I'm curious to know what your FPS are in Flight? (and with what CPU + graphics card + how much memory) (nevermind, just saw your specs in your sig. Wow, that's quite a system!)

It is semi-true that FSX uses photoreal scenery. What you are actually seeing in most default FSX locations are landclasses. FSX comes with a wide range of landclasses, such as desert, forest, city, etc. These are auto-generated and blended during the development process. The landclasses are used globally, so the textures you see used in San Diego will be the same used in Florida, London, Australia, etc. The landclasses are made of square satellite images and are tile-able. That's why they look so good. Flight uses the same method, with some true (unique) photoscenery thrown in around all of the airstrips/airports. To put it simply, Photoscenery is generally referred to as satellite imagery that is unique to one location. (basically an aerial photo of the location) Landclasses are just general/generic satellite textures used and blended together repeatedly anywhere in the world to try and represent a location. (in many cases, the types of landclasses used in Flight will be fairly close to what the actual satellite imagery would look like because they are blended so well and used correctly.)

I'll gladly say this. The Flight development team definately scored a run with the new water. To bad there isn't a way to port that down to FSX.

Groundbound1 wrote on Mar 6^th, 2012 at 11:33am:


They already have. It is called Real Environment Extreme (REX). Does a nice job with both water and clouds.

matthewdev wrote on Mar 8^th, 2012 at 7:46pm:

What about the lack of water climbing up the shores, or the lack of streams that defy gravity, or the fact that the landing light actually illuminate objects, not just the ground around them.

How about the fact that in Flight accidentally getting too close to a building , or a taxi sign, has consequences. You can't just drive through them.

What sold me on Flight was tooling along in the Stearman one day I pulled back on the stick and just as she stalled I kicked in the rudder and away she went into a spin. Can't do that in 9 or X with any default planes.

Oh yeah, Flight has legs and she has barely started walking, wait till she runs.

Flight's future is so bright I gotta wear shades.

cheers,
Joe

Unfortunately, has a gamer for almost 30 years, almost as long as I've been a simmer, I can tell you what your seeing from MS/Josh at this point is the standard post release hype strategy, commonly seen with their more popular Xbox games, but not something dedicated simmers, who don't consider themselves gamers, have had much experience with up until flight. MSFS had Hype, but this is a whole new breed of hype. This is genetically altered super hype.
90% of what they'll say is tailored to create inspiration amongst the masses, generate an positive product image, and carefully crafted to froth up the fanbase into opening wallets for DLC. It's like a Winston Churchill speech, and the method works, but overall it's bunk.
It's just that coming out and saying what they really think might not work so well:

"We got this new internet thingy a while back and we've discovered that we can sell you the same amount of content we used to sell to you for an affordable set price, and one that got us a reasonable profit, and now we can sell it to you in pieces for a much higher profit. 
If you question this, we'll have a standard set of excuses for why this stuff that used to come has a package deal, for 60 bucks, now comes has monthly installments for a total in the hundreds or more in cash.  If you don't buy, we go bankrupt, or at least your friendly MS game design team get's fired. You'll have to live with that knowledge. Nerd hatchlings will starve because of you, and our wonderful company will cease improving your lives. The world will fall into a dark period like no other. Apple will win. 
We don't really care if you don't believe that a multi billion dollar profit a year company needs to sell you a $60 bit of software for $600 to survive. We don't care if you don't believe production costs climbed 360% just around the time internet speeds broke the 56K mark. The Fanboy Defense Force will fight that one for us, and most of you will spend at least the $60 we were getting before anyway. 
We're only going to give you the bare minimum to keep you interested, otherwise we don't really care what you want. We only care about the appearance that we care what you want. If we went arround giving people what they want any more than we have to, there'd be nothing left to give by sequel 3, but as long as you think your getting it you'll buy other stuff while you wait. We recommend MS Calendar to assist you in waiting. Comes standard with Windows. You have bought the latest Windows, right? Go do that now. Then buy some gadgets. 
Oh. Sorry. Got distracted. 
We won't give you some things you really, really, REALLY want at all unless the money starts to dry up, and even then it'll most likely come in a "new" version where you'll buy much of your previously purchased stuff yet again because the old purchases won't work anymore with the new version. We already secretly tested that one on you with FSX backwards compatibility stunt. You still bought it.
You might get a little mad, but that's ok cause there's a sucker born every minute to replace you, and most people want whatever we tell them they want anyway, so angry customers don't usually count. 
There are exceptions to this, but trust us, your going to have to get quite a bit angrier, and has a large group give another competitor a HUGE sum to qualify. I mean, yah, that makes us laugh as well.
To be honest, we don't really worry to much about competition now that we think of it. Not like you have a whole lot of choices, and many of you dislike change enough to stick with us as long as possible anyhow. Go ahead. Walk out on us. But then we'll imply that we've learned our lesson, and that we're going to mend our ways. You'll be back.
We did mention you we're replaceable?
Yep. Few paragraphs up. Check. We'll wait.
Now then, If you have any more question or complaints please address them to your nearest Fanboy Defense Force Representative. They can be commonly found on any number of MS sites. They are always more than delighted to assist you in understanding how your nothing but an ignorant worthless slug, and more importantly, wrong. 
Doesn't matter.
Your still wrong.
We're a monopoly. Look up omnipotent. Don't use Windows Help though. Even we admit that never works quite right for most questions. 
Can't get it to tell us how to fix it. 
Annoying.
Alternately, if a Fanboy Representative is unavailable, you may use our Windows XP compatible complaints and suggestions device. It's located down the hall. The door marked "restrooms". It can handle all your crap for a small fee of $2.50 per flush, errrr, complaint and/or suggestion. 
Meanwhile, the rest of you, line up to the left, in alphabetical order, and have your credit cards ready for presentation. We know you will. People are cattle.
Opps, didn't mean to say the last part out loud.
Remember, we're Microsoft. It can only get better from here. Bright future and all that.....blah blah blah..." 


    
      

BrandonF wrote on Mar 9^th, 2012 at 6:07pm:


Brandon, we're telling the truth not being negative.

You can't just storm off because people don't see your point of view.

It's a fact of life that people don't always agree.

I am open for change for the better just not for the worse.

andy190 wrote on Mar 9^th, 2012 at 6:16pm:


Since I started this post, let me add my two cents and I don't want to seem negative.

Some of the questions recently asked the MF Developers were - "What would you say to those third-parties such as Just Flight who are eager to produce extra content in Microsoft Flight? Some will do their own thing instead. Do you welcome the competition?"

In response, this statement was made by one of the MF Developers. "I always do. I’m excited that we’ve taken a very different direction than the traditional simulation audience has. I think there are some really fantastic simulation products out there, not just Flight Simulator X."

I am glad that Microsoft is acknowledging that FSX is a fantastic Flight Simulation product. The big question is, if they felt this way, why did they walk away from it?

As I see it, MF Developer's different direction from FSX is three fold. First Microsoft is offering a product that sets up flight as a game and I must say doing a good job of it. As an example, landing on Lake Waiau without touching any land. Secondly, Microsoft's development schema is to: (A quote from a MF development team member), "do three, four, five things at once, because I’m supporting the current release, I’ve got somebody working on the next release, I’ve got somebody working on the release after the next release and I’ve probably got somebody planning the next big expansion after that." I'm not sure how to interpolate this. Maybe it means that they can simultaneously create a new photo-realistic copy of any new area such as Alaska, put in an existing or new aircraft, then add a few new games. And this brings me to the last difference and that is money. For each new area, you will be charged.

I look at a real or computerized flight simulator as a means for replicating and teaching how to safely fly an aircraft under different realistic environmental flight conditions. FSX is not perfect but can be set up for almost any flight situation. For example, many years ago, I was taking off in an Army DeHavilland Beaver from an airport in France on a flight to Germany. I had been given a clearance to climb to 9000 feet which would put me on top of an 8500 feet overcast. It was winter and raining and I had received a weather brief stating the freezing level was at 9000. At 7000 feet I found my aircraft completely covered with clear icing and had to declare an emergency then do a back ILS to the runway I just departed. I used the skills I learned from past flights with most (since this was a once in a lifetime occurrence) coming from simulators to get the aircraft safely back on the ground.

I replicated that flight with FSX from the same airport in France. To replicate it with Microsoft Flight is not possible as it won't allow me to go to France, fly in a Beaver, and duplicate the weather conditions. It makes one wonder how many people fully realize how robust and sophisticated FSX really is.

My personal view of Microsoft Flight is that it is a good game for the younger generation or someone who continues to have fun flying it. I sincerely hope there are enough people having fun with it to make it a success. And who knows, it may, over time, converge to a more defined Flight Simulator. I, for one, hope so.

I bought the Hawaii package and one aircraft. I will fire it up on occasions to do some low level flying around Hawaii and to remind myself how fortunate I am to have FSX.