First of all we never go back wards or stay stagnant we allways move forward to new frontiers. It is what we do as humans. Those that don't move up stay behind...its the nature of things.
Presuming that they have used the same file and folder format, or that the same old software used to design for fs2004 and Fsx P3D will work, I mean the Cad program 3dmax and Adobe paint could be the only design software that could be used. They might have to go to a whole other level by going to Maya which is right out of range for most designers in its complexity and cost. I will clarify with a little story. We built a add on way, way back in the day, probably even before you were a member of this forum, actually the sim out house wasn’t even around or was very new in its induction as a community forum. The add on in question is the Cr1 Do 335. My team built this add on for Cfs2 and Cfs3…but its not in cfs3 you say…Well you are correct and here is why, yes this dose tie into this topic and question you are asking.
We all were happy little developers building whimsically away on our war birds for CFS2 and have a grand old time attacking each other on line and shouting at the other team that they stole this or tat from us and lawyers would be calling, yes those were the good old day for flight sim! All done publicity as well which added to the fun! Then came a grand announced from the lord of flight simulation the head counsel of the Ferengi (Character race in Star trek known for deception for profit) sent out a press release announcing a new CFS flight sim. They introduced a savior, a Messiah to all combat flight simulation freekaziods (like me) in short a lead designer named Tucker Hatfield, rumored to be long since fired.. and this is why.
Cr1 was then called Simtech Flight Design. We made Cfs2 add ons and we broke a lot of new ground only due to the fact that we all held degrees in computer sciences of one sort or another when no other team around had anything but their time and sweat into the sims. We had an advantage over the rest as we were actual programmers and game designers. But did that save us from near disaster at the hand of the grand Ferengi counsel? (Microsoft) In short…Nope. You see we were young, we loved planes so much that we just had to build them, flight sim gave is the avenue to do so with out to much effort or expense. We never dreamed we would be as successfull as we were. We sold so many planes we had to start a studio, which is now Cr1-Software and we continue to this day, not in flight sim as much but as a contractor for many types of software.
Anyways…back to my story. The grand Ferengi counsel sent out their representative, an unwary victim name Tucker Hatfield. He told us in question and answere forums that we would have not problem at all porting our currant add ons or ones currently under development to the new simulator, they had our backs and we were sooo important to them. Yeah…ok.
So we all bit onto the bate, some teams went head on into massive developments based on these statements that the grand counsel of trustworthy Ferengi had said to us, I mean heck it was in writing even!! How could we go wrong, they like us, they love us they will do anything for us because their messiah just said they would…didn’t you just hear what he said?! So we all, even myself, went head long into the lemming train that ultimately went over the cliff. I put the team onto a huge development for the time and even told people that the Do 335 would be good to go in either Cfs2 or Cfs3 and innocently enough as Microsoft had just told us that wouldn't be a problem. Well in reality it was actually a huge problem and one of the best lessons I have ever learned in dealing with companies like Microsoft. It was actually the best lesson of my life and has saved me on many occasion since.
Then the fate full day of hell!
Two months before the release of the combat sim CFS3 we were riding high as could be, we were among the top 3 add on companies in the world for flight sim and nothing we touched went wrong…till this fateful day that changed everything…in the end it was the one thing that made CR1 what it is today so in hind sight it was good for us, but later on for other great designers or teams it spelled doom.
Two people came to our studio, uninvited, announced. They just showed up at the reception desk and demanded to see me. The receptionist asked them politely who they were, they just handed her a card. They were from the head counsel of the High lords of all flight sim the Ferengi head office.
She brought them to me and timidly introduced me to a very pleasant lady and a dude that never spoke a dang work, like robot Larry.
They sat down and she asked me a lot of questions, who we were , what our plans were, were we going to stay in flight sim dev, would we accept other types of contracts and if we were contracting to other companies and who. I answered very vaguely as I didn’t like the feel of this , you know like the scenes were the CIA come out of the blue and questions Mouldar in X-fILES, THAT KIND OF UNEASY.
So after about 40 minutes of this she takes out of her hand bag a cd set. Plunks it down on my desk like a lump garbage and stands up and smiles and says, “Ok, thank you for your time, have fun with that, its a present from head office.” She chuckles and walks out with Robot Larry hot on her heals, did I mention that dude never said a word, and he even wore dark glasses, talk about play the part…LOL!
Dude dug his job I guess.
Well as soon as she was out of sight 7 designers and my self and even the receptionist (later became my best buddy and mother of my awesome kids! Best deal of the whole thing!) were huddled around the best computer we had all hunched over like ancient cave men (and hot cave woman) staring at the install bar of cfs3 creep ever so slowly across the screen as it installed. I might remind you that this was months before the release of the game to the public…As far as I know we were the only ones to get a almost gold beta at this time…you don’t down load these in those ay they either brought them to you or you just got a phone call and it was mailed to you. So back to the story…there we were a bunch of people huddled around around this computer like cavemen around the 1st instance of file, our eyes wide open, anticipation high, just about peeing our panties…cd1 went through and asked for =cd 2 10 hands darted to the next cd to put it in, ultimately and ironically the receptionist that got there first…Typical female, always at the candy jar first.. dang those females are fast!
She slides it in amid us all urging her to go faster… it slowly installs and we watch like star struck morons the install bars slid ever so slowly across, then it was installed, what do we do 1[SUP]st[/SUP]…we do what all good designers will do, we ignore the flash and go right to the hard core guts… the file and folder system and all the dlls and other things in there to make sure we could put our add ons into the game with ease…
Then the bright blue skies of eternal flight sim bliss turned to dark foreboding clouds…then it started to sprinkle, lightly at first as the realization of what we were looking at hadn't quite dawned on us yet, then the soft voice of our very hot receptionist said it perfectly…”They screwed you poor bastards with a crow bar!” All nice and calm and sexy as ever you could imagine… then the rain came, in fact I torrential down pour…As I watched our receptionist wisely head back to her desk the team around me went berserk!
The game was completely different, it was a whole new format and our planes would not work! A year of lies! A year developing down the tube, The messiah lied!!!!!
You see that is how Microsoft operates, they say all sorts of stuff to hook you in, then it is all not as they say on release. That game you are eagerly waiting for is in fact a historic master peace that is the change of direction and a start of a new erra in flight sim. But the price is as is natural, high.
To build add ons for such a high end offering will require very expensive software to build, and then the knowledge and skill to actually do it is at the level of real game design.
What they have done is separate the self taught designers from the real designers. Why are they inviting in so called consultants from the community to help them write a sdk? That isn’t what is going on, its a crash course in how to build for the game, a actual teaching of the blind to see. Notice only certain ones are in the club? The highest sellers.
I can’t be on the inner circle because of the other companies I work for and the conflict it presents to my self and Microsoft. But I will tell you this I’m on a five star development for the biggest game company in the world and our stuff is the same as that game and I can tell you I had to send some of my staff to special courses to learn how to build that stuff, its not any different in that sim. That lighting alone is over the top, the textures are different, the way the models work are way different. This game requires real programming knowledge and game design training.
Also all those formats you mentioned are old now, way old, that is 30 year old tech and not at all suitable for a modern game. Its not efficient enough to run as fast as it needs to in a modern game. No Mdls will be there, actually Microsoft stopped using the old Mdl format for their games years ago and move to a new format, I assume that will be the case here as they need this game to process killer fast.
But there is one other thing I noticed that no one talks about...ever.
This is a Hypothesis but could be a possible resolution to that designer problem they would be facing.
They know that without the addon market the game will fail, that they learned the hard way a few years ago. They have watched Fsx grow and maintain its steady forward momentum over the years due to its add on community. They would be nuts to make it so hard that only a few could build for it.
So take a look at this. They went back to steam, and took back fsx, either ended the lease or just bought it back or what ever, bottom line it they have it back. What do they say? “ Oh we missed our old friend, and we are so happy to welcome back on old faithful friend” Errmm yuk…
Let us get one thing straight here, Microsoft is not sentimental about any thing but money.
Bottom line. They come to us and say they are sorry for past misdeeds, hmmm really? That just don’t make sense, fact is they don’t give a rats arse… there is a big reason they are acting like our long lost relatives long thought dead.
So why take FSX back if not to use it in some capacity to make it easier to for hobyists to add add ons into their sim with out add on developers actually getting access to the sim. Why not use fsx a a glorified container, you build your planes as you alwys have they sit on the players computer the Flight modula displays them from fsx into the new sim, pulls the model in the new sim and lets you fly you planes that you bought from me or who ever.
That would be how I would do it as it keep the devs grubby little hands out of the new flight sim, they cant reverse engineer it as its server side. I could control who build what for the sim and on and on it goes. And of course it will cost the players and devs a solid 20 buckies solid a month.
This would go a long way to building up the community even further.
Now if it goes in a direction that makes it hard and pushed the already too expensive add ons to a new crazy level then you will see fsx as it is even fs 2004 and cfs3 regain ground again.
But time will tell.
I will build two real hot add ons for it and they are already started and I will have to adjust them for th esim at that time bu tI wont ignore P3D and Xplane no way man.
Once bitten 50 times shy around here.
