Yes, We're Here

  • Article

Well, Flight Simulator X is starting to trickle out. Despite restrictions in the street date a few rogue Best Buy's and Wal-Mart's have been slipping boxes on to shelves. US stores aren't supposed to have the product on sale until October 17 but it's on sale in Canada so anyone willing to take a drive can get it. Of course, that also means we're seeing the first flurry of FSX posts in the public forums. As expected, most of the first round have to do with performance, with many of these summarized as "I thought I'd get better performance with my system." Paul has a good blog post on performance issues so I won't bother to rehash the issue here. Suffice it to say, however, that we are seeing a lot of what we see every version with users trying to find the sweet spot that works on their system. As we've stated numerous times we design the engine with room to grow so you shouldn't expect to run it flat out from day one. And, also as expected, there are few individuals who just can't stand it when people like the new version and post in every thread how we suck, can't program, lie to customers--all in all business as usual for a new FS release. I look forward to the noise level decreasing and we can see what people think of the actual game features. Right now it's hard to pick those posts out from the fray. In the meantime we'll keep watching the boards and getting back to work on what's next for all of us.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 10, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    October 10, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    October 10, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    October 10, 2006
    I love the new FSX!!! I hate to admit that I was getting a bit tired of just flying around, I didn't evolve and it eventually got a bit boring in FS9. Not so now, thanks to the missions. I like them big grin of course we are all different, and all the hotheads in the forums are often too serious about their FS. I do notice that someof teh scenery is floating in the air and some have big glitches, will ther be fixes? http://img4.picsplace.to/img4/26/YAFSScreen_018.jpg at Dagali airport in Norway
  • Anonymous
    October 10, 2006
    Hi Mike, I like the new blog layout, btw!  I've echoed your comments on a recent entry into my own blog.  The dust will soon settle performance tweaks will be found! Best, Owen

Owen Hewitt MS FS MVP http://owenhewitt.blogspot.com

  • Anonymous
    October 10, 2006
    Of course, every person's complaint is that FS<insert version here> was not specifically designed for the particular person's specific hardware setup, but then, where's the fun? Deep, deep down at a quasi-masochistic level of our psyches, we have to admit that a big part of the Flight Simulator experience is finding that right amount of tweaking of sliders, that "must have" airplane, scenery, ... and just when I think I have it right, a new version comes out and I get to start all over again. But, the real question to ask is how soon will some enterprising modeller combine the lav_dump_valve with the water ballast and make a mess on the apron?

  • Anonymous
    October 10, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    October 10, 2006
    Still waiting for it here in Oz. Demo 2 is a great improvement over Demo 1 (and FP beta). Autogen fix is excellent. Maybe on your new website you could have simple little "AutoGen patch" that has an installer and installs the autogen fix. This would be of great benefit to more casual users I would imagine. Shame FSX doesnt have a "news" feature built into the GUI.  It would have been a nice was to alert everyone to important news. Love FSX.  Aces have done an amazing job. The future for FSX is very bright especially in the AddOn market.

  • Anonymous
    October 10, 2006
    Mike, I just want to let you know what I think of FSX, WOW!!!!. You guys have done a fantastic job, I can't stress that enough. Ignore all the FSX bashers, they are just arguing to argue. Just wait a while for new hardware and tweaks and people will be in love with this latest sim. I just hope you don't think all fs enthusiasts are like that. I truly appreciate all of the effort you and the entire team have devoted to our hobby. Mike, keep up the good work!

  • Anonymous
    October 11, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    October 11, 2006
    Hi Mike, Somehow I get the impression that there are more negative posts then ever and that even some add-on developer indicate that they are having problems getting their add-ons to perform in the limited processor time left for them. Maybe its just some forums that gave me this idea or maybe its just spamming. Was there never an idea to make a light install option with smaller textures (like one of the tweaks suggest) and less autogen (now possible with a tweak in the FS-X.ini)? That way there would be beter performance on current day hardware and we'd still have plenty of growth left for the future.

  • Anonymous
    October 11, 2006
    Hey TDragger. FSX was just released here in Brazil. Please, let the team know you guys did a wonderful job!! I couldn't believe the clouds and the sea, when flying over Rio! It is a shame my video card don't run the latest shader... Anyway, good work!!

  • Anonymous
    October 11, 2006
    Mike, I'm curious as to what the size in area is of the cells used by the autogen settings. 1/4 square mile, 1/2 square mile, etc?

  • Anonymous
    October 11, 2006
    Is FSX the same as FS9 with $500 worth of addons? No, but it's a lot closer than people may realize. Is FSX a great foundation, from which the addon market will be able to build the best version of FS ever? Yes! Congrats to all involved with the release of FSX. The naysayers will tire of their own voices soon enough, those of us who fly and enjoy will keep the community moving along in the right direction. Lance

  • Anonymous
    October 11, 2006
    FSX is quite nice, Mike.  I was having terrible performance until I followed Pauls advice, but now it runs quite well.  Great job to the whole FSX team.

  • Anonymous
    October 11, 2006
    I am very impressed so far, AFTER the tweaks to config files posted on avsim thanks to you all! On my XPS Gen 2, I can run locked at 22 for most places (not NY however) with most sliders mostly full with autogen on sparse per the new config, 600 for trees and 300 for buildings I believe ... I was excited to see developers using the xps gen 2.... I don't know of others who have my same system - it was nice to see! As a real Beechjet pilot by day, I am finding FSX to be the most real out of your eyeballs flying experience to date, and look forward to using ths version as much as I can.... I have lost sleep over it yes, but now, since the little autogen tweaks on avsim, for goood reasons! take care, Peter James from Boston

  • Anonymous
    October 12, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    October 12, 2006
    except for the music, welcome back to fs98, got a copy from best buy on oct 8, running on asus m board,1GB mem,gforce 6600gt, and in default with everything turned off including access to internet, barley able to achieve frame rate above 15 with settings at default. Can anyone advise if more memory will improve frame rates or should I reinstall fs9 which ran smooth as silk at any setting

  • Anonymous
    October 16, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    October 20, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    October 23, 2006
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