davethewave2

Touch screens can be usde today in fsx, they simulate mouse clicks. I expect windows 8 api will have a touch events as well as mouse and keyboard events but I can't think how this would be different in flight then it is today. I think the issue with VCs is the buttons become so small its nearly impossible to click let alone touch the right hot spot. I guess the solution is to use seperate panels on touch sensitive screens.

I mean the amount of data that is practicle to distribute on a number of DVDs. Sorry, I should have been clearer.

Just checked. FS9 (2004) says minimum 1.8 GB of hard disk required.FSX (2006) says 15GB I hope we're not restricted in Flights scenery due to DVD distribution limits.Perhaps that's why we only see Hawawi in the demos - That's all that will fit on one DVD!

I tend to agree - I think we're in danger of being constraind by DVD capacity. Takes me back to FS5 that introduced phtographic scenery but we only had it around Megs as were stuck with 1.4MB floppys. I suspect it's quite a bit cheaper to get users to download scenery rather then produce lots of DVDs?

FSX, 5 years ago was shipped on 2 DVDs. With a few add ons my folder says it's taking up 18GB of which 12GB is scenery. In order to improve the scenery resolution in flight surely the scenery resolution needs to be upped by a factor of at least 2, and hopefully 4. As scenery resolution data size goes up with the square of the resolution then would indicate 50 to 200 GB of scenery data. Assuming data is compressed similar to FSX then we're still looking at more distribution size then is cost effective with DVDs. So would flight ship on Blue Ray or are we expected to download scenery?

I see what you mean,Here's the image on its own.http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/img/CloudBgnd.jpg

Yes, I was agreeing with you.

Hi Geoff, yes I do that. Although I only monitor packets I've found that if you kick immeadiatly you see an ai injection the traffic doesn't get in to the server.However, I've been playing with WinpkFilter so might migrate to that so I don't have to kick players, just remove the traffic.

There are some airports where a weather station is at an airport and another weather station is within a few miles or so. I've only realy noticed this in America. If you use fsx weather then its quite normal for fsx only to receive a Metar from Jeppesen for the airport. As soon as you're closer to the other weather station the weather will change. Open clouds and I guess other 3rd party weather engines should fix this. This shouldn't happen in Open Clouds.

Hi Heinz,This often happens when there is more then 1 cloud layer published in a metar. Since it's raining everywhere in the uk today it didn't take me long to find an example. 080650Z 22015KT 190V250 9000 RA FEW013 SCT022CB BKN032 13/12 Q1003You can see 3 layers in this metar, few at 1300, scattered at 2200 and broken at 3200. Also we have RA=rain.FSX then makes the assumption that the rain should cut off at the lowest cloud base which is 1300.When writing Open Clouds I had 2 choices, leave it as is so user sees clouds at the 3 levels, or remove 2 of the levels so there is one cloud base.I choose the former as in normal flight you wouldn't be going up and down through this so you would just assume that the rain had stopped/started while still seeing 3 layers of clouds.I hope flight fixes these issues, currently fsx totaly ignores showers in a Metar. Would be nice if it maybe rained under clouds! Hope that's useful.

Great point, I don't think developers would worry about ms taking a 30% cut if piracy was eliminated.

After 30 minutes searching for the birds....Do you mean this!

The problem with gliders is that it's abused by kids. Call up a towplane, release towplane and repeat. Using this a player can inject 2 towplanes a second or so into a game. This will bring a fsx session to its knees and covers the ATC radar screen with eroneous traffic.

I've been involved in the multiplayer arena for some years now.If you like big and very serious sessions then IVAO(great software) or VatSim (More European traffic) are good options. Both of the above require you to download additional software to join.At the other end of the scale are the sessions on Gamespy, the quality of which varies immensely!Although you might find a decently run session in Gamespy there are many drawbacks to these sessions as standard. To overcome this I’ve written an application that runs on an fsx server and enables the following; Autokick pilots spawning on runway at an airport controlled by ATC Auto kick players broadcasting on all frequencies Flight plans filing View your players on google maps. Embed maps and reports into your own web site. Auto kick players attacking your server by injecting planes. Auto close any friend requests Auto post message every 60 seconds Add active ATC info into messages Assign admin privileges to other players Admins can kick players from within chat Display a list of last 5 people to talk Gliders are auto-kicked on joining Choose if you want to auto kick extras/F-18s/Trikes Players can check their callsign Permanently ban players based on their Gamespy or IP address. Integrates with flightstrip software for ATC controllers As a pilot you don’t need to install anything else, just join one of the sessions running the software. Most of these are listed in the Gamespy lobby.In addition most of these sessions allow direct connect access. The sessions are all listed on the front page of www.fsopen.co.uk/ You can see the number of players in each session and in addition drill into google maps and list flight plans.

In the year 2500 half of the people on Avsim will be saying that there is no point upgrading from FS2496.Got me thinking how much info would be available.FSX, released in 2006 has about 11GB of scenery data. The earth has approx 120 trillion square meters. If you do the sums then 1MB of scenery data represents a square measuring 104 meters on its sides. Based on Moores law etc and data doubling every 18 months then I get these calculations.In 2012 fs will take 176GB and 1MB of data will cover a square 26 by 26 metersIn 2018 fs will take 2.8 TerraBytes and 1 MB will cover a square 6.5 by 6.5 metersIn 2033 fs will take 2.9 PetaBytes and 1 MB will cover 20cm by 20 cmIn 2048 fs will take 3 ExaBytes and 1MB will cover a square 6mm by 6mmAt this point Microsoft will realise that there is little point going any higher with resolution and look at fixing the weather engine!

I understand but there was no way in the old version to ask the question. I would need everyone to download an update to then be asked if they want to download another update? Bit of a catch 22. Does that make sense? However, I guess users prefer this sort of thing to happen. Something I've learnt today.

Jim, I agree. I think I could have handled it better. I was concentrating on the task of automating payments etc rather then the publicity or user emotion. Sorry.

Sorry, I missed that David. Now changed. The comment about the software being free and open to anyone really applies to FSHost, Flight strips etc which are aimed at the mutiplayer community. Ahh, my real motive has been discovered. Looking forward to the xmas party!

Yes I do apologise but Open Clouds is now payware.Originally I had intended it to be freeware for ever but I didn't realise the amount of time that goes into supporting a product, free or not. At the end of the day I decided that I must either pull the software completely or charge for it. Sorry for not anouncing it on here first but I wanted to ensure a smooth transition with the registration etc. I'm pleased to say this has worked ok.

online flying comes in many guises. IVAO/Vatsim take it very seriously. Gamespy sessions can be full of kids in F/18s attatcking you. But there are other sessions out there that offer:Group formationsLanding competitionsVFR specialsRacing round obstaclesetc etcAs evidence may I present.

There are a list of decent fsx sessions on the front of our web site here www.fsopen.co.uk/We actually ran a session were we made members team up as captain and co-pilot in 737s flying circuits and talking to ATC. My advice would be to stick to the standard fsx planes only.

If you want to understand serious VFR flying I'd say try listen in or try our Thursday night sessions.This clip is from a vfr circuit session. This Thursday we're teaching how to leave join via VRPs.Although we are open to any member the ATC is predominatly to UK spec and our events are timed for UK evenings.

OK, I understand now. I thought the game had to be written for 3D. Jim, you've gone right down in my estimation ! :-)

So you obviously have contacts then!So Jim, when do you think flight will be released?

Hi Jim,How do you know that?