mikew 4 Posted June 11, 2019 Report Share Posted June 11, 2019 This story from Combatsim's roving reporter at E3 got my attention: http://www.combatsim.com/2019/06/take-to-the-skies-with-microsofts-next-installment-in-the-flight-simulator-series.htm/ Will that lovely scenery be stored locally, or streamed from MS's servers? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fork 0 Posted June 12, 2019 Report Share Posted June 12, 2019 I think that's for the XBox - but we have to assume it's also for the PC? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stans 29 Posted June 12, 2019 Report Share Posted June 12, 2019 It will be for X-Box and PC, but is also likely to be cloud based and will require an X-Box Game Pass, which is currently $4.99 per month. It is unknown what sort of third party support there will be, or if there will be any such support at all. I've seen the videos, it looks very real. In fact, it looks too real, almost like the videos were heavily edited. I'm taking a wait and see approach. MS Flight turned out to be a beautiful bomb as did Dovetail Games' Flight Sim World. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Donster 36 Posted June 12, 2019 Report Share Posted June 12, 2019 Thanks for reading my Main page news posts mikew! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Krycztij 3 Posted June 12, 2019 Report Share Posted June 12, 2019 Oh, the buzzwords! The graphics come from "AI in the Azure cloud" and MS did not go into details on that. My guess is that they used Bing Maps and 3D reconstruction on their server farm to create the 3D landscape from photos and map data, but AI clouds sound better for sure. The result looks absolutely stunning. I feel very uncomfortable about ambient occlusion and reflections being done in screen space (with very bad artifacts, see the Golden Gate’s reflection at 1:05), but the idea of having that quality in 4k on a home computer or on an Xbox is just awesome. Something was missing from Ace Combat 7’s graphics, and here I see that it was these brilliant colors! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
The Dude 13 Posted June 13, 2019 Report Share Posted June 13, 2019 Throw in some guns and collision/damage physics ... rename it to MS Combat Flight Simulator ... then shut-up and take my money! Until then ... meh. I kid. Looks stunning. Will certainly buy it, but I'll wait until it's stable to do that. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Donster 36 Posted June 14, 2019 Report Share Posted June 14, 2019 I agree with The Dude. What's the point if you can't blow some Japanese Zero out of the sky? Like Itchie for instance. Or Herr Fick as he is flying along slowly in a gaggle of Stukas? Just to hear them scream as their aircraft burst into flames is worth the price of the game. Ahh...good times. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stans 29 Posted June 14, 2019 Report Share Posted June 14, 2019 Seems to me Bill Gates was the motivation behind M$ dropping the combat flight sim genre. With Bill retired, perhaps M$ would develop either a new combat flight sim or at least an add-on package to give the civilian sim combat capabilities. Of course, if they don't think they can generate a good sum of revenue, they will not. The VRS TacPack did give FSX combat flight sim capability, but there has yet to be any information on third party support for M$'s newly announced flight sim. The exclusion of third party support is one of the things that killed Dovetail Games' Flight Sim World. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mikew 4 Posted June 14, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 14, 2019 They might be able to get away with a WWII combat flight sim, but a version using modern real life data might cause a bit of controversy. What would the scenario be? Who are the 'good guys'? What would you bomb* first? Since TAW was released in 1998 with a Red Sea theatre, Eritrea and Ethiopia have numerous border conflicts, Yemen is in a state of civil war, Somalia is total anarchy and Egypt and Sudan have both had military coups. This leaves only Saudi Arabia as a nice normal country. So, video games can have real world effects... *To you Project Echelon people at NSA/GCHQ etc, I'm not talking about a real 'bomb' Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stans 29 Posted June 15, 2019 Report Share Posted June 15, 2019 You might be on to something, Mikew. Back in the days of Windows 95/98, I had the sim F/A-18 Hornet Korea, which took place on the Korean peninsula. In the past few years, we got very close to another shooting war with North Korea. Historical combat flight sims could re-fight WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, so there's plenty of simulated action that might not result in a real world war. In a real life scenario, what would I b*mb first? The little tyrants around here known as Dork Helmet, Fink, and their Imperror. Itchie too, but I think he retired from their Dystopia Toilet Bowl World Disorder group and he is an incredibly tiny target. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Herr Soren Fick 1 Posted June 17, 2019 Report Share Posted June 17, 2019 On 6/15/2019 at 8:21 AM, Stans said: In a real life scenario, what would I b*mb first? The little tyrants around here known as Dork Helmet, Fink, and their Imperror. Itchie too, but I think he retired from their Dystopia Toilet Bowl World Disorder group and he is an incredibly tiny target. ACH! Zhat vaz nicht kalledt fvor und vedy dizvrezpektfvul. Vhat did Ich eber do to vou? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stans 29 Posted June 18, 2019 Report Share Posted June 18, 2019 20 hours ago, Herr Soren Fick said: ACH! Zhat vaz nicht kalledt fvor und vedy dizvrezpektfvul. Vhat did Ich eber do to vou? Years of being a little tinpot, wannabe dictator, that's what. But, in your case, it's more of trying to be a dick-tator. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stans 29 Posted June 21, 2019 Report Share Posted June 21, 2019 Check it out! MS has updated the web page for their new flight sim. They are now advertising 3rd party content support, sounds like there will be an SDK. https://fsi.microsoftstudios.com/?fbclid=IwAR3JBvTWqBN37pONTOC-beGCPwtGNiVu7fNmXaPMF4PgbOJn_eYDjAfEb2I You may now color me "interested". Quote Link to post Share on other sites
mikew 4 Posted June 22, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2019 Thanks for the update! I suspect that there'll be a large online 'streamed content' component to this but there might be some positves to that. The latest civilian flight sim I have is Xplane10, and with the highest resolution scenery it can take over 5 minutes to launch a mission from my hard disk. Consequently, I haven't started it up in ages... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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