TBurd01

I'm honestly kind of more excited to see what Aerofly can do. Flight School wasn't very impressive, and it seems like they are just trying to copy/paste FSX to 64 bit. Still filled out the survey in full, but I'm not expecting my feedback to be considered.

I think they said not on release, which if you ask me is a real killer. I'm concerned that Flight Sim may be just another FSX, Flight School wasn't impressive at all and they have been quite silent about the Sim.

Well yeah, accumulating snow and changing foliage based of real conditions would be amazing. Not everywhere has snow on the ground in the winter, and sometimes unusual places like deserts will get some. Same thing goes with foliage, depending of the longitude you'll have different changes based on temperature, and it's not just green summer to yellow fall to nothing winter, it's all gradual. Same thing happens with mountains, trees get leaves a bit later, change color and fall a bit earlier because of the temperature variations from the valleys.

Dynamic seasons and vegetation would be huge. I doubt P3D or DFS could even dream of that.

Honestly, I wasn't too impressed. They didn't show off anything, just said the same thing they were saying about Flight School, which isn't that great. In the question session, there were no real definitive answers, just a bunch of running around questions saying they want to implement stuff. They have a real high bar if they want to be relevant, especially with the promise that Aerofly FS 2 shows and what X Plane showed off.

Did they mention anything about VR? It would be a shame if they aren't developing XP 11 with VR in mind.

I'm no developer, but if DX12 is confirmed to be backwards compatible to run on DX11 cards (without all the new features obviously), then I don't see why the same wouldn't be true between operating systems.

Pretty sure Windows 7 users are able to play DX 12 games, but only using DX 11. Just like people with DX 11 cards can play DX 12 games, you just don't get the DX 12 features or performance (duh). Hopefully in a year or so into the full sim, they'll bring DX 12 support. Really stupid not to, especially if they are serious about developing a true sim for the future, which supports VR. If you want something that can really outclass P3D, then DX 12 is a no brainer.

There have been no screenshots or videos even released for DTG Flight Sim, everything out there is from Flight School. Flight School is basically FSX:SE with Orbx Global, as a game it is only meant to bring in new blood to the genre. Even DTG said on here that they are putting their work into the full sim, not flight school.

I'm really excited for the full sim. They haven't done much with Flight School, but the full sim seems to have a whole lot more promise. It sounds like they are really trying to develop something which won't need add ons to be good. Orbx made the scenery for Flight School which looks pretty great for default, and I'm excited to see what they can do for the full sim. Same goes for the aircraft in Flight School, pretty sure someone else made them, and the DA42 update is going to be from Alabeo. Hopefully they work with more experienced companies to make things really shine (like REX for environment, Active Sky for weather). I just really hope they bring VR support sooner rather than later, either that or the SDK tools will be available for someone like Fly Inside to make a plugin. Oh yeah, and a new Dodo Sim would be amazing too , or just much better helicopter dynamics across the board. All aircraft for that matter. X Plane and DCS both have amazing flight dynamics, and hopefully 64 bit here will allow for much better simulation of flight. X Plane owns that area for global civilian flight sim, but two major things it doesn't have are Orbx and VR. Get the flight dynamics down and you really win the market. After all, shouldn't that be the #1 priority for a Flight Sim, not how pretty it can look (which, we already know it will look great)?

Really stoked about working with Orbx. Hopefully you guys can make the world really stand out, more than with just some pretty textures and buildings. Make the textures look 3D and convincible, etc. My question is if the Orbx partnership means they will be able to continue development of their regions and airports, and have them as DLC? Obviously not for Flight School, but I would hope the partnership continues and we can easily purchase more of their great work.

I'm saying that you know they love all the cash. All the 'acedemic' licenses that are being purchased. All the licensing fees from scenery and aircraft companies. If they want to keep that cash, they will care about these things. Money makes the world go round.

My thoughts are it will be 64 bit and will either launch with DX12 and backwards compatability with DX11 or will be patched. Also included will be native Oculus Rift support. First and foremost, P3D is a commercial simmulator program. 64 bit if only one thing will benefit the flight models. If I'm a commercial buyer, I want top notch flight models for my aircraft. Flight models alone can make the sale for commercial customers. You know that at least all helicopter sim companies have to be purchasing X Plane. The main reason though why I think LM should (and probably will) upgrade to 64 bit/DX12 is all their 'acedemic' customers. LM isn't stupid, and like any other company, they are driven by money. They know that 95% of their acedemic licenses are being used differently. They see all the YouTube videos and read forums like these. They are aware of all these payware companies that bring in extra licensing revenue. The influx of money has made them not crack down things. LM could probably actually start enforcing the licenses and people like us would still buy it (I still get acedemic though ), but they can't do that unless they greatly improve the product. I said how 64 bit could improve the commercial business, but it could increase revenue from 'acedemic' licenses. They know people like us who have $1,000 plus computers would dance all over it. Currently if you want the most realistic flight models, you buy XP, because it is 64 bit and has the power. If you're a long time DoDo Sim or HTR guy, you're definitely going to XP. Just like their commercial customers, LM should want to draw us in with their realism. Imagine if all the default aircraft had flight models on par with current A2A Accusim? People would purchase P3D actually for the default aircraft. Something that may also be marketed to both types of customers, which 64 bit would allow, would be a built in brand new weather engine. For the commercial customers, the two things they care about most will be flight models and weather. For people like us, a better default weather engine can still be a draw. LM knows that on top of the bigger draw to the default game, we would still buy products like Active Sky, which from licensing means money in LM's pockets. Going back to all their 'acedemic' customers, LM can really win the market with DX12. LM knows we all love our super high detailed sceneries and payware aircrafts. They know we are about the best and newest technology. DX12 on top of a 64 bit platform with much better realism and resource management would practically win the market for them. They know a lot of people are still using DX11, and the great thing is that they can still have those customers. The commercial ones could probably care less, but the 'acedemic' customers will know that they can take full advantage of DX12 once they upgrade. Last huge detail I believe v3 will have (which would also probably benefit from 64 bit/DX12) is native Oculus Rift support. This is something that LM has already embraced. The early technology probably won't have much if any interest from commercial customers. They know that it's something for us desktop warriors. They also know that X Plane currently has no support (Open GL) for the Rift, where as their product is already being integrated with third party software. They have embraced the technology knowing full well what the market, which they want to control, will be. Those are the three main things I think v3 will bring to the table, which can firmly grasp the market. You get people who would otherwise buy X Plane, and you also get people from FSX who have not had any significant reasons to upgrade. You probably bring in some other gamers with the Rift support, who just want to fly around with their Xbox controller in VR. Yet another reason why 64 bit/DX12 is important, it would probably bring in more casual sales. Make the stock game look prettier with the new aded grunt (but not as pretty as the precious licensed payware) and you have a winner. I really hope that they add rain effects on windscreens, too.

I chose P3D over XP for a number of reasons: 1. Developer support for P3D seems bigger and better to me than XP. XP has great support, but it has a much smaller team behind it. XP is built on newer arcitecture, but I expect P3D to improve a lot more. P3D v3+ has the potential. 2. Stock to stock, P3D wins in my book. The XP autogen is total rubbish, not to say P3D is perfect, but even stock P3D is better than XP upgraded with stuff like UrbanMaxx. I've flown in a bunch of XP airports that can't even get the layout of the pavement correct. Missing and/or improperly placed taxiways, light posts running across runways. P3D gets the layouts right and even adds some stock buildings, which are really good for stock placement (I'm comparing to real world small airports). The runway terrain in XP is absolutely awful and will launch your plane and cause you to crash. Another biggie is that P3D also has seasons, where as X Plane is just constant summer. 3. Oculus Rift. There is already 3rd party support for P3D, with native integration planned for when the retail version comes out next year. XP has said they'd like to have Rift support, but until the Rift supports Open GL, that's just a pipe dream. 4. Orbx, REX, Active Sky, etc. XP to my knowledge only has REX basic. It does have some really awesome freeware mesh/textures though. P3D also does (Free Mesh X). For the total environment, P3D definitely takes the cake. The only huge thing XP has for me which P3D lacks is helicopters. The payware helis in XP are said to be amazing, and confirmed by real pilots to be very realistic. I dream of the day when I can fly a realistic helicopter with real controls and Oculus Rift. I really would love it if Open GL eventually got Rift support and came to XP, but I am more confident however in P3D getting more realistic helicopters in future versions than XP getting Oculus Rift (and scenery on par with P3D payware options). I am also really looking forward to the new DTG sim. The potential is very high, these guys could win the current and future market if they do things right.

Bunch of great ideas in here. Some of my ideas on top of everything else listed: 1. 64 bit/DX 12 (DX 11 compatible) 2. Completely new program means no backwards compatibility, but you should work with current 3rd party addon developers so they may upgrade their software (and hopefully only charge a small fee to update ) 3. Helicopters, I want these done right. That means everything from realistic flight models, to plug and play support of real helicopter input devices (my biggest thing is differentiating from collective and throttle). X Plane did helicopters very well, and I hear that some of the 3rd party paywares are very good. Unfortunatley the rest of the platform is kind of meh. 4. A virtual flight training 'career' mode would be cool. I'm talking about interactive training that closely follows FAA 141 slybi. Minimum hour requirements followed by checkrides. Once you earn your ratings, you build hours and can go do some real commercial work. Everything from just basic tours or cargo operations, to charters, to fire fighting, to air ambulance (helicopter heavy obviously, but can be some fixed wing missions), to large scheduled airlines. Of course all of this could just be side missions too, without all the hassle of earning ratings and building hours. 5. Native Oculus Rift support. Not everyone's cup of tea I understand, but for just wanting to go on some basic VFR flights, it can't be beat. Especially for helicopters, where head movement and perefrial vision (not the greatest on Gen 1 Rift's, but surely will improve) is pretty much vital. 6. Weather that reduces wildsheild visibility i.e. rain drops and melted snow on the windsheild, windsheild fogging. 7. Full realistic modeling of some of the world's biggest cities/areas. Seemless integration may be possible, but seperate loading from a menu would not be a huge deal. I'm thinking like GTA V quality in these areas. Great for some low and slow VFR, amazing for helicopter flight.