Got a Gamepost mailer about Flight Simulator X’s demo being released today, and the game is being released in October. I could have sworn I heard this was a Vista exclusive. Since Vista isn’t coming out until 2007, isn’t that like releasing a game for the PS3 right now when the console is xxxx months away from release?
No, Flight Sim X will be for both XP and Vista. There will be a DX10 patch that is Vista-only (because DX10 in only in Vista). Maybe said patch will add some other Vista-only features, I dunno.
DX10 gives you new water, scenery, and weather effects.
Is there a performance cost for that?
Of course not.
Is that wine red or white?
Moscato d’Asti
Water is still much improved over FS9’s with DX 9. Head over to avsim.com and scroll down to the screenshots forum to check out some user pics.
Except that it runs 2x as slow with the new water. And honestly, i saw no visual improvements otherwise in the 30 seconds i’ve flown.
I think i’ll stick with FS 2004 for now. I’ve finally got a card that can run it “full switch” and it runs great.
I’ve got so many addons for FS9 that it’ll be a long time before I retire it.
I’ve had good luck with FS2004 planes working in the demo. Some textures become transparent due to alpha channel issues, and it balks at some ancient gauges, but compatibility is good otherwise.
The new planes are awesome, though… Bump mapping, amazing cockpits, new mouselook mode in the VC, lots of new views…
FSX has a lot of what formerly needed add-ons (38m mesh, road networks, etc.) already built in.
Does it chug or will you need to wait 3 years before you can turn the eye candy to “full speed ahead!”
So any reactions to the demo? I’m just going to buy the full deal so I won’t be downloading it. General reactions from the IL2 community boards is that the flight model is non existant, but the concensus is that microsoft dampened or turned off all realism settings to give an easy arcade feel for the uninitiated.
I’ve been spending more time with the demo and it’s starting to grow on me. I had to dick around with the settings to find that FPS sweet spot with my aging rig and no doubt I will be doing some upgrading later this fall.
Denny’s right, it looks good right out of the box so to speak. FS9 can and does look good IF you scour about downloading and installing a ton of 3rd party scenery packages.
As far as the FM is concerned, the demo does default to “easy mode” so if those IL2ers didn’t check for that then no doubt it soured their impressions of it. Then again most of those ass monkeys at the SimHQ forums live under the guise that if you’re not constantly fighting the plane to stay level then the FM must be porked. Even comrade Oleg tried to dispel that myth by reassuring them that yes Virginia, it’s really not that hard to fly an airplane.
Does it chug or will you need to wait 3 years before you can turn the eye candy to “full speed ahead!”
Again you’ll have to tinker with the settings to find what works well for you. Hell even FS9 to this day can bring a beefy machine to its knees depending on the scenery and number of AI planes present.
My biggest concern is that we’re not going to see much improvement over the refresh rate of the gauges in the virtual pits. There are some planes in FS9 that have atrociously slow refresh rates that it’s almost impossible to use them when flying IFR. The CRJ700 has a great refresh rate but the other planes have that laggy FS9 feel to them.
BTW, if you crank up all the details you can see Tom Chick strolling along in a thong at the famous beach near TNCM.
See, my concern is as hardware has gotten faster developers have done less and less to optimize game code just expecting people have to “grow into it”. I watched a preview vid and they said they icnreased the object density by a factor of 10… from like 600 to 6,000 objects per square somethingerother.
I’ve always wanted that, but since the game has always ind run like crap it concerns me they’ll take the EQ2 line and it will just run like shit forever.
Anyone see the FS9 farewell video someone made? Almost makes me want to give the game a try.
Speaking of FSX (and from the perspective of someone who hasn’t played an FS game before), do you actually use a mouse/keyboard or do you need a separate joystick control or gamepad or something? I was looking at FSX as being something different to try out, but I didn’t actually see any requirement for a new device anywhere.
You can fly it with the mouse/keyboard, but it’s a pretty sucky experience.
Best bet is a joystick. The Xbox 360 wired gamepad’s not bad.