Microsoft Flight Simulator

[Burning Bridges]

I thought this was called a spin, not a stall. Off the top of my head a stall was when the forces keeping you in the air and moving in a certain direction become equal or at least very nearly equal to the forces pulling you towards the ground and preventing you from moving in that direction.

And a stall can lead into a spin, as can clearly be seen by the plane moving upward first. at 0:16

 

[LESS T_T]

Pre-alpha gameplay videos and previews:







More on the tube.

 

[anvi]

Pretty amazing. The LOD popping was something I watched for and saw on occasion, which I hate, but mostly it was absent which makes me think they at least care about it. Doubt I would actually buy it though because I reckon I would only have a few hours of fun, fly over the Great Pyramid, fly through the Grand Canyon, fly over my house, then I'd probably be all done with it.

 

[Curratum]

As a visual and "walkabout" exploration whore who spent over 200 hours walking around the reserves of theHunter CotW, I think I'm going to enjoy this a lot.

 

[LESS T_T]

00:12 - Lisbon
01:11 - Berlin
02:16 - London
03:28 - Newcastle
04:37 - Boston
05:36 - Chicago
06:56 - Maine
07:58 - Orange County
09:13 - Orlando
10:13 - Seattle
13:27 - São Paulo
14:28 - Seoul
15:41 - Toronto
16:39 - High level clouds
22:07 - Scattered clouds
27:12 - High level clouds
30:25 - Scattered clouds

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/09/30/microsoft-flight-simulator-preview/

See the World in Microsoft Flight Simulator

It took a couple of flybys, and dusting off the memories of the street layout from my hometown of Kailua, Hawai’i, but I can successfully report that I found my childhood home while buzzing palm trees in a Cessna 172 during a recent hands-on preview with Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Whenever I’ve played a new version of MSFS, looking for my house has almost always been my first activity (next to taking off, of course). Over 30+ years of “flying,” I’ve seen my hometown morph from polygon squares to ground mesh to pixelated landscapes. But never have I been so convinced that what I just flew over wasn’t my actual house. Or the beach down the street that I’d take my dog to. Or the elementary school I’d ride my bike around. All in such fine, accurate detail that it left me astonished at just how real-life looking (and accurate) our world is represented in the new Microsoft Flight Simulator.

A Global Scale

By using a combination of global satellite data and aerial imagery from Bing, and the power of Azure Cloud to bring a visual representation of the entire planet Earth to life (2 petabytes of data, to be precise), and procedural techniques using machine learning algorithms developed by the team that defines where to generate trees, grass, terrain surfaces, and other elements based on world data, all help bring this flight… no… world simulator to life.

It’s so accurate that Visual Flight Rules (VFR) are totally applicable here. Meaning, the world is recreated so accurately that you, as a pilot, can navigate visually by following known roads, rivers, and lakes to find your way (AKA, I bet you can find your house too). What’s astonishing here for MSFS is that this is all reproduced on a global scale, allowing you to truly see the world from the comfort of your virtual cockpit.

Want to get up close to Mount Fuji? Go for it. Fly along the great wall of China? Of course, you can. Tour the Pacific Coast Highway? You better believe it. Microsoft Flight Simulator is shaping up to not only be a tentpole example of how to create a flight simulator today, but also work as a fantastic learning tool for the classroom and for those that want to “see” the world without leaving their house. It’s all here and it’s all very impressive to behold.

A Perfect Partner

Satellite data is one thing, but it’s the partnership with Asobo Studio that really helps bring Microsoft Flight Simulator to life. The aforementioned machine learning techniques that they developed help to augment Bing Maps and the power of Azure to detect elements like the location of trees in the world, add missing buildings, account for rooftop colors; all by examining data from Bing that then by using Azure to stream the data in real-time into Microsoft Flight Simulator to make what you’re seeing and flying over as accurate as possible. This means that while you’re flying, data will stream to your PC from the cloud to help fill in all the ground, sky, and weather details.

Yes, it will adapt to your available bandwidth. So, if you have a fast internet connection, the data will stream and update much faster and closer to real-time. But if your bandwidth is low, it automatically adjusts the amount of data downloaded to your machine. You will also have to option to pre-download sections you intend to fly over ahead of time. So, for example, if you’re plotting a route from Seattle to San Francisco, you’ll be able to download (pre cache) all that data before you take off. Then, Asobo’s techniques will go ahead and procedurally generate all the ground detail like blades of grass, waves influenced by the wind, night lights on the roads, building details – all help to give a realistic representation of the world as you’re flying over it.

Sky is the Limit

Of course, one cannot only talk about ground detail when it comes to a flight simulator. There is, of course, the sky. You know, that thing you’ll be flying through. What’s impressive here are all the fine details put into atmospheric simulation, like the way clouds move and react to mountains, valleys, and hills. Or how fog generates to create thick, dense layers for you to navigate through.

There’s a number of other finer details that help create the sky in Microsoft Flight Simulator, like particles, pollution, shadows from clouds on the ground; these all help give the world a unified and realistic appearance. It can even render rainbows since elements like humidity, direction of the sun, etc. are all physically based. It’s all quite impressive.

And then there’s the rain, which too has its own physical properties in-game and react to your aircraft depending how you’re “cutting” through it. So, for example, if you’re in place on the tarmac, you’ll see thicker drops stick to your windshield and then slowly drip off; pick up speed and you’ll have them slide and shape to the windshield itself.

Other fine elements help bring the sky to life, like the day-night cycle that factors everything from the light of the Sun to the intensity of stars and city lights. They all help to give a realistic representation in-game allowing for VFR by night as well.

Simmers can choose to experience real-time weather in whatever location they are flying, and users can also customize the weather however they want, whenever they want, through an on-screen drop-down tool. So, if you want to say, fly through a clear blue sky one minute and then try navigating through that thunderstorm that’s currently over your house, it can all be adjusted on the fly without having to exit to a game menu.

Playing with this setting myself, I found it kept me stimulated throughout my hands-on time in MSFS by experiencing a variety of flight events in a short period of time. I would take off in clear skies, fly through a rainstorm, then turn right around and land at night, all in the span of about 10 minutes. This is an impressive feature and great for seasoned pilots looking for a quick, mid-flight challenge and for the more casual flyer who wants to experience as much weather as quickly as possible.

If it Ain’t Broke

The simulator itself will utilize a lot of legacy code from previous versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator – no reason to scrap years of work. Naturally, there will be several tweaks to take advantage of today’s more powerful computers. So, things like in-game physics are new and rewritten from the old code, along with dynamic friction and world elements like sloped runaways are all now possible in-game. There will also be “legacy” settings if you prefer how aircraft performed in prior versions of MSFS.

Other changes to the core physics engine and aerodynamics have been rewritten as well. The air isn’t just some vacuum that you’ll fly through. You’ll feel it as your aircraft lifts, drags, or slides as you come in contact with it, accounting for elements like ice on the wings, pollution particles, or how wind moves through buildings or across tree tops. Your aircraft will respond accurately to all these now. And when you touchdown on the ground, the friction elements of rubber to asphalt have also been improved, giving you a truer feeling of what it’s like to “stick” a landing.

Perhaps most impressive is that each piece of the plane has its own dynamic and physical characteristics. From the way air travels over the wings, to the shape of the cockpit glass, to the flaps, they all have their own specific aerodynamic characteristics to account for lift and drag. All of this gives you a craft that you’re going to feel pushing you left and right, up and down, all with a realistic representation of how it would react in real life.

Taking a Seat

Once inside the cockpit it’s just as impressive as the exterior models of the aircraft, all created with high-fidelity, 4K materials. The interior of the cockpit also responds to how light shines through the glass to have an effect on the appearance of instruments, sometimes making them harder to read based on the position of the sun in relation to your aircraft. All the instruments now have their own physical characteristics (needles, etc.) and we’re told animate correctly while in-game, in addition to the implementation of glass cockpits with interactive touchscreens for precise navigation.

But one of the best user-friendly implementations I think will be the interactive checklist feature for those that want to learn what every single dial and switch does in the cockpit. And these checklists apply for each cockpit variant you hop into (not every switch is in the same place, for example). So, this is great for those who want to understand how to start up a pre-flight checklist across different planes.

And then there’s you. The bobbing head in the cockpit. No longer just a static viewpoint, the pilot’s head will now tilt and move in relation to how your aircraft is flying, giving an authentic representation of being in the plane. It’s all very convincing.

There are three key areas that the team behind Microsoft Flight Simulator intend to nail: realism, accuracy, and authenticity of flight. Based on our extensive hands-on time with the pre-alpha version of the title, it’s clear they’re on target to not only hit on all of these goals, but to blow them out of the sky. This is truly one of the most impressive flight simulators I’ve ever played and can’t wait to visit the world when Microsoft Flight Simulator launches on the Microsoft Store and with Xbox Game Pass for PC next year.

 

[Burning Bridges]

X-Plane 11 looks very similar with Ortho4XP or Orbx Terrain, most people just don't know because it requires actual work to make it happen.

FS 2020 has advantages in the quality of the scenery objects (houses look much better than X-Plane 11) but my jaw remains fixed. Especially the ground ortho scenery is only what you would expect when they buy aerial imagery, DEM models and ground usage data. In X-Plane there is a process where you can combined those data from providers like Google Maps, OpenStreet Map etc but it requires that you do it yourself, have the knowledge and invest hundreds of hours downloading and processing (I had my computer running every night and day for a month to get just the data for Western Europe and Japan)

It's of course possible that FS2020 wins out because the quality shown is higher (in X-Plane the results are more uneven). But that requires that Micrsoft employs hundreds of people who work all the time to produce the massive data, no flight sim has done that before. If they automate the process (like procedural generation) they will end up with areas that looks shit compared to the footage.

Microsoft also has the advantage of using DX12 but no way this is not going to be W10 exclusive. People will through out what they have and downgrade to an inferior OS only to play a flight sim.

Here are screenshots what the competition can do with OpenGL https://orbxdirect.com/product/gbr-south-xp11

ah and this this will run under Vulkan by the time FS2020 arrives, the port is already very advanced.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

Just, wait i own X-plane 11 and since 9.00 im using lot of paid an freeware addons, including photosceneries like g2xpl, skymaxx with two other real time weather addons for it , paid high detail planes , and others.

X-Plane is miles behind to new MFS Flight Simulator [plus weak ATC with lot of problems makes it suck big time], to the point i actually stop playing it. The new Microsoft flight sim will be proper way to flight civil planes on pc, all other is just ancient money sink. I will wait. Not to mention it will be for sure more multiplayer, atc, virtual airline friendly and milion Times more popular than Pr3par or X-Plane. Thanks heavens, 2020 will be great. Can't wait to play both on PC and 50" tv screen or VR .

For me biggest plus is whole earth without need to paid for each area or spending hours in orthophoto software , with lot 3d models in what it looks like ZL18 photosceneries with proper texturing and lightning plus whole thing saves thousands of TBs of your hard drives. I still remember having whole himalayas with over 3tb zl photoscenery for x-plane, muhahah.

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

JUst saying good bye to other sims.

 

[Burning Bridges]

What is an "Anjyn"?

 

[Chaosdwarft]

Well well, now I know what to buy as a gift to my father for his 2020 birthday. I still have fond memories of him and me (as a child) learning to play Flight Sim 98. First successful flight was with a Cessna from Paris to London. At the time we did not even have a joystick!

 

[Burning Bridges]

For me biggest plus is whole earth without need to paid for each area or spending hours in orthophoto software , with lot 3d models in what it looks like ZL18 photosceneries with proper texturing and lightning plus whole thing saves thousands of TBs of your hard drives. I still remember having whole himalayas with over 3tb zl photoscenery for x-plane, muhahah.

And you think this will be all for free, and Microsoft stores a few Terabyte somewhere on your 200GB SSD? The whole thing would in principle the same as XP with ZL18 terrain (32GB per 1'x1' tile), the same limitations, only that MS streams the data so the shitbox users can enjoy it. The "worldwide data" - if it even exist - is probably gonna be subscription based, no way they can cover the whole world in Z18 for your 60$.

 

[Burning Bridges]

This looks like someone left a dildo in the freezer, not like real icing on a plane.

 

[Burning Bridges]

 

[Burning Bridges]

https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/30/20885197/microsoft-flight-simulator-bing-maps-hands-on-demo

nothing spectacular. uses Bing Maps like Ortho4XP people have been doing for years. Autogen in places where they have no scenery. does not work everyhwere. I will laugh hard when I see the first screenshot showing clouds or an airplane on the ground textures.

the only difference is that they have a potentially better graphics engine and you dont have to configure Ortho4XP. but it could potentially butcher your internet bandwidth doing so, and be a console shitfest

 

[Burning Bridges]

which is better and why?

A. X-Plane 11 with Ortho4xp terrain

or

B. MS Flight Simulator 2020?

 

[J_C]

X-Plane looks great, but the other look like actual photograps. So, B.

 

[Burning Bridges]

B looks better?

can you elaborate why?

 

[J_C]

B looks better?

can you elaborate why?

Not really. I just looked at them, and when I saw B, I said to myself, that's exactly what I see when I look out of the window from a plane. X-Plane somehow didn't give that impression, maybe because of the stronger colors and the clouds (which are a bit off).

 

[Burning Bridges]

That's strange, because the buildings and cloud shadows are clearly better in A.

 

[J_C]

Well A is from a lower altitude, so I guess that explains the better looking buildings. And it seems to me that B probably doesn't have too many clouds, hence the lack of cloud shadows.

 

[Burning Bridges]

A pity that no one spotted the joke.

 

[Burning Bridges]

J_C Ok, I think the screenshots were not great to show what I mean.

But here you see more images from MS2020 that show how boring and awful it really is.

MS2020: The textures are simply taken from google maps and everything looks drab and awful:

Comoarison, X-Plane with OrbX and HD payware planes: looks 100 times more realistic. Look how vibrant and realistic the colors are by comparison:

 

[J_C]

I wholeheartedly agree that X-Planes view looks more interesting, but I don't know if it is more realistic. I mean, after a certain attitude, looking out of the window of a plane just shows you a boring view, like that in MSFS.
So I'd like to backpedal on a bit. I think the MS ones look more realistic, but the X-Plane ones are nicer to look at and I would be rather flying over those.

 

[Atrachasis]

As has been remarked before, altitude and ground haze do play a role, so it's not trivial to compare these screenshots. Also, color saturation probably isn't the best metric to use, because that's not really a fundamental technical limitation of either engine, but ultimately an aesthetic choice. Nonetheless, I find the X-Plane color scheme realistic enough for my tastes, but perhaps that's because I'm living in a more color-saturated part of the world than J_C?

But the auto-generated models look great in the X-Plane shots as well. Perhaps it's the density of the trees (there actually appears to be a closed canopy in some of the wooded areas, while Microsoft's look like an early stage reforestation project), perhaps it's the fact that Microsoft has trees growing on what seems to be a major highway.