New Microsoft Flight Sim Announced

Has Microsoft usually kept a pattern? Is there any way we can estimate/take an educated guess as to when we will get more information about it? The lack of information available is suspenseful.

BY Nicholas wrote: I thought I would add my two-penneth regarding FS reminiscences.  During this time Microsoft bought the rights for FS and I have loyally upgraded as each MS FS was released. This has been at the cost of quite drastic upgrades to my system (CPUs, motherboards, memory, etc) to keep pace.   The bottom line is, at 60 years old and with mobility problems, FS is a means of escape into an infinity of length and breadth that I cannot achieve otherwise. I shall await further announcements from their lordships at Redmond and make my decision (probably based on the price) as and when.

I am 61 years young also with mobility problems, FS is a best means of escape for me too. I still have all F/Sims from 95  up to FS X. a good game I made up today, was to fly using both FS 2002 and FS9  at the same time,the same aircraft from same  airport EGBG landing on RUTLAND reservoir,I do have a system of, 2 PCs on one monitor, 1 joystick 1 keyboard   just press a simple  switch ..it was good fun

Agreed about the escape into another world. I find FSX just that, a virtual world for me to explore and I am 76. I have very much enjoyed routes of cruises using the Grumman and landing on water. Today the Hurricane is my objective, but neither Bermuda or Charleston yielded and dramatic weather. Will try again later tonight as storm expected to make landfall around 11.30pm. Loved a real weather thunderstorm over St Lucia. By maxing environment sound, able to hear the thunder.

I thought I would add my two-penneth regarding FS reminiscences.

But with progress, shouldn't you strive to make it all work together? Surely if you make something like Windows 7 you'd make sure it worked with what your customers wanted and had already, like FS9, FS2002, FS2000, all the way back... it shouldn't be too hard, surely?

There is a rumor circulating about the possibility of a beta release of MS Flight coming before Christmas. It's just a rumor, though, and I haven't heard if they're talking about an in-house beta or a public beta. I'm guessing in-house...with a public beta coming considerably later.

It will be interesting to see how many of the good ideas brought up on the Aerosoft forum (about a possible new Aerosoft sim) are incorporated into the new Microsoft sim. I have a feeling that in attempting to create a sim with wider appeal, Microsoft will provide a sim with things for each of us to like and, unavoidably, with things for each of us to dislike. It's just not possible to please everyone. If the new Microsoft sim is too much game/toy, the door for Aerosoft to create a new and true simulator would be wide open. I expect Microsoft knows that, though.

I guess all of us are a little concerned  that the new Microsoft sim will not be as good as we want it to be nor as good as we think it should be. I can tell you that freeware developers are concerned about the availability and cost of tools needed to develop for the new sim. What the required development tools will be and what the costs will be (if any) are still unknowns. Development of some of the new development tools is undoubtedly still ongoing.

Dan

flawlesspaul wrote: So what I think I'm hearing is the new MS Flight Sim will not work on my Dual Core vista

One of the fundamental goals of Microsoft Games is to enable broad appeal. Another fundamental goal is innovation. Doing both is a balancing act. At some point, a decision has to be made to leave some of the old behind so that the new can be implemented. It's impossible to gain--much less maintain--broad appeal if what you are doing is going to be surpassed by others who more-fully embrace innovation. Microsoft lost a lot of Windows 3.1 users when they came out with Windows 95. They also gained a few users. The innovations in Windows 95 had broad appeal. Broad appeal makes money. The money comes from us. We can decide whether to buy or not, and, if we want to, we can continue to use FSX and/or FS9 even if we buy Flight.

Until more is announced, Vista users may want to wait and see how compatible Vista will be with Flight. If there are incompatibilities (or complete incompatibility) the next thing Vista users would need to do is check to see if a Flight release date and a release date for Windows 7's successor have both been announced and have release dates that are near to each other. If so, Vista users could skip Windows 7 and move directly to Windows 7's successor.

I don't think the Windows operating system version will be a problem with Flight. It's all about having a compatible version of DirectX, really. Certainly, XP is out of the picture, but XP started moving out of the picture with the release of DirectX 10. That's been quite a while ago.

Dan

My guess is there are at least hundreds (if not thousands) of individuals outside of Microsoft who know more about Flight than what is being discussed in public forums. The reason for the silence is the existence of non-disclosure agreements between those inficiduals and Microsoft. I will confirm, here, that I know two of those individuals. One of them has stated publicly that for reasons that should be "obvious," more cannot be revealed. I read "obvious" as meaning a non-disclosure agreement exists, and I have good reason to believe that I am correct.

Even individuals who possess more knowledge about Flight than is found in the general public have stated that they know very little. (This is obvious from reading the speculations that a couple of those "knowledgeable" individuals are making themselves). What follows are some of my own speculations.

Although FS9 and FSX will continue to be used and enjoyed for many years, running Flight will require moving past Windows XP and DirectX 9. As speculated by Transport Steve above, there is even the possibility that the release of the new cloud-based Microsoft Flight will coincide with the release of Microsoft's next operating system. If it does coincide, or if it nearly coincides, I wouldn't be surprised if there are features in the new sim that will only work with the latest version of DirectX and that the "latest" version of DirectX will be the version that comes with the next Windows operating system. More likely, though, anyone who runs Windows7 and who has the latest version of DirectX that Windows7 can run (along with a compatible graphics card), will be safe. Two things are certain: There will be no "Preview DirectX 10" mode, and there will be no ability to fall back to DirectX 9. To put it in the vernacular: "DirectX 9 is so over."

Dan

I worked at (KSFO) in the late 1980's and early 1990's myself.. I was there in 1991 the morning that PAN AM was grounded and the 727 at the gate was fully loaded and ready to be pushed back when the orders came in that it was over. They made all the passengers dismount and return to the terminal.

Well, I used to work for British Midland (not as a pilot, though), and having this game brings back some happy personal memories for me, this simulator isn't JUST a hobby, it reminds me of the good times. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that this game rekindles the fondness us ex-airline staff once had and will never be forgotten every time we climb into our cockpits.....

Cheerio. Transport Steve.