A2A lead tester's thoughts on MSFS & flight simming in 2023

[davenicoll 104]

I suspect the Commanche is their test bed for the core engine "Accu Sim" future.

 

They are rigorously testing this and once right(happy) and released i would say the next projects would be quicker 

 

I am waiting patiently for this plane..

Edited May 17, 2023 by davenicoll
added to

[AviatorMan 253]

Let's hope they don't wait too much longer. There have been a few GA aircraft released recently (e.g., Black Square Bonanza and Baron) that are of "nearly A2A quality"

[Bobsk8 12,871]

Just now, AviatorMan said:

Let's hope they don't wait too much longer. There have been a few GA aircraft released recently (e.g., Black Square Bonanza and Baron) that are of "nearly A2A quality"

I owned the Comanche in P3D and flew it allot. Now I am flying mostly the PMDG 737, but when I go to GA flying I use the C 310, and the Kodiak. I will probably pass on buying the Comanche again. 

[Gilandred 723]

20 minutes ago, AviatorMan said:

Let's hope they don't wait too much longer. There have been a few GA aircraft released recently (e.g., Black Square Bonanza and Baron) that are of "nearly A2A quality"

Black Square, while really good for what it attempts to do, is no where near A2A quality.  Take a look at the features section on their Comanche website and you’ll see what I mean.

[Fielder 3,746]

 

 

 

 

[Epgd 146]

Hi.... so is there any news, update?

[lwt1971 7,464]

On 6/10/2023 at 4:55 PM, Epgd said:

Hi.... so is there any news, update?

Here are some of latest updates/posts from the A2A team on their forum threads:

May 18 (re: Comanche): "The Comanche for MSFS integrated into Accusim is the most difficult program we have ever attempted. If we just wanted an ordinary Comanche we could have released one a year ago. We realize it's been a LONG time in the pipeline and we are well aware that the entire community is chafing at the bit and getting very impatient with us. I myself have been here on the forum many times asking for the community to be patient and that what will emerge coming out of the Beta will be ground breaking. Trust me......it will. I've seen it myself and what I have seen is better than even we could have imagined.
About the upcoming videos;
The reason it is taking a long time is that even the videos will be ground breaking. These are no ordinary tutorials. Scott has been working VERY hard on these. They will be a series of videos explaining in a depth never before seen or heard done for flight simulator. The depth of knowledge contained in these videos is unbelievable. There are audio/visual programs used for actual flight training that don't come close to the quality and depth of these videos. People watching these videos will emerge knowing more about flying and more about the Comanche than has ever been released to the sim community.
I'd like to tell you all this will be done by tomorrow but I won't. I will tell you the videos and the Comanche both are deep in development and will be released soon.
I will also tell you that from what I have seen and discussed personally with Scott, the A2A Comanche when released will set a standard never before seen on a flight simulator.
Dudley Henriques"

June 12 (re: Comanche): "I would just note that we're deep at work in the final stages on the Comanche. As I've said many times before, we could have released it before now but we want this plane to be something above and beyond anything we have yet released. Accomplishing this goal has been as difficult a road as any developer has yet traveled in my opinion.
I realize people have been very patient with us and expectations are high. NOBODY wants to see the Comanche released more than we do.
There have been problems of course. What we are attempting with this plane is in every sense of the word a prototype.
I can tell people it's close. We're almost there. I won't ask people to be patient any more. That's up to you folks. I will tell you I've seen what we have done in flight and it's AWESOME !!!!!!!!!!
Dudley Henriques"

June 12 (re: MSFS 2024): "Going out on a limb here just a bit as I haven't been "officially advised". LOL
I honestly believe people need have no fear that FS2024 will null and void all about 2020 and developers add ons for 2020. Seriously......Microsoft isn't THAT stupid.......to word not allowed off their entire fan base in one fell swoop.........I don't think so.
What I'm looking for out of the 2024 release will most likely be a MAJOR MAJOR update with improvements in scenery that have to be seen to be believed and new adventures for the sim user to enjoy.
I am NOT looking for add on aircraft to suddenly be declared obsolete and null and void. I'm pretty sure Microsoft will see to it that what was purchased for 2020 can be used in 2024 with either no or very little financial transition required.
I can tell you that in the event this WASN'T the manner in which people were handled when the new sim arrives I for one would be the loudest voice in the industry raised in protest.
So hang in there gang. Don't give up on Microsoft quite yet. :-))))))))))))
Dudley Henriques"
 

Edited June 15, 2023 by lwt1971

[sd_flyer 6,093]

[Stoopy 1,601]

It seems fully external flight models are possible and are how some of the early helicopters (FlyInside Bell 47 and anything using AirlandFs) were implemented so as to get around shortcomings of the native flight model capability prior to native rotary wing support.  MSFS was simply the rendering "host" that gets attitude and position data injected from the external program.  It even made for some unexpected side effects in early AirlandFS helis wherein the application didn't verify that you were actually in a supported helicopter and thus allowed you to put your Cessna 172 in a hover (fixed shortly after Airland was made available)  What A2A is doing in that regard doesnt sound too unique at this point.  Just time consuming and a tad late to the party.

Edited June 15, 2023 by Stoopy

[djbully 210]

I’ve a feeling A2A are about to raise the bar, but time will tell ! 

[Sethos 4,541]

I just hope a lot of that 'raising the bar' is more focus on the maintenance side of things and immersion in doing the walk-around.

[lwt1971 7,464]

3 hours ago, Stoopy said:

It seems fully external flight models are possible and are how some of the early helicopters (FlyInside Bell 47 and anything using AirlandFs) were implemented so as to get around shortcomings of the native flight model capability prior to native rotary wing support.  MSFS was simply the rendering "host" that gets attitude and position data injected from the external program.  It even made for some unexpected side effects in early AirlandFS helis wherein the application didn't verify that you were actually in a supported helicopter and thus allowed you to put your Cessna 172 in a hover (fixed shortly after Airland was made available)  What A2A is doing in that regard doesnt sound too unique at this point.  Just time consuming and a tad late to the party.

So yes the only known way to do fully external flight modelling with MSFS is to use it as a display port by slewing the aircraft in its 3D space, but is that really what the FlyInside Bell 47 is doing though? They might be bypassing the MSFS native helicopter flight model and just using the general FDE maybe (I don't really know about FlyInside, does it have a flight_model.cfg? if so then it's using the core flight model).

If only using MSFS as a display port, then whatever external flight model also has to simulate its own weather/etc... in order to fully interact with the MSFS weather and its atmospheric airflow modelling, the aircraft's flight model has to be built atop the core MSFS FDE.

A2A have been asked (including by me) and they haven't given any details or overview about how they've designed/implemented AccuSim yet.. but if I were to guess, their AccuSim engine sits atop the core MSFS FDE and then Comanche specific code sits atop AccuSim. They also probably have systems code running as part of AccuSim that could sit completely external to MSFS as that of course is very possible (i.e. Fenix).
 

Edited June 16, 2023 by lwt1971

[Muwarr90 35]

Which will come first:

A2A Comanche?

Star Citizen full release?

George R.R. Martin's Winds of Winter?

Edited June 15, 2023 by Muwarr90
Misspelling

[Matchstick 1,905]

Well one of those is in beta testing, so.....

[cobalt 801]

Quoting from the analysis above by Dudley Henriques:

"Taking a close look at what a good flight simulator must have, the first requirement isn’t what you might think. It’s a totally believable world in which to fly. And NO, this doesn’t mean the other components aren’t important because they are. Every single person who buys a flight simulator MUST believe when they see the program on the screen for the first time that they are looking at the real world. Microsoft has done that. That first all important factor is there. MSFS2020 is BELIEVABLE from a real world standpoint."

I am very happy to see this comment from a professional flight sim evaluator, and I could not agree more. When all is said and done, nothing is more important than having a real world environment to fly in. And this is, at present, possible only in MSFS 2020 and nowhere else. Flight dynamics, weather, ATC -- have always been important, but MSFS has moved flight simming into a new era and there is no going back. The scenery has to be real. Period.