Microsoft Flight its a game Ughh

[zoltron_rulez]

I would like to post a brief comments about Flight and my experience that I had so far,- in actuality I would not bother waste my time but what Flight delivered is just fun and smooth sim experience.

I just bought the entire Hawaii and also got the extra plane, the RV6. Since I am lazy writer (I code all the day at my job, you get the picture) I point list here the things that excited me about the whole experience:

- For $20 you get beautiful Hawaii islands (you can see reef in water), quite realistic sim of RV6, and some of the airports look awesome, especially the Honolulu Intl. (Heck, just the airport is worth $20)

- I really like the scratches on my window when then sun shines through the cockpit and cast shadows

- This you have to try: While flying the RV, open the window, and listen to the wind and engine roar

- There's tones of other ambients sounds, trivial sounds on the aircrat that make huge difference

- The frame rates are still unbelievable at populated areas (40-50 FPS, on 3 screens using triple head 2 go at 4k x 1k res)

- Landscape looks gorgeous, so is the RV6 cockpit and lighting

- Cool camera effects, for example when you hit the ground hard (ie. hard landing) your head almost hits the roof the aircraft

I am not playing missions since I am having too much fun doing my exploration of the islands!

Anyway, I just had to share how much I've been enjoying my experience. Certainly, geting the rest of Hawaii + aircraft will give you good experience of this sim.

-lk

Edited March 7, 2012 by zoltron_rulez

[zoltron_rulez]

Sorry I didn't mean that your name was bad! It's a pretty good online name, and I bet you'll be good at multiplayer...anything!

My Games Live id or whatever u call it is.... SimmoW, ORIGINAL EH? See u in the skies soon

No problem

[Dozer]

They're like drug dealers - the starting cost is low, but they'll put a vacuum cleaner in your pockets if you get hooked. Then you'll be burglarising old ladies to get the cash for the simulated Garmin and Learjet 25 you just can't live without...

Also: there's a difference between open- and closed-source, and open- and closed-architecture. Open-source means 'you can read the source code' and for flight simulators that means FlightGear and nothing else I know of. Open-architecture means 'you can freely add stuff to this sim', like X-Plane, FS9, FSX. You can for instance build an animated dinosaur-shaped aircraft for X-Plane and sell it without restriction. There's different degrees of openness - during Il-2 Sturmovik's classic period users could add repaints and missions without restriction but not aircraft or scenery, which could only be included with collaboration with the developers.

Open-architecture sims (XPlane, FS9/FSX, Flightgear) are infinitely preferable because a) it's fun to create stuff and test it in the sim the developers don't have any veto on what appears in the sim c) third-party developers can compete and raise the standard of the sim much more easily.

Related article: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/10/serving-at-the-pleasure-of-the-king.html

Edited March 7, 2012 by Dozer

[zoltron_rulez]

They're like drug dealers - the starting cost is low, but they'll put a vacuum cleaner in your pockets if you get hooked. Then you'll be burglarising old ladies to get the cash for the simulated Garmin and Learjet 25 you just can't live without... Also: there's a difference between open- and closed-source, and open- and closed-architecture. Open-source means 'you can read the source code' and for flight simulators that means FlightGear and nothing else I know of. Open-architecture means 'you can freely add stuff to this sim', like X-Plane, FS9, FSX. You can for instance build an animated dinosaur-shaped aircraft for X-Plane and sell it without restriction. There's different degrees of openness - during Il-2 Sturmovik's classic period users could add repaints and missions without restriction but not aircraft or scenery, which could only be included with collaboration with the developers. Open-architecture sims (XPlane, FS9/FSX, Flightgear) are infinitely preferable because a) it's fun to create stuff and test it in the sim the developers don't have any veto on what appears in the sim c) third-party developers can compete and raise the standard of the sim much more easily. Related article: http://www.codinghor...f-the-king.html

Open source vs open architecture rules are stipulated by the accompanied licences not the terms themselves, but what you said is not incorrect, it just that verbage is on the licence.

When it comes to open source and selling your product accompanied with open source product, the importance of being able to read code is insignificant with the ability what you are allowed to do with it.

Ex: MS .net API is open source with very heavy restrictions stipulated by their licence.

I don't like to open a can of worms about who, what, why has the right to change the future of this new sim but I would like to add I have no problem paying $20 for beautiful regions with great looking airports and maybe a free aircraft that looks stunning. What I had problem with is paying for expensive add-ons that included just the aircraft, just the airport, just the regions.

The 3rdy party companies were so successful it would be plain dumb for MS not to do anything and be sidelined on the profits. No way! Their decision was britiliant from their bussines side and I would be suprised if they will surrender total control. We'll see what happens.

In my opinion, I have no problem that a large team of talented developers sell their content for very reasonable price,- and yes I do agree with you all that there's no free default scenery but I can live with that.

-lk

Edited March 7, 2012 by zoltron_rulez

[Dozer]

Just read the Avsim review. The panel screenshots were fascinating. A very artistic typeface for the radio tuners - not at all like 9-segment LED characters.

[larjeet]

Open source vs open architecture rules are stipulated by the accompanied licences not the terms themselves, but what you said is not incorrect, it just that verbage is on the licence.

When it comes to open source and selling your product accompanied with open source product, the importance of being able to read code is insignificant with the ability what you are allowed to do with it.

Ex: MS .net API is open source with very heavy restrictions stipulated by their licence.

I don't like to open a can of worms about who, what, why has the right to change the future of this new sim but I would like to add I have no problem paying $20 for beautiful regions with great looking airports and maybe a free aircraft that looks stunning. What I had problem with is paying for expensive add-ons that included just the aircraft, just the airport, just the regions.

The 3rdy party companies were so successful it would be plain dumb for MS not to do anything and be sidelined on the profits. No way! Their decision was britiliant from their bussines side and I would be suprised if they will surrender total control. We'll see what happens.

In my opinion, I have no problem that a large team of talented developers sell their content for very reasonable price,- and yes I do agree with you all that there's no free default scenery but I can live with that.

-lk

ZR if your paying for a scenery package that includes an aircraft how do you consider that a free aircraft ? And if you want scenery that looks stunning take a look at the Christchurch airport scenery by Chris now thats stunning and its free. Your right though their decision was britiliant from their business side. If you end up paying $20.00 for each little scenery package how much would it cost to have the whole world scenery $$$$$$$. compare that to Xplane 10 for the price of about four scenery packs you can have the whole world and you get an ever evolving ever improving flight simulator that comes with a ton of aircraft and space flight and you also have accsess to hundreds of third party addons both free and payware . As dozer stated they are like drug dealers they get you hooked and then they make their profits . This business style is also used by printer manufacturers they basically give you a free printer and then than drain your bank acount dry with by selling you extremely over priced ink

Edited March 7, 2012 by larjeet

[zoltron_rulez]

ZR if your paying for a scenery package that includes an aircraft how do you consider that a free aircraft ? And if you want scenery that looks stunning take a look at the Christchurch airport scenery by Chris now thats stunning and its free. Your right though their decision was britiliant from their business side. If you end up paying $20.00 for each little scenery package how much would it cost to have the whole world scenery $$$$$$$. compare that to Xplane 10 for the price of about four scenery packs you can have the whole world and you get an ever evolving ever improving flight simulator that comes with a ton of aircraft and space flight and you also have accsess to hundreds of third party addons both free and payware . As dozer stated they are like drug dealers they get you hooked and then they make their profits . This business style is also used by printer manufacturers they basically give you a free printer and then than drain your bank acount dry with by selling you extremely over priced ink

What I meant by 'Free Aircraft' is simply the fact that I got the entire package for $20 but yes, it is not free if you pay for it.

I appreciate your view point, and I agree with you but I think your looking from a different angle then I am and that's why there are the differences.

-Yes, open software allows for changes as you stated above and more.

-Yes, if you desire all regions in future releases you will pay quite a bit.

-There's many reasons why I did not include X-Plane in this conversation for reason of current state of software (beta release), performance, and outdated scenery and I would like to leave it at that. Please, do not be upset about me being frank, I am sure the future is bright for X-Plane but at the current rate and the size of their team it will take time to get there.

My side of things, from a perspective of developer/software company owner:

-Microsoft desrves some credit and so a bit of your money for their hard work just like ORBX has earned their respect.

-Yes, Microsoft's decision may be quite upseting and a let down, unfair!,- I know it may appear unfair to all of us but looking from different point of view (Microsoft's) it was totally unfair that their software (ex. FSX) upon release and time that elapsed generated less revenue then many 3rd companies who released single or two airports, aircrafts, etc.,- especially the fact that Microsoft gave the community entire flight sim with all regions, airports, ATC, etc ... So in all justice Microsoft's decision is not a terrible one,- quite frankly because of their current situation they have to 'raised their bar' (otherwise no one would bother with Flight) to prove themselves to earn you hard dollar, and that is what I look for in a piece of software on the market,- there's way too much badly written software out there and I keep seeing it and shake my head, how did they get away with this.

I hope this cleared up things a little bit.

Edited March 7, 2012 by zoltron_rulez

[Dozer]

I stopped using Microsoft's flight simulators because they became a technological dead end when Microsoft disbanded the ACES studio. Flight is a dead end if there's a mandatory paywall between the third-party developers and the users. The life of a simulator is in the creation of content by third-party authors, payware and freeware, and I am not interested in supporting any platform which places arbitrary obstacles between those creators and their users.

[larjeet]

I love the chenille blanket effect of the trees How did they plant them so perfectly The developers must have OCD I wonder how long it took them to get it just right HiHi

Edited March 8, 2012 by larjeet

[zoltron_rulez]

The life of a simulator is in the creation of content by third-party authors, payware and freeware ..

So what are all the devs at Microsoft doing?

Time will be a great witness if Microsoft succeeds with their model, I did not say they 'succeeded' or 'failed', I said that their decision is not a bad one.

But one thing is for sure, if they keep delivering great quality add ons at reasonable price there will be people purchasing these. I am looking to purchase NA regions since I fly there 99% of time.

[zoltron_rulez]

I love the chenille blanket effect of the trees How did they plant them so perfectly The developers must have OCD I wonder how long it took them to get it just right HiHi

Looks a bit comical, but that's actually how most new trees are planted in NAs after wood cutting operations, that's real life. I don`t want to be a jerk but to answer your question watch National Geographic and you will see how,- it`s very simple.

That doesn`t mean that this is how trees there grow in the region you photographed, haven`t been there.

Edited March 8, 2012 by zoltron_rulez

[larjeet]

ZR did you mean National Lampoons its becoming very obvious that you are just here to have fun and are not to be taken seriously . We know its fun to get on here and cause a little H&D . But if you do decide to jump over to The xplane side I would recomend that you stick to XP9 as it includes Mars . Im sure that its a little closer to the planet you are from . I must say though that for someone 2011 years old you do have a good sense of humor .

Live Long and prosper on what ever planet your from

[zoltron_rulez]

ZR did you mean National Lampoons its becoming very obvious that you are just here to have fun and are not to be taken seriously . We know its fun to get on here and cause a little H&D . But if you do decide to jump over to The xplane side I would recomend that you stick to XP9 as it includes Mars . Im sure that its a little closer to the planet you are from . I must say though that for someone 2011 years old you do have a good sense of humor .

Here we go again, another one? National Lampoons? Are you a little 12 year old?

Live Long and prosper on what ever planet your from

Sigh, I absolutely don't get that at all. Is that coming from the National Lampoons?

Edited March 8, 2012 by zoltron_rulez

[larjeet]

ZR a little history lesson from starfleet

Edited March 8, 2012 by larjeet

[chris k]

Oh no.. the Vulcans are out!!

/me ducks.

[Dozer]

So what are all the devs at Microsoft doing?

Time will be a great witness if Microsoft succeeds with their model, I did not say they 'succeeded' or 'failed', I said that their decision is not a bad one.

But one thing is for sure, if they keep delivering great quality add ons at reasonable price there will be people purchasing these. I am looking to purchase NA regions since I fly there 99% of time.

Microsoft devs are, I'm very sure, making stuff for money. Third-party developers make stuff because they want the stuff they make to exist for its own sake. Look at Guy Montagu-Pollock's Comet - it's taken him over five years to reach where he is now. Will his sales revenue pay for the thousands of hours he's put into this? No, but that's not the point - he made it because he wanted it made, and the sales revenue is a nice bonus. Microsoft's developers do not have that freedom. You won't see any labours of love in a closed-architecture sim.

(Except for Il-2 Sturmovik before it was cracked.)

[zoltron_rulez]

Microsoft devs are, I'm very sure, making stuff for money.

Yes, and no.

I am a developer and yes I do it to make living but at the same time I want customers that purchase the software to be equally or more happy,- and that is my top priority that I get super review from the customer.

Third-party developers make stuff because they want the stuff they make to exist for its own sake. Look at Guy Montagu-Pollock's Comet - it's taken him over five years to reach where he is now. Will his sales revenue pay for the thousands of hours he's put into this? No, but that's not the point - he made it because he wanted it made, and the sales revenue is a nice bonus. Microsoft's developers do not have that freedom. You won't see any labours of love in a closed-architecture sim.

That's great, I am aware of this and could provide you a list of others. I can also provide you a list of those that made a killing. Is anything wrong with making good money? Absolutely not, especially when the addon is great,- heck I'll pay $80 for PMDG NGX, because it is that good.

Now it is Microsoft's turn to deliver equal content or better content, and make money, and that's also fine but because you work for a large cooperation like Microsoft it doesn't mean that people on their team don't work long hours and actually have the same goals in mind, after all it is their little baby.

Edited March 9, 2012 by zoltron_rulez

[Dozer]

There's nothing wrong with making money. There is something wrong with banning content which doesn't make the publisher money.

[larjeet]

Heres a screen shot Taken Using my goldenwings conversion of FS9 This is a freeware stearman with livery done by seperate artist everything was freeware except Fscene textures . I don't believe any texture is stock microsoft I also hav ENB mod enabled . Unfortunatly this will never be possible with Microsoft flight.

[zoltron_rulez]

Heres a screen shot Taken Using my goldenwings conversion of FS9 This is a freeware stearman with livery done by seperate artist everything was freeware except Fscene textures . I don't believe any texture is stock microsoft I also hav ENB mod enabled . Unfortunatly this will never be possible with Microsoft flight.

Just a question, if you buy new computer, how long will it take you setup everything the way it was for your FS Sim?

[larjeet]

about a minute I keep a copy on a dvd and just copy and paste . I have also run it off of a 4gig flash drive

[zoltron_rulez]

Heres a screen shot Taken Using my goldenwings conversion of FS9 This is a freeware stearman with livery done by seperate artist everything was freeware except Fscene textures . I don't believe any texture is stock microsoft I also hav ENB mod enabled . Unfortunatly this will never be possible with Microsoft flight.

Ooops, I did not see the pic. Heck, no. I can't tell ground textures, is there a reason why you show me dark land textures? Sky looks OK, flight's looks better though, sun on water same, the flare is missing in flight and the clouds are not good right at the moment although they look better in other weather themes.

Again too dark to make comments on the model, if you want to compare give me day screen shot.

We'll compare in a year, if you're still using dated graphics engine in a year.

Edit: If you want to compare the two you need two get complete list of features. A better comparison will be once Flight has more years behind it is belt before comparing a sim that is 8 years mature.

Edited March 10, 2012 by zoltron_rulez

[zoltron_rulez]

Today I flew thunderstorm weather theme and broke through the layers to the top, and wow, the clouds look great and the effects are very similar like in X-Plane when going through clouds minus the blank screen which I found very annoying (I wish there will be a setting to turn it off in X-Plane).

Here's a screen shot of cloud tops at 14,000 ft, they look great. Looks like the clouds look terrible in one weather theme and stunning in another. I also noticed FPS drop which confirms my thoughts that one of the reasons custom weather is not in the game yet.

Edited March 11, 2012 by zoltron_rulez

[GrahamH]

Just played it for the first time today. Not too fond of it. The flight controls, the scenery, and aircraft. The A5 is barely fast enough to get anywhere in free roam before I'm bored. The only way you can make this game fun is if you either make a windows live account, or purchase the addons. I guess I can see how it could be fun for some people though.

Back to xp10 for me.

[edwin]

Today I flew thunderstorm weather theme and broke through the layers to the top, and wow, the clouds look great and the effects are very similar like in X-Plane when going through clouds minus the blank screen which I found very annoying (I wish there will be a setting to turn it off in X-Plane).

100% with you on that one. X-Plane had the see through clouds/mists which were amazing to fly VFR through with GA aircraft but it got axed around v10.04 to give into the understandable demand for fps for some. It means that now GA flying in mountain regions with even a hint of possible cloud is a definite No-No. Milk soup!!!

What I find strange is Wannabe pilots seem to prefer to have loads of Tinsel Town buildings to look down on rather than realistic cloud densities to simulate flight in. Must be the Furniture the FSX Immigrants loaded their wagons with when they headed west in the search of the promise's that the new lands called X-Plane had to offer