Just bought this awesome speedboat from simmarket.com for €10! Super fun to drive around! It has a virtual cockpit view and the model is amazing. Brought back fond memories of the fsx Riva Aquarama, although I do miss the babe in the bikini lying at the back haha! 

It's got some unfinished parts like the internal Cameras views aren't there and there's no pilot & copilot in external view but these are easy fixes and I'm sure the dev will sort it out soon!

All in all, a good buy! Check it out here. 

https://secure.simmarket.com/adi-s.-luxury-speedboat-for-msfs.phtml

 

There was a guy streaming a freeware ship in MSFS earlier this year: 

.  Too bad the video was deleted from Twitch.

If the satellite & photogrammetry improve for MSFS and Bing, especially at the ground level, the MSFS engine can be used for so many other games.  I'm sure the makers of GTA would love to use a very detailed version of New York, made of photogrammetry, for a future GTA. A lot of video game makers would love to use cities created from satellite & photogrammetry, for their games, provided the satellite & photogrammetry is very detailed and looks good from the ground level.

Autogen is the past.  Flightsims that use autogen are stuck in the 1990s and early 2000s.  Satellite & photogrammetry to recreate the real world is the future.

Edited January 1, 20224 yr by abrams_tank

15 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

Autogen is the past.  Flightsims that use autogen are stuck in the 1990s and early 2000s.  Satellite & photogrammetry to recreate the real world is the future.

Hush, you're going to offend the P3D and XPlane crowd around here... 😶

Edited January 1, 20224 yr by Dillon

24 minutes ago, Dillon said:

Hush, you're going to offend the P3D and XPlane crowd around here... 😶

I think I read somewhere that Lockheed Martin admitted that P3D could benefit from satellite/photogrammetry and it's something they were looking into. So at least Lockheed Martin recognizes this.

As for XP, Austin seems to be dead set against satellite & photogrammetry 😆 

42 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

I'm sure the makers of GTA would love to use a very detailed version of New York, made of photogrammetry, for a future GTA. A lot of video game makers would love to use cities created from satellite & photogrammetry, for their games, provided the satellite & photogrammetry is very detailed and looks good from the ground level.

Rockstar once mentioned that reality does not fit well with gameplay. I don't expect them use it for that kind of game. But things like Truck-, Train, Ship- simulators - hell yeah. Those would just have to custom design the nearby environment, while the rest is a given.

14 minutes ago, tweekz said:

Rockstar once mentioned that reality does not fit well with gameplay. I don't expect them use it for that kind of game. But things like Truck-, Train, Ship- simulators - hell yeah. Those would just have to custom design the nearby environment, while the rest is a given.

Ok, maybe not GTA, but there are a lot of video games that take place in real cities. Here is the list of games that take place in New York and many of the games on this list are not simulators:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_set_in_New_York_City

That list of games that takes place in New York is a pretty long list, and it might not even be a complete list.  Then you have other big cities in the US like Los Angeles, Washington DC, etc, that video games take place in.

Not to mention all the cities across the world that take video games take place in.  I'm sure a lot of Japanese made games take place in Tokyo. And there are probably video games that take place in London. The list is endless.

All those games could use a city made from satellite & photogrammetry, provided it's detailed and looks good from the ground level.

I'm sure Microsoft knows this, so MSFS is probably the first iteration of a major game using satellite & photogrammetry in this way. Microsoft will probably keep investing on improving the satellite & photogrammetry, especially if it can improve the details at the ground level.  It's a huge potential money maker for them, especially if they license this technology and data out to other companies (even non gaming companies that want this technology & data).

And I am going to guess that Google may be looking into this as well. Actually, the application of this goes beyond gaming. There is probably a need for this technology for non gaming software as well.  There is a lot of $$$ to be made from this, if Microsoft or Google can figure out how to make it detailed and look good from the ground level.

Edited January 1, 20224 yr by abrams_tank

I think the details on the ground are already handled decently (for a flight sim). If you put orthos in other sims, they look absolutely word not allowed below 2000ft. MSFS does this well by blending in landclass based texture layers and vegetation objects on top of the satellite imagery.

Edited January 1, 20224 yr by tweekz

1 hour ago, abrams_tank said:

If the satellite & photogrammetry improve for MSFS and Bing, especially at the ground level, the MSFS engine can be used for so many other games

I'd love it if the Euro/American Truck Sim Devs moved over and incorporated their Sims into MSFS, of course the road structure would need a lot of work but it'd be awesome to have them involved. Imagine the Career style possibilities of that!

4 hours ago, MarcG said:

I'd love it if the Euro/American Truck Sim Devs moved over and incorporated their Sims into MSFS, of course the road structure would need a lot of work but it'd be awesome to have them involved. Imagine the Career style possibilities of that!

Imagine intergameplay. Fly goods to the airport, where you can watch actual players take-off. 🙂

Probably a bit in the future still, but certainly imaginable.

Cool! How do you start the "flight" with this? Model looks great, I'm headed towards Costa Rica today for a little getaway from the snow.

6 hours ago, saifs said:

Just bought this awesome speedboat from simmarket.com for €10! Super fun to drive around! It has a virtual cockpit view and the model is amazing. Brought back fond memories of the fsx Riva Aquarama, although I do miss the babe in the bikini lying at the back haha! 

It's got some unfinished parts like the internal Cameras views aren't there and there's no pilot & copilot in external view but these are easy fixes and I'm sure the dev will sort it out soon!

All in all, a good buy! Check it out here. 

https://secure.simmarket.com/adi-s.-luxury-speedboat-for-msfs.phtml

 

Finally an official boat... I no longer have to use this mod to enjoy the seas.

I really hope the DeltasimStudios dev comes back for MSFS.

 

Edited January 1, 20224 yr by blueshark747

Does the boat have an option for a driver or passengers, at least from the external views? All the screenshots show an empty cockpit. Not a deal breaker, but it would look strange (at least to me) for the boat to be speeding along with no one at the helm.

 

41 minutes ago, BBCM said:

Does the boat have an option for a driver or passengers, at least from the external views? All the screenshots show an empty cockpit

Yeah it's empty right now in internal and external view unfortunately. However, the dev did say he'll be adding these soon. 

1 hour ago, blueshark747 said:

. I no longer have to use this mod to enjoy the seas.

Dang! That mod would've done nicely to scratch that boating itch I've had since the sim was launched 🤣Where have you been hiding it! 🤣

Edited January 1, 20224 yr by saifs

4 hours ago, saifs said:

Dang! That mod would've done nicely to scratch that boating itch I've had since the sim was launched 🤣Where have you been hiding it! 🤣

It's not even a boat at that.🤣

https://flightsimsquadron.com/2021/05/03/landspeeder-for-star-wars-day/