Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020

[Straypuft]

Announced at E3 2019 with a teaser trailer showing off aspects of the new sim along with technologies they will integrate into the sim.

 

 

Will release on PC first then eventually will come to Xbox 1.

 

Follow development at the Official Flight Simulator Insider site:

https://fsi.microsoftstudios.com/

 

Edited on May 9 2020: The official game is not titled Flight Simulator 2020, that was a mistake my my part, it is just going to be called Microsoft Flight Simulator and there is no real guarantee that it will released in 2020.

Edited May 10, 2020 by trip

[E•MO•TION]

My 1070Ti has left the chat.

 

Seriously, this was the most exciting thing to be announced at E3, IMO. 2020 can't come soon enough.

[Straypuft]

14 hours ago, E•MO•TION said:

My 1070Ti has left the chat.

 

Seriously, this was the most exciting thing to be announced at E3, IMO. 2020 can't come soon enough.

2020 is only 5 months away, But the one thing to consider is when it will be released in 2020, My money is on late Q4 2020

(I say that in the hopes that I am way wrong and its released sooner than that)

[Straypuft]

My thoughts on this:

 

Seems like its going to heavily rely on cloud computing, There could be a fee to play the full version even if you arent flying on multiplayer, In the form of their mentioned Game Pass or xbox live. When I say pay to play full version, There could be a neutered offline version that would be completely free(after paying up front for the game)

 

I like how clouds and storms are looking from the trailer.

 

I hope to see a built in weather engine that doesnt require third party software like ActiveSky, And also that the base game supports aircraft that have weather radars that will let them work.

 

I would like to see in the form of private multiplayer, the option of shared cockpit with ATC as well as AI aircraft, Also on the front of AI aircraft, third party airline traffic addons that will work in multiplayer. Not trying to knock out vatsim and other online ATC, But would rather do things with certain amount of close friends which range from goofing off to prepping for proper landings with ATC vectoring us in.

 

Some kind of ranked multiplayer system where if a server has it set, would limit you to certain types of aircraft you can fly on the server, This ranking system could start off from a flight school type of training with training missions based on all included aircraft in the game.

 

A release date that is not set in stone, This is what can make or break a game, whether it works properly on release day, All it does is set a high rate of development in which corners as well as features get cut or limited because "OMG we gotta get the game ready by this exact date!" MS, Please take your time on this, offer a range in which the game could be released, actually finish the game before it can be announced gold. So far they have just announced sometime in 2020, I would not mind if they took all the way until late Q4 to get it right, optimized n stuff, Some of you fellow games may be a little young to remember, but when FSX was released, you pretty much needed a $2000+ system to run it at 30 frames per second and the system requirements on the box would only yield 15-20 frames per second on all the lowest of settings, The listed requirements were supposed to be what the average store bought computer at the time would run comfortably.

 

 

And I will finish off my list with a way to save my saved game controller controls, either through a microsoft profile or saved to disk, You guys know the pain you have to go through any time you reset your computer and have to set up your flight stick or yoke and throttle..

[trip]

I'm excited but a bit skeptical.

 

Me and MS flight sim go back to the very first one and playing it on my green screen pc.  There were no shortcuts.  IT WAS A SIM!  I used to spend all the real time hours flying from Philadelphia to San Fran or Oakland...usually crashing midway when having to land for fuel.

 

The sim only got better.  Eventual they added slew(or whatever it was called) where you could kind of fast forward time but not crash.  The simple vector geometry turned into a 3d map.

 

Then it got associated with the 9/11 attacks and went away.

 

 

If they release this as a real flight sim it better be keyboard only for the xbox release.   You can't have a true flight sim input be a console controller.

[Dryspace]

On 7/29/2019 at 3:21 PM, Straypuft said:

A release date that is not set in stone

It's not set in stone: It will "eventually" come to XBox. In other words, they will charge people to beta test their software for them on the PC, finish development, and then release to console.

 

This isn't pessimism, it's realism. There is no legitimate reason to expect this to be anything but conceived and designed for console hardware, and for the sensibilities of the console market. If it were a PC game/sim, it wouldn't run on current consoles without being significantly scaled back, and if it were a console game/sim, there would be parity as usual.

 

 

EDIT: I just watched the video. At 1:09 - 1:11 you can see vehicles traveling on the sidewalk, moving through each other at the intersection, flying through the air, and moving through buildings and directly over cars in a parking lot.

 

It is a flight simulator and not an automobile simulator, so I suppose some slack must be cut. Clearly though, a lot of work is to be done in order to combine pathing and the simulation of vehicular traffic with the satellite information they're using. As of now, there is apparently no simulation at all--just an animation which is very approximately overlaid onto the imagery.

Edited August 7, 2019 by Dryspace

[ṼirulenⱦEqừinox]

I just hope they don’t DLC ittodeath like Dovetail did when they “rebooted” MFSX

[Dryspace]

Has anyone mentioned "Microsoft Flight"? That was a pile of brown.

[ṼirulenⱦEqừinox]

On 8/20/2019 at 12:09 PM, Dryspace said:

Has anyone mentioned "Microsoft Flight"? That was a pile of brown.

Well considered this is being produced by Microsoft and Microsoft is the orginial creators of MFSX it's relevent

 

I'm not talking about Microsoft Flight but rather MFSX

 

Actually MFSX was quite decent while it was still in the hands of Microsoft and they had total control over the game and had huge plans for expansions until they decided to shut down all maintenance of it in favor of starting a brand new Flight Simulator which you mentioned Microsoft Flight which had intentional but then Microsoft decided to just shut down the whole franchise all together and then MSFX was bought and "rebooted" by Dovetail whom added content to the revised game but nickle and dimed MFSX loyal fan base such as myself by putting every single thing behind a pay wall while adding no actual new free content which and i'm not kidding $5,228.26 if you would to buy all of the DLCs for the game and I don't think there is any other game other than maybe CS:GO that is so greedy that they'd put everything they released behind a paywall.

 

Hell even greedy as f*ck R* provides free DLCs, I know Dovetail doesn't compare to a billion dollar company but to not give their loyal customers a free DLC every now and then but instead put everything behind a pay wall is down right greedy

 

Then Dovetail decided to do their own spin-off Flight Sim with FSW (Flight Sim World) which was a major flop because once again they put money over loyal customers with everything behind a paywall and only giving players who paid for the actual game mind you two or three crappy planes.

 

At least with MFSX you can modify the hell out of the game and make it beautiful and awesome without spending a dime and to be honest I don't think MFSX would've survived Dovetails reboot without the allowing of modification 

 

I still enjoy playing MFSX as I like the challenging missions as well as doing real flights

[jpm1]

first argument 4k real time. yeah i absolutely see a flight simulator fully modded going fine on 4k

i'm fed up with these strategies who let the companies think they just have to give an erection to teenagers to sell games

i'm fine with X-plane personnally

[Straypuft]

Pre-alpha footage out with a few youtubers having been invited to Seattle to try it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mister Pink]

Never played a flight sim before but since getting the drone and learning a small bit about aviation, learning how to read weather etc, this is really appealing to me. And after watching the video above, I'm very impressed with things like real time weather. Also the fact he mentioned that the maps/data is on Azure and is streamed to you in real time but you can chose to download parts of the map to get the same experience offline. He also mentioned something about them using data from Bing maps adding real landmarks and places to the world. Real time weather pulled from satellites too. 

 

I'm interested in experiencing wind-flow as they showed them examples of how wind will flow and affect your flight, such as wind flowing down a mountain side.  

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2019 by Mister Pink

[leaflinks]

I have a copy of the 'A century of flight' copy. Interesting news.

[Straypuft]

19 hours ago, leaflinks said:

I have a copy of the 'A century of flight' copy. Interesting news.

I have the tin case version, but I am missing the third install disc, and the tin case is totally rusting

[Tchuck]

Jesus christ this looks absolutely incredible. Add VR to it, and oh man!

[Ron Horse]

The last one I played was whichever one came out for Win95-98.  Really impressed with how this looks, hope I've got capable hardware in time...

[Straypuft]

MSFS 95 was my first flight sim.

 

These images where what caught my eye and make me excited for this new version:

 

[DOUGL4S1]

I've played Flight Sim X a few years ago (of course, it took me like an hour to get a Cessna off the ground) and I remember thinking that it looked pretty good. I mean, you were pretty much flying over a satelite image, but still, flying a plane was pretty cool for 14-year-old me.

 

I'm pretty excited for this, and I imagine as the game gets released, more and more cities and countries will get the fully detailed scenaries and stuff. If I ever play it, I may even do some challenge, like land in at least one city of every single country in the world. I also wonder if they'll enhance collisions in any way, like if your wing tip strikes the ground, will it get damaged and now you have to land a crippled plane, or will it just be the *crash* sound and you're done from other games?

 

Can I also take a moment to say ultra f*ck helicopters in FSX?

[Dryspace]

Unfortunately, that's not a real reflection on the plane's underwing. It's a consoley screen-space "reflection", in which a portion of the image is simply inverted and pasted where a reflection would normally be.

 

A primary drawback of these fake reflections is that they don't "reflect" anything that's not on-screen. So e.g. if the camera were to pan up to look at the underside of the wing, so that the fuselage is no longer in the frame, the "reflection" would disappear.

 

But the other big issue is that you're not seeing what you're supposed to see, because the "reflection" is not a different viewing angle as it is in reality. Even in this still image, it's not difficult to perceive that the wing is just showing an upside-down copy of the fuselage below it. But this would be much more noticeable in real time. This method is not normally used for cases like this for that reason. If the planes themselves don't even have reflective surfaces, I'm almost certain that there will be no reflections anywhere in the game.

 

I took a look at the other screenshots in this thread, and they appear to confirm this, as does the initial video. Take a look at the last image in Mister Pink's post. Look at the bridge on the left side. If you look at the tall superstructure, you'll see what appears to be a reflection in the water directly below it. But look at the water to the right--if the superstructure is reflected, then the deck should be reflected as well....but it's not. Unlike to the left of the superstructure which is blocked by the plane, there is plenty of room to see the reflection if it actually existed. There's simply nothing there.

 

Microsoft--making a "flight simulator" for console . I'm giving a prediction and not a desire when I say that this is going to be just as disappointing as Microsoft Flight. You don't make a flight sim for an XBox. If this turns out to be a respectable and impressive flight simulator I will come to this thread, admit my error, and make fun of myself. But I'm not concerned, because there's no way it could be impressive.

[Mister Pink]

1 hour ago, Dryspace said:

Microsoft--making a "flight simulator" for console . I'm giving a prediction and not a desire when I say that this is going to be just as disappointing as Microsoft Flight. You don't make a flight sim for an XBox. If this turns out to be a respectable and impressive flight simulator I will come to this thread, admit my error, and make fun of myself. But I'm not concerned, because there's no way it could be impressive.

The devs said that this is a PC-first game targetted and a hardcore sim crowd.  It will eventually come to Xbox but whatever port gets over the console, I'm sure will satiate the needs/wants of the average console gamer looking to dip their toe in to that world. Listen to the guy who asked the question in the video. The response is interesting given the question as he asks specifically what they are doing to game-ify it. 

 

11:50

 

[Dryspace]

5 hours ago, Mister Pink said:

The devs said that this is a PC-first game targetted and a hardcore sim crowd.

How many times are you going to hear Microsoft or some other big company say this exact same thing and believe it? They always say this, lol!

 

If this is a PC title, why does that first video have "XBox" plastered everywhere, and not one mention of PC? If it's a PC title, why does it not have actual reflections--which PC games had by 2003 if not earlier--but rather a mix of screen space "reflections" and no reflections at all like almost every console game?

 

Microsoft is the LAST, and I mean the LAST company to design something for the PC. MS has been working diligently to destroy the PC gaming market for over 10 years. Microsoft does not want people playing games (or sims) on PC--they want them playing on XBox, where MS has a full control and makes a lot more money out of the whole deal.

 

I can't begin to explain how badly I want the return of a AAA PC game industry, and how sore I still am about the Great Consolization of 2008. I'm stating what I know, not what I want. It is virtually impossible that Microsoft would design a PC title.

 

I will bet $100 that what they mean by "releasing for PC" is that it will be a Windows 10 exclusive "XBox on PC' or whatever they call it. I guarantee that the only way it will run on PC is by virtue of being an XBox game that runs on Windows 10. $100 bet anyone?

[Straypuft]

14 hours ago, Dryspace said:

How many times are you going to hear Microsoft or some other big company say this exact same thing and believe it? They always say this, lol!

 

If this is a PC title, why does that first video have "XBox" plastered everywhere, and not one mention of PC? If it's a PC title, why does it not have actual reflections--which PC games had by 2003 if not earlier--but rather a mix of screen space "reflections" and no reflections at all like almost every console game?

 

Microsoft is the LAST, and I mean the LAST company to design something for the PC. MS has been working diligently to destroy the PC gaming market for over 10 years. Microsoft does not want people playing games (or sims) on PC--they want them playing on XBox, where MS has a full control and makes a lot more money out of the whole deal.

 

I can't begin to explain how badly I want the return of a AAA PC game industry, and how sore I still am about the Great Consolization of 2008. I'm stating what I know, not what I want. It is virtually impossible that Microsoft would design a PC title.

 

I will bet $100 that what they mean by "releasing for PC" is that it will be a Windows 10 exclusive "XBox on PC' or whatever they call it. I guarantee that the only way it will run on PC is by virtue of being an XBox game that runs on Windows 10. $100 bet anyone?

The Xbox name now covers more than Xbox One, There used to be Games For WIndows Live but now they just call it Xbox or something like that, Also, If you own a compatible game on Xbox, you get to play it on Windows and vice versa, I have Forza 7 on PC but dont even have an xbox console.

 

Also, Xbox knows that flight simming is more used on PC so they are developing for PC first and will be making a somewhat neutered port for xbox later, No hardcore simmer will take their talents to xbox most likely due to the wide world of flight sim hardware such as yokes and rudder pedals not being compatible on xbox.

[Dryspace]

2 hours ago, Straypuft said:

The Xbox name now covers more than Xbox One,

Now, come on! We both know this makes no sense! Obviously 'XBox' refers only to XBox. To claim, "Well, they're only advertising "XBox, XBox, XBox", but what they really mean is that it's conceived, designed, and coded for PC, and not XBox, as one would assume. Maybe down the road they will take the PC software and port it to XBox, but make no mistake, it's 100% PC. That's why it says "XBox, XBox, XBox"--to avoid confusion, so everyone will clearly understand that this is a true PC title."

 

Quote

There used to be Games For WIndows Live but now they just call it Xbox or something like that, Also, If you own a compatible game on Xbox, you get to play it on Windows and vice versa, I have Forza 7 on PC but dont even have an xbox console.

GFWL was a service for PC games--games conceived, designed, and coded for PC hardware and for the sensibilities of the PC market. What you're referring to is the ability to play XBox games directly on Windows 10--not on PC, but on Windows 10, because Windows 10 includes the ability to emulate XBox games.

 

There is a difference between a game designed and coded for PC, and a console game that you can play on the PC. I play The Legend of Zelda and Metal Gear on my PC via an emulator. But just because I can play them on my PC does not mean they are PC games. They are NES games and always will be NES games. Forza 7 is an XBox exclusive; it was never ported to PC. You are only able to play it on a PC because Windows 10, and only Windows 10, includes the ability to emulate XBox games.

 

The last AAA PC games were released in 2007, which is why it's called the Great Consolization of 2008. Two of the last AAA PC games were The Witcher and Crysis. Every AAA game released since then has been conceived, designed, and coded for console hardware and for the sensibilities of the console market. That includes The Witcher 2 & 3, and Crysis 2 & 3.

 

Quote

Also, Xbox knows that flight simming is more used on PC so they are developing for PC first and will be making a somewhat neutered port for xbox later, No hardcore simmer will take their talents to xbox most likely due to the wide world of flight sim hardware such as yokes and rudder pedals not being compatible on xbox.

The problem is that I can offer a great deal of actual evidence that this is neither conceived nor designed for PC, whereas I'm unclear as to the evidence to the contrary, except that Microsoft says it is? We had that exact same situation with The Witcher 2, for which to this day there are people who insist it's a PC game in the very teeth of the evidence! CD Projekt RED is my most respected AAA developer; that doesn't stop me from acknowledging truth, as disappointing as it is.

 

If one wants to release a game/sim for two different systems, it has to be designed for the weakest system. Purely aesthetic aspects can be pumped up on the more powerful system, but the core mechanics must be able to run on the weakest system. If not, you end up with two different games/sims for which add-ons are incompatible, because the differences are not merely graphical, but fundamental.

 

Consoles have extremely limited CPUs compared to PCs. This is why fundamental systems like physics, AI, and sound propagation have utterly stagnated in AAA games since the Great Consolization. All of the limited console power has to go toward increasing graphical realism to please the market, and there is simply nothing left for any advancement in the aforementioned aspects. True simulations are notoriously CPU-heavy. It requires alot of processing power to get accurate and impressive physics and AI behavior. If a person really tried to get something mechanically impressive out of an XBox One, he wouldn't have near enough power left to produce acceptable visuals, much less impressive visuals.

 

Of course you're right that flight simulation is incompatible with consoles--the idea is silly. Whether PC users are able to use the existing complement of input devices or not, there is no doubt in my mind that the software will be designed to the limits of console hardware and the sensibilities of the console market. I'm so sure of what I say because I have witnessed this happen again and again and again since 2008. It's not that it's impossible that I could be wrong--it's just that when you see something happen exactly the same way every time, year after year, you accept the futility of expecting things to happen differently. Despite the small amount of hope that still dwells deep down inside.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Dryspace

[Mister Pink]

New pre-alpha footage. 

 

 

[DOUGL4S1]

I wonder how the level of detail will be in areas they can't really get good info on, like rural China, military bases, or North Korea. They did mention something about procedurally-generated buildings and details, so maybe something like that?

Edited November 1, 2019 by DOUGL4S1

[Guest Billy Russo]

This looks absolutely unreal. My god. Imagine seeing these graphics in the early 2000's, sh*t blows my mind.

 

 

[Lock n' Stock]

Looks very impressive. Fond memories of playing FS 98 back in the day.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Lock n' Stock

[Mister Pink]

Seasons! 

 

 

[trip]

This looks like fun.

Find your house in the Microsoft Flight Simulator alpha starting next week

 

I'm signing up now.   Fingers crossed.

[Geisterfaust]

4 hours ago, trip said:

I'm signing up now.   Fingers crossed.

Just did the same, thanks for the links, I've completely forgot about this game. Felt like a peasant with no additional sim hardware and "only" triple monitor setup. Anyway, they may be safe about me not disclosing anything or doing any videos, I just don't do any game videos. The part about others watching is a bit sketchy, my wife likes to watch how I play stuff when she's around.

Edited January 25, 2020 by Geisterfaust