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Local storage is terribly inefficient.  Just like going to 10 different stores versus ordering from Amazon.

 

It's also the only way forward if MS/Asobo shut down the scenery servers.

Plus, there are still lots of people in the USA who don't have decent broadband because the telcos took a bunch of money given to them to expand and upgrade the broadband network, and then spent it on executive pay and stock buybacks instead. Those of us with decent connections don't have much problem streaming MSFS scenery but anyone in my folks' neighborhood would have a pretty lousy time of it on their 1.5-down DSL connections.  For those people, local storage would be much more doable.

 

Edited November 23, 20223 yr by eslader

5 hours ago, airservices said:

And that is why I use P3Dv5.3 99.99 % of the time

I would rather put up with the quirks of MSFS than have to go back to P3D.  If P3D was the only option I had, I'd quit simming completely

6 minutes ago, eslader said:

 

It's also the only way forward if MS/Asobo shut down the scenery servers.

 

While that’s always possible, I think Microsoft has much bigger plans for it’s streaming scenery than just flight sims.  Trains, boats, cars, just to name a few.  Time will tell.

Time to get with the times. The internet in interwoven into everything now. It is what it is. The only reason you love MSFS is because the online integration sets it apart. If Seb could say MSFS will keep going after he retires, they're clearly making enough money for them to not be worried. Why are some of you worried?

26 minutes ago, eslader said:

If MSFS or its descendants stick around long enough, storage capacity will increase to where we can have the whole world locally stored.

Remember, it wasn't too terribly long ago that a 100-megabyte hard drive was seen as extreme overkill for home applications. Not too long before that, entire games and productivity applications were stored on 360-kilobyte disks.

Someone awhile back did a calculation that you can store imagery of the whole planet in around 54,000 TB. That seems huge now, but it's not as big of a leap as going from floppies to commonly having several terabytes of local storage as we've already done. 1 terabyte of storage would require 3 million and change of those floppies. When you frame it like that, going from several terabytes to only 54,000 terabytes really isn't that big of a deal; it's only a matter of time.

 

 

 

Most folks wouldn't have to download the entire globe just big chunks of it as the need arises.

I feel like this, like everything else will improve .   This is a first time for doing it this way.  So Asobo/Microsoft is learning how to deal with it.  Look at how many updates they have already made for the sim.  I feel sure that the server problems will have updates too.

I don't care for the slow loading times or the lost connection messages, but it is, what it is, for now.  The enjoyment outweighs the problems for me.

Roy

12 hours ago, s0cks said:

I find it a little depressing that at some point in the future many games will simply be completely unplayable as the online services that allow them to run are discontinued. 

Oh it's way worse than that.  Our whole civilization has become a giant house of cards especially the US power grid ever since 'going online', i.e. the internet.  

6 hours ago, airservices said:

And that is why I use P3Dv5.3 99.99 % of the time

That’s like using a horse because one day in the future you may run out of gas. 

10 hours ago, steve310002 said:

Is there really much point in being concerned that MSFS might be unplayable in 15 years? Just step back and think about that for a moment.

Not concerned, I just think it's sad that we can't revisit these gems later. There are lots of old games that we can still fire up for a nostalgia hit. To see how things were done in a different era. To relive our younger years for a few hours. I'm not suggesting anyone would play it as their main sim in 15yrs. It's not just MSFS though - lots of games are now tied to online services that will probably be lost to the sands of time without some significant modding to make them playable in some way offline.

Of course I totally understand why MSFS needs to stream the data.

Edited November 23, 20223 yr by s0cks

This sim is a massive cash cow so I wouldn’t be too worried. Plus, new paid content and future versions will keep ms flush. 

7 minutes ago, RobJC said:

new paid content [...] will keep ms flush.

^^This.

The reveal of an “Expert Series” line of aircraft from Asobo, e.g. ATR 42 & 72-600, has seriously piqued my interest.
Even more so after Majestic's less than stellar comments today about porting over their turboprop.

11 hours ago, airservices said:

And that is why I use P3Dv5.3 99.99 % of the time

Yeah, that way you have reliable garbage looking scenery 24/7. 

1 hour ago, Bobsk8 said:

Yeah, that way you have reliable garbage looking scenery 24/7. 

Now now, be nice. Remember when you thought the sun shone out of P3D's thingy?

1 hour ago, Bobsk8 said:

Yeah, that way you have reliable garbage looking scenery 24/7. 

Some simmers never got the scenery thing which baffles me.  Accurate scenery means more than weather to me.

sp

13 minutes ago, Ron Attwood said:

Now now, be nice. Remember when you thought the sun shone out of P3D's thingy?

I used to think an 8 track tape players sounded really good when I had one in my 1960's car...