Remember when a guy stole a plane in Seattle that learned to fly via Flight Simulator? https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/12/us/richard-russell-q400-f...
Microsoft Flight Simulator
181–190 of 234 posts
Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator
#182In the 80s, I used to play the subLOGIC Flight Simulator II on my father's Apple //e. Later, I wondered whether this was a predecessor to Microsoft's Flight Simulator. Apparently it sort of was: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_Simulator_II_(subLOGIC)
I think the original MS Flight Simulator was essentially a licensed version of subLOGIC Flight Simulator.
Side note: subLOGIC also made another combat-oriented one around that same time called Jet which I think used the same engine as MS FS and subLOGIC FS because all of them could use the same scenery disks as I recall...
Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
So why do construction workers who are more active still have obesity?
You'd need a wider sample of sedentary office workers than just sales and marketing to make that conclusion.
Okay I finally found the article.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/the-jobs-...
I'd say the physically active jobs are actually on the middle to upper half of the list. Transportation, warehousing, manufacturing and construction for example.
Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator
#184No mention of VR support yet. If this comes out without support it will be quite sad. Xplane 11 in VR is amazing (if you can get the framerate of that old engine high enough)
I have a kinda pricey VR setup at home with a ton of added software, P3D, and some physical controls, in addition to an HTC Vive Pro. I also am an IRL private pilot. I'm not going to lie; it's not the same but boy it scratches the itch really, really closely. It also allows people like me to fly big airliners, which short of making it a career one never gets to do. I have friends who are commercial pilots who swear by the fidelity of the systems recreation in some of that software. In VR, it truly feels as real as it gets. Short of a level D sim, it's the best immersion you can get, and feels super, super real.
Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator
#185wishing Microsoft the best but it really is a niche market - for one, there are so many aircraft controls that you really do need some specialized controllers (yoke) to make it enjoyable experience. Other factors include rather mundane experience of flying aircraft (from general gamer point of view) as well as the resource hungry requirements (OK, not so much these days but it was quiet expensive game to run back in…
You can fly Cessna in X-Plane perfectly fine with nothing but an Xbox controller; left stick is your yoke, right stick for look around, triggers for rudder, bumpers for brakes, the four primary buttons for flaps and throttle, and the 4 cross buttons for trim. Other controls you can use the mouse for in 3D cockpit as you will use them sporadically (eg lights, adjusting instruments, mixture, carb heat)
Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator
#186I'm ok with this if it brings the flight sims back. But I don't care about Flight Simulator; can we get modern X-Wing and Tie Fighter next? Pleeeeease?
Considering how Electronic Arts has been treating the Star Wars liscence, the chances are poor. If you're into simularors though, I heartily recommend Elite Dangerous, but the learning curve is steep and a HOTAS is almost a necessity.
Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator
#187MS 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.
> The nature of simulator is not that CPU/GPU taxing. I think you're underestimating just how much simulation is being done in a proper flight simulator. The really good ones are literally simulating air flow around the aircraft, in realtime, to determine how it should respond.
The actual simulation part is not very taxing; it typically uses less than half a millisecond CPU time per frame in X-Plane, which has the most advanced simulation on the market.
Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator
#188It strikes me that, as they imported satellite data, they could also provide relatively accurate models of airport interiors ...
Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ex-game dev here, though not a graphics programmer. I didn't see anything in the video that looks particularly difficult to achieve in a modern engine. The volumetric fog and clouds are really nice and might be difficult but I'd be surprised if they weren't doable. Everything else just looks like good models, textures, and lighting to me. I don't even see any particularly difficult techniques. And there are things th…
> Obviously, the whole world isn't going to be modeled and textured with the level of fidelity you see here. The trailer is only going to show the "hero" locations that get a lot of care and attention — Seattle's space needle, the pyramids of Egypt, etc. But I see no reason why the in-game experience wouldn't look like this in those areas. Strictly speaking, this is true, but note that using modern datasets (like the…
The first thing I noticed was the small tell tale artifacting from lidar scans in the city areas, which actually gave me a lot of hope that this will be pretty damn awesome to fly in.
Another thing that I noticed was some rock clusters that accidentally covered roads on the terrain, which makes me think there will be a lot of proceduraly generated content to add details into to the big open areas.
Those two things combined I believe will make it possible to do the entire globe to levels of fidelity that will be incredible to fly in. Some areas might be a bit more "imagination" than reality, but hundreds if not thousands of cities have really great lidar scans they could incorporate. It's going to be an insane leap forward, and as they're scans it will be like flying over the real thing. In theory, I could fly over my own house in the city and actually see it.
I guess we'll see what kinds of concessions they've had to make to fit it into a realistic game package, but I'm pretty hopeful as is probably evident.
Re: Microsoft Flight Simulator
#190It would be amazing if they gave this an online battle royale mode.
Hardcore flight sim pilots will scoff at your comment, however, optional gamification (battle royale or missions) would make it more commercially successful, funding future development.
Create a competitor to Digital Combat Simulator with this engine and watch the fanbase jump.