Game Discussions Microsoft Flight Simulator

One piece of news some of you might find good:
The state of the art 737 NGU by guys from PMDG will be available for MSFS20:




I have this jet for Prepar3d and its a new level of graphics and simulation in civil flight sim imo already.
I'm more of a GA guy when comes to FS, but it's great to see community creators are ramping up production already. :)
 
btw, ORBX has a -50% sale on all products - Xplane, FSX/Prepar.


From the experience I can recommend getting at least Global pack.
 
Who else is stoked for MS Flight Simulator?
i am... now. i'd never heard of it before, but that vid looked excellent.

when possible, i prefer phutting around the sky in an ultralight or light heli, the smaller the better. i hope there's something nice for me in the new sim.

FSX is very moddable with lots of bolt-on extras available, can we assume this one will also allow us to add our own stuff?
----> apparently yes, after reading others' posts. cool.
 
I'm more of a GA guy when comes to FS, but it's great to see community creators are ramping up production already. :)

Cant find 100% reliable quote right now but from what I remember GA addon dev Carenado/Alabeo hope to be able to make their current GA fleet avilable for MSFS20, I have few o their Cessnas/Beechcrafts and all are really great addons with a reasonable price.
 

Jenner

I wish I was English like my hero Tj.
Few insider images for you all from today's update:

Forest.jpg

GC-Mountains.jpg

172-1.jpg
 
Let's hope Micorsoft don't pull this trick again:

 
Whoa, I really really hope it has a good tutorial and entry mode for those players who have never played sims or are long out of touch. Asking for a friend.

My only worry with it going for realism is that this means that the UK will 74% of the time covered with dull lifeless grey cloud. (Still, at least this will hide the queues on the M20 around Ashford, coming anytime soon.)
 
Yep, seasons confirmed for the new MFS. This is going to make every other sim on the market today practically obsolete on day one.
Previous versions of flightsim have had seasons going back twenty years.
Get your facts right.
 

Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
My only worry with it going for realism is that this means that the UK will 74% of the time covered with dull lifeless grey cloud. (Still, at least this will hide the queues on the M20 around Ashford, coming anytime soon.)

Yeah, well, I pity our fellow Norwegians and Newfoundlanders then :D
 
Previous versions of flightsim have had seasons going back twenty years.
Get your facts right.

I own every version of Microsoft Flight Sim ever released, and I own a few others too like Flight Unlimited, Xplane, and P3D.

The new MFS uses satellite imagery and photogrammetry to generate the game world, much like Ortho does for Xplane currently. The downside to this is the imagery is only good for the season the satellite pics are taken in. Xplane does not have seasons implemented for this reason, no sims using sat images have ever had seasons, and until yesterday it was very questionable as to whether or not the new MFS would have seasons as a feature simply due to the use of the Bing satellite images. MS and Asobo have avoided all questions about seasons so far, until this video.

Now we know that Microsoft has programmed a solution to a problem which no sim using sat images has ever solved before.

Please get your facts right before making snide remarks again, thanks. :)
 
I own every version of Microsoft Flight Sim ever released, and I own a few others too like Flight Unlimited, Xplane, and P3D.

The new MFS uses satellite imagery and photogrammetry to generate the game world, much like Ortho does for Xplane currently. The downside to this is the imagery is only good for the season the satellite pics are taken in. Xplane does not have seasons implemented for this reason, no sims using sat images have ever had seasons, and until yesterday it was very questionable as to whether or not the new MFS would have seasons as a feature simply due to the use of the Bing satellite images. MS and Asobo have avoided all questions about seasons so far, until this video.

Now we know that Microsoft has programmed a solution to a problem which no sim using sat images has ever solved before.

Please get your facts right before making snide remarks again, thanks. :)
Just loaded FSX with my current weather and season and yes it worked.
Changed my season to summer and that worked too.
Whatever imagery they have used has maintained the Simulation correct.
Simulated weather in a simulator just as I'm sure the new one will have the latest tech to simulate weather right!
There are reasons they call them simulators.
Oh yes I to have owned every version of Microsoft flightsim along with plenty other sims over the years.
 
Just loaded FSX with my current weather and season and yes it worked.
Changed my season to summer and that worked too.
Whatever imagery they have used has maintained the Simulation correct.

FSX and 99% of all previous flight simulators do not use sat images for scenery. All previous versions of Microsoft Flight Sim use ground altitude data to create the surface mesh. They then use vector data to lay out the major roads and coastlines, minor roads and water bodies are less accurately placed. Major landmarks like important buildings and bridges are hand modeled and placed by MS, these were called "hero landamrks" by the MS Aces team in the past. Finally, the ground textures and 99% of the buildings are what they called "autogen", meaning they are procedurally generated and placed. They mimic the real world but in reality they have no connection to how the Earth actually looks. It's a complicated magic trick to approximate the world.

Where the new MFS is different is that its using actual sat images to texture the Earth as it looks in real life. Then MS is using AI routines to model and place actual color and shape correct buildings, roads, vegetation, coastlines, lakes, rivers, railroads, everything where they truly belong. This is the first time this has ever been done and the game world in the new MFS will be incredibly accurate to the real Earth. You'll be able to find your own house and driveway in the sim.

Now, when it comes to weather and snow, what makes it so much more complicated in the new MFS is the sat images themselves. When you changed the seasons in your FSX last night the sim simply loaded the appropriate color changed autogen textures it has stored on the hard drive. They don't look like real life but they randomly approximate it. With sat images there are no season correct images to load, they don't exist. This is why modeling seasons with sat images in a flight sim HAS NOT BEEN DONE PREVIOUSLY, because the sat images do not exist.

And yet, MS has found a way to do this with the new sim. With an accurate just like real life model of the Earth. For the first time. EVER. My best guess is they are using a mixture of complicated shaders and AI routines to modify the sat images on the fly, it would be super interesting to see exactly how they pulled this off.

If you don't see the difference now between seasons in FSX (and all other flight sims) and the new MFS then I can't help you anymore, sorry.
 

Jenner

I wish I was English like my hero Tj.
January 9th, 2020 – Development Update
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

On behalf of the entire MSFS team, we wish you and your loved ones the very best for 2020!

TECH ALPHA 1 – WAVE 2 INVITES COMING NEXT WEEK!
Starting next week (01.13 – 01.17) we will be sending out the second wave of invitations for testing Tech Alpha 1. If you’ve registered for Tech Alpha 1 but have not been selected, make sure to keep an eye on your inbox starting next Monday!

TECH ALPHA 2 – FINALIZING RELEASE CANDIDATE
We are in the final testing phase for Tech Alpha 2 and expect to have the build ready for release shortly. We are currently tracking to the following timeline:

  • 01.20 – Begin sending Tech Alpha 2 invitations.
  • 01.27 – All Tech Alpha 2 invitations sent.
  • 01.27 – Tech Alpha 2 ready for download, begin sending build access emails.
  • 01.31 – All wave 1 Tech Alpha 2 emails sent.

As a reminder, if you are already participating in Tech Alpha 1 testing, you will automatically be granted access to Tech Alpha 2.

 
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