Cruachan

Hi, More musings from a curious simmer. Notwithstanding all the arguments surrounding how we access MSFS when it is eventually RTM, we might feel inclined to consider how Microsoft/ASOBO will recoup their undoubtedly huge existing and ongoing development costs. Why did MS revisit this franchise when history and, arguably, a lack of vision had soured their experience with financial losses and consequent abandonment of the product? From Wikipedia: Where implemented, a franchisor licenses its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its business model, brand, and rights to sell its branded products and services to a franchisee. In this instance, I am assuming ASOBO became the franchisee. A fresh approach was necessary and their submitted proof of concept demonstrated what was possible using currently available modern cutting edge technologies. Microsoft, to their credit, recognised the potential inherent in ASOBO’s impressive contemporary vision of their venerable simulator and so decided to commit medium to long term. However, they must have known that, as in the past, enthusiasm alone for a product such as this would not be enough to guarantee recovery of their substantial financial investment, but it would help if ways could be found to sustain the interest of potential customers beyond the hardcore flight-simming community. Enter the ‘Microsoft Game Pass’. MSFS could be marketed as their flagship product that serves to attract millions of new customers. Undoubtedly this presentation of their simulator is unique and with the exploitation of modern technologies is impressive in so many ways. The desire out there to experience what it has to offer will be strong. To this end, their clever advance marketing campaign is fulfilling its objective and virtual queues of customers are growing by the day. However, it is likely that the majority of those paying customers will be unable to sustain their interest for more than a few weeks and so decisions will be made, in effect, to ‘try-before-you-buy’ by following the ‘Game Pass’ monthly subscription route rather than by purchasing MSFS outright. Everyone wins: Microsoft/ASOBO, their burgeoning numbers of Microsoft customers who have access to numerous games via their ‘Game Pass’ and last, but not least ourselves, the flight-simming community who will, as ever, help to sustain and promote further ongoing development (third party and core) of what is likely to become a hugely significant milestone in flight simulation. It has to be underlined that none of the foregoing can be regarded as being factual, merely further idle speculations on my part. Mike Edit: Don’t know why I overlooked another likely bonus: Highlighting this new sim will certainly attract significant numbers of new simming aficionados who will be visiting dedicated sites such as AVSIM. We have been noticing additional income generating initiatives such as the appearance of non flight sim-related advertising. While some may dislike this trend, the rise in visitors and membership numbers will attract much needed funds to maintain these free at the point of use sites for our pleasure and edification.

Withdrawing software “support” is not necessarily the same as saying it will cease to work. For example, I have a Dual Boot System and Oculus is installed and working under Win 7 and Win 10. The Oculus Home window running in Win 7 has a permanent red banner at the top advising me that the Oculus software is no longer receiving support. Nevertheless it continues to update the core software and drivers without any reported errors or issues noted in the VR games installed. Yes, it’s likely I am being denied various new Win10-specific features but, as long as things continue working under Win 7 as before, who cares, certainly not me 😀 Withdrawing support simply means that the developer will not waste time or effort talking to you about anything running under Win 7 as they have now moved on. So be it. Mike

Boy, Steve’s not kidding! Looks like this could ‘soon’ become a reality: https://www.pcgamesn.com/carbon-nanotube-cpu-reality Wonder whether I should delay that next hardware upgrade..lol? To be honest, what I have now is (as predicted 4+ years ago) is still satisfying my requirements so, for now, there is no imperative to change anything 😀 Mike

Hi @nikita Perhaps my response was insufficiently clear. We live around 4 miles south of Edinburgh. Our local exchange is roughly 1 mile, as the crow flies, from our home. The street cabinet is also around a mile from our home by a somewhat indirect route. We were ‘quoted’ 15 Mbps at time of conversion several years ago, but speeds have never been higher than 10-11Mbps. However, the connection has, in the main, remained very stable and reliable. Never had problems with huge downloads...just have to be patient! Now, Virgin have installed a cabinet 2-3 hundred yards from our house so if this distance is bridged with copper, as it is now from the BT cabinet, we should expect much improved d/l speeds. Fibre may not be possible as it could prove prohibitively expensive to install over that distance. To be fair, at this point I don’t know what might be possible. I’ve registered an interest so will have to wait and see. In light of your comments, perhaps I should be revising my somewhat negative opinion regarding BT and be thankful for what we have. Regards, Mike

You would think so and yet BT Infinity (FTTC) can only deliver 10Mbps down and 1.5 Mbps up to my home 4 miles south of Edinburgh in Scotland. Virgin infrastructure has recently been established close by. Assuming speeds are significantly higher, and I can connect, then once they are online you won’t see me for dust! BT should be hanging their heads in shame! Mike

I preface this response by stating that I have yet to take the plunge re V5, but I am wondering whether access and startup times could be improved by disabling scenery areas considered irrelevant to your proposed current flight. Perhaps Lorby’s AO tool would help in this respect by defining a configuration outside the sim before starting a session. This worked in V4. Mike

I believe Mitch has sidelined TrueSky for the time being. Mike

Hi Mitch, So good to see your participation on this forum again! We need guys like you to lighten the mood while drilling through all the negativity. One question: Have you given ORBX Global Vector a miss this time around? ATB, Mike

On the face of it your reaction is understandable. However, I do wonder what was going on during the formal closed beta testing period? Are the testers constrained by specific requests from the developer and are they allowed to comment about other matters/shortcomings such as have been highlighted in this thread? If the latter is true then right now their frustrations must be palpable. I suspect the answers to these and other questions will forever remain mysterious closely guarded secrets. It’s a pity really, as a little more openness about the process with the community at large would help bolster our confidence in the future aspirations of the product. Mike

For his video to have any validity for the average user surely we should be accepting that he is running with custom in-sim settings, as shown in the video, and without any further manual adjustments in the configuration file. That way we can rely on what we are seeing is a true representation of what is achievable without any unnecessary additional tweaking. I suspect we have now reached the stage when LM would prefer us to resist introducing any instabilities by leaving well alone. Mike

Oh no, cover our eyes! Please, I implore you, please don't resurrect the dreaded “S” word!! Mike 😟

Suffice to say MSFS2020 now has some serious competition! Good thing too as it gives us an important viable alternative while encouraging both software development teams not to rest on their laurels. Future is looking good as our hobby enters this new era of flight simulation excellence. Mike

Assuming shaders are responsible, then yes.....and Austin explains why in this video: https://youtu.be/_D9YZLapnCw Mike

Okay, thanks, I’ll give it another go as soon as time permits. Are these your usual settings? Regards, Mike

Agree with everything you have said. It’s a wonderful experience until, that is, nausea overwhelms all that pleasure making it imperative to get out of there PDQ! I’ve tried a few suggestions to mitigate this issue, but have admitted defeat and decided to set the game aside meantime. Don’t have the same problem with the likes of ‘Lone Echo’ which is also amazing as it too involves much shifting of view perspective. In Skyrim it can help if I teleport but, sadly, this detracts somewhat from that sense of realism and immersion. Any motion sickness avoidance tips? Regards, Mike