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  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

An Opinion about Flightsims

G

gera

Members +
An Opinion: From the first time I saw a sim in a Commodore 64 I knew this form of computer "game" was to be a hit to many aviation lovers. After 39 years around software mainly and hardware as a necessity I have known that the opportunities to develop a sim are available today to many who want to take the task seriously. Beleiving that only monsters like Microsoft could do it because it did has been a fallacy for comic books. With the tools that are available today for software development and the enormous breakthrough in graphics software as well as video card technology and processors it is only a matter of time that some serious outfit will come out with a "new" or innovative sim that will overshadow the present ones. I particularly saw this happen in graphic applications when the Amiga Toaster started the trend that is today so sophisticated that sometimes is hard to distinguish it from reality... and relatively easy and cheap to do!...If I was 29 or maybe 27 I would simply do it, setting up the necessary team members is so much easier to do today thanks to so many talented people around the world and internet communications!!! ( I contract people today from Masedonia, Russia, Latvia, Argentina and many other countries to do some pretty tricky jobs that surprise my clients)--- but since I am on free fall someone else will have to take my place....

You´ll probably know this "open source development project", I had not checked on it in about a year and they surely have come a long way from then.......

In 9 Languages!!!!....
http://wiki.flightgear.org/index.php/Main_Page

some videos....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61qOgxq1Wxc

New stuff...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAMGnK9ztdA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJH8PZ1H5S0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUyH-4c0-qM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkkIMdqAuC0&feature=related

"The brain of man is as wide and infinite as the Universe":kilroy:
 
I've worked on 5 different flight simulator projects as a professional artist and modeler and a couple others as a hobbyist and I'd have to say the biggest challenge in developing anything involving computers and wings is holding the team together long enough to complete the project.
One project director described working with programmers and artists as a skill similar and as difficult as "herding cats."

Two of the 5 projects that I worked on failed because of greed.
One project failed because of "feature creep."
One project failed because the developer lost confidence that there was a market for the product and just quit and walked away from it.
Only one project made it to the marketplace and even it took 3 times longer than expected and the financial return was only a small fraction of what had been promised at the start of the project.

I was once told by a programmer that building a simulator that allowed users to build and modify their own aircraft and scenery was much more difficult than building one that was controlled by the developer. Which might explain why the successor to MSFS hasn't shown up yet.

I would very much like to see a new flight simulator that allowed user modifications arrive on the scene, but I'm not very hopeful of the chances of that happening anytime soon. Not because there are technology issues to overcome but because people are still people and getting a team to work together long enough to finish one would be a very difficult task indeed.
 
Think those comments are bang on......

Profit oriented company enterprises have the discipline to force the issue. There are lots of good ideas out there and plenty of talent and expertise...but someone has to provide the backbone, and back it up. Most ad hoc development organizations will lack that discipline and will fall apart.

I see it in all kinds of IT development, every day.

On the other hand, a decent platform allows small groups of individuals to develop continually. I think we see that all the time.
 
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