Realism and FSX Acceleration

[beatle 0]

The new racing system allows for 3 styles of racing:Red Bull Gate style racing - in this form you fly between inflatable gate markersReno Style Post racing - in this form you fly to one side or another of tall post markersCross Country Racing - in this form you fly using "regular aircraft navigation" to go from waypoint to waypoint.For the included race courses, we use a variety of aircraft (including sailplanes for one of the cross country races, Extra 300 and the new P51 for Reno and Redbull races, single engine GA for another cross country, etc). Also, 3rd parties will be able to create new race courses (and possibly some other styles of MP missions, like maybe MP SAR, but we haven't really tested doing anything other than racing ourselves so far) using whatever aircraft they want. And, the SDK will include the XML source for all the acceleration pack racing missions, to give the 3rd party folks a good sample of working courses to play around with.

[Mace 1,902]

I think you have some good observations.I think you are right in saying that the "average new flight sim user" doesn't know about add-on missions, and they would be very likely to transition to flight simming by using the mission medium, since many of those people are used to "structured" -type games rather than open-ended sims.I personally can't wait for the helicopter stuff in the add-on pack. And I am really not a rotorhead at all. I rarely fly them. But part of the reason for that is, that their flight dynamics have been merely modified piston files...up until Acceleration. :)RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

[Mace 1,902]

>>Cross Country Racing - in this form you fly using "regular>aircraft navigation" to go from waypoint to waypoint.>Forgive me if I am asking a dumb question...but I am not too familiar with long missions like you describe above...If you do a long race, like England-to-Australia, save, and exit FS, can you pick up your race where you last left off?Or does the mission "reset" and not save in the flt?RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

[mjrhealth 820]

I gues I am one just wanting a more realistic flying experience, and I can honestly say FSX has done that with the addons avaliable. I was never really interested in the fighters but even I would love to do an aircraft carrier landing especially with the working guidance system. The only real 2 gripes I have with FSX is that the clouds dont interact with the plane, you dont fly throught them they seem to leave a hole around you. In the 1946 flight sim when you pass through a cloud you can see the clouds passing over the wing just like in real life, in FSX its like you have a force field around you that just pushes them away, the other thing is the thermals, though so much better than b4 they still need some work, I love the turbulence I dont want to turn it off but the thermals sometimes just ruin the experience ( mind you only a little ), I have flown some missions and they to me are not gamelike I guess they add some day to day flying experiences to the game. Just did the soaring one and loved it first time ive flown the glider even though ive had FSX for 9 mths or so. Its like anything you can fly it like a game or flight it for real the choice is yours. i for one will very likely get the expansion if not just for the carrier.C u round

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

Rhett,It's not just the "average new flight sim user." Head on over to the AVSIM 2007 Readers Choice Awards nominations. You won't find any nominations for freeware or payware missions (hint, hint, wink, wink).Seriously though ... it strikes me as odd. I bought FSX primarily for the mission element, burned through them in a few weeks, then was desparate for another fix ... like it was heroin or something. Only I found almost nothing was out there.Thus, I decided to try to build my own (which was way more work than originally anticipated, if I might add).It's almost like missions are the red-headed step-children of the sim development world, which is remarkable, given the combined skills necessary to produce something approaching the quality produced by the ACES wizards.

[Mace 1,902]

Maybe part of the problem is that it is so difficult and time consuming to create a mission.Which makes me think a tool or tools to speed and and make it easier would be useful.I know one thing, scenery design is time consuming if you want to do a good job. I'm sure mission dev is the same way. And people have often asked, "why are there no sceneries". Well, that's why. Time.And if you're a perfectionist, you're not going to put out as many sceneries/missions because you want to do the best possible job, and that takes lots o' time especially if you have to divide that up between family, friends, chasing women, and work.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

[Guest jshyluk]

Hmmm... just thinking, don't mind the smell...A sort of "drag & drop" mission creator would be interesting. Something visual, where you can plant mission-specific icons and triggers onto the map. Event triggers could have menus that refer to pre-rendered libraries of events like lightning strikesand other emergencies, as well as sound and voice effects. Although a big, big part of mission creation is trying to figure out a sequence of interesting things to do in FSX (and how to keep your sim pilot from straying off-course), another part lies in the production values of the effects. Microsoft hired and recorded some excellent voice talent, which really adds to the appeal of their missions. I'd like the guy who does the tutorial voice to do my answering machine as well!Then, there's acres and acres of playtesting to be performed. Fun for a short while, but I would find it dreadful in the long run. Really, to make missions effectively, you need a whole team (unless you are some kind of super-genius). One guy in on his laptop fiddling with GMax and a 30-day trial of Goldwing won't cut it anymore. Jeff ShylukSenior Staff Reviewer, Avsim

[Guest fsxmissionguy]

Well, maybe a tool would help ... but frankly, the actual building the mission part in FSX is the least of the designer's worries. The Object Placement Tool is fairly useful ... although the available scenery that can be placed is somewhat limiting. (That's why you see a lot of the same scenery in a lot of missions. There are two in-game hospitals with helipads, for example. If 50 developers are reusing the same two hospitals, it wears a little thin on the player after a while.)No ... the real challenge is everything else that's associated with a mission, but isn't about "developing." It's plot development and scriptwriting. It's storyboarding. It's recording the sound. It's finding voice talent (or even just doing it yourself).If a person wanted to add custom scenery, there's a whole added level of time consumption and learning curve. I needed, in one of my missions, for the de-icing truck to actually spray de-icing fluid, but there wasn't an effect ... so, 3 days learning how to do that (much more trouble than it was worth for the 6 or 7 seconds that effect showed up on screen).There are parts of mission design which tools would be extremely useful - such as compiling rewards. In fact, anything that requires command line such as bglcomp, etc, the reward compiler ... should be made point and click simple.Then you get into the "art" required for things like the Mission Briefing (not being able to put simple .jpg or .bmp images in there). The design there is not the best for reusability.There are lots of little things like this that slow mission development and just make it way too complex for your average gamer doing this on the side just for fun.And so, then you spend all that time learning how to do it right ... and woe be the person who then tries to charge $1 for that mission, or promote it on any of the sites like AVSIM. I almost got thrown off the site for just mentioning a mission that I asked for a donation for.Sigh.Lots of hurdles to overcome for a hobby.

[FlyingsCool 3]

Paul,I notice that you say in your blog that FSX Acceleration has now added modeling of superchargers, and that it also now includes modeling of turbine engines for helicopters.1. Will these additional features make it into regular FSX in SP2, or are these Acceleration-only features?2. Is turbine engine modeling better for all aircraft, or just helicopters? I'm no expert, but I know that lots of people complain of the "lackluster" modeling of turbo-props in FS up to this point, although I don't know exactly what is wrong with it today (some of it has to do with incorrect sound during reverse thrust, and there are other issues).3. Can you go into a little more detail regarding exactly what you mean about these two improvements?Thanks!Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

[FlyingsCool 3]

So - Do the first 300 people who sign up for this year's Avsim conference get a free copy of Acceleration?? Hint, hint, nudge, nudge? :-)Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

[dleuen 0]

> and some stuff we are doing specifically because it builds the platform> so we can continue building on it for FS11 or some other product.Ok, this is enough to start a new rumor. CFS4 must be in the works :) See how easy they are to start with just a small nugget of information! BTW I'm looking forward to Acceleration. Thanks for the update and blog posts.Don

[Glynn 405]

HelloGreat so now we will have a fork in the code base. thats just going to put off more developers from supporting this version.ACES have made it hard enough with all the changes, this is the last thing 3rd party developers need, A moving target.

[Ramasurinen 0]

Have to say I'm a little confused on that one too Mad Dog. If things like tailhook/arrestor cable operation and sling loads are 'acceleration only', it's not the end of the world, but changes to the modeling of engines, turbines, supercharging etc would really need to be in SP2 as well. If not then military aircraft and helo developers especially are in for some flight tuning problems with the code fork you specified I'd think.Hopefully some clarification can be given there.

[Guest Gunner_CAF]

I'm here because of the missions. Each time a new version of MSFS comes out, I buy it, and fly for maybe a week or two, then it get's rarely used. I was just about to that point with FSX when I noticed the missions. I tried one and wow, these are fun! The missions have gave me an interest in flying other aircraft from gliders and airliners. I finaly just completed the Dutch Harbor Approach. That was a real challenge to land in a snow storm with nothing but an NDB and a chart.I have made 6 missions and I just started another. I enjoy making these about as much as flying them.I am looking forward to Acceleration. I plan to buy it. Keep up the great work!!Gunner

[Guest radivil]

>If things like tailhook/arrestor cable operation and sling loads>are 'acceleration only', it's not the end of the world,I agree. I've been working on a naval air station for a while now. Supposing its possible to graft the arrestor cables to things that aren't the aircraft carrier,* I'd have a version that has the runway arrestors and a version that doesn't. I bet that would add the whole of three minutes to the total development time, deleting the arrestors from the non-acceleration version :D* this is the part where I find out that this won't be possible ;)