Microsoft Flight Simulator returns - The rebirth of the beloved franchise.

[ak416]

You are quite welcome, Robert. It is nice to know it is appreciated, and your "likes" do not go unnoticed. I always look forward to your well thought out and informative posts.

[ROBERT DUNN 2]

Thanks again ak (and WarHawK and the others who have brought information on this topic to the attention of our membership)! After my initial enthusiasm for further word from Microsoft FS team, I reconsidered how such anticipation might adversely affect me emotionally. (Once burned, twice shy as the saying goes.) However, with these more straightforward and encouraging words reflecting a more user-centric development process of this new flight sim (coined by Coast as "FSXX" in reference to a 2020 release), I find myself again experiencing an enthusiasm for this experience in the coming months that I may look back upon and regret. Regardless, the main purpose with this post is to thank those forum readers among our members that bring noteworthy reports here to our website. I have said in posts and on Discord that I would personally refrain from cluttering informative threads here with nothing more than my posts of gratitude but please permit me this one all-encompassing "THANK YOU".

In reference to ak's other related thread on the dissolution of Dovetail's support of FSX-Steam and Microsoft's intention to once again take over such support, I think this is a good thing. I wouldn't expect Microsoft to improve on FSX-Steam but it's nice to hear Microsoft acknowledge responsibility for support. I just hope that FSX-Steam remains compatible with all the existing add-ons and multiplayer server configurations.

I registered for Microsoft's Insider Program for FSXX on day one. I would welcome any other registered insiders' posts here about developments with Insider Program. I don't take the time to read relevant forums myself. Who here at msFLIGHTS.net is registered for FSXX Insider Program?

Only tangentially related... in 2020 FSXX is bound to be quite a hot topic. There is a "trade show", Flight Sim Expo, in my home town of Las Vegas next June 12th thru 14th. As I did for Flight Sim Expo 2018, I have booked a 2 bedroom suite at a timeshare I have for 6 days surrounding that weekend. Maybe those interested in attending Flight Sim Expo could get together in the near future and see how we might coordinate and mutually assist one another.

[ak416]

August 8th, 2019 – Development Update


AUGUST!

The team is excited to move into the next phase of communication with the community regarding our development plans. As we mentioned in our July 25^th update, August is about setting expectations regarding our development process through launch. September is about defining how we will involve the community in that process.

Here is our current schedule for August:

• AUGUST 15^th – Insider Program Kickoff (preview of Development Roadmap Release)
• AUGUST 22^nd – Development Roadmap Release (General Release)
• AUGUST 29^th – Build Program Kickoff

But wait there’s more!

One of the most important topics we see being discussed in the community is WHEN we plan to start talking about the project. You want the information, the team wants to share this information, so where exactly IS the information? It’s coming. The challenge with creating a transparent development process built on collaboration is that we have to work on the foundation for delivering that information before doing so. With that said, we will be kicking off our Feature Exploration Series in the fall where we will be working closely with the community to walk-through the next iteration of Microsoft Flight Simulator in granular detail.

But wait there’s more!

That said, because we understand the importance of this topic to the community, the team is working hard to adjust the schedule to see what information we can share earlier than currently planned. In our August 15^th update, we will provide more clarity on where we at in the process.

Insiders! DRR preview release in t-minus 7 days…

Sincerely,

Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

https://www.flightsimulator.com/

[ak416]

“Update to an update about an update” –- AVSIM member post

Heading into the last week of July the team is excitedly awaiting the arrival of August. There are a number of big updates planned for August and September starting with the V1 release of the Development Roadmap.

Within the next few weeks we’ll be providing the official release date for the Development Roadmap, in the meantime, we’d like to share a few of the deliverables from this plan:

• August (Early/Mid) – Insider Program kickoff
  • First batch of content for the Insider Program members is being prepared for delivery:
    • Advanced preview of the Development Roadmap
    • “In-Sim” content – clips captured from build.
    • Preview Build Program – Detailed information on first build deliverable, Insider participation sign-up

• August (Mid/Late) – Development Roadmap Release (v.2019.08/drr1)
  • Development beats through EOY 2019
    • Build Program Recruitment and Release timeline
    • SDK Update
    • 3^rd Party Content Update
    • UGC Content Update

• August (Late) – Build Program Kickoff
  • Preview Build Program – Detailed information on first preview build deliverable
  • Preview Build Program – Public Participation sign-up
  • Preview Build Program – Preview of next build details

“What we want” –- AVSIM Thread

There are two important plans we will be sharing with you in September:

1. The pipeline for how we will provide an in-depth look at the product we are building.
2. The process for how we will integrate the community into this process to facilitate a collaborative partnership to bring this product to launch.

Threads like this on AVSIM, and across all the forums we pay close attention to, are truly valued by the team. So though we may not be directly interacting with you at the moment, we hear you. August is about setting expectations, providing a clear Development Roadmap outlining how we get from today to launch. September is about how we accomplish that task, together.



“Early August for Insider… Hope I get in.” –- Reddit User r/flightsim

MSFS – You’re in. In August we’ll kick-off the Insider Program. Insiders will be able to login to the site and be given access to the Insider area, and not just redirected to the FAQ, as per current.



“I want to pay for it in unmarked, non-sequential, low denomination bills, placed in three black plastic bin bags, left on the third floor of an abandoned multi-story car park, at midnight.” –- AVSIM User

MSFS – Done. Once you make the drop, head south 3 kilometers. Locate a metal trash bin, retrieve mobile phone at bottom of bin. At 1:06AM text “no subscription”. Await further instruction.



“Microsoft don’t read AVSIM or any other forums, they read their own gaming forums and insiders community forums, it is standard company policy.” –- AVSIM User

MSFT – Well this is awkward…



Finally, the team would like to take a moment to call attention to AVSIM mod 188AHC. Your effort and contributions do not go unnoticed. Thank you.



Next update coming August 8th!



Sincerely,

The Microsoft Flight Simulator Team



PS: Hint — Announcement coming next update:


https://fsi.microsoftstudios.com/

[Novawing24]

The information about Azure AI powering the weather and potentially random scenarios in flight is interesting, as is the apparent acknowledgment that the community is wary of always online titles.

It is good to see that there will be an offline mode, what is lost in offline vs online will be interesting to see.

The conclusion is also apt in its acknowledgement that it is being watched closely, with a healthy amount of scepticism.

[ak416]

Flight Simulator was once one of the jewels in Microsoft’s crown, as close to synonymous with PC gaming as it’s possible to get. The series debuted a staggering 37 years ago, pre-dating even Windows as an operating system, and demanded exacting attention from players as they guided increasingly detailed planes safely through the skies. Over the course of a dozen iterations spanning nearly four decades, the flying experience evolved from blocky cockpit views to full aerial tours with a hangar’s worth of realistically modelled aircraft to get to grips with. It’s been running so long that even Microsoft does not know its sales figures, but Flight Simulator has certainly been played by millions.

Yet as PC gaming blossomed, becoming home to everything from competitive shooters to arthouse narrative games, Flight Simulator’s star began to wane. The last major release was 2006’s Microsoft Flight Simulator X (eventually revamped and repackaged for Steam in 2014), while 2012’s simplified spin-off, Microsoft Flight, had an aborted take off, cancelled a mere five months after launch. The golden age of flight (simulators) has long been over.

Until, that is, this year’s E3 in Los Angeles, where a brand new Microsoft Flight Simulator made a surprise appearance. It was announced during the Xbox conference, for Xbox consoles as well as its more familiar PC home. The franchise’s shock reappearance was very well-received, but even Microsoft’s head of Xbox Phil Spencer wasn’t confident about debuting a flight sim alongside the likes of Gears of War and Forza.

“I remember we were going through the planning, and I was like, ‘could we really get Flight Sim on our stage?’,” Spencer says. “I thought for sure, there’s just no way. But then we saw the visuals.”

As the trailer above demonstrates, the new Flight Simulator looks absolutely astounding. Real-world locations including Dubai, San Francisco, and Egypt are recreated in photorealistic 4K resolution, with geography and textures captured from satellite imagery. Players will be able to control numerous authentic planes from light aircrafts to passenger vehicles, set their own flight paths, and navigate through unpredictable scenarios thrown up by Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform, which leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to dynamically shift flight conditions. This will keep players on their toes – get too comfortable running a commuter flight, and Azure might throw up sudden shifts in the weather, turning a sunny flight into a battle to keep aloft as storm conditions roll in.

Spencer first saw footage of Flight Simulator in “probably February or March”, and was so taken aback that he had to confirm with Microsoft’s studios head Shannon Loftis that it was actually real. “There were scenes that look better than photorealistic,” he recalls.

If Flight Simulator looks ahead of its time, that’s because, in many ways, it is. Not only do the underlying AI and graphical technologies behind its creation push current gaming technology to its limits, but they begin to surpass them. The geographic data alone, needed to render the world players will be flying around, comes in at two petabytes – equivalent to 20,000 Blu-ray discs.

It will be far in excess of what can fit on a disc or be reasonably downloaded, and so Flight Simulator is at the vanguard of a new breed of game that can only live, perhaps fittingly, in the cloud. Microsoft servers will do a lot of the visual processing remotely and beam the results to a player’s screen, doing away with the need for a super-powerful PC at home (though you will need a fast internet connection). This is part of a wider shift that is already under way in video games: as technology improves and developers strive to create ever more realistic virtual worlds, games balloon in size, and the hardware needed to run them becomes more and more expensive. Offloading some of that data and processing to cloud servers is the solution that Microsoft – among other companies, such as Google – is betting on.

For games like Flight Simulator, the cloud provides “a system that kind of understands how much capability I need at any point,” Spencer explains. “It’s no different than what we’ve done in years past, streaming into available RAM that’s available on our consoles.” Flight Simulator will have an offline mode when it launches in 2020, but given how heavily it relies on data streamed from Microsoft servers, it’s likely to be severely truncated.

Always-online games are sometimes controversial – not everyone likes logging into a server every time they want to play (and indeed, some players aren’t able to). But in this case, the advantages are surely worth it. “We’re getting to the point with games where there’s the [question of] how much data can you actually download and store?” says Spencer. “[But] there’s also the matter of how much data do I need to have locally at any time? I’m not playing the beginning, middle and end of every game at every time … Not only do we have two petabytes of data behind [Flight Simulator], but we’ve got Azure AI running [so] you have different levels of fidelity in different parts of the planet. As you’re flying around, you’re seeing the highest buildings and the weather’s changing in real time. It is just unreal.”

Ahead of Flight Simulator’s release in 2020, Microsoft has launched an Insider program, to share development updates with players and provide early access to the game in return for feedback from early adopters. Flight Simulator’s approaching return will be watched closely by its many passionate fans – but if Microsoft can stick the landing, this will be a game beyond the wildest dreams of anyone who played in the 80s and 90s.

https://www.theguardian.com/games/20...ight-simulator

Highlighted the bits I thought were especially relevant.

[Waterman981]

I didn't realize that was a screen shot at first...

[ak416]

July 11^th, 2019 – Development Update


As the team enters the dog days of summer, we’ve been hard at work putting the finishing touches on many of the big updates we’re planning to share toward the end of summer. Our excitement continues to build, as does our impatience to share this information with you. So we press forward counting down the days until we can open the hangar doors and dive into the details with you.

There are many very important topics being discussed in the community (e.g. New Flight Model/IFR-VFR Flight/Weather Simulation Depth/VR Support, etc.). The team is constantly monitoring the feedback/suggestions being discussed and please know that many of these topics and more, will be covered thoroughly in near future updates.

In the meantime, here’s a work-in-progress screenshot, and confirmation that the Insider Program will be starting in early August as part of our development roadmap kickoff.

On July 25th, we will be releasing another update on our plans for August and September. Until next time, know that the team is excited and anxious to share more information with you.

Sincerely,
The Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

https://fsi.microsoftstudios.com/

[Bluejay]

Hiya!

There’s alot of analysis on YouTube of the trailer - but I found this one to be particularly convincing.

https://youtu.be/dyBeRmOLnBA

[Oz-Flyer]

I you take that statement as read it look s like they may have learnt from Flight. Good to read they are supporting 3rd party addons software and hardware.

Hope everyone gives it a far go and not kill it before it even gets started.

[WarHawK]

I think that statement clears up a lot for so many of us I hope. I think that's great news.

[ak416]

I read a new Microsoft update today......they will be supporting 3rd party planes and scenery. Don't know if this is good news or bad news.

Here is the full text

"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

This sentence from Leonardo da Vinci embodies the driving force behind the Microsoft Flight Simulator team. And while all of us have our own personal associations with flight, the entire team is committed to the singular goal of capturing the artistry, mastery, and essence of flying. We believe part of achieving that goal is taking a moment to recognize pivotal steps in our development process, and today is one of our biggest. The culmination of time, effort, technology, and collaboration was edited into a 1:30 second video shown at the Microsoft Keynote presentation this year to kick off E3 2019.

On behalf of the entire Microsoft Flight Simulator team, we humbly and deeply express our gratitude for such an overwhelmingly positive response to our announce trailer! We recognize that without people like you, we don’t get to make experiences like this that span more than 35 years and maintain such a passionate following. Thank you for being patient enough to weather the turbulence caused by some of our previous missteps. Thank you for being willing to look to the possibilities of the future while asking us to be accountable for the past. We hear you, we value you, we want to make the next generation of Microsoft Flight Simulator for you, with you.

While this is not the moment to answer every question being asked, we do want to take the opportunity to answer a few important ones:

1. We are making Microsoft Flight Simulator. Emphasis on the word SIMULATOR.
2. Designed for PC, optimized for multiplatform support (e.g. Xbox).
3. Yes. We are supporting 3rd Party Content Development and Community Content creation. We are aware of the concerns in the current eco-system and are working to address them.
4. Yes. We genuinely want to work closely with the community in the development of this title.
5. Accessibility is important to us. Whatever your abilities are, if you want to fly, we are going to do whatever we can to make that happen. Yoke and pedals, mouse and keyboard, controller, etc. No pilot should be left behind.

Over the next few months, we will be communicating our plans for the rest of the year, including important updates to the Preview Build/Insider Programs, and important development beats. Maintaining a collaborative relationship with the community starts with transparency and clearly communicated expectations. Early August is our current timeline for kicking off the communication of the development roadmap. We will continue to add clarity to this timeline throughout the summer. If you’d like the latest updates, please make sure to sign up for the Insider Program.

This is just the first step in an adventure we are honored and excited to be taking with all of you. The reaction we received from our recent trailer was an incredible reminder that we are not alone in this passion we have for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, honestly expressing your feedback and concerns, and for taking this next step with us.

From all of us here working on Microsoft Flight Simulator:

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

https://fsi.microsoftstudios.com/

[Splithorse]

I read a new Microsoft update today......they will be supporting 3rd party planes and scenery. Don't know if this is good news or bad news.

[ak416]

I fired up Flight last night... I couldn't connect to anyone else's session as probably nobody else was running it at that time. I think most of us from the early days here saw the potential for Flight, and I just hope the same situation doesn't happen here. (As a side note in the trailer I didn't notice any trees swaying in the breeze )

Yeah its pretty empty but you can still find the odd person playing now and again. There were 4 of us in a session a few weeks ago!

An offline mode without AI or weather wouldn't be a deal breaker for me, but if it requires you to stream in scenery that would be a bit concerning. But if they can do it well and it looks as good as it does in that trailer, I'm fine with it. I don't want FSX2. I don't want to install third party addons outside of the game. I don't want to keep a spreadsheet of my licenses. I don't want to have a limit on the amount of times I can download an addon that I paid $60+ for. If Microsoft can offer me an experience that made me feel the same way I did when I played Flight then I'll be happy. I want good performance, I want some sort of structure like missions and a career mode, a wide variety of scenery and aircraft and multiplayer servers. I want everyone in that multiplayer server to see the same aircraft and the same scenery. Everything else is just icing on the cake for me.

Like Nova said though, we know very little from that trailer except that it looks incredible. Let's hope we get some more information soon, I'm dying to know more.

[Waterman981]

Yeah, at this point we don't know how it will all be done. If you look at the "flight simulator" in Google Earth, that is streaming all the data down, and on my 150 Mbps internet it will still buffer for me. Apples and oranges of course even if MS is streaming down the scenery. We just won't know until we get more info. You look back at FSX being used for 13 years now, and reliance on cloud resources (gamespy anyone?) can break the game prematurely, which is the only thing I hope doesn't happen.

I fired up Flight last night... I couldn't connect to anyone else's session as probably nobody else was running it at that time. I think most of us from the early days here saw the potential for Flight, and I just hope the same situation doesn't happen here. (As a side note in the trailer I didn't notice any trees swaying in the breeze )