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Can Flight Simulator 2020 be expanded to other sims...


BushPilot

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All that I know of the new flight simulator by Microsoft is from what I have read and from various youtube videos. With all that satellite scenery and AI taking over, I think Microsoft can expand their new simulator into well...

 

Microsoft Train Simulator... Just lay over tracks on the satellite scenery, and now you have a whole world train simulator. Oh but wait. The water is so realistic too!

 

Microsoft Ship/Boat Simulator, Now you can cruise the oceans on huge ships...

 

The possibility is endless.

Started: Flight Simulator 98 (Year 1999)

Private Pilot Certificate ASEL: August 7th 2014

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That could work.

The question is wether aerial imagery is good when viewed from the surface or close up.

Often these will not have enough resolution so things will look very blocky/pixellated.

Or a flat image of buildingwill look convincing when viewed from high up but not when you are close by on the ground.

 

The big thing about the current scenery is not that is uses aerial imagery but that the AI is able to figure out from aerial imagery what is there.

Once you know that there is grass or a house it would be possible to render that with an object appropriate for a particular simulation.

 

And different simulators will have additional requirements.

A train sim would need detailed trackside objects (like a station) and realistic signals.

A ship simulator would need a realistic sea with realistic waves and currents.

This means that additional datasets would need to be added.

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All that I know of the new flight simulator by Microsoft is from what I have read and from various youtube videos. With all that satellite scenery and AI taking over, I think Microsoft can expand their new simulator into well...

 

Microsoft Train Simulator... Just lay over tracks on the satellite scenery, and now you have a whole world train simulator. Oh but wait. The water is so realistic too!

 

Microsoft Ship/Boat Simulator, Now you can cruise the oceans on huge ships...

 

The possibility is endless.

 

Doing so is likely to show the limitation of the `flight` modelling of a sim NOT designed to simulate non-aircraft.

Is water realistic? Truly? How naive!

I will wait for release, rather than jump to conclusions....

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It could well be possible. Microsoft enhanced the ESP sim to support submarines, which are still available in P3D, for example.

 

Forgot the other example where ACES was using an updated FSX engine for TrainSim 2, which was cancelled when ACES was let go.

Edited by loki
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It's an interesting thought. The scenery creation system is groundbreaking. But I think the needs of a ground based sim of whatever type of vehicle is just too different for this to work. In a ground vehicle you are very close to buildings and objects, versus in a plane where you are viewing from hundreds or thousands of feet away. For a scene to feel real on the ground you need to see actual detailed specific buildings; generic buildings no matter how detailed just won't do.

 

I think further evidence is that there are still plenty of scenery designers planning on creating airports and other scenery for the new MSFS and for the same reason...after landing at an airport you're now a ground vehicle and need that specific up close detail.

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Very interesting concept and ideas guys! I certainly wouldn’t rule it out for the future. I don’t think anyone could have imagined (say 5 years ago) what we have been observing in the previews for FS2020. I was blown away yesterday watching the videos of all the animals (up close) in 2020, especially the elephants. Time and technology will take us to a point where we will be able to flip in and out of air, land and sea transportation within a combined simulator platform.
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It's an interesting thought. The scenery creation system is groundbreaking. But I think the needs of a ground based sim of whatever type of vehicle is just too different for this to work. In a ground vehicle you are very close to buildings and objects, versus in a plane where you are viewing from hundreds or thousands of feet away. For a scene to feel real on the ground you need to see actual detailed specific buildings; generic buildings no matter how detailed just won't do.

 

I think further evidence is that there are still plenty of scenery designers planning on creating airports and other scenery for the new MSFS and for the same reason...after landing at an airport you're now a ground vehicle and need that specific up close detail.

 

The new sim also supports and uses photogrammetry to create accurate buildings that would be good for something like a train sim. It’s probably quite possible to feed in more highly detailed data too, if needed (Asobo was talking about blades of grass after all).

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By the way, I did purchase microsoft train simulator when It came out, and I liked it.

 

Let’s say if they do entertain the idea of a train simulator, then it need not be 2 petabytes. They are only interested in the satellite scenery that is line of sight from the tracks to the horizon in all direction. Anything beyond the horizon is useless for a train simulator.

 

Microsoft has the funds to fit a very high resolution camera on a plane and fly it over the tracks and get a very detailed aerial scenery for a Train simulator.

 

In any case, hope they are reading this and will consider a train simulator on this technology in the near future.

Started: Flight Simulator 98 (Year 1999)

Private Pilot Certificate ASEL: August 7th 2014

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Myself and other train simmers are hoping MS will dust off their train sim ambitions on the back of FS2020. Unlike when MSTS came out, train simming is now a mass market established genre with all sorts of products ranging from Derail Valley to Run 8 catering for different branches of the hobby.

 

Of course we are also just a tad cynical, with two previous attempts to extend the franchise cancelled - the first due to development "issues" (urban legend has it Kuju dropped the ball), the second when MS decided to put their games division into hiatus. So maybe third time will be the charm.

 

What would be really great is some level of integration between the products so you could fly from London to Glasgow, taxi to Central station and drive a train from there back to Euston. That's probably a bit ambitious, but I can dream! :)

Vern.
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What would be really great is some level of integration between the products so you could fly from London to Glasgow, taxi to Central station and drive a train from there back to Euston. That's probably a bit ambitious, but I can dream! :)

 

MSFS is still a week away. Imagine what all the talented developers will do with it in the years to come. Its a good dream.

Started: Flight Simulator 98 (Year 1999)

Private Pilot Certificate ASEL: August 7th 2014

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the future is a virtual planet where even "Second Life" game can use, every single reality sim can have the exterior envelope of planet earth as the MSFS2020, but of course, for Second Life every interior house or street matters, people, while flightsim only want runways and airports

Kapitan

Anything I say is...not as serious as you think

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Say you could enter a virtual street shop that has real items for sale only in France if you are in french soil, pay by credit card and have it shipped to your address, tax-free because technicaly you are abroad on a "virtual flight". Mind you, expect to show a scanned id of your passport to local "virtual customs" to get access to the virtual city :)

Kapitan

Anything I say is...not as serious as you think

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We already have this now. Its call "online shopping". If you got the cash you can buy most anything (assuming its legal items) from any country and have it shipped to your home. And you don't need a passport.

 

Say you could enter a virtual street shop that has real items for sale only in France if you are in french soil, pay by credit card and have it shipped to your address, tax-free because technicaly you are abroad on a "virtual flight". Mind you, expect to show a scanned id of your passport to local "virtual customs" to get access to the virtual city :)

Started: Flight Simulator 98 (Year 1999)

Private Pilot Certificate ASEL: August 7th 2014

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We already have this now. Its call "online shopping". If you got the cash you can buy most anything (assuming its legal items) from any country and have it shipped to your home. And you don't need a passport.

 

ok, yes, shopping is not a good example, the virtual industry will find "virtual stuff" for you to see, buy, interact, enjoy or book, and the sim will just be a part of that magnanimous virtual planet

Kapitan

Anything I say is...not as serious as you think

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ok, yes, shopping is not a good example, the virtual industry will find "virtual stuff" for you to see, buy, interact, enjoy or book, and the sim will just be a part of that magnanimous virtual planet

 

I started with FS98 while in High School, and look where we have evolved into. What you say may not be too far away, MS2032, Microsoft FS 40th Anniversary. HahaHaha

Started: Flight Simulator 98 (Year 1999)

Private Pilot Certificate ASEL: August 7th 2014

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