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[traumstrand5]

I would like to see what is here already but tuned to what, at least as far as I understood it, Outerra is intent to be:
An engine that replicates/simulates/renders (however the perfect term is) earth and in a second phase then all the worlds beyond 
But:
Maybe the developers and gurus behind OT could choose a specific area for the beginning where rivers, lakes, coastlines, mountains (maybe volcanos as well), some rich biodiversity then also at least one bigger city and some smaller villages, roads and infrastructures (including railways, airports, etc.) can be found and where all of Outerra's possible and actual features can be presented properly then and also updated frequently.
Sure: Also including all the stuff from great landclass details or terrain-mesh to dynamic lighting and shadowing or dynamic weather (with clouds and cloudshadows, winds and all that) and so on!
There are dozens of places that can be chosen for this, ranging from areas in New Zealand to even more dryer places such as deserts, or smaller islands such as the Azores and so on in an endless list of equally great places

I think that once a "showcase" like that is available I am more than confident, that it will not just be amazing for those who already are familiar with OT, but 3rd party modellers and developers (for freeware and/or payware "add-ons") alike.
Sure a little like the "SandBox-game" idea maybe, but with many of the great features of OT enabled on the base already then and - only for the beginning though - focuesed on a specific area (to really show a lot and all kinds of details, that will later on be available for all parts of the world and all it's great diversities in OT anyway)
 

[Trustvainer]

A global simulator would be nice.
I could play in my farm with my agricultural vehicles and then transport the grains or animals to city with a truck.
Drive a bus or a taxi in the same city or between cities.
You know.. all connected. All simulators influencing each other.

[Komak57]

After reading through all 9 pages of feeds, my intense interest in said engine has almost flat-lined.

To bluntly answer your question, no. I do not believe focusing any direct development solely on adding Flight Sim capabilities at the cost of content.

Now to explain why. For a typical game developer, I look at an engine and ask a very simple question. What can I do with you. A game engine is a set of tools with a baseline kit, and the fundamentals to make game creation faster. The terms I'm hearing thrown about such as 'loading a flight sim mod' and such just baffles me, and not in a good way. That isn't to say that having a flight sim option would be undesirable.
In my honest opinion, some of these Flight Sim groups are interested in the availability of designing their physics into your game engine, and are curious of the potentials and limitations. This goes with the mindset of the most noble of questions that I think has been blurred since I first took interest in the Outerra Engine. Can I compile a stand-alone version from your engine for a playable game I can then distribute (with licence) via selling, or free releases. This comes with the additional comment. A game engine should be focusing on the fundamentals, and pre-packed with samples, tools, and guides to help a developer (me) understand what can realistically be done in the name of a game, and how to do it. Is this vision accurate to what you are implementing, or is your game engine simply going to be a 3D world editing environment specifically for use in your upcoming game.

Now that that's out of the way, if you answer "Yes, you can compile stand-alone versions", I can immediately suggest that you start implementing plugin/scripting 'hooks' to allow the developer to 'overwrite' your basic toolkit, and thusly offer the users the option to export and import resources to be distributable (freely or otherwise) to other developers, be this via a Shop accessible inside the engine, on your website, or, quite frankly, by the developers own means. If these Sim developers really want to create their own flight sim, racing sim, space sim or etc, let them compile it into their own games after purchasing a heft developers license from your company. If they so wished, they could make tool-kits for other users to make similar games if they so pleased, or the community themselves could develop their own mimicry of simulators to be implemented at the developers particular need for such.

With this in mind, I see an almost immediate flood of survival adventure games such as Arma2, DayZ, CS: World War, and so on, as well as a number of Minecraft spin-offs dealing with the destruction of earth to generate resources which can then be re-placed in 'glob' or even 'cube' deformations. Then there will be city creation toolkits to kingdom come, as well as custom world generators. The potential here is ridiculously unlimited, and yet uniformed around a realism attribute set by playing within a 'world' rather than a 'map'.

If your answer, however, is "No, you will be able to develop mods, but no on-hands compiler will be available" then I fail to see where you expect to go with this beyond your own game. You'll have lost a good chunk of your interested developers, and it may very well lead to your downfall (who really knows, right?).

Overall, I hope to see where you intend to take this before giving up all hope, so make me proud.

- almost forgot. As far as desert generators go, might I suggest using a perlin noise generator of sorts to generate 2 different maps, and 'shift' one into the next over time (based on wind)? Takes considerably less resources, and provides a semi-realism to desert terrain, as well as any soft-dirt.

[cameni]

Note this (fairly old) topic is solely about a simulator platform, not about the game engine for universal use. Simulators are just one area where the engine might find its use, that's why this thread discusses just that topic.

Then again, simulators are usually the ones that need and want to use a global world based on real data, unlike common games that often work happily with constrained and artificial game levels, and that's probably why simulators take most interest in OT.

That, however, doesn't mean we don't want the engine to become usable for all kinds of games and simulators that can use it, once the engine is ready. It's just questionable how many games will actually be able to utilize a global world, and consequently whether we would be able to compete with other standard engines in terms of developers being able to make games that are fun. I suspect it would be tough, and basing our business only on the game engine licensing could very well be unsustainable. A simulator platform is the least risky area here with that regard: developers who are making content for simulators just want to focus on their area of expertise, and more users they share in a common environment - the better.

[Woogey]

I very much like the multi genre sim platform (MgSp) concept.  I personally, like driving, Flight, and FPS type simulations.  But you really get to thinking about the posibility's, Golf maps for something like tiger woods, Nascar tracks in the U.S.   Ship simulation, with swells, breakers, foam and splashes.  Scenery packs such as International Soccer stadiums, castles of the Rhine, etc.  Each pack should have a full LOD map to keep frames down, and make compatability Greater.  The key I think, is the physical avatar representation of the player.  Also, How the activation of the different modules is implemented.   

Personally, I envision something like the GTA series.  When you walk up to a vehicle to enter/board, maybe a pop up asking if you would like to execute that module?  Lod's could have a "boots on the ground" (or weight on wheels) feature that say would pop in the grass and ground physics.  -Woog

[Atrax]

I know this thread is old, but I would like to say that if combinig driving/racing with fps, flight sim, ship sim is possible it would probably be the greatest thing ever, cause that's what I (and many many others) have always wanted to see. A world where you can do whatever you want, shoot, drive, fly, float, build and everything in between. If you are able to execute something along those lines I can assure you you will have no shortage of players/buyers. But up to this point in time something on that scale was never possible. So if you can do that and make it run decently than I don't see why not do it.
Maybe Outerra will finaly make something like this possible. I really hope so.