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Author Topic: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?  (Read 17205 times)

FsTheo

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Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« on: January 05, 2012, 02:07:49 pm »
Today news was released about Flight, the new Sim by Microsoft. Wel, sim.... game.
It's going to be free to play. Free, with one plane. And Hawaï. That's about it. If you want more, you have to pay.
In the past you could buy payware too, you were free to do so and there was choice, Captain Sim, PMDG, and so on.
In Flight you can choose Microsoft.

Reading this:
http://kotaku.com/5872926/the-rebirth-of-microsoft-flight-simulator-will-be-free-on-pcs-this-spring

And this:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/247326/why_freemium_is_right_for_microsoft_flight.html

And this:
http://forum.avsim.net/forum/365-the-microsoft-flight-forum/

And this:
http://flyawaysimulation.com/news/4317/microsoft-flight-behind-scenes-at-microsoft-studios/

(and much more!) one can conclude, Outerra could be more important as a basis for a flightsimulator than we thought up to now.

Let the future surprise us! :D

Theo ;)
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[deleted]

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Re: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2012, 02:43:44 pm »
It's going to be arcade style sadly. Already signed up for the beta but I don't know... We'll see.
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mctash

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Re: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2012, 06:51:33 pm »
LOL! look at the comment coming from OrbX in the AVSim thread.

I know where my money will be going, it begins with O and it isn't OrbX
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cameni

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Re: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2012, 02:37:51 am »
Yeah, I'm going to write him something. Orbx has had an ancient ugly pre-pre-alpha version, we received almost no feedback from them other than "what, it exists when you press ESC?", and now I read this ...
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mctash

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Re: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2012, 05:37:33 am »
I would be very surprised if the fsx 3rd party scenery payware brigade hadn't been keeping an eye on Outerra since then as Outerra has the potential to make at least half their job redundant.
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cameni

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Re: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2012, 06:04:21 am »
But it will also force them to learn new techniques and tools, which is not what they are very inclined to do.
At least for the OrbX, they essentially want something that's totally compatible with FSX. Hear him praise the FS engine and express dislike for XPX .. they would have to re-learn many things.
Another case is Aerosoft - their AFS vaporized because they just wanted someone to pull a ready-made simulator from a drawer or something.

Making a new simulator is expensive, and addon-makers won't be doing it. Not just because of the money ...
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FsTheo

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Re: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2012, 06:14:53 am »
After the news came out that Microsoft stopped every activity concerning simming, (flightsim, but trainsim too!) 3rd party payware makers start looking around. They probably keep an eye on Outerra, maybe even FlightGear!
And some of them made the jump, Carenado is now developing for X-Plane, so is REX, McPhat and even Aerosoft! No words from PMDG though, they stick to FSX for the moment. And Orbx...

Let's look at it from the bright side; it's a nice way to keep these developers busy, in the period between FSX and Outerra RC 1! ;D

Theo ;)
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mctash

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Re: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2012, 06:30:40 am »
I noticed I didn't actually refer to the thread... oops :) It was this "Since the cat is out of the bag" thread.

It was the venom in OrbX's post that initially annoyed me. What concern of theirs is it where you get your funding? I had drafted a much more severe post about it last night, but changed my mind as I'd had a few can's and thought better of it.

Have they played FSX? I mean seriously? Even with their huge scenery packs installed it still looks like seasonally coloured blocky vomit at anything close to ground level. That is the nature of the FSX engine. That is why I (and I suspect many others) as someone who enjoys flight sims is drooling over Outerra.

Oh and it's Frostbite, not Frostbyte.

 





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cameni

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Re: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2012, 06:56:10 am »
They really had an ugly old version for the test. What bothers me, is that he didn't provide any feedback. We talked a bit before the test about how we are going to do land class with vector data rather than their 1kmx1km sat-based raster assignment etc, but he seemed to forget it after seeing the demo with single biome, even when we said that it's early ugly alpha without it.

Funny thing is that, after another OT video that made rounds through sim circles, he came and asked for another alpha.

And that line about the funding .. I have no idea what is he aiming at.
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FsTheo

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Re: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2012, 07:58:22 am »
Wel, when John Venema writes, " It would cost us about $30 million to start from scratch, maybe more." then it's obvious that according to his idea (maybe knowledge?) you must have funding. Or being milionairs! ;D

Theo ;)
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cameni

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Re: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2012, 08:12:29 am »
Oh yes. We sold Angripig's soul :D
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mctash

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Re: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« Reply #11 on: January 06, 2012, 08:24:22 am »
Quote from: cameni on January 06, 2012, 08:12:29 am
Oh yes. We sold Angripig's soul :D

Lol

So come on Cameni, I know it's frowned upon but I can't help asking, will I / we be able to give you money for pre-order this month?   :)

Before I get bashed by all and sundry I know "it's done when it's done", I'm not trying to pressure just excited like a kid before Christmas, and yes I should get out the house more :)
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cameni

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Re: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« Reply #12 on: January 06, 2012, 08:38:02 am »
Well, all I can say is that "we hope so". At the moment we are just integrating our reworked code to make it whole again. Putting those damn worms into the can :)

We have also set up another hosting with a different provider so we have some backup in case something goes wrong with serving the terrain data.

I don't think it will all go smoothly, it never does, so we are trying to ensure we'll be able to patch up the problems quickly when they pop up. That reminds me ... must check how it now behaves with Windows UAC turned on  ::)
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mctash

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Re: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« Reply #13 on: January 06, 2012, 08:53:14 am »
Ah well, good luck! Time to return to my own coding, more unit tests :)
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FsTheo

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Re: Microsoft's Flight, the end of an era?
« Reply #14 on: January 06, 2012, 10:35:23 am »
Quote from: cameni on January 06, 2012, 08:12:29 am
Oh yes. We sold Angripig's soul :D
That much?!? :o ;D

I saw the reactions on Aerosoft, of course Mathijs isn't very happy with Flight:
Click

And somebody named 'Dahls' is defending Outerra:
Click

Theo ;)
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