Aces progress before shutdown?

I would have hoped that they'd focus on a multi threaded Sim and improved ATC at least. To me, those have to be the two most important components in the Sim that desperately need improvement. Imagine being able to fly using SID and STARs and the ATC not clearing you to land while a plane is on the runway or putting you and AI into a real-world holding pattern. All the while you fly happily alone in your PMDG 737 NGX with great frames thanks to the multi threaded code.

I would imagine the ATC would have a realism setting. From low, medium and high realistic. As some planes don't have an FMC capable of flying holding patters, SIDs, STARs, etc.

I imagine that ACES had just completed ESP and written down a project plan and a rough estimate of what the next FS version will cost. Those numbers just didn't work out for Microsoft at a time when MS had to let go of more than 5000 employees.

No, it was way farther along than that.

You need to review FSX to get an idea of what it's replacement might have been .

1. When FSX was first released it was a slow bug ridden program .

2. Over several years they fixed about 550 bugs and were still working on a list of outstanding bugs when they were sacked .

3. My local computer shop could not understand why latest technology such as multi threading and multi core were not included as programs had already been released with those attributes .

4. Microsoft Aces team was only relatively small .

5. Microsoft rely on marketing cycles , after about 3 years sales of the current Sim drop off , so does their cash income , necessitating a new and distinctively different Sim to force new sales .

That results in hurried development and scant debugging after release .

6. The Sim was a big seller for Microsoft , so I often wonder exactly what the reason was for the sacking of the Aces team , if I had to guess it would be because of the poor quality of FSX .

7. Anyone who visits flight simulation forums cannot help but notice the constant flow of problems that people have with their FSX , my assumption here is that this might be due to the poor quality of the FSX program .

8. While modern Simmers seem to be obsessed with 'Eye Candy' there is very much more to the Flight Simulation program .

It is a very complex program dealing with many complex aerospace concepts and functions , such as ;

shape of the earth , Lat/Longs , Flt Planning , radios and NAVAIDS , weather , AI aircraft , aircraft , etc .

The list of aspects goes on and on .

If one needs convincing of the complexity just review two small aspects of the sim ,

Bob McElrath published two PDF's that are freely available , they are ,

#1. FS9GPS Module it runs to 191 pages .

#2. CUSTOM DRAW fs9gps:Map it runs to 167 pages .

The above gives a small insight into the complex nature of our Flight Simulator .

The technology involved is beyond even hotshot programmers , here you can see the value of a large advanced aerospace company such as Lockheed Martin being involved , they have access and knowledge of the relevant aerospace technology , so they can progressively apply that knowledge to future improvements to the sim platform .

My own view is that future advances to the sim were beyond Microsoft capabilities and resources .

Cheers

Karol

I will just say that Karol's post misses the mark with every single point he makes, especially the very last sentence.

+2

If you understand software, and if you truly understand the major undertaking that even a "simple" flight sim entails, let alone the complexity of FSX, then you'll recognize that with a relatively small team and with a very limited time, AND maintaining a large chunk of backward compatibility, then you'll understand that Karol's entire post is off in the wrong direction.

Sure there were bugs, a large part of which they addressed, but the complexity of the software alone ensured that there would be, in the limited time available (i.e. they didn't have ten years and a giant team and a proper budget to do unlimited testing of everything on every type of system out there), a number of bugs, many of which didn't affect everyone, being more dependent on which system you had, among other things.

I won't bother to address point-by-point, but software is truly understood only by a relatively small number of people.

No, it was way farther along than that.

So Microsoft stopped a running project where the budget was already approved? I find that hard to believe, unless some massive project risks would have come up.

But then again, why not. Stranger things have happened.

Yes, they did.

Curious. But IIRC Microsoft sacked more than a thousand people in January 2009 alone, with 4000 more to come that year. Project must have somehow ended up on the wrong list at a bad time. Acceleration had been released at the end of 2007, right? So whatever ACES did, it was worth one year of development - which isn't all that much, considering that they were working on Train Sim too and finishing up ESP.

Something that was going on at the time was social media and online gaming were really taking off. Games with in game achievements and DLC in particular were catching on and Microsoft wanted to get in on the action. From comments made by former ACES members, there were internal disagreements over how the Flight Sim series should fit in with this and management decided to drop ACES and move in the direction they thought was best. So they brought in someone who didn't get flight simming and we got MS Flight. Flight was a solid sim from the technical side, but was hamstrung by the ridiculous DLC limitations.

Anything I read indicated FSX was doing well financially, though in the grand scheme of Microsoft it was small potatoes. Which probably also make it the target of bean counters elsewhere in the company.

If you look at Microsoft's history, they can be pretty bad at trying to jump on the latest trends. PC gaming is one example, Windows 8's interface, the Zune and Windows phones are others.

I don't know, letting go of 5000 employees is not bean counter stuff, this is the small sledgehammer. There were another 18000 in 2014, this year it will be 3000 I think etc. etc. Big companies work like that, specifics don't matter much. If you aren't aligned with "the strategy", whatever that is on a particular day, you find yourself at the top of the blacklist very quickly. When I started out in "my" company 25 years ago, we were 270.000 employees. When I left 3 years ago we were less than half of that, although the net income of the company increased steadily. Valueing asssets, experience, knowledge, logic, business sense (or even common sense) is/are not part of the corporate world that I know.

Well Said! We all have to remember that companies no longer look at the long term. All corporation Presidents and board members want to do is get good enough short term profits that "raiders" don't steal the company from under them after any given quarterly report!

And no, "Long Term Planning" doesn't go a minute past the next earnings estimate. And the jobs of 270,000 people are not a concern if their bosses' quarterly bonuses or job status is at risk!!!!

WELCOME TO TODAY'S CORPORATE AMERICA!!!!

I know one thing. If I win big, and I mean BIG in the lotto I will happily create my own company and employ some of the greatest talent there is in gaming software development to create a Sim that beats them all hands down. It would be my life's mission since currently, with the FAR I will never be able to fly. So the Sim is all I got. And since that's all I got I would want it to be as immersive and real-like as possible. I'm talking full fledge voice interaction with ATC who responds in a multitude of different voices with accents based on the region you are in using real life SIDs and STARS, holding patterns, emergencies, you freaking name it. Combine that with some down right stunning visuals that would rival even that of Grand Theft Auto V. I would indeed mandate the code be multi threaded and truly utilize the video card.

I can dream can't I?

I know one thing. If I win big, and I mean BIG in the lotto I will happily create my own company and employ some of the greatest talent there is in gaming software development to create a Sim that beats them all hands down. It would be my life's mission since currently, with the FAR I will never be able to fly. So the Sim is all I got. And since that's all I got I would want it to be as immersive and real-like as possible. I'm talking full fledge voice interaction with ATC who responds in a multitude of different voices with accents based on the region you are in using real life SIDs and STARS, holding patterns, emergencies, you freaking name it. Combine that with some down right stunning visuals that would rival even that of Grand Theft Auto V. I would indeed mandate the code be multi threaded and truly utilize the video card.

 

I can dream can't I?

You have the greatest and most immersive flightsim and matching computing power already. It is located right behind your forehead. I remember being totally immersed in a flight sim that was displaying a few blocky lines in 4(?) colors and where I had to wait for 30 minutes until it had loaded into the computer.

Today we can choose between several implementations of the flight sim theme. If none of them meets your expectations, then this also tells you something about what is actually possible.

Yep, right behind your eyes! Unfortunately no way to hook up my floatscreen.:( (Laser7 output required.;))

Have a great day evm!:D

il.:cool:

Going by what we have now, if I was to start a 'Flight Sim' I would make THE computer that I knew would handle the 'sim' (software). You would then HAVE to buy THAT computer WITH the 'sim' software included. No 'sim' software would be available otherwise. But it would be possible for developers to make, and sell, their product AFTER it was tested and approved by 'us'. How's that!

Chuck B

Napamule

You have the greatest and most immersive flightsim and matching computing power already. It is located right behind your forehead. I remember being totally immersed in a flight sim that was displaying a few blocky lines in 4(?) colors and where I had to wait for 30 minutes until it had loaded into the computer.

 

Absolutely love that, brilliant. Remembered my Commodore 64 days.

On the original topic, if I can have my two cents worth of a rant, I very humbly think that flight simming in general was -and still is- a very niche segment of the market, and will always be. It is especially more so when viewed in contrast to the massive numbers of other "games and gamers" out there, such as grand theft auto and WoW etc. This is where Microsoft bean counters kicked into the equation to invoke whatever what we (flight sim passionates) consider a monstrosity and what they consider a brilliant marketing coup. It's cold business calculations, profits and investments, percentages and projections, like what most of you remarked throughout the thread. Short of winning CRJ_Simpilot's BIG lotto and committing some into a dream sim project, we can only watch and sigh.