Is a new Flight Simulator coming out soon?

[macca22au]

Thanks to Phil Taylor joining in the thread.  

In some way I am a quite relieved that FSnext won't be until 2010 at the earliest.  I have FSX running reasonably on my present rig, but I would like to wait until the end of this year to upgrade my hardware at the next major step in CPU, video card, and RAM design.   Also it is becoming clear that HDD speed is also a real part of the equation.

Therefore if I can get FSX running really well on new hardware by the end of this year, then an FS11, more carefully finished and tuned than FSX should not require the same investment.  In marketing terms this should be good also, as the off-the-street gamer could then enjoy FS without facing a host of tweaks, many upgrades, endless reinstalls and expensive hardware upgrades - which only the true hobbyist can afford.

I recall advising a family looking at FS in a computer store to buy FS9 not FSX unless their home computer was powerful or they were ready to upgrade.  As it was to be run on an older rig, FS9 meant that their son may by now be hooked on flying rather than chucking it away after a bad experience with stutters and an eye-pulling slide show.

Certainly I would have ditched FSX if it hadn't been for NickN, Fr Bill and others who helped me to comprehend the difficulties of making the game work.  Like so many I went from a beautifully tuned FS9 into a year of tweaks, cost and angst, from which I am only now emerging happier and able to enjoy the fantastic improvement that comes with X.  

Please make sure RTM does not mean Rushed To Market next time.

And maybe a couple of basic GA default aircraft, like the C172 (a must have) could be designed to the standard of their payware equivalents.  I wouldn't expect this with a 747 - but it does mean that the committed simmers never uses these defaults - after all who ever saw a 747 with a Garmin for navigation!  (Incidentally I think the Caravan the best of the defaults and it wouldn't take much to give it a realistic panel and full autoflight functionality, as well as more operational systems and switches).

[PhilTaylor]

EDIT: I went back and found the thread. You're correct. You simply stated that TS will be in 2009; my mind filled in the blanks...

[pear40]

Ill be a happy camper as long as these three things happen.
1. Fix the fps problem
2. Have higher resolution ground textures
3. I know this is kind of impossible, but make it easier to play on lower end systems. (like mine)

[PhilTaylor]

Ill be a happy camper as long as these three things happen.
1. Fix the fps problem
2. Have higher resolution ground textures
3. I know this is kind of impossible, but make it easier to play on lower end systems. (like mine)

2 and 3 are not compatible. you cannot raise the resolution *and* enable lower end systems at the same time. pick one of the two, really :-)

[Alejandro Rhodes]

[quote]I just want first dibs at reviewing an SDK.....

[pear40]

if i have to pick graphics or performance, i pick performance.

[macca22au]

Incidentally does anyone know of a C208 VC and 2D panel that can be installed into the default C208 in X?

[Slotback]

Thank god I won't have to deal with the fsx problems again in the future....  Real liscence here I come...

[Sp Agent Elvis]

Hey everyone, just joined up, been using msfs for a long long time. Looks like this is the board to be on when it comes to MSFS.

Glad I bit the bullet and joined yet another forum  8-)

[macca22au]

Vodka Burner:   back when I did my real licence there was no flightsims.  

RW flying is expensive and slower than you think - unless you can afford a concentrated full-time course.

Now you should consider your flightsim as a  backup to practice procedures, checklists, cockpit management, particular aspects of flying, procedures in the air and so on.  You'll burn Vodka, money and hours and FSX will become more important - not less.  

The more that you can get right out of the cabin the cheaper it will be to complete the real world stuff.  

Remember learning to fly is like spending 40hrs in a telephone booth with another person.  It has its moments.

[Boikat]

My "laundry list" of things I'd like to see for FSXI

Aircraft selection that would be a cross between FS9 and FSX.  Maybe a thumb for the type aircraft, click on that, and thumbs for any variations pop out.

SDK compatible with the current one, but for my benefit, it should be written as something like SDK for Idiots, Dummies, and the Intellectually Challenged.

"Aircraft Adapter Tool" for importing and automatically upgrading or otherwise adapt an imported model from all the earlier versions of MS FS/CFS, and possibly form other sources and games.

I would like Photo-real terrain, but we have something like that on the actual B-52 simulator, but I don't happen to have a one terra-byte hard drive hooked up to my computer at this time.

Add-on Installer from the user interface, instead of having to fotch around with Windows Explorer.  Installer could also handle tweaking .cfg's.

"Tweak-on-the-fly" for development.  (For all I know, developers already have that capability.)

Terrain elevation scaler, so you can change the terrain relief, if you wanted.

Some sort of dynamic fractal generated cloud formation with real time development of clouds.

Really Nasty Weather.  Like a hurricane, with actual hurricane structure, conditions and effects.

Little Details, like bug splats.  Everything from little gnat splats to humungous, juicy beetles that make you want to declare an in-flight emergency 'cause you can't see out the wind screen.

More relistic terrain.  Period!  It's a sure bet the FSXI will be geared to what is now considered "high end" PC's, so they can afford to render more realistic terrain.  For example, in Shreveport, the banks of the Red River does not smoothly transition from river to land.  There's about a twenty foot embankment.

Or, at the very least, on that same note, "local customizing" of terrain through the user interface.

I'm sure there's more.  :D

[Fozzer]

I can remember we had these long discussions, and long lists of what everyone wanted, long before FSX was released....

The MS programmer blokes obviously took note of what we, and others, requested, and incorporated many of them into the Sim...

...and what happened... ...!

The Flight Sim was completely/mostly un-playable for the majority of Folks... ...!

I suspect that next time, the MS Lads will carefully consider the situation, and will hopefully produce a result to suit everyone, or mostly everyone, straight out of the box!...similar to what happened with previous versions.......!

Most of the "Stuff" we requested for FSX at the time was completely "over-the-top", and daft for the "sensible" Hardware which exists "out there"!... ...!

Paul...G-BPLF.... 8-)...!

[Boikat]

Well, it usually takes time for technology to catch up with ideas.  Maybe what was "dreampt of" for FSX, and was over the top will show up on FSXI, and what's over the top on any "wish list" for FSXI will show up on FSXII.   Sort of like how "insanity skips a generation".  :)

[coltsr2]

There are plans afoot to make the 3rd party stuff (pay and free) even easier for users to find and install...

Mike Stone as one example & several others have thrown in the towel due to the increasing 'unfriendliness' & learning curve required as we have gone into FSX.

I too would have been active, rather than given up,

[Felix/FFDS]

[quote]

"Tweak-on-the-fly" for development.