Flight Environment Progress?

[Guest MauiHawk]

I believe the target release date for FEX was within the next couple of days. Since the new website hasn't even been launched and I haven't otherwise seen much news come up in here, I'm guessing we are looking at a delay. Is that a good guess? If so, do you have a guess at how much of a delay?BTW, is there a Flight Environment forum that I'm missing?

[Guest Hocking]

They were being way to optimistic when they were shooting for an early July release date. Most of us pretty much guessed that. I read somewhere a few days ago at another forum that they were not going to be able to meet their Early July release date. They weren't sure when they will be able to release the game, and them not even being able to get a website up and running is not a good sign at all. The developer said they kept running into new things they wanted to add, but that may just be an excuse to other problems they are having.I don't think they were expecting on losing the support of Active Sky to be honest. They wanted to release an integrated package with the Active Sky weather software, but Active Sky decided to to everything on their own (their Active Sky weather package, and then an Active Sky Graphics package sold separately). This meant that FEX and GEX would need its own integrated weather package to be started from scratch. In the end, I am afraid they are going to lose quite a bit of sales. Many people have already bought the Active Sky integrated package for about $70 not even knowing what the FEX and GEX guys were up to. These people are not going to go drop another $50-$70 on another software package that does virtually the same thing as Active Sky does. They may try it out in an a year or so, but not now. The FEX/GEX guys better sale their GEX product separately in an effort to offer people something they don't have yet. I am glad I have held off on buying Active Sky until after I saw what the FEX/GEX guys have to offer. If it isn't out by the end of July, however, I am going to go ahead and take the Active Sky plunge and use it for at least a year.

[CanadaOne 36]

I'm looking forward to FEX, but I'm really, really!!! looking forward to GEX.The way I see it, FSX won't be near to being complate until it has Ground Environment in it.

[aerdt 0]

I am sure that FEX, as well as GEX, will be great, but I don't understand the impatience.X Graphics is one of the best texture improvements for FS that I have seen so far and makes an incredible difference over the default sky (and some ground) textures. And it is available now.Pat

[Guest]

Are there any GEX preview screens available?Its sounds cool but I'm concerned it will alter some of my favorite flying locations. For example, if its going to change what is seen below, I might pass on it as its hard for me to imagine this beauty could be improved upon. http://sio.midco.net/111lll/Eurotrip.jpg

[Guest MauiHawk]

That's not my impression of what happened. In a thread that turned south and was deleted, Peter of FEX basically stated that AS's code wasn't working correctly and that's why the weren't going to use the exentions AS has built-in. He said something along the lines that they didn't want to have to support AS's bugs as well as their own code.My impression is that there is more than a little behind-the-scenes ill-will between the two that was probably fueled in part by FE feeling like Active Graphics was invading its turf.

[Guest MauiHawk]

>I am sure that FEX, as well as GEX, will be great, but I>don't understand the impatience.>>X Graphics is one of the best texture improvements for FS that>I have seen so far and makes an incredible difference over the>default sky (and some ground) textures. And it is available>now.My impatience is in waiting to get ASX/XG, actually. I did and still do plan to get the ASX/XG bundle, but did decide to wait and see all that FEX promised (esp. given the steep price of the ASX combo).But I'm tired of waiting and excited to see ASX in action, so I think I will go ahead and pull the trigger.

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

"I am sure that FEX, as well as GEX, will be great, but I don't understand the impatience."Might be that ad in the upper right hand corner which advertises stunning clouds, water and skies "coming 07-07-07."

[Paul J 349]

I don't wish to argue the point, my friend, but I had the GE, FE, AS, UT packages with 9, and the minute I know GEX is out I'll be downloading it for 10. It was one of the best scenery addons on the market, and I have every confidence it will be again. If it means dumping ASG (keeping ASX, if GE doesn't have a weather engine - and I don't think it has) then c'est la vie! AS Graphics have pretty good clouds; Chris & Damian, et al, know what they're doing, but the runway and general airport ground textures are not as realistic (IMO) as the default textures. We'll wait see what happens. If they miss a deadline it's no big deal.

[Guest SteveD]

It seemed obvious to me that they rushed out that flurry of hype as spoilers for the Active Sky release.

[michal 44]

>but Active Sky>decided to to everything on their own Please refrain from making wild unfounded statements about who 'decided what'. Unless you are somehow intimately connected with either Active Sky or Flight Environment you have no way of knowing who transpired between these two businesses.Michael J.http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9320/apollo17vf7.jpg

[Guest abulaafia]

ah, that's why I use firefox and filter out absolutely all ads. what a pleasure life is without them. ==Marten:Weber==P-D920 oc3.64MHz 2GB RAM WinXP ATI X1900+1024MB 2xSATA250 2xVIEWSONIC 19"Need AI? Check www.world-of-ai.com!

[Guest Xiderpunk]

Hi folks,I am pleased to say that whilst we are behind our earlier estimate of the release date we are turning the final corner of the development. The reason we are behind is largely one of our choosing, some may call it 'feature creep' however during development we opened up a few possibilities which got us excited enough to decide to add them in as features.In respect of our website, we are due to launch any day now and will showcase the product in much more detail than has been announced or shown to date. What I will say till then is we are confident that the wait will be worth it ;-).The flight environment forum is essentially the Flight1 simforums at the present time, we have posted several screenshots in the course of the past two months.Kind regards,Chris Norris

[Guest Xiderpunk]

Hi Hocking,We are a small team and although we are missing our earlier estimate we are not far off! ;-). The website again was delayed untill we finalized the feature list that would make the release version and is due to launch in the next few days.Honestly, our only problem has been lack of hours in the day and many many midnight candles lie in molten heaps upon our respective desks.In respect of Active Sky, I don't think it is fair of me to comment on, the reasoning of which I am sure you understand why.FEX is a significant major product with much more development time committed than the previous Flight Environment product, we hope that sales will reflect this to a degree. Our belief is if we deliver on what we promise at reasonable cost then everyone wins!

[Guest]

>I am sure that FEX, as well as GEX, will be great, but I>don't understand the impatience.>>X Graphics is one of the best texture improvements for FS that>I have seen so far and makes an incredible difference over the>default sky (and some ground) textures. And it is available>now.>>PatNot everyone can afford to buy every addon that's being released. Some people (like me) will have to make choices. Apart from that I believe FEX will blow XG right out of the sky, so... ;)