bwestenhofer

I feel like there is a bit of a culture merge going on between the gaming world and the simulation enthusiasts. By that I am not making any statement about whether our hobby is a “sim” or a “game” which is a pointless argument, imho. What I mean is that the gaming world has had a lot more exposure to systems entirely dependent on “the cloud,” or at least a server side connection. Multiplayer role playing games like “World of Warcraft” has been running continuously for 17 years now. With games like these there is absolutely no ability to do anything without a connection to the server (unlike MSFS which can in fact still run with a more generic representation of the world or a preloaded cache). Does that guarantee anything with MS? Of course not, but it at least puts a perspective on which to balance our fears. Im guessing that most flight simmers have been in “different circles” (shall we say) than those in the gaming world and haven’t had as much exposure to this kind of setup. By necessity with P3D, Xplane, FSX we had to manage our entire scenery library and often enjoyed doing so. The streamed setup can seem foreign and a bit threatening to the control we’ve been accustomed to. My point is just that server/cloud based designs are here to stay and have shown to be quite successful. I’m not losing too much sleep worrying about MS “pulling the plug” - at least not within the typical lifespan of the sim platform. For companies like Orbx, i still see an incredible amount of opportuniy. I feel like the Bing data that MSFS streams gives you about 80% of the detail you want in a world representation (less in certain areas in fact). It’s the combo of this base with 3PD scenery that brings it closer to 100%. The best cities for me right now are a mix of photogrammetry and Orbx hand crafted buildings. And there’s no ceiling on where this can go with a little creativity, e.g. giving a virtual safari tour in a helicopter in the Okavango Delta With the Xbox release I see this culture merge continuing and those in the gaming community are unlikely to worry too much about the reliance on a central server. For its part I welcome the merge. It’s an exciting time to be a gamer interested in learning to sim … and an exciting time to be a simmer looking to add a bit more fun to the simulation experience!

Yes, I saw - hence my unique spelling of “whatt”?

Can't wait for this one! Two things... In the next round of screens, can you show off the runway slope? Double check the image title/watermarkk Whatt do you mean?

Sweeeeeet!!! I was so waiting for this one. Looks great! I have had lunch at those very tables out back in the garden area.