FSXI?

[toprob]

Phil Taylor's latest blog on Train Sim confirms what I've been saying about the release date for the next FS. He writes:

QUOTE

From that link, for instance, it is now official; TS2 is due for "holiday 2009". Which makes sense if you think about it, 90% of entertainment titles go for the holiday rush. And this serves to confirm broad hints I have been making about TS2, and should provide similar hints to the savvy who can read between the lines about when FS11 is likely due.[/quote]

Since he's already said that TS will appear long before the next FS, it is apparent that we won't see a new FS until at least Christmas 2010.

For those who have decided to bypass FSX, this'll be a long time to wait for a replacement -- in fact, we're looking at the normal FS development cycle starting now!

[creator2003]

Yeah i heard the same from sources and am glad i didnt wait any longer to move on from 2004 ,i really didnt want to be left behind and leave it to the last minute to learn everything that will help more with the new engine completely, as from what i heard they couldn't do that with FSX because they where making it compatible with 2004 so they made a half new engine and thats what has caused all the problems etc...
so new engine integrating the new part of FSX most likley for the future so 2004 is long gone and all the tricks most probably as it will be NEW and be better on systems in the future with the latest gaming tricks ..

2010 we better start moving more on FSX soon or we in NZ will be way behind the beat we have reached over the years ..

[Ian Warren]

Mike no chance you getting left behind , read an article about a chap in Germany Andre Leder , hes still devolping and paint models for FS98 YIPPEE

[creator2003]

Yeah well whatever burst his bubble i really did think this platform was shocking but with the SP updates its really good now ,i think and from what ive heard talking to people that are still stuck to FS9 its more about money rather than choise now, but there are some who still think FS2004 is still the future ,just saddening as it slows down the progress a bit of future sims ,like in addons if half still develop for FS2004 and half for X well that's only half of what we could have for the future ..
its really disappointing in some ways to see some payware guys stepping back after making the move forward making stuff compat 4 fs9 still ..but still i suppose they are still making money and thats all it matter sometimes

[Ian Warren]

Wonder if FS98 still has large white square blocks for cloud ... ooooooOH that was scary

[Charl]

In many ways FS95 was better than FSX...one of the best measures of a successful simulator is suspension of disbelief.
It is the reason CFS2 was brilliant, and CFS3 crashed and burned.
I am delighted that sim users are voting with their credit cards and that a great deal of new stuff is being ported to FS9+FSX - it appears not to be too hard after all.
(I do have FSX loaded of course, because there will be things you want to have a look at casually.)
So far, the FSX offerings don't improve on the FS9 version sufficiently to move me much, a handful of aircraft offerings excepted.
I for one will happily keep FS9 until 2011 - there is stuff available I suspect will never be viable in X, such as big airports running big AI at max settings.
ANd guns that shoot...
I do hope FSXI finally comes round to including a combat sim interface as well.
Even if not, there will be an entirely new platform, so the present hotch potch sim engine wil probably die.

[toprob]

QUOTE (Charl @ Jul 23 2008, 02:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...
Even if not, there will be an entirely new platform, so the present hotch potch sim engine wil probably die.

One thing which I noticed (in as much as it gave me shivers) is how much Train Sim 2 looks like some of the worst visual aspects of FSX -- unrealistic trees, fuzzy ground textures up close, poor rendition of steep terrain etc. So although it would be great to get a more streamlined sim without the backwards stuff, it may be that what we see isn't really much of an improvement.

[creator2003]

One thing i did read and i think it was on phils blog was that FSX was the in the top 10 games list ever and thats gotta say something really ,yes its in the low end of the list but it is up there , something FS9 never archived in its life time ,what i do like is that it is designed for young and old and yes charl i do wish for a blow that guy outta the sky aswell sim ,and another wish list would be able to move around as a avatar etc.... that would be very cool to get blown outta the sky, para to the ground and drive home to pick up another plane/chopper ,hay why not throw in online shopping ..hehehe

[happytraveller]

I just hope that when FSXI does come out, that Microsoft do not release it until the bugs are sorted out, and until it has been tested properly. I certainly do not want another FSX experience, with hours of tweaking, service packs and adjusting textures. I also hope that they build in some backward compatibility as well, so that all the add-ons for FSX can be moved over as well. It will get annoying to buy add-ons for FS2004, then buy updated ones for FSX, then updated ones for FSXI.

So if it does not come out until 2010, then they have some time to get it right.

smooth landings.

[Timmo]

Well- Here are my predictions for the next version of the sim (bearing in mind that performance issues are a mixture of supporting old content and simply because the goal for the game engine is a massive: Rendering of the globe and its environment- No other game does this....and this aspect of performance cant change too much)

Firstly, I doubt much time will be spent on the scenery engine....A few tweaks here and there (perhaps to how the various scenery base bgls interact- Landclass pixel size, types and interpolation for example) and some additions (i.e. rail traffic?....there are hints in the SDK about this) I do think Autogen will get a makeover....

I think a lot of time will be spent on the 3D model side of things- Removing old code and refining the engine. I think (hope) that the airport facilities coding will get a make over giving support for custom runway/taxiway textures (no reason why this couldnt be coded in XML as a simple image path linked to a geometry?) and non-flat airports (although I can see why MS hasnt tackled this in the past....it is a minefield)

I also hope that, since FSX focused on the Scenery side of things a lot, that FSXI will focus more on the SIMULATOR side of things more by adding default functionality that increases realism of flight and procedure. I think ATC could be given a revamp as well as AI.

[toprob]

QUOTE (happytraveller @ Jul 24 2008, 06:08 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I just hope that when FSXI does come out, that Microsoft do not release it until the bugs are sorted out, and until it has been tested properly. I certainly do not want another FSX experience, with hours of tweaking, service packs and adjusting textures. I also hope that they build in some backward compatibility as well, so that all the add-ons for FSX can be moved over as well. It will get annoying to buy add-ons for FS2004, then buy updated ones for FSX, then updated ones for FSXI.

So if it does not come out until 2010, then they have some time to get it right.

smooth landings.

I don't think you'll get any of your wishes, frankly. MS are perfectly aware of how much testing they can do before releasing the sim, if they were to iron out every bug it would hold up the release for another 10 years. By that time technology would have moved on, and someone else would have stepped in and grabbed the market.

By the way, I spent a lot longer tweaking FS2004 than I ever have FSX -- FSX's out-of-the-box experience (well, post-SP1 anyway) was a lot better than FS2004. Of course after a couple of years my FS2004 was pretty well running the way I liked, with the addons I wanted, and trying to match this in FSX is apples and oranges.

Backward compatibility is another thing which hopefully won't happen. I suspect that only full FSX-compliant aircraft will work at all in FSNext, if any. Backward compatibility is probably the main thing holding back FS performance.

QUOTE (Timmo @ Jul 24 2008, 11:25 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

...
I think a lot of time will be spent on the 3D model side of things- Removing old code and refining the engine. I think (hope) that the airport facilities coding will get a make over giving support for custom runway/taxiway textures (no reason why this couldnt be coded in XML as a simple image path linked to a geometry?) and non-flat airports (although I can see why MS hasnt tackled this in the past....it is a minefield)

I really, really hope that MS finally get to grips with photoreal airport textures, especially runways. You are right, it does seem reasonable to select your own texture when building XML facilities, even if they need to be in a basic format. (For instance, you may just be able to select a runway start texture, and a tiled main runway texture.)

But really I want to see a completely new atmosphere/weather system. I want to see blue mountains on a clear day, and just a misty impression of mountains on a normal day. I want to have filtered atmospherics without just reducing the visibility. I want HDR-type lighting, with the world ranging from deep shadows to blinding light.


EDIT: To illustrate this, here's a couple of screenshots from Ace Combat 6.


The first shot shows what I think of an normal visibility -- everything pretty much goes to mush on the horizon at this height. And note the effective autogen -- the buildings are just boxes, rather than those strange-roofed things we get in FSX


I love this autogen -- the colour matches the ground:)

[Charl]

QUOTE (Charl @ Jul 23 2008, 02:13 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I for one will happily keep FS9 until 2011 - there is stuff available I suspect will never be viable in X, such as big airports running big AI at max settings.
ANd guns that shoot...

[Ian Warren]

Guns Guns ... to close for Missiles , looking at some of the recent addons and Microsofts history with CBFS1/2/3 , I can't see it not added into FS11 , a dogfight or a war with AWACS .. and the extra added attention of ground detail and atmosphere .

[creator2003]

TS2 demo movie cheak out the animation of the avatars hopefully they will do something like this with fs11

[Christian]

What I'd really like to see is someone building a flight sim onto the engine of farcry2. Those preview vids blew me away and really show well how dated the FS engine really is. The farcry2 engine would be a perfect platform as it's completely scalable so you could do the whole globe easily at the stunning detail this engine provides + they even have support for flying (you can fly a hang glider). Well, that's what I'm hoping for - but unfortunately it's not going to happen...

[Yak52aholic]

Wow thanks Mike for that video link -me being such a Train Sim fan..... for those wondering see:
http://www.tsinsider.com/default.aspx
I'm very excited about TS2(it's gonna have every railway line ya know), and probably when FSXI comes out as well.

[Charl]

QUOTE (Christian @ Jul 25 2008, 02:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What I'd really like to see is someone building a flight sim onto the engine of farcry2. Those preview vids blew me away and really show well how dated the FS engine really is. The farcry2 engine would be a perfect platform as it's completely scalable so you could do the whole globe easily at the stunning detail this engine provides + they even have support for flying (you can fly a hang glider). Well, that's what I'm hoping for - but unfortunately it's not going to happen...

X-Plane, X-Plane... da dum de dum

[FlyingKiwi]

Actually it's funny, the first thing I thought when I saw the Far Cry 2 graphics was "that would look awesome in FS".

[Timmo]

QUOTE (Yak52aholic @ Jul 25 2008, 04:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow thanks Mike for that video link -me being such a Train Sim fan..... for those wondering see:
http://www.tsinsider.com/default.aspx
I'm very excited about TS2(it's gonna have every railway line ya know), and probably when FSXI comes out as well.

I know this is probably weird for a flight simmer to say (the pot calling the kettle black?) but I just dont GET Train Sim? Maybe I just dont know enough about the process of train driving but....it just seems like it would be kinda boring?

As I say, a lot of people would probably say that about flight sim too.....us simmers are an odd bunch

[SUBS17]

I wonder why they don't make Train simulator and Ship simulator with FS for MP compatible? It could add another aspect to MP flying over ships and trains that are actually MP controlled.