As I am sitting here at my desk flying at 35400 feet in my Lufthansa 747-400 by PMDG over FSGenesis mesh and GEX textures and UT lakes and roads and landclass over northern Canada I am believing that this is as good as it gets. I have spent a lot of money on buying all the FS9 addons I became addicted to so that I could fly them in FSX. I just purchased a state of the art computer and I am now flying in high heaven because I have smooth fame rates, amazing scenery and AI traffic once again. After going through all this time and money, I am hesitant about dong it all over again with FS11. What I was wondering is, with Microsoft's new ESP and developers producing new and incredible scenery options for FSX will there be a need for an FS11? I may be misunderstanding what ESP is all about, so please enlighten me.

People said the same thing after FS9!What do you think ESP is? That is an easier way!Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-community-sigbanner.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/

ESP is not for simmers at all.It is a purely commercial level "serious games" platform. IOW, none of us "simmers" could afford to buy any solution built on the ESP platform, even if such were available to the general public...

To be honest, I don't really know what it is. From my reading here in the forums I understand it to be some kind of software architecture for creating software for FS. I am sure I am totally wrong. What I am implying is, if developers produce such highly realistic addons that it becomes very realistic will there be a point in upgrading FS once again? I would put Activesky in that category.

>To be honest, I don't really know what it is. I have seen ESP in action so I can tell you what it is if this is the question.I work at NASA Ames and they have a number of very advanced simulation projects going on. Sometimes I go there for some 757 flying - I happen to know people who run this simulator. They have two full motion simulators side-by-side. They let me fly there once in a while. When I looked at their control displays I saw something that looked like FS. I asked them and was told it was Microsoft's ESP - they use it to visualize position of the aircraft (hooked up to the big simulator) in relation to the terrain. >such highly realistic add-ons that it becomes very realistic>will there be a point in upgrading FS once again? I think yes. Unfortunately no matter how good an add-on it suffers from inherent limitations of the platform. Activesky is quite good but still suffers from serious limitations of FS' weather depiction. Michael J.http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/9320/apollo17vf7.jpg

Ha, as much as you don't need FS11. I don't need FS, any version, any more as I picked up real flying. I am 10 hours away from getting my PPL, and will probably buy a mid life single to practice. Then, I will continue to get my CPL and IRL. On another thought, I guess not. I will still need FS and Radar Contact to practice procedures.

I beg to differ ... after thousands of hours of real flight time and lots of ratings I still WANT ... (if not, need) FS. The reasons are many and I won't elaborate [just the ability to "dream," for one ... NO ONE has the time to try out every aircraft and every flight venue], but I am SO thankful for the hobby and its perpetrators!!

I meant to mention just ONE reason ... The enhanced ability to dream and visualize. No one has the time/ability to fly every aircraft type that he would like or at every location that interests him.

Indeed I would never ever ever ever be able to fly a columbia 400 low and slow at 500-1000 feet off the deck through the middle of Yellowstone National Park. And it's fun to check things out that you would never be allowed to in real life. Like Area 51, the middle of the Vegas Strip in an F-86 Sabre or simply flying like a Blue Angel in an F/A-18. I think that Flight Simulator does a lot more for people than allowing them to practice procedures or what not. And by the way the gas prices are looking more and more real world pilots will be resorting to flying virtually from their desks because they won't be able to afford to pleasure fly like they used too.

>I meant to mention just ONE reason ... The enhanced ability>to dream and visualize. No one has the time/ability to fly>every aircraft type that he would like or at every location>that interests him.Exactly.. I started enjoying flying simming even more after real world flying.Manny

Ditto!...and it continues to save me many avgas gallons which is especially important now. Why practice stuff in the real plane that can be practiced for free on the desktop? Leave the real flying time for that that cannot be duplicated! :-)Also extremely grateful!http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/1b5baf...b9f427f694g.jpgMy blog:http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

>ESP is not for simmers at all.>>It is a purely commercial level "serious games" platform. ...so does this mean that developers could utilize this tool in order to build some "serious" software for the FS world?

>>ESP is not for simmers at all.>>>>It is a purely commercial level "serious games" platform. >>...so does this mean that developers could utilize this tool>in order to build some "serious" software for the FS world?Not unless the simmer was willing to pony up >$10,000. The minimum purchase from MS is five licenses for the ESP platform + the costs of the Solution Provider's custom work...ESP is targeted to government and large commercial companies. It is not at all affordable for the "casual/hobby market..."

edit: never mind.Gary