May 24th of this year marked a yearsince the closure of Dovetail Games - Flight Sim World. A new platformon the market spawning out of FSX: Steam Edition and Flight School,this was supposed to be a part of the new era of flight simulation,coming from a respected simulator-focused company with features beingpromised to spearhead the future of the genre.

None of it however came to fruition and just under a year frombeing released, the simulator was canned with an end date six daysafter its first anniversary.

So what went wrong with Flight Sim World? Did it do anythingparticularly right? In this article, I plan to look at what Flight SimWorld offered, where it excelled and what led to its demise.

Flight School

In April 2016, Dovetail Games released Flight School ontoSteam. Sold as their initial step of in-house flight simulators basedon the Microsoft Enterprise Simulation Platform (ESP), it was a quicktaste of what was to come, once more development time had passed andthe community had a chance to input their ideas into the simulator. Itinitially came with three aircraft: the Piper Cub, Piper Cherokee andfor those who pre-ordered, an exclusive Diamond DA42 (100 days beforeit was added to the main release). These aircraft were all built incollaboration withA2Aand came with Accu-Feel as standard, allowing for a high-quality listof default aircraft.

The world environment was also new with Orbx TrueEarth asstandard. Compressed bitmap ground textures were replaced with higherquality DirectDraw Surface (DDS) tiles and new 3D volumetric nightlighting was also added. Billboarding was also mostly removed thanksto better-defined ground class definitions and a higher range ofground images to choose from.

Flight School was a rather simple simulator and obviously broughtin a lot from its predecessor, FSX. The biggest change and sellingpoint however was the fact that it was now 64-bit and the very firstESP flight simulator to do so! This meant, while previous simulatorswere stuck with 4 GB memory limitations, FSc was a lot less restrictiveto where you could fly and how far -P3D v4was also still a few months away so there was no other 64-bit alternative atthis point.

The UI for the new simulator looked smart and modern, breaking awayfrom the old clunky style that a lot of current platforms used. Therewas also a number of missions thrown in too, varied for the differentaircraft included. I personally liked the 'Pilot's License' page whichgave you a simple logbook and counted your total sim-hours, a verysmart move for those that like to keep track of their virtual flying.

There was however no modding support or multiplayer (two thingsthat most players see as key for a flight simulator). They werehowever promised to arrive in the next stage once it was ready to beannounced.

Flight Sim World

On May 3rd 2017, Dovetail Games dropped a

The simulator came packaged with seven aircraft by default. These were:

• Piper PA-18 Super Cub (wheels and water skis)
• Piper PA-28 Cherokee
• Diamond DA40 Star
• Diamond DA42 Twin Star
• Piper PA-34 Seneca
• Piper PA-46 Malibu Mirage
• Vans RV7

Two more aircraft also made their way into the simulator asthird-party paid add-ons. These were the Piper PA-28R Arrow III fromJust Flight and the Curtiss P40-F Warhawk by BlueSkyFS.

Soon after release, reactions to the simulator were mixed, to saythe least. While some praised it for adding a new product to themarket and adding variety to the way we flew, others criticised it forthe lack of add-ons and aircraft it came with, many citing the lack ofjetliners. Dovetail for months would release weekly Thursday updateswhich would fix the stability of the platform and minimise crasheswhile working on aircraft to ensure they flew as lifelike as possiblewith bug fixes made throughout its lifecycle.

When August came, the first major upgrade to the platform came inthe form of TrueSKY clouds, which looked phenomenal! There were a fewminor graphical glitches known as 'swirly clouds' at the verybeginning, but these were fixed by the next day. In my opinion theseclouds really brought new life to the platform. These were trulydynamic and volumetric, meaning billboarding was finally a thing ofthe past. Combined with an upgrade to sky colors at the same time,this created some really fantastic visual effects!

The Flight Sim Show 2017 at RAF Cosford was also the first showthat Flight Sim World would be featured at. Here they had a fairlylarge stand that attracted many users to the simulator. We also had aseminar with the project lead Stephen Hood towards the end of theday. Whilst he had been criticised in the past, he was very open aboutthe future of the simulator and a lot of opinions were changed. Whilemany hadn't seen much from Flight Sim World beforehand, his talkfilled the community with hope, especially with what was in-store for2018 with the announcement of both a career mode and private jetcoming into the game. The only thing they lacked was someone whospecialised in flight dynamics, but this was a search that was verymuch ongoing for them.

Around November 2017, a survey was sent to everybody who ownedFlight Sim World. This included a few questions on what we would liketo see added to the platform, as well as a list of 46 items that wewould order in order of importance. Soon after that, everything wentquiet.

Endgame

On April 23rd 2018, apress releasewas posted onto the Dovetail Games blog announcing the end of FlightSim World and everything that was to be. Citing the lack of directionand falling number of users, it was decided that all development wouldstop for the platform immediately, and on May 24th the simulator wouldbe removed from the Steam and Dovetail stores entirely. Those whoowned the simulator previously would keep it, but no-one else wouldever be able to purchase it thereafter. The day came and went and withthat, the once growing platform with so many ideas ahead, fell intothe depths of flight simming history.

So What Went Wrong With Flight Sim World?

There are a number of factors that came into play with the demiseof Flight Sim World. Some played a much bigger factor than others, butall combined, led to its downfall. Below I will highlight some of themajor reasons that I feel led to the fall of the platform.

Developer Backlash

Soon after Dovetail Games first announced Flight Sim World, therewere some talks behind closed doors about agreements between DTG andthird-party developers. Not much is known about what was said and whatofferings were made, but soon after release, there was some majorbacklash from a number of developers that targeted Flight Sim World asa money-grab scheme. This led to some conflict between Dovetail Games,Flight Sim World, the community and payware developers which neverreally calmed down.

This lack of third-party support meant that already, Flight SimWorld was threatened with quite possibly a very limited amount ofcontent coming into it from other sources. This definitely pushed awaya lot of users who like to add high-quality content alongside theirbase game from a number of reputable developers.

Lack Of Add-Ons And Jets

Speaking of lack of add-ons, this was also an issue in itself as itlimited the replayability of Flight Sim World. Most people will havetwo or three high-quality aircraft and a number of smallerless-advanced ones to fill their virtual hangar, however FSW only hada small handful of GA aircraft to choose from.

I remember a couple of days after release I managed to figure out away to mod aircraft and scenery by editing the simulator config filesdirectly, and so published this onto theSteam Guidessystem as well as onto YouTube. To this day, two of my four guides aresitting in the top four most popular for FSW, with the aircraft guidesitting at the top of the list. Unfortunately however these were notwithout their own flaws as gauges and switches are compiled in32-bit. The upshot of this is that these would not function within thesimulator and therefore could not be manipulated (although they stilldisplayed correctly).

An SDK was released by Dovetail as part of the Pro Mission Editor,and for a year after closure was still maintained by the developers,meaning people could in actual fact create their own aircraft andscenery for the simulator (however, very few people did).

The Dwindling User Base

From its initial release, fewer and fewer people were attracted toit, regardless of updates and new features. The sim's peak stands at644 users according to SteamDB, and that was on release day. Incomparison, FSX: Steam Edition peaks at 5,821, while X-Plane 11 held2,268 at one time - both of those numbers not including third-partyand DVD users! This lack of interest from the community meant thatDovetail was trying to provide high-level additions and features forpeople that were not even there. While many hoped that it would slowlyincrease in usage, this just never happened and as a result, the onlyalternative was to axe the whole thing.

I Already Own FSX, So What's The Point?

Many also didn't see the need for a new simulator in the firstplace. If you already owned FSX, why should you spend time on a newplatform? With P3D v4 soon to be released, there just wasn't a needfor Dovetail to release something else of a 'lower quality'.

Flight Sim World also had fewer features than FSX and didn't comewith nearly as much content for essentially the same price. Thiscomparison straight away drew crowds away from the dwindlingplatform.

I know a few people who also question why Dovetail didn't base thenew platform onMicrosoft Flight.Flight had a much more modern engine, that while based on ESP, wasmuch more game oriented. The default environment (while limited) alsolooked so much better than its predecessor and aircraft flew reallywell. Dovetail had access to this but chose not to use it. Who knowswhat would have happened and how much further they could have got ifthey did.

Did They Do Anything Right?

While not perfect, there was certainly a lot that Flight Sim Worldexcelled at. Its biggest selling point at first was the fact it was awell-established GA flight simulator with a selection of Piper andDiamond aircraft and all the navigation aids you needed to flyanywhere in the world. There are also a number of other things thatwent right for Dovetail Games which I will certainly go into detailwith.

General Aviation

If you were looking for a simulator that specialised in a set fewgeneral aviation aircraft, then Flight Sim World was perfect for you!It held a number of Piper and Diamond models (as well as a VansRV-7A), VOR waypoints to navigate and a default world that didn't lookhalf bad once Orbx had done their work. I personally thoroughlyenjoyed flying in an out of Elstree, which now serves as my homeairport for the real-life NPPL I am doing.

By having fewer planes, it meant that Dovetail Games could focus alot more on perfecting each one for the platform, making them the bestthey could be with as many systems simulated as possible.

High-Quality Default Aircraft

Dovetail Games also collaborated with A2A Simulations for a lot oftheir default aircraft, providing a lot of modelling and systemssupport. All aircraft also came with Accu-Feel, meaning ground and aireffects were also simulated.

While this would never be as comprehensive as Blade Element Theorywhich simulates the airflow around your aircraft's model, this upgradein the basic flight dynamics meant that you would definitely feel somelife in your aircraft. The perspex shimmer also added an extra dynamiclevel of flying to your aircraft, with gauges and dials shaking fromengine vibrations, sun visors and loose objects being forced down onheavy landings.

Flying in Flight Sim World definitely added more of a challengewhen compared to FSX, and this is what a lot of people were lookingfor.

Clouds And The World Environment

By adding Simul trueSKY clouds to Flight Sim World, many saw thisas the peak of their development by really bringing the skyenvironment to life. trueSKY added realistic shader-rendered clouds tothe simulator with a soft approach to clipping, meaning you could flythrough these without them disappearing in front of you. Previoussimulations had used billboarding to make clouds; a group of 2Dtextures wrapped around one another with a single central anchorpoint.

Where a lot of simulators lacked good weather and cloud simulation,Flight Sim World excelled at this. Weather particle effects on theaircraft windshield that moved dynamically to your movement, cloudsthat wouldn't go amiss in the real world and sky colors that (albeita little exaggerated) filled the world with color and life. Theynever got a chance to implement real-world weather, but on their finalupdate did add dynamic weather that would change naturally overtime. This added an extra level of depth to the sky simulation and formany, this was a step in the right direction.

PBR or Physically Based Rendering was also added to FSW, meaningyou could also get a lot more detail out of the aircraft model andworld environment based on what material they were made of. PBRmanaged the reflection and up close detail depending on how light hitobjects. Bump mapping on aircraft also excelled when it came to thelevel of detail you could see when looking up close at surfaces.

Orbx provided their FTX Global add-on to be packaged with thesimulator by default. This gave the world scenery a lot more varietywhen compared to FSX and P3D, with higher quality textures and morevariety of landclass tiles to choose from. Different continents alsohad their own sub-textures, meaning whenever you flewtrans-continentally (admittedly not very often, you're in a small propplane!), your departure and arrival landscape always lookeddifferent. With area-specific add-ons like the freeware Kahului AirMission Pack, it also upgraded the scenery in and around the Hawaiianislands and airports, giving the simulator some focus areas that lookeven better than the rest!

ESP may not be the prettiest SDK to use, but Dovetail definitelymanaged to do a lot with it. I stand by the fact that to me, this waspossibly the nicest looking flight simulator ever.

The User Interface

This was something Dovetail Games had free realm on, and they did afantastic job! Created in Autodesk Scaleform, they really modernisedthe look and feel of the old clunky FSX menu and brought it into the21st century. Each menu was clean and easy to follow, navigation wassimple and everything was exactly where you expected it to be.

The front screen of Flight Sim World was also clean, spacious andsimple to follow. The only hiccup that many saw was the fact that alot of the space was taken up by adverts, with only a few in-gamescreen shots thrown in.

As with Flight School, I thoroughly enjoyed the PilotProfile/Logbook page which broke everything down from your latestflights, completed mission achievements, and converted your virtualflight hours to an equivalent real-world license. Setting up andcreating flight plans was also as simple as can be.

In the Flight Planner, you also had the option to type in VORlocations to create your own routes following real-world airways, orfree-hand click on the map to add your own custom waypoints and followyour own lines. This was both intuitive as it meant both beginner andexperienced simmers could just click and fly!

Above all, the theme song wasn't half bad either!

The Future Of Dovetail Games And Flight Simulation

As it stands, it doesn't look like Dovetail Games will be releasinga brand new flight simulator for a little while, if ever. The disasterthat was Flight Sim World in terms of PR and their view in the publiceye led to a rather mundane period which saw both the company and themajority of flight simmers at an all-time low. The one silver lininghowever is that FSX: Steam Edition (brought over to the digitalplatform by DTG) is still going strong and sees an average of3,500 users on it daily looking at the stats on SteamDB.In fact, despite there being no Flight Sim team in concrete, it stillgets a fewsmall updates and tweaksas well as bug fixes on a fairly regular basis!

Checking these same stats on Flight Sim World on SteamDB also showssurprisingly that despite a year of inactivity, the simulatorstill attracts a good 25-30 users DAILYwith very few moments of downtime with 0 in-game users! There iscertainly an appeal that Flight Sim World had, albeit small, thatstill manages to attract a handful of users as their main simulatorsetup.

You can also look to the other two main projects Dovetail Games runto see that it has managed to shake past this episode and move on withtheir development, putting a lot more focus intoTrain Sim Worldwhich has slowly increased in users and popularity as of recent times,and the new namesake of FSW,Fishing Sim World.

Other simulators have also been able to push into the gap that wasleft by the fall of Flight Sim World, with X-Plane 11 filling theentertainment spot that was open and Prepar3D v4 giving us the 64-bitESP platform we were hoping for.

But remember that Dovetail Games are by no means a smallcompany. They may not be your favorite, and some feel they are tryingto monopolise the simulator market, but when you look at the last tenyears and the amount of content they have brought into simulation as awhole, they might very well have saved the genre (especially when youconsider the dwindling numbers of the late 2000s).

By keeping the Flight Simulator series alive, Dovetail Games haveat least managed to keep the hobby going for a large part of thecommunity.

Video

Michael Hayward

Additional Screen Shot

Additional Screen Shots

The author provide a lot of pictures with this article; here are the rest.