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Microsoft Flight Simulator

fsi.microsoftstudios.com

11–20 of 234 posts

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#15
My reply is a little off-topic but I wanted to share as it is Flight Simulator related.

Last year an old boss and friend passed suddenly. He had only just turned fifty but the years of poor eating and sitting caught up with him in his late forties.

He was a Flight Simulator addict. He held a private pilots license as well and would fly small aircraft. Took us up a few times which was amazing. Very different to a regular airplane. He had an amazing setup with, I think, six screens, proper chair, and controls. We once got him a pilots cap for a birthday for him to wear :)

So when I saw the new Flight Simulator announced during Microsoft's E3 event the other week my first thought was how he would have loved this. He had moaned for years about Microsoft killing it off so this would have excited him like nothing else. It really hit me in my gut and my heart just how much I miss that guy.

If you are having some small health problems please get them checked out and take your health seriously. My friend was there one day then the next found sitting in his god damn home office with work documents still on the screen. He left behind a wonderful wife and two teenage kids. Rest in Peace my friend.

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#16
post #13

I loved MS FS back in the day! According to wikipedia, this new one will feature "Azure AI". What does that mean?

I'm guessing the "AI" was used in the geometry mapping from the sat data they used for their region maps.

Microsoft's Bing maps uses a huge amount of aerial orthophotos as well, not just satellite. Also aerial lidar for DEMs vs satellite radar data (the old srtm 1/3 for us48 states, etc).

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#17
Story time: as a kid I would use FS to do intercontinental flights with my cousin. My (small) room would be divided in two: passenger seating, and cockpit.

We would sit down at my computer and take turns flying. I would convince my little sisters to sit down in the passenger area which were two chairs behind a curtain (they for some reason found it less entertaining than we did and often decided to leave early in the flight...).

We even had a little toy kitchen (borrowed from said sisters) to serve cheerios as inflight meals.

Fun times.

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#18
I grew up playing MS FlightSim, and my main memory of it was that we never (for 15 years) felt like we ever had a computer powerful enough to run it at full detail, full FPS.

Now I know that it was because their engine was never really fully optimized for a GPU. But my brother still uses FlightSim every single day. I'm so happy for him, but I want my kids to also learn how to fly on it. My son's already started (mainly holding the yoke while we fly it).

So a big fist pump for this news, every single word here makes me happy. (Emphasis on "Simulator", PC-first, etc).

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#19
post #2

Microsoft Flight Simulator brings back very fond memories of my childhood. I can remember learning to fly with a joystick that pushed in and out up and down just like real pilots! I could never master the helicopter and I’m pretty sure I crashed into the Sears tower a LOT.

Helicopters are hard as hell to fly. Just look up vortex ring state: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_ring_state

It's basically the rotors losing power because of their own turblence. Helicopter pilots amaze me.

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