Microsoft Flight Simulator • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#31

Post by wjp3 » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 2:31 PM UTC

razster wrote: post #8

benatkin wrote: post #5

I'm really excited about this. I spent hours playing Flight Simulator back in the 90s, and it was a great experience, and am looking forward to another generation getting to play it!

I’ve taken to watching Twitch streams, off work pilots playing M$ Flight Sim. They tell some of the most interesting stories. But what interest me the most is the sequences they perform. Try checking some of their streams. Can’t recommend one off hand, all are equally good.

Recommend any? I just searched and no MSFS categories appeared, even a game placeholder.

Edit: Nevermind - it's here: https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Microsoft%20Flight%20Si...

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#32

Post by joezydeco » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 2:32 PM UTC

mffnbs wrote: post #13

Aardwolf wrote: post #10

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.

My dream feature would be weather based on live meterological inputs.

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#33

Post by rgoulter » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

Theodores wrote: post #7

Why did Microsoft let the Flight Simulator franchise go to the back burner for so long? I know these vast corporations have to focus but it is still a mystery to me why they let it go. Does anyone have any idea what the thinking was? What has fundamentally changed for them to want to get back to it?

Uninformed guess: Maybe it relates to their other success at maintaining and re-releasing their well-known and well-loved games?

e.g. it's apparently been worth it for them to re-release Age of Empires II (as an HD edition in 2013), then Halo Master Chief Collection (2014). AoE is re-releasing again with a "Definitive Edition", and Halo MCC will be releasing to PC soon.

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#34

Post by yardie » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

MS flight sim for Mac was the first game I paid for as a kid out of my own pocket. I also bought a yoke to really “simulate” the experience.

With modern graphics and an updated engine I hope this version really flies! And with VR being in reach it will no longer be necessary to have crazy screen setup.

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#35

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 2:36 PM UTC

razster wrote: post #8

benatkin wrote: post #5

I'm really excited about this. I spent hours playing Flight Simulator back in the 90s, and it was a great experience, and am looking forward to another generation getting to play it!

I’ve taken to watching Twitch streams, off work pilots playing M$ Flight Sim. They tell some of the most interesting stories. But what interest me the most is the sequences they perform. Try checking some of their streams. Can’t recommend one off hand, all are equally good.

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#36

Post by miohtama » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 2:40 PM UTC

MS Flight Sim might be a good pilot case (pun intended) for WebGL and WebAssembly. The nature of simulator is not that CPU/GPU taxing. I would assume the players play it more for the actual simulation and less for the specular graphics.

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#37

Post by shorts_theory » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 2:41 PM UTC

I'm so glad that this is a thing now! My first memories of MSFS was FS98, which was one of the few games which ran acceptably on our dated 531MHz Pentium 3 desktop. I remember getting FS2004 a few years after and I was never so simultaneously excited and disappointed to play it when our poor desktop could only sputter out 4-5FPS with all the settings turned down to the absolute minimum.

Years later when we upgraded to a more acceptable desktop, I spent hours of free time in middle school trawling simviation for the most absurd addons, including a Flying Hawk, a cruise ship, a space shuttle, and a BMW 760Li, because why not? My FS2004 install swelled from its initial 3GB to 12GB with all my addons. I've done a countless number of commercial flights and became a lot better at landings thanks to the FSPassengers mod which added some life to the barren FS2004 world, complete with options to serve your passengers drinks and listen to their screams when going stalling into a free-fall :)

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#38

Post by rdtsc » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 2:41 PM UTC

How does this compare with Prepar3D from Lockheed. I thought Lockheed had bought MS FlightSim and even hired a good number of their developers and that was the end of MS FligthSim

https://www.prepar3d.com/

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#39

Post by brians » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 2:42 PM UTC

Theodores wrote: post #7

Why did Microsoft let the Flight Simulator franchise go to the back burner for so long? I know these vast corporations have to focus but it is still a mystery to me why they let it go. Does anyone have any idea what the thinking was? What has fundamentally changed for them to want to get back to it?

I remember Flight Simulator making a lot of news in the Fall of 2001, and then Microsoft seemed to let it go dormant for a while. Maybe they didn't want more news stories like that.

Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator

#40

Post by pjc50 » Tue, Jun 25, 2019, 2:43 PM UTC

whamlastxmas wrote: post #22

Theodores wrote: post #7

Why did Microsoft let the Flight Simulator franchise go to the back burner for so long? I know these vast corporations have to focus but it is still a mystery to me why they let it go. Does anyone have any idea what the thinking was? What has fundamentally changed for them to want to get back to it?

I suspect FSX was a pet project for someone at MS and after it sold below projections or MS was struggling with some other bureaucratic bullshit, someone told Jim or whoever that he needed to quit focusing on his video game and get some real work done. I'm sure this led to the creation of Windows RT and everyone pat themselves on the back.

I believe it was very much Bill's pet project, and neglected after he left.