MS Flight site updated with FAQ section

[Neil Hewitt]

Microsoft has replaced the initial Flash-based site with one that uses Silverlight (still has the same video but it's now called a 'webisode' implying that there will be more as things progress), and added a FAQ page. This doesn't give a whole heap of details at the moment, as you'd expect, but says that they are looking to cater for existing sim fans. On the other hand, things like 'whole new look and feel' don't necessarily bode well :(

Still, nice to see some progress. Maybe in a couple of months we might know a lot more. There's a feedback email address - I doubt you'd get any more info from this than from the site, but you could at least start sending wishlists, politely of course :)

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/

[iwik]

Thanks for the update.I know there will be many of us waiting to see what eventuates,especially for the hardcore simmers like us here on Mycockpit.
Regards
les

[Jordan Farmer]

i dont know what to think if im honest, They are saying it will be a realistic simulation, but the whole LIVE thing, that doesnt strike me as good, it will be filled with idiots who like to crash because they think its funny, then take the mickey out of people who enjoy realism in simulation. But, we will have to see. It will be a long while beforei would be buying, though, not only am i hapy with what ive got, but there wont be much developed for the sim for a while, so until i can interface properly with my cockpit, its staying on he shelf :p

Just my 2 cents :p

But, thanks for the heads up anyway neil!

jordan

[drum4no1]

Unfortunately this is my take on the situation, from my experience many great franchises such as FS rarely come back better, What I see is MS gearing this to be more "game" than simulation. I see them taking away the ability to interface hardware and software making it just another game and useless to hard core simmers.

I hope im wrong though. Ive just seen too many great things dumbed down..

[Neil Hewitt]

It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft wants to move back into the space it occupied with ESP (the simulation platform based on FSX that it used to sell to third parties - IIRC Lockheed bought the source code lock stock and barrel for some of its sim solutions), and want to provide an ESP 2.0 equivalent. If so, then Flight will need to be based on the kind of engine that can definitely be used for hardcore simulation, divorced from whatever game-player baggage they tack on to it. We might have to buy an ESP license to do it, though... Mmm. Costly.

I'd be surprised if they didn't allow interfaces into the new product - at least running locally and not on Live - simply because there's no reason not to. They know there's a community out here that will buy the software if it does what we want, and it's not as if they ever supported us officially anyway. No point in cutting your nose off to spite your face. I don't expect them to provide backwards-compatibility for MSFS add-ins, FSUIPC etc, though, so it may well be a while before the new system is usable for cockpit building, even if it is a fully-fledged simulator.

However, if the fundamental nature of the software changes so much that it's not essentially a flight simulator any more, then yes, we may well not want it. In which case, all the more reason to keep pushing Aerosoft to go ahead with their sim - I can see this announcement potentially killing off that project otherwise. X-Plane offers an alternative, but it's still not open enough IMHO, and somehow I just can't quite get used to how it feels compared to MSFS. That said, the plans for X-Plane 10 and dynamic world generation seem very interesting, if they can be pulled off successfully.

I'm personally cheered by the fact that many ex-ACES personnel are apparently working on Flight. I will keep thinking positively until I have reason to think otherwise.