There is no CFS4.  It was cancelled during Alpha testing

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Which rather implies that the CFS3 technology platform was a dead end. What's the betting on FSX-with-guns?

The 'next installment in the CFS franchise' may well turn out to be based on FSX with added weaponry. Would this be possible?

J_o_J

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Compatability is key. CFS3 files are no longer the familiar .bmp, .cfg.,  .mdl, .dp etc; you can fly Krzysztof Malinowski's superb PB4Y-2 Privateer in FS2002, FS2004 or CFS2 - but not CFS3. [The main reason I don't like CFS3 is those horrid museum shot wide-angle externals]. If MS's developers keep file compatibility into FSX, it will be a raging success. I will buy THE BIGGEST, THE FASTEST, THE BEST PC to run it!

J_o_J

Been discussing this issue offline with a fellow simmer; assuming FSX comes out spring 2007, a CFS4 based on it can not come out any earlier than Christ's Mass 2007.

Until then, it's CFS2 (my choice) or CFS3 (some others may prefer) or Il2 Forgotten Battles and its spin offs...

New computer purchase on hold for a loooong time!

J_o_J

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Why? As discussed above, the CFS3 engine seems to have turned out to be a dead end...

What's wrong with FS2004 or FSX with guns?

J_o_J

The engine of FSX is based on the engine that came about with FS2K, not the far earlier FS5. There are some elements of commonality, but those are design criteria not engine elements.

As for low altitude capability...well CFS3 was optomized for it whereas FS has always been optimized for higher altitudes. A CFS based on the newer FS engine could just as easily be optimized for a lower altitude, in fact looking at FSX screenshots it's even possible that the FSX engine has been made adaptive...which would make it far superior to CFS3.

Ordinance and gunnery handling functions in CFS3 were better than CFS2, but they were evolutionary. The same program modules and subroutines could just as easliy be adapted.

FSX has been designed to use the latest modelling capabilities, far beyond what CFS3 offered. Look at all the shading capabilities and bump mapping.

MS never explained why CFS4 was cancelled. We know that CFS3 was not the commercial success that was expected and this undoubtedly played a role. Community support was soft, a never really gathered momentum in the same way that CFS 1 or 2 did. I've always had a feeling that there was one other major consideration though.

Vista.

CFS 4 would have been on-schedule for a pre-Vista release (before Vista itself was pushed back). This would have limited CFS 4 to DX 9 capabilities. The addition of capabilites such as bump mapping in CFS 4 would have shone a light on the lack of same in FS, MS's flightsim flagship. The lack of such additonal capabilites would have meant that CFS4 was only a minor upgrade to CFS3, and basing sales forecasts on commercially failed product will get you nowhere in a big hurry.

I expect that CFS4 will exist at some point after FSX. I also expect that the FS "divergence" will end, with CFS 4 really being FS 10.5.

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The problem is that the flight simulator is just that, a simulator. A combat flight simulator is more of a game

Maybe the CFS series isn't very interesting for Microsoft to do. If you look at the NAme Combat Flightsimulator alone I see some problems. As Hagar said a part of Flightsim folks will look down on it because they think it's Just a game.  Now there are Gamers/People who don't want a Simulator. They want a game. They might think that CFS is too much fiddling with the planes and Too little action in Flying. We all know that that isn't so but they don't And If the Flightsim folks look down on it and the regular folks don't want a sim......Then who is left to buy it? + For the flightsim folks that DO buy the game..They expect Compatability with Flightsim itself and stuff like that. If Microsoft would launch a entirely different  Flight/Combat game you would have less people expecting it to be compatible with fs and all that stuff. + people looking for a flying game will buy it quicker. So maybe that is what Microsoft will do. Launch a game under an entirely different title, completely different from FS itself.

But that is just a guess. They might Buy a developer like Ubisoft and Launch such titles under their names.

Just all guesswork

Its sad there will be no CFS4.  IL2:FB is fun but it lacks the atmosphere cfs3 has. When I fly cfs3 I can get a feeling I am in the war, IL2 dose not have that element for me. Don't know why no one likes the cfs3 engine, people say it is riddled with bugs but I cant say I know of one, but im not lookin either...