" and not necessarily "the roof has the same color as in reality".  Even more while VR is growing.

Whenever I see a great looking runway texture setting on a horrible low quality ortho, I just cringe frankly.

Yes it may sacrifice some of the scenery accuracy, but will look much more decent to the eye and still very much operate-able in VFR as a realistic scenery as you have all the roads, mesh, powerlines and all those charms.

Edited July 26, 20214 yr by akita

30 minutes ago, GoranM said:

I think you need to take your own advice. 

Funny enough, he puts him self into positions he has little to do with, quoting others with sarcasm and then tries to get us all back on track while his own comments are the culprit as no others here have been disrespectful and the discussion overall is great. Was accused by the same guy a few days ago for me being provocative btw, the irony, ignore button it is.

Edited July 26, 20214 yr by akita

I continue to say ... X-Plane should be turned into a niche sim.

- Just a few, but awfully detailled aircraft, probably representative of the various classes, I'd say 1 GA prop, 1 Turboprop, 1 Commuter, 1 heli, 1 glider, 1 airliner... These aircaft should be designed with detail, aerodynamics & systems wise. Austin and his programmers should offer the best they can, taking out the most from his exquisite flight dynamics model.

An airliner should be made available with all the Bells & Whistles ! Something to the level of the best airliner add-n available for XP11, or the upcomming Fenix A320 for MFS...

- Awfully improved weather system - not the looks!  The hooks ! ... Well, and some looks to...

- ATC structure redefined, with good hook ( again ) for VATSIM (default ), or any 3pd agents;

There could be a simplified mobile version, but, again, focused on trainning and operatonal use.

Mobile apps could also be mae available for trainning / operational use, like those used in RL flying these days...

The price tag should, of course, match this new quality / detail / specificity.

Who would buy XP12, maybe branbed as XP-Pro ?  Well, all of those who are done with using other sims ad seeking for higher quality flight and systems modeling, those that keep using specific sims like Aerowinx PSX, Airlinetools A320, P3D with a bunch of investment in expensive ( and maybe not that great airliner ) addons.

 

Edited July 26, 20214 yr by jcomm

19 minutes ago, akita said:

ignore button it is.

What took you so long?

Same thing in every XP thread since sometime , it's getting boring now. 

My sim is better than yours OK have fun !

 

3 hours ago, GoranM said:

There are people who like MSFS.  There are people who like X-Plane.

However: Absolutely not enough of either to care about either platform from a commercial pov without xbox (msfs) or mobile (XP).

Assuming the MSFS xbox release isnt a flop... (I have my eye open for a real PMDG DC6 dev reaction - currently it seems like they are waiting for the xbox release before making any further real commitments)

If anything they/we should be looking towards War Thunder or Rust for inspirations to break out of the current rut.

XP11 beats DCS world on steam. 

TLDR: performance, nice clouds and good lighting are not going to change the commercial landscape of XPlane, trundling along as a good but very very niche product.

MS has destroyed XP in terms of clouds, weather effects, wind currents, graphics, lighting, hdr, grass, reflections, performance, muti-threading, smoothness, upscaling, world scenery, usability, challenges, multi-user, vatsim, consoles.

Let's not go there.. Time to move on