honanhal

I’m also not exactly blown away by what we’ve seen of the ATC (looks very similar to FSX except that the voices are worse), BUT — and it’s a big but — the TTS nature of those voices opens up a world of possibilities. Appropriate accents is a huge one. It was always a huge immersion killer to have Midwest US accents everywhere in the world. If that’s not in the base game, seems a good one for a paid addon. Another one is that it makes it much easier to have new airline, airport, etc. names than the very cumbersome splicing process to do that with the FSX voices. And you can also change phraseology much, much easier. James

I have to admit it makes me a little crazy when I read here (on a regular basis) that you can’t see the difference between 30 and 60 FPS. If you really can’t see the difference, more power to you! And by all means lock your frame rate at 30 (or 25) FPS. Why not, right? You can’t see those extra frames anyway and it might cut down on stutters. But...I can definitely see the difference. And I think most people can — really easily, too! I recently played Far Cry 4 for the first time (I bought it years ago but I’m finally getting to my backlog). It’s from 2014, so my computer can absolutely kill it on its highest settings. Easily keeps above 60 FPS even in the most demanding scenes. And it’s smooth and wonderful. And then every once in a while you get a pre-rendered cutscene. They’re done in the engine, and it would be genuinely hard to tell the difference — except that they’re all recorded at 30 FPS, which makes it glaringly obvious when you hit one. Not only is it obvious, it’s simply jarring to lose that fluid smoothness. They don’t feel right. Conversely, there’s a whole movement about TV settings to ensure content filmed at 24 FPS isn’t upscaled to 60 (the so-called “soap opera effect”). How is this possible if the eye can’t see a difference? I fear I’m belaboring this point, but only because there’s a core of true believers who insist over and over again you can’t see more than 30 FPS... James

You may be right that there’s some portion of IFR simmers for whom MSFS doesn’t offer enough to switch (I’m skeptical that this will be a significant group — we’ll see). But I’m just not seeing how that group overlaps with Orbx’s core market, who by definition are simmers who want to improve the way their scenery looks. If I’m a hardcore systems guy who doesn’t care what the view out the window looks like, why would I be buying Orbx products in the first place? James

Orbx made a big bet on photoscenery for existing sims just before MSFS was revealed. That was a tough break for them (they correctly saw where the market was going but didn't anticipate a black swan event), but they do have good experience and credibility in building small, highly detailed GA airfields that they can always fall back on. The brutal truth is that their True Earth, vector, landclass, and "full fat" regions businesses are probably mostly toast with the release of MSFS (aside from continuing sales in what I'll call the "legacy sims"). If they're smart, they'll see that the MSFS addon market is going to be very different -- vastly larger but also largely not accustomed to eye-watering flightsim addon prices -- and price accordingly. They can make a lot more, and also build up a larger satisfied customer base and goodwill reservoir, by selling 10 times as many airports for $10 (or less) than they have been at much higher prices. James

And GTA V came out in 2013!

I think the replies in this thread make it clear that that we're already in that situation. Progress! James

Has anyone tried slowing down the audio from that first video to see what the ATC sounds like? I’m curious if they’re reusing the FSX audio (which would be fine with me — it was excellent in terms of the voices and avoiding sounding robotic). James

This is great news! And three launch projects I'd already been following with interest, too. This has really put a smile on my face. James

I’m going to respond exactly once to this — because it’s a telling example of exactly what I’m talking about — and then I’m really done, because let’s be honest, this is pointless. With respect, your post is a collection of strawmen and false equivalences, starting with the idea that I or anyone else here is saying that “science is infallible.” Nobody here said that. Indeed, no one could read Alan’s posts and conclude that he’s somehow blindly accepting anything a scientist has published as holy writ. His last post is about why one scientific study is flawed science, for crying out loud. But what I want to focus on is your second paragraph. There are two embedded ideas here that I don’t think hold water and which have (to Alan’s point about retreading the same ground) already been discussed extensively in this thread. First, that you can “fix” the economy by ending restrictions on movement, businesses, etc. I saw yesterday that in one US city restaurant reservations were down from the norm by 75 percent the day before lockdown restrictions went into effect. Fundamentally, the economy has been trashed because there’s a deadly pandemic, not because authorities have instituted restrictions to slow infections. You reopen restaurants that then operate at 25 percent of capacity — how long do you think those businesses stay in business? You fix the economy by getting a vaccine, not by “opening it back up.” That’s not necessarily an argument against loosening restrictions, by the way. But let’s be honest about what the results are likely to be. It’s not black and white, and it’s not like flipping a switch that brings back the status quo ante. Second, that you’re “forcing” a “vast majority” of people out of work and into “economic ruin.” Polls show that Americans overwhelmingly (two to one) favor maintaining existing social distancing restrictions (and 95 percent of those who want them lifted haven’t had their employment affected). What we’re really talking about here is giving employers the right to force their workers to go to work, even if they don’t want to because they don’t think it’s safe. Let’s call things what they are. It seems very fashionable now to argue against “permanent lockdowns,” which almost no one anywhere, and certainly no one in this thread, is actually advocating. Alan and others have treated people with whom they disagree with respect, and have characterized their arguments fairly and in good faith. It’s a shame that hasn’t been reciprocated. James

This thread is a microcosm of why we’re all doomed. On the one hand, you have science, the good faith pursuit of truth, engaging openly with people of different opinions to try to persuade them. On the other, cherry-picked facts to suit your pre-ordained conclusions, stubborn refusal to engage honestly with arguments made in good faith, and, when all else fails, “what do we really know? No one really knows anything.” And you see the result here. The people like Alan who kept slamming their head into that wall of denial and the same nonsense repeated over and over — whether through bad faith or just ignorance, it’s hard to tell — eventually get driven out. Congratulations, guys. Savor your moment while you can. What a world. James

I’d asked in another thread if it’s really the case that Vector is no longer needed in v5, as Orbx was claiming. Guess I finally got my answer! That’s settled it for me. I’ll wait for MSFS. James

Here’s an article laying out the point I was making earlier: “opening up” doesn’t mean everything comes back the way it was — and could actually kill businesses faster than keeping them locked down: https://thebulwark.com/we-cannot-reopen-america/?amp This is not fundamentally about making a choice between health and livelihood. They’re totally intertwined, and until people feel safe, the economy is going to be very, very different... James

I can think of a couple other times the “advice” to disable AV to install turned out to be...not a great idea. Or even (*cough* FSL *cough*) was hiding something more sinister. Another one of those things we as a community have gradually normalized that to an outsider would seem totally bonkers! James

Yes, I also saw that recommendation that you really need a 30 Hz monitor to get P3D v5 smooth (made in absolutely good faith, and also accepted by the OP in good faith!) and was blown away. I mean fair enough trying to work around limitations, and the ingenuity and perseverance the end-user community has shown here is genuinely impressive. I’m not criticizing them. They’re trying to help others. But obviously something is not right if the recommendation made with a straight face in the year of our lord 2020 is that the only way to get your “state-of-the-art” sim smooth (at a mere 30 FPS!) on monster hardware is buying a low-refresh rate monitor... James

Dave, I think we're actually in agreement. If people stop going out and spending for an extended period of time, we'll have a depression. The problem is that you can't fix that problem by fiat. In a free society, people have to want to go out and spend. If you don't have testing and tracing, or a vaccine, not enough people will want to do that to solve that economic problem. You can't send the army door to door to force people to go to a restaurant or bar. James