MSFS 2024 announced

[Nels_Anderson]

58 minutes ago, PhrogPhlyer said:

Having flown actual SAR over water, it was nearly impossible to hold a hover over a person or small boat due to lack of visual references. We utilized a doppler hover system that had a gauge similar to an ILS gauge. With vertical and horizontal displacement indicated.

 

The need for new features like this could be part of the excuse for making this a new version versus just an update of the current one.

 

I always wondered how this was done! I would think doing it visually would be extremely hard since you'd have to be able to see and concentrate on something directly below you.

[PhrogPhlyer]

4 minutes ago, Nels_Anderson said:

I always wondered how this was done!

The doppler actually used the disturbed water from rotor downwash to reflect from.

Your near approach is 50' and 50kt, slowing to a 25' hover.

Daytime it was actually fun, night-time in a storm, white knuckle time.

[KiloWatt]

I'm excited to see this, but I would have expected that they fix the issues with the current sim before starting on a new one. On the other hand, I also think some issues are core to the sim and essentially needs a new version to fix. Time will tell.

 

I wonder how the system requirements will be affected. I suspect my geriatric CPU won't be up to the task. It's barely haning on as is, haha.

[jdmesq]

I just realized some users of MSFS might not have remembered Flight Simulator 98, 2000, 2002, 2004. This is as it should be and although I was surprised I realized were getting one of the classic features of Flight Simulator back. Heck with ATC and a tower cam view Here's to playing about a decade behind just like I used to. Ah sweet nostalgia.

[beroun]

Oh James I even remember FS4 on a small 1.2MB disc!  Have turned my PC facing my office entrance, so that my boss does not see me flying:)

[lnuss]

9 hours ago, KiloWatt said:

I'm excited to see this, but I would have expected that they fix the issues with the current sim before starting on a new one.

They never did before, when we had a new one every three years or so. Makes one wonder though...

[tiger1962]

FS2004 was released in 2003 (July?) and MSFS2024 looks ready for release in those videos... well, whenever it's released I expect I'll pre-order it just as I did with MSFS2020.

[PhrogPhlyer]

20 hours ago, KiloWatt said:

I would have expected that they fix the issues with the current sim before starting on a new one.

I suspect form a Microsoft marketing perspective, it is better to release a new product (with most of the fixes corrected) then to admit your previous product is flawed.

[chicagorandy]

I wonder out loud if the XBox gamer community, which IS a HUGE cash cow community, started flying MSFS 2020 on their machines, caught some of the obvious flaws/issues and "complained" in a large enough voice to "motivate" Microsoft/Asobo to create the 'New and Improved', now with more electrolytes (homage to Idiocracy) flight sim version 2024? As they say, money talks and BS walks. I only hope it gets priced at a level my meager pensioner wallet can tolerate and that I don't have to scrap my barely three year old Desktop PC to play it.

[PhrogPhlyer]

10 minutes ago, chicagorandy said:

I only hope it gets priced at a level my meager pensioner wallet can tolerate and that I don't have to scrap my barely three year old Desktop PC to play it.

So many of us are in the same boat, and echo your sentiments.

[Skywatcher12]

Wasn't MSFS going to be a 10 year thing?

[tiger1962]

3 hours ago, Skywatcher12 said:

Wasn't MSFS going to be a 10 year thing?

 

Apparently it still is. They didn't say that MSFS 2020 would be a 10 year thing, so we can expect 2024 and maybe 2026, 2028 and 2030 - back to the good old days lol.

[Nels_Anderson]

Well, something has changed...

 

What came out in 2020 was "Microsoft Flight Simulator". Period. No year, no version, just the one and only Microsoft Flight Simulator. Those of us in the community have tacked "2020" onto the name to differentiate it from previous versions that we are still using, but that's our doing, not Microsoft's. I think the impression we had was that this sim was it for the long run, with a 10 year cycle being mentioned.

 

This new announcement, with the addition of a version to the name is a change, and seems like going back to the old days of new versions coming every few years.

 

The original 10 year plan is not unprecedented. One of my other sim pleasures is ATS - American Truck Simulator. This was released in 2016 and has been continually upgraded--at no charge--ever since.  The current release is v1.47, which means that 47 updates have come out since the original. There's a lot of similarity to MSFS 2020 in that there have been "world upgrades", where the scenery has been improved, as well as upgrades to the actual software ("sim updates").

 

How do they make a living doing this? By selling DLC, much like Microsoft now does with the built-in MSFS 2020 "Marketplace".

 

So here's where things get interesting. Years ago, developers could crank out a new plane or scenery in a fairly short time...probably weeks or months depending on whether they worked full time or part time. With technology and our expectations so much higher today, development time can be a year or two for a high-end add-on. Having a sim that's available for a long time means developers can take on complex projects with long lead times. But if the latest sim starts changing every few years that may affect the add-ons developers will be willing to produce.

 

So there's actually something to be said for *not* doing new versions, as doing so affects Marketplace sales if fewer add-ons get developed. Microsoft cares about their business more than anything else, so there must be a good business case for a new sim version.

[FrankPilot]

Whatever …… I’m in!  Cheers.

 

[chicagorandy]

Upon serious reflection and study I am left unsure about whether 2024 is offering all that we have now with 2020 PLUS a whole slew of new challenges, or if it is meant to be a 'flight challenges' game/sim leaving 2020 fliers to continue to roam the world and its airports in many and varied aircraft as we do now.  I reckon time.... and Microsoft .... will tell.

[amberdog1]

It'll be on Xbox and the PC using steam, ms store...

I think it'llb e an extension of MSFS2000 using the 2004 label. Will have to wait and see...

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[loki]

Microsoft gives a couple more tidbits in the interview linked below. Sounds like a new version of the current sim with the new features, similar to going from FS2002 to FS2004 to FSX.

 

 

Seems like they're portraying the 10 year commitment as being about the franchise, not just the current MSFS2020. If virtually all add-ons will be supported in the new sim, the transition shouldn't be too bad. On the other hand, there is the questions as to how long they support MSFS2020 and it's connections to the servers.

[chicagorandy]

Okey dokes, so it's a complete new version of MS Flight Simulator, in essence replacing MSFS 2020, using improved software engines, that also accepts the current 2020 planes, airports et al.

 

Which leaves me very concerned that my current rig - "Recommended" level hardware - won't be able to run the new sim at an acceptable level. Hopefully Microsoft will post hardware requirements soon to answer that BIG question.

[jgf]

1 hour ago, chicagorandy said:

.....

Which leaves me very concerned that my current rig - "Recommended" level hardware - won't be able to run the new sim at an acceptable level. ...

That has been the situation with every new version of FS for a quarter century now.  Each new FS is designed for "next generation" computers, which to a degree continually splits the community into those who can run out and buy a new, top line, "state of the art", gaming rig and run the new sim in all its glory, and those who may be able to throw more ram and a better vid card in their "antique" computers and struggle along, wondering if what they have is better than what they had.

 

Not a complaint, it's just the way things are.  I still enjoy FS9, may reinstall FSX (though at my age not sure if I want to start all over with the endless tweaking, lol).

[loki]

While each new sim has always pushed the envelope when it comes to hardware, MSFS2020 did run pretty well at release on mid-range systems without too much of an impact on graphics etc. Unlike FSX which barely ran on anything lower than the high end requirements without reducing settings to the bare minimum (granted it got caught out by the move to multi-core CPUS, and wasn't the only one). The need to have it run on Xbox consoles will mean they have to optimize it well.

[tiger1962]

1 hour ago, loki said:

The need to have it run on Xbox consoles will mean they have to optimize it well.

 

An astute observation Loki - the question is: When is the next generation Xbox console due? I think we can expect Xbox Studios to match the next generation of this sim's performance to the next generation of their console's capabilities.

[plainsman]

MSFS has always been a driver for more robust hardware. The story of my first computer and my introduction to MSFS illustrates this. It was in the Fall of 1985. The company I worked for had several 8088 machines with 10 MB hard drives. One economic evaluation program we ran frequently, took 52 minutes to run on one of those machines. I decided to buy my first computer, and splurged to get an 80286-10 machine with an added math chip. The economic program that took 52 minutes to run on the company machines, took just under 10 minutes to run on mine. My boss, an engineer, asked me to get the latest version of MSFS to test my 80286 machine. He reasoned that if it could run MSFS satisfactorily, it could run all the company engineering and economic software. BTW, that 80286 had a ridiculously gigantic 24 MB hard drive, which I was told repeatedly could NEVER be used, all that space would be a complete waste! In addition to MSFS, that machine ran SuperCalc 3, Lotus 123, EasyWriter, and a clunky database software I don't remember. About two months after I got my computer, the company owner purchased an 80286-12 machine for his office. 

[loki]

58 minutes ago, tiger1962 said:

 

An astute observation Loki - the question is: When is the next generation Xbox console due? I think we can expect Xbox Studios to match the next generation of this sim's performance to the next generation of their console's capabilities.

 

One point that has come out of Microsoft's push to buy Activision is that they aren't looking to release a new console until 2028.

 

https://dotesports.com/general/news/when-will-the-next-xbox-be-released

[loki]

53 minutes ago, plainsman said:

MSFS has always been a driver for more robust hardware.

 

The MSFS series has certainly been a big driver for new hardware in the past, however, I'm not sure it is nearly as big any more. At least not in the same way. Much of the difference between MSFS and other sims, or games in general, is around new technologies such as the AI used to generate the scenery, streaming photogrammetry etc. For the latest and greatest graphics, the Unreal engine, and others, are more relevant to more people these days.

[tiger1962]

On 6/16/2023 at 7:23 PM, loki said:

 

Much of the difference between MSFS and other sims, or games in general, is around new technologies such as the AI used to generate the scenery, streaming photogrammetry etc.

 

I absolutely agree, and only Microsoft has the global network available to support this level of simulation - it's unbeatable. I also think that Xbox Games Studio and Asobo Studio have thrown everything they can think of at this version, just to see what sticks. One moment it's Famous Flyers, next it's the Top Gun movie Expansion Pack, then the Halo spaceship, then it's back to Local Legends and most recently the Expert Series; coming soon there's the Dune movie Expansion Pack.

They're trying to please everyone, all the time.

I hope that the next iteration will be more focussed on the integrity of the sim itself; features which are now payware or even freeware "fixes", "mods", "add-ons" or whatever you want to call them will be integrated into the base sim along with the accumulated World Updates and Sim Updates released for MSFS 2020: this might be why they've announced already that "most" add-ons will still work with MSFS2024 - because some of them have now been built-in to the base sim, and I further hope that among them are Bijan's Trees (payware) and the Shift-Z (freeware) mods. It's also about time they gave Henrik a contract for his outstanding GAIST package, let's start a petition!