Update DELAYED!?

[GripperSim]

Happy Friday all!
Flight Simulator 2020 Update DELAYED!?
But there is some good news! C152 and HOPE if you’ve not got the alfa yet!
Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/BE6CUlS2f60

[mercure]

Hello,
I recently raised the question to a local forum about the future of FS20. Most of the answers I get were that I should consider P3D instead, get some jokes about FS being kind of zombie already.

I guess this was mostly from P3D die hard fans, and so cannot really get the true picture of what finally could be FS20.
It is no a question of planning, can wait for sure, but for those who have a chance to be part of the associated team (?) of testers, are you confident the product will be really good when available compared to P3D?

I just would like to get the actual feeling of people who really know by themselves.
Thanks!

[vora]

Not wanting to break the NDA I can tell you this much: since I'm in FS20 alpha I haven't touch my P3D anymore - and it's 1000s € worth of addons.
FS20 in its alpha state is already so far and beyond P3D, or XP11 or AF2, that I don't see me using any other sim (except for DCS for obvious reasons). FS20 is truely a "Next Generation" sim, not because of shinier graphics or better FPS, it is its completely different approach to user interaction and scenery handling as a matter of principle. It is a complete new way of simming, and a much better way IMHO.

Please note that this is the personal opinion of of a pure VFR flyer since FS II (and PPL owner). Bus drivers might see it differently

[Daube]

I'm not in the Alpha testing unfortunately (I haven't applied, I don't have enough time nor ressources for that ), but I watch closely the various feedbacks from Alpha testers.

A good summary would be:
- MSFS looks very good, way better than other sims for now (XP may catch up soon...)
- The weather depiction in MSFS is unmatched.
- The flight model in MSFS is supposed to be very good, but in reality at the moment, it's full of bugs and various inaccuracies, which doesn't make superior in any way to P3D or XPlane. That may change soon though, since it's an Alpha and it's constantly evolving
- The main problem comes from the SDK and some special format of this sim (WASM, WebAssembly) which, according to people who have more technical knowledge than me, makes it impossible for addons to use external modules (DLLs). As we know, most realistic aircrafts nowadays in FSX and P3D use external modules to overcome everything the simulator is not able to handle properly. If such modules cannot exist in MSFS, than means it might be impossible to get realistic aircraft systems too.
- There are also still some concerns regarding the possibility for 3rd party FREEWARE addons developers to create addons for MSFS
- There are also many concerns regarding the pricing policy of MSFS.

Final line is: yes MSFS is very promising and looks awesome, but at this precise moment, nobody knows if MSFS can become as realistic as P3D or XPlane, and nobody knows what kind of addons we will be able to get.
Maybe there will be no restrictions, addon devs can create anything, including high-realism planes, and then we can say byebye to P3D and FSX.
Maybe there will be many restrictions, no freeware content, no complex airplanes, and MSFS can go say hello to MS Flight in the virtual trash bin of the history of simulators
NOBODY knows yet.

EDIT: I forgot to tell about the total lack of helicopters at this point, as well as total lack of support for TrackIR or VR helmets

[mercure]

Thank you already, hoping some more commments will come.
As a basic FS Fan, for much more than 20 years, I think to be close of reality regarding flight models is just compulsory. I mean to have the actual feeling and behaviours of the virtual plane comparing to the real one.
The rest is important but not as key as reality. If not, yes it would be gloom future for the sim but I hope not! Still time to make it excellent, for sure!
Don't rush, 'flight' at least has shown the wrong path...

Additional comment: why the first fs did get the success? Not because of light effects and texture depth, but because of flight model. As simple as it was.

[Javis]

Additional comment: why the first fs did get the success? Not because of light effects and texture depth...

Certainly not!

Magic, that's what it was ! As an average aviation enthusiast and hobbyist it was totally exiting for me to get to learn about aerial navigation (and 'flying' of course) with the program and booklets that came with Flight Simulator II (still have them..;-) and together with the wonderful books by Charlie Gulick (40 (and 40 more..) Flight Simulator Adventures) who needed "scenery". Blue sky above, green ground below, and a few airstrips and some navigational aids was enough, the rest we could easily imagine along with Charlie's books. Magic ! ( long gone now.... ;-)

And, IMHO, as far as comparing P3D and FS2020 (for the time being..)is concerned, did you see the screenies and videos of upcoming P3D v5 ??... Sugar me and call me a donut but i have yet to see such totally uninspiring material of a new flightsim version like as shown in these v5 previews. I was totally over the moon with P3Dv4 when it came out, because of the 64bit a total game changer and the best thing since sliced bread. But now, after we have being led into the final flightsim Walhalla at last by all the mouthwatering screenies and videos of FS2020, atleast for me, P3D is just a wonderful memory, like FSX, FS95, FS5, Flight Unlimited, Propilot, and all the rest i have had so much fun with. Going by the screenshots of P3Dv5 it seems like LM might've givin up on it too....

[TuFun]

As an artist side of me, MSFS aircraft are stunning! I've been waiting a long time for aircraft self-reflection. I'm under NDA so that's all I can say.

As for P3Dv5 I hope this version has self-reflection. The only selling point I guess is backward compatibility.

April 9 update:
SDK UPDATE

We are excited to have over 150 third party companies using our SDK and working on many amazing updates for the new simulator. This week marks the initial release of WebAssembly support, enabling our partners to start porting their native code over to our platform. As a start, we are focusing on panels and displays support, which are a critical part of high-quality airplane add-ons. We are also providing an initial release of the in-game aircraft editor and are continuously working on documentation, general usability improvements to the existing tools (in particular the scenery and script editors) and general bug fixing.

[mercure]

Yeah Javis, same here!
Great memories, a little difficult to explain to the youngsters but it was good time.

Regarding P3Dv5 the trailer I have seen is really puzzling, marketing was off probably, but some other 'demo' much more appealing were recently released. However I will wait to get more info and knowledge from users before moving. Unlike the previous FS in the eighties and after, the price now is really high. Not even mentioning the addons (and some are said almost 'mandatory' to improve the base program?) the annual cost is in hundreds of $, so don't want to be disappointed in the end.
Annual cost of my FSX is about 5$, still decreasing! Forget it...