9 hours ago, jcomm said:

AoT that is taking away 90% of my simming desktop time

How are you finding it vs IL2?

I'm personally saving pennies for Korea, myself…

1 hour ago, UrgentSiesta said:

How are you finding it vs IL2?

I'm personally saving pennies for Korea, myself…

They're  on different leagues... IL-2 is more detailed in terms of systems, even if there is no direct cockpit interaction as there won't be either in Korea (but they introduced a new interface model that will make controlling complex systems more easily).

But OTOH, playing in AoT, just as I remember from playing in WT, is more immersive because of the varied scenery details, terrains, etc... And it's really fast to get into action, which is something I praise because I don't have much time for long missions.

Flight dynamics aren't bad at all, even if the aircraft feel to me more like caricatures of the RW models they represent, retaining their main flight characteristics without going to the level of detail that some modules in, say... DCS World offer. But they're very satisfying and believable IMO.

The "trimmer fixation" option, just like in War Thunder, is the X-Plane equivalent of using Plane Maker to set default trim tab deflections for elevator, aileron and rudder, allowing the simmer to properly trim an aircraft for cruise. Or one can opt for "Comfort" settings that allow for automatic trimming is you so which 🙂

The sim is optimized for VR. For players using flat screen and HOTAS controllers we can't interact with cockpit levers, switches, etc... 

There isn't yet way to control individual engines in multi-engine aircraft.

Nonetheless I really like it 🙂

Korea tempts me too 😉

Edited March 10Mar 10 by jcomm

IL-2 Korea looks interesting.

 

7 hours ago, mSparks said:

They trained them on ebooks they pirated from tpb.

Meta is currently in court argueing how that is cool and normal:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/02/meta-torrented-over-81-7tb-of-pirated-books-to-train-ai-authors-say/

https://torrentfreak.com/uploading-pirated-books-via-bittorrent-qualifies-as-fair-use-meta/

The Pirate Bay?! Torrents?! Is it 2005 again?

At least e-books are better sources than other AI or internet slop, provided they're sourced from academia instead of quackademia.

4 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

“Hey, man… I just found this bag full of money with First National Bank printed on the outside. Right after an armored car with police chasing it went by. 

How was I supposed to know it was stolen…?”🤣

The problem is that the books were pirated in the first place and put out where anyone could get them. 

So, everyone is gonna (“has already”)grab stuff like that for AI training. 

But no way is it Fair Use. And now that the cows have left the barn, Zuckerberg should peel off a few bills to license their use from the authors/publishers. 

I hear he just paid a record $170,000,000 for a new (additional) home in Miami.

 

They actually have a reasonable argument, the downloading isn't the problem in a legal sense afaik - the uploading is.

They are basically saying at no point did they distribute full copies of the books, and anything less than that has pretty strong fair use arguments.

Going to be a huge landmark case if they win, but yeah, they probably don't.

I'm reserving judgement tbh, see where it goes, in the whole theme of the thread sometimes the unconventional way is best for everyone, but also a lot of times it isn't. I'm not a huge fan if gated access to knowledge, and that entire market drastically needs a rethink in this new era...

17 hours ago, mSparks said:

They actually have a reasonable argument, the downloading isn't the problem in a legal sense afaik - the uploading is.

They are basically saying at no point did they distribute full copies of the books, and anything less than that has pretty strong fair use arguments.

Going to be a huge landmark case if they win, but yeah, they probably don't.

I'm reserving judgement tbh, see where it goes, in the whole theme of the thread sometimes the unconventional way is best for everyone, but also a lot of times it isn't. I'm not a huge fan if gated access to knowledge, and that entire market drastically needs a rethink in this new era...

Nah. It’s a copyright violation at the very least. 

all one has to do is take the internet out of it and ask what the offline process would be to acquire the books. 

while I’m usually a staunch pro-business advocate, this is one of those times I’m not because…well, see above. 
 

and especially in this case where the perpetrator is one of the most wealthy AND highly profitable companies in the planet. 

It speaks volumes about their corporate character. 

Edited March 11Mar 11 by UrgentSiesta

14 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Nah. It’s a copyright violation at the very least. 

 

Its very messy.

Copywrite violations generally apply to the distributor - not the reciever.

It's not illegal to buy bootleg CDs (although they can be confiscated, and it is immoral), it is illegal to make/distribute them.

Bittorrent includes uploads, which counts as distributing, but distributing can be allowed under fair use conditions.

The court case got very messy because it has already been settled that their use was fair use, whats left is was their redistribution a violation, and their argument is it can't be because it's already been settled that their use was fair use.

The claimants lawyers than had a tantrum that couldnt be claimed now, because it wasnt claimed before, then meta pointed to their original defence documents claiming fair use.

Last I heard, aiui.

Also, to keep it on topic, metas position is relatively similar to Austins position on patents

 

Neither is black and white. 

My take is technically the trained AI is a derivative work of everything it was trained on, so some type of agreement and compensation should be due, trouble is existing laws never considered the case of a single compute platform being a derivative work of the sum total of human knowledge, absolutely no one really believed that would be a real thing any time soon, let alone already.

Edited March 12Mar 12 by mSparks

17 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

all one has to do is take the internet out of it and ask what the offline process would be to acquire the books. 

How it's been at every school and university before mass internet access: Go to library, pick book(s) and let the copy machine run wild. Maybe bribe the librarian to look the other way.

 

17 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

and especially in this case where the perpetrator is one of the most wealthy AND highly profitable companies in the planet. 

It speaks volumes about their corporate character. 

Companies and individuals in general do not get wealthy by being pure at heart and playing by the book.

I find it more surprising that Meta apparently willingly ignored the common knowledge that pirating off torrents comes with a bullseye on the back for legal ramifications. But then again, they can't be the only ones who did that, with the difference that their AI competitors were a lot more careful about their pirating.

5 hours ago, Bjoern said:

How it's been at every school and university before mass internet access: Go to library, pick book(s) and let the copy machine run wild. Maybe bribe the librarian to look the other way.

 

Companies and individuals in general do not get wealthy by being pure at heart and playing by the book.

I find it more surprising that Meta apparently willingly ignored the common knowledge that pirating off torrents comes with a bullseye on the back for legal ramifications. But then again, they can't be the only ones who did that, with the difference that their AI competitors were a lot more careful about their pirating.

And also

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authors_Guild,_Inc._v._Google,_Inc.

On 3/12/2026 at 1:33 AM, Bjoern said:

How it's been at every school and university before mass internet access: Go to library, pick book(s) and let the copy machine run wild. Maybe bribe the librarian to look the other way.

 

Companies and individuals in general do not get wealthy by being pure at heart and playing by the book.

I find it more surprising that Meta apparently willingly ignored the common knowledge that pirating off torrents comes with a bullseye on the back for legal ramifications. But then again, they can't be the only ones who did that, with the difference that their AI competitors were a lot more careful about their pirating.

Yes, but it's a matter of scale/pervasiveness and then distribution.

Agree on second & third.