Some thoughts on the future of developers in MSFS

[jmig]

Like others, I have been on a binge of eye-candy gluttony these last few days. I found a list of 10 places to visit in MSFS and I am working my way through them. All the eye-candy has gotten me thinking about the future of third-party developers, especially scenery and weather developers.

The aircraft developers will consider this a new beginning with almost unlimited opportunity. As nice as the default aircraft are, they are lacking for any serious flying. They were developed and are for the gaming community who will buy the game and play it for a time, before moving on to something else.

Those of us who are sim enthusiastic or real world pilots will quickly grow tired of the limitations inherited in these default aircraft and lust for something more sophisticated and realistic. I am sure companies like PMDG, Milviz, and VRS will step up to the bar and put their money…I mean airplanes down.

I see lots of room for the non-study level developers too. Carenado, Just Flight, and Dino and his IndiaFoxtEcho to name three will provide us with fun to fly but not too demanding aircraft.

Where I see trouble is with the scenery and weather developers. Orbx is one who comes to mind. I really like them as a company I have bought over three-quarters of their offerings. I have their TrueEarth England and Oregon. In my opinion they don’t come close to matching MSFS for details and believably. I still see a role for them with add-on airports and specific scenery locations. But I think the large regions are a thing of the past. In this area their focus will be strictly X-Plane and P3d.

I think it is even worse for the two weather companies. I hope I am wrong, but I don’t see how they can compete with the weather engine inside MSFS. Hopefully, they will accept the challenge and come up with new and innovative ideas and features that will add to our enjoyment of this hobby.

The utilities developers are a mixed bag. I have bought many and only use a few utilities. I have found most of them to be more trouble than worth. FSUIPC I will buy. I don’t know how much better the ATC module is, I have yet to try it, but considering that this program was developed as a game and not a simulator, I will assume there will be room for improvement. I don’t know about the camera utilities, however.

Finally, there are the over the horizon add-ons that we don’t even know we will need yet, but someone will see and opportunity and develop a new “must have.”

So, my friends, don’t put those credit cards away just yet. The fun and the paying have only just begun.

 

[Bomber_12th]

I remember a message from REX Simulations a couple months back about how they were pooling their minds at the time and coming up with other new things/paths they may take with this new sim.

For a company like ORBX, I would love them to continue to release products like city and regional packs of POI's (points of interest), focusing on unique buildings and bridges, famous landmarks, light houses, castles, etc., as long as they are of the new quality standard. Asobo, however, has mentioned that they will be adding more POI's themselves within every free regional update they will be releasing (as well as more hand-crafted airports).

ORBX is actually included within the credits for this new sim, as they were hired to hand-edit many of the medium-large sized airports throughout the sim (Asobo themselves did the 40 hand-crafted airports). Asobo also used another company to process and check many of the smaller airports.

 

[Priller]

Brilliant thread. Indeed, I think that the job of the scenery and weather devs has gotten serilously more difficult. they will definitely have to rethink their business models.

On the other hand, for us simmers that isn't necessarily a problem. MSFS sets the bar that much higher, that the need for addon scenery is (imho) gone. I can't comment on the weather part of this. it does however mean that we can spend our hard earned cash on the things we like: aircraft. The reason why most of us got into this hobby.

The legacy sims made you look into addons, tweaking, modding and so forth. This sim simply doesn't need that. For the time being... As soon as we get used to this standard and dream of with new wish lists, there will be room for that sort of thing again. On the condition that the devs evolve and adapt to the new standards that is.

Just MHO.

Cheers,

Priller

 

[johannesl]

I haven't purchased this sim yet. I think I'll wait for some of the early bugs to be ironed out and maybe for a winning lottery ticket so I can get the $2000 system I'll need to run it all out (yes I know it runs on XBox), but having said that, I agree that some third party developers may be in trouble but I don't know how well the sim deals with pop-up weather conditions such as a thunder storm or even a smokey fire so there may be something there.

As for scenery, having read some of the threads it appears that not all airports, though well rendered, are complete and not all places have 3-D information and the buildings are flat and even in those places where there is 3-D information some buildings do not render properly, some will probably be fixed, but who knows. Add to this the fact that the world is a changing place, buildings are knocked down and others built or new areas developed, new roads and bridges are built and others change, and sadly, some airports go away too (Meigs Field anyone). The sim developers will probably catch some of this but maybe not all.

Then there's airspace and navaids. Though you could get some upgrades the airspace, navaid and radio frequency part of FSX was pretty static so with ADS-B and GPS upgrades, airspace changes, RNAV approaches (maybe even a pop-up TFR for some real world excitement of an AI Blackhawk intercept) this could be an area for development.

Lastly, I do agree that the aircraft developers will have a field day just look at what's available for, and still being developed for, FS 2004 and FSX after all these years. With countless schemes and major and minor models the sky is the limit. Though as a real world pilot I still do like going low and slow in a 152, which by coincidence is included in FS 2020.

Fear not for all the 3rd party developers for if they are a little inventive and innovative they will survive, but, yes, sadly not all.

 

[Javis]

I don’t know about the camera utilities, however.

Trust me, the're awful ! Probabely the only reason i don't fly MSFS 24/7 so it does have its good side too.

 

[Manschy]

I am a little disappointed about MSFS regarding legacy stuff. Yes, many simmers opinion is to finally make a cut and be happy about new things.
But all previous sims had been evolutionary, means, legacy stuff could be improved or compiled in any way to also work in the next generation of sim. This is what I am living with for over 10 years. Think about all these fantastic real looking PBR warbirds which now can't be take over into this real looking sim. This is two perfect worlds belongs to each other !!!!!!!
As long as this is not possible, MSFS will not be my sim...

 

[SkippyBing]

I am a little disappointed about MSFS regarding legacy stuff. Yes, many simmers opinion is to finally make a cut and be happy about new things.
But all previous sims had been evolutionary, means, legacy stuff could be improved or compiled in any way to also work in the next generation of sim. This is what I am living with for over 10 years. Think about all these fantastic real looking PBR warbirds which now can't be take over into this real looking sim. This is two perfect worlds belongs to each other !!!!!!!
As long as this is not possible, MSFS will not be my sim...

To be fair there were never PBR aircraft in Flight Sim, there are in P3D but that's a separate development and it was never likely MSFS would be compatible with that as it's evolved on its own for the best part of a decade.

 

[FlyingsCool]

I am a little disappointed about MSFS regarding legacy stuff. Yes, many simmers opinion is to finally make a cut and be happy about new things.
But all previous sims had been evolutionary, means, legacy stuff could be improved or compiled in any way to also work in the next generation of sim. This is what I am living with for over 10 years. Think about all these fantastic real looking PBR warbirds which now can't be take over into this real looking sim. This is two perfect worlds belongs to each other !!!!!!!
As long as this is not possible, MSFS will not be my sim...

They just released an developer's update yesterday in which they discussed they've still got a long way to go with the SDK from a functionality and documentation standpoint, and they are hard at work developing tools for converting legacy aircraft.

I hope it's clear from their developer's updates and everything they've been saying all along, this product is farrrr from finished, and they have laid out pretty well the path of updates they are planning going forward. I'd suggest we withhold our disappointment, look at their plans, and feed their suggestion bins with our requests... they are absolutely listening... as best they can, they're not going to do everything.

 

[Manschy]

Thanks, guys. So hope never dies, but it's a long journey...