Fly3 publisher-get'cher ideas flowing

[Guest]

With all of the talk that almost always is spread here about Fly's death (even though Richard has always responded with comments to the opposite), I thought it could possibly be fun, and more importantly, open up new ideas, to discuss alternative ways of getting a new Fly3 out the door. Obviously, the trouble appears to lie in the form of TRI needing a new publisher (correct me if I'm wrong). May be Rich can respond with how much up front cash is actually needed for an endeavor such as this.Now to start with, the original concept of G.O.D. was very admirable. Let the developers ban together to publish thier titles. No more will they be working under unworkable time tables, no more will games be rushed to the shelves before they were ready. Obviously, GODGames itself became a publisher like those it was intending to avoid.So what new ideas are out there? Maybe a publishing company created, managed, etc, by the rabid fans like us? Maybe take the route of X-Plane and work for a long time as only a download application?There has to be new, unthought of ideas out there. Let's hear what you all come up with.Brian

[Guest]

no comments at all? Fly! slamming threads always seem to get ideas on this very topic, but a thread in and of itself attract nothing?oh well.

[Guest]

>no comments at all? Fly! slamming threads always seem to get >ideas on this very topic, but a thread in and of itself >attract nothing? >oh well. Okay, I'll bite. I'd like to see a Fly III but the truth is it's going to take some serious cash to make that a reality. Flight simulation (especially civilian sims) is perhaps the most expensive gaming segment to develop full-featured titles for and the big returns publishers love are not always guaranteed. You need millions to do it right. Just acquiring rights and permission for the data is expensive (ex. Microsoft has already locked up an exclusive contract with the likes of Jeppessen- where do you now go to get the good data to do airport layouts, enable critical flight planning features, etc.?), not to mention actual development costs. Some of us here witnessed Pro-Pilot and Flight Unlimited hit the dust and have learned not to hold our breath. At this point, I would think the Fly! code would need some major work to become competitive- the market would require Fly! III have significantly more features than what already exists in products currently on shelves... that in turn suggests more money for development. Unless one knows of some extremely wealthy and dedicated Fly! fans out there who won't mind lending a few mills to get Fly! III out the door... ;-)Brgrds,R. Maasha

[Guest]

The last quote was between $ 2.5 - 3 million dollars to develop a full Fly!3.Maybe an X-Plane style development with multi patches and bi-annual releases created by a small group may be the way ahead?Peter

[Guest Mgarmy]

I was always in favor of that. However it means that Rich needs to get the rights to the product as well as having the courage to leave a secure working place and becoming self employed. If the Fly! updates frequencey will be sufficient, with new features and enhancements where other developers can work with I think that there may be a viable business model behind that. I also think that it should be made available on a subscribtion bases with a descent (high) price point to make it profitable enough and to draw the right kind of audience. Will it work? It did for me and I am sure it worked also for others.Mannie

[Guest]

Peter has the general cash requirements correct. In a perfect world Fly! would have an alternating release schedule to MSFS, with about a 2-year cycle on every even numbered year. But, you'll find it almost impossible to find any publisher (with the exception of self-published developers, like Blizzard) who are willing to stick their neck out on a 2-year cycle. Once you hit the 18-month point, the nervousness index begins to exponentially rise.If I'm reading into X-plane's situation correctly, it appears that Austin has lost his publisher (whether their choice or his) and he'll be returning back to his old pricing structure soon.Rich

[Guest Eagle]

I don't understand why you would consider this a Fly slaming thread. It is good to put these ideas forward and let the Fly community respond and it would appear from reading positive comments by others that it is a good subject for discussion.My question is "Why a FlyIII?" Why not develop FlyII to it's full potential. Fly2K was great and many within this community developed planes and add-ons. I enjoyed Fly2K and still use that sim, but when FlyII came out all development for Fly2K stopped. Now that those who can within our community are developing add-ons for FlyII a discussion has begun on a FlyIII. My vote would go to staying with FlyII, but, then I am only one in this vast community of Fly simulator fans.Take care and Keep FLYing!!

[Guest]

No, I don't call this a fly slamming thread. My point was, initially, those threads get more posts coming up with ideas for a better Fly than this one, which had that very idea in mind.As far as your point about, why a Fly3? simply, Rich and the guys aren't feeding the kids with free patches. Granted, yes, they're working on other products, but why should they continue to make Fly2 better endlessly, without ever seeing an additional penny?We have a great product, and it keeps getting better. But I think that if Fly can produce 2-3 more full version releases and continue on, you'll finally see more 3rd party developers take notice. How many now have considered developing for Fly, but don't want it to go the way of ProPilot or FU series?I ultimately believe the success and failure lie with the number of third party add ons. For example, if more and more people start showing screen shots of work they've created using Pascal's tutorial, the effect will snow ball, and this will in effect, promote the sim world as a whole. It's always been said that the sim world needs competition for FS to keep improving, and personally, I want that competition to come from TRI.

[Guest]

HiWhat sell?? EYECANDY !My ideer is that some wise ;) people get together and write a new graphic and scenery engine for FLY3 Use DirectX9 and all the power of the next generation of graphic-cards.Now help Allen Kriesman make a TerraModels v.3 with the new improvement and distribute this version to some of the hardcore FLY fans. Now they can make all the airports ect.The same ideer goes for Terrascene and Vol!Edit.Making all the airports, scenery, updating airports ect. for FLY3 takes time!! But if we help out, the FLY3 development team can focus on other things then scenery. I am sure that many people will help making FLY3FLY3 needs help getting in the airHenrik

[Guest]

>Hi >What sell?? EYECANDY ! >My ideer is that some wise ;) people get together and write >a new graphic and scenery engine for FLY3 Use DirectX9 and >all the power of the next generation of graphic-cards. >>>Henrik Not making waves here... its a good ideer I have to agree. But unless someone can fork out the moolah the ideer of FlyIII! is not going anywhere. There are alot of wise people out there. But these wise people have mouths to feed and they arent going to do it for free. I dont know squat about writing code for graphics.. I do know that it takes alot of time to do it though. Time is money in todays society. I dont mean to come across as a naysayer so please dont take it that way. I would love to see improvements in FlyII, we all would. Im sure that Richard wouldnt disagree with that point either. I dont have the solution or the answers rolling around in my lil Ol noggin , but Im sure out there somewhere somebody does. You mentioned DirectX9 , does it exist yet? I guess I should have went and did a search before asking that question first. But I was just scrolling through the posts and saw this one. Ive been tinkering around with this latest release of Orbiter lately. Made me think of seeing if anyone could or would attempt to make a model of the Space Shuttle for FlyII!. But not go to all the trouble of dealing with the launch sequence. Just have it setup to start as a glide approach sequence. Any takers????? Why Oh .... Why cant I ????FlyII! ver. 2.30Directx 8.1nVidia drivers 23.11ECS K7S5A SOCKETA /DDR/ AUDIO/ATX MB, DDR 128MB PC-2100 266MHZ MEMORY ,AMD ATHLON T-BIRD 1.2GHZ 256K FSB266 PGA , NVIDIA GEFORCE2 MX-400 64MB 4X-AGP

[Guest]

Hi ???DirectX9 has not been released yet. But I think Developers have a version to work with!Henrik