Misc Addons

[Katahu]

Cobra has asked me a very interesting question regarding my hobby with car models. Why am I making car addons for a "flight" sim?

In my opinion, miscellaneous addons may not have won the spot light as much as big-time addons like Kirk Olsson's F-86 Sabre did, but in one form or another they have become an influence.

Look at FS-Shipyard's website. They provide drivable ships like aircraft carriers and subs while Hama's website provides boats and cruise thips. Look at the small number of classic cars that Bill Lyons and his team made. And now look at my website. What do they all have in common? All of them have been eploiting the various flexibilities that the FS series provides where other designers failed to look into. Because of this, miscellaneous addons have now opened the door to newer possibilities that people never thought were possible in the past.

Ok, some of you are probably wondering what does this have anything to do with FSX? I am just getting to that point.

Now that Microsoft has improved many aspects of the FS series through FSX[from raising the height barrier to adding car traffic, etc.], imagine how tomorrow's misc addons will effect FSX as a whole.

The Shuttle package that was released long ago could then benefit from the new height limit. And since Microsoft has added shipping lanes to FSX, imagine how we are going to see AI. This brings me to my next thought. Imagine how these new features would affect the FS community as a whole. One of these days, we might see the boat versions of Project AI or VatSim. Heck I don't know, but I do know that FSX is going to be one heck of a sim.

If you have any thoughts about FSX and Misc addons, post them here.

[Daube]

The fact is that a "Flight sim" is just a temporary state for a sim. With evolution, it just can't get anything else than a FULL simulation.

Why ? Simple: Take a plane... if you want it to behave correctly on the runway, you have to model correctly the reactions of its contact points, or wheels... leading to a car sim

That's just a very simple example, of course. Basically, if you want to model properly a moving object, you will have to model a lot of physical stuff that will be common to most moving objects, flying or not flying.

The question Cobra has asked, as well as the tendency of the community to provide ships, cars etc... is just the sign that the FS universe is getting complete enough not to stay only in the sky.

If you look at FS9, with the best detailled available sceneries (let's take for example the Holger Sandsman North Cascades scenery), you will notice that the roads (tarmac, or mud) are very detailled and sometimes very lovely. If you land on a road in the middle of the forest, next to a lake on top of a hill, you will actually get a viewpoint, a landscape that NOT ANY OTHER CAR game can offer.

Of course, in FS9 the ground reactions still sucks, the contact points of a moving object are not taken into consideration correctly and thus it is almost a pain to go on a road that is not flat. Anyway, on the visual point of view, one realizes pretty soon that with just some more precise road textures, the sim coud easilly "look like" an amazing car game

[Ashton Lawson]

Slightly off the subject, if you've seen the recent FSX videos, the roads don't have any markings.  A dissapointment.

I'm assuming that the made only a few road textures for a 'basic' road, so that the roads can be stretched enough to support the amount of lanes, the road should have.

I have a feeling that alot of addon developers will have a go at creating roads with markings, but not lanes.  Center line, outlines but not lanes, due to the texture stretching technique MS may employ.

I'm sure someone will probably over come this.  Unless the MS vids only show really early, not-so detailed tests.

[Katahu]

Slightly off the subject, if you've seen the recent FSX videos, the roads don't have any markings.  A dissapointment.

Marking are not the main concern in my opinion. Nothing of the roads concern me because I am glad to see that the roads are finally straight in FSX.

Anyways, I agree Daube's idea that other aspects of the new sim [like the shipping lanes] would most likely allow smaller communities such FS-Shipyard to expand and allow the already large communities such as Vatsim to incorporate new features built into the sim.

[Airshow_lover]

Well, If i understood correctly, In FSX Deluxe there will be a SDK specifically for auotmobiles. OR There will be a SDK where you can create whatever dynamics you want. So, know, cars wont handle like planes anymore, but actually more like cars.

[FSGT Gabe]

If you land on a road in the middle of the forest, next to a lake on top of a hill, you will actually get a viewpoint, a landscape that NOT ANY OTHER CAR game can offer.

Very good point and so true.  Never though about it before but that IS awesome!!

Kevin