Paulish

To my mind MS have completely missed the point re the value of Flight together with the original FS Series. The earlier MS Flight Simulator Series was supported and developed over many years by Microsoft and probably attracted ten of thousands if not millions of users over that period. This niche activity along with a number of others produced a great deal of loyalty to the Microsoft brand in the sense that the leisure users were also mainstream consumers and users of Microsoft’s flagship business products. Whilst this wasn't true for everyone in my own case I certainly had some influence on the purchasing of MS products in the workplace. Even in the home I have to ask myself now as to why I shouldn't eventually move over to Apple now that it seems that MS are never again likely to produce a Flight Simulator. They should have viewed Flight as a "loss leader" rather than being so highly reactive to its performance as a "profit centre" For the future they could have pushed it to the point where it became a a kind of proto FS11 with all the efficiencies of the new coding. Opened up with an SDK, perhaps with default scenery as per FSX but with potential for 3rd party involvement. They could stopped development at the point where very little extra fixing was needed and taken a much lower cut than than they were originally expecting from the Dev's. In this way they could have given a boost to an industry wich has previously supported them and which in its current form will ultimately decline.

Re Vehicle Simulator-Graphically it may not be as impressive as MS Flight/ Aerofly although as mentioned it does a great job of of water and wave effects. To me it has the feel of X-Plane and seems to do a better job of the flight modelling than the FS series generally does. It also provides open access for custom aircraft and scenery and there is quite a lot of this available on the website. Some nice touches include trees and vegetation that bend in the breeze.I think I am going to take the plunge and buy the licensed copy although I will still try the "freemium" when it becomes available.

I used to use a simulator called MIcro Flight developed by a small outfit. The successor product is called Vehicle Simulator and simulates water craft also. The focus is very much on the physics and is particularly noticeable with regard to wave modelling and the effects of wind. It is particularly aimed at the lighter end of aviation such as gliders and microlightsI have just downloaded the demo and I am going to give it a go.http://www.hangsim.com/vsf/index.php