Microsoft Flight

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dontpanic42

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#90232 16-Sep-2011 22:58

Anyone eagerly awaiting the release of the new Microsoft Flight (not Microsoft FSX or FS9)?

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/#

I've dabbled quite a bit with FSX over the last few years, and while it is great, I'm hoping this new MS Flight is a good leap forward in realism.

I don't think they have a release date yet, but there was some hint that it may be close in the last development team post on Sept. 13 2011.

I personally can't wait! :)

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#522187 16-Sep-2011 23:03

Great post, thanks mate! I don't believe my eyes, cuz I thought Microsoft gave up on Flight Simulator!

This isn't a hoax right?

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dontpanic42

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#522189 16-Sep-2011 23:07

heavenlywild: Great post, thanks mate! I don't believe my eyes, cuz I thought Microsoft gave up on Flight Simulator!

This isn't a hoax right?

I sincerely hope not! ;)
Although Microsoft haven't been spewing information onto the interwebs. Fair enough I guess.
The only information seems to be from this development blog.

The latest cloud modelling looks a lot better compared to FSX. That's a good sign.

jbard

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#522197 16-Sep-2011 23:32

Yes i am really keen for it, recently got back into FSX so i am looking forward to this.

Really hope they can take the graphics to the next level, i really love flying around on just cause 2 just to admire the view sometimes.

heavenlywild

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#522213 17-Sep-2011 01:02

Hope they make the game run smoother without needing a $5000 computer set up, haha.

xpd

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#522257 17-Sep-2011 09:08

Even a $5000 PC couldnt run it smoothly... work spent $3k on a grunty PC for FlighSim a couple years back for our aviation school, and it still ran badly, its just bad coding unfortunately.

Fingers crossed this new one plays nice :)

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sbiddle

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#522259 17-Sep-2011 09:10

Flight Simulator has always pushed the hardware limits - with the reality being it's never performed well on an "average" PC until 6-12 months after launch. With games like this typically having a shelf life of several years I wouldn't see why the new version would be any different.

dontpanic42

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#525569 25-Sep-2011 16:32

I decided to load FSX back on to quench my thirst until Microsoft Flight is released.

I just completed the "Land at Princess Julian International Airport" mission and watched the 747 take off after I landed. It went straight through the hill at the end of the runway!!! lol

I really hope Microsoft fix things like that, are furthermore, have some really challenging and accurate missions.

toprob

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#525639 25-Sep-2011 21:25

I wouldn't advise trying FSX without the service patches, it wasn't real zippy straight out of the box. Still, plenty of people are getting great performance out of it these days. Seems it's only now getting into its stride, addon-wise.

dontpanic42

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#525666 25-Sep-2011 23:07

I wonder if Microsoft have ever considered using their bing maps photographic data in FSX, or possibly in the new Microsoft Flight.

All that would need to happen after that is for people to accurately model major buildings, such as airports, skytower etc, and it would start looking pretty damn fancy.

I personally wouldn't mind having to be connected to the internet to download bing maps in real time to reflect outside terrain.
Have different resolutions for different altitudes to reflect what's required to keep data usage down. Pretty much exactly what is done on bing maps anyway.

Could be a really good use of bing maps IMO.

dontpanic42

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#533356 14-Oct-2011 13:56

A couple of updates from the Microsoft Flight Development blog:

It looks like there will be a BETA!! Woo frakkin' Hoo!!!

October 13, 2011 – Microsoft Flight Missions

As we, the collective team working on Flight, sit at our desks writing code, creating pretty aircraft and scenery, and thinking up fun ways to explore Flight, it’s easy to get lost in the details of building a game. As we get closer to releasing a game that you, our customers, will be playing, we need to stop and think about what you will experience and how we can express what “it” actually is.
As game designers, we are tasked with creating a fun flying game that will appeal to a wide variety of players. In this article, we look at that problem and some of the mechanics we are employing to reach our goals. Ultimately, you will be the judge of how successful we have been, and you can, in turn, influence where we take the game in the future.
Most games are very direct in establishing what the player is expected to do in order to succeed. Whether these are tasks, activities, challenges, missions, or whatever, the player is drawn through the game in a carefully designed sequence. This sequence typically increases in difficulty over what we call a “challenge ramp,” with careful consideration given to balance how much challenge the player must face in fun and exciting gameplay against potential frustration if the ramp is too steep.
Flight is a game that is designed for a wide range of players, not just a typical simulation enthusiast. Anyone interested in flying or aviation at any level will find enjoyment in Flight, whether it is through missions or via an ad-hoc Free Flight mode. This creates an interesting problem when designing the challenge ramp for game missions, because we must account for a very broad range of knowledge and skills, while keeping the experience fun, interesting, and rewarding for all players.
Missions in Microsoft Flight are designed to guide the player through the game objectives, from simple tasks like flying to a waypoint to performing challenging aerobatic routines to transporting scared passengers through bad weather at night. We have tackled the challenge ramp design problem by creating a variety of missions for our players to experience, each helping them to become more accomplished and skilled along their career path. The pathway to becoming a skilled virtual pilot in Flight is not linear like in a traditional game, but rather it splits into multiple paths which converge further along in their overall career.
We are using awards, achievements, and experience points to “reward” players that accomplish something in the game. How much the player earns is often directly related to how successful they are in a given mission, such as how well they land the aircraft. This way, players of all ability levels can earn something and aspire to do better with each attempt until they can get a perfect score.
Players can fly quick and exciting challenges that test their skills even if they only have a few minutes to play. Alternatively, players can fly “story-based” missions such as finding a missing person or playing a key role in an event. Another way to play is flying jobs such as carrying cargo or passengers from one location to another using piloting skills and knowledge to get them to the destination safely. Of course, players can always choose to fly freely without guidance in order to simply enjoy the beauty of the world, fiddle with the knobs and switches in the cockpit, or put an aircraft through its paces. Each of these experiences is different and enriches the game overall, providing short-term and longer-term gameplay.
There are other ways we have designed fun activities into the game that we will discuss in future articles. Ultimately, players of all skill levels will find fun, challenging, and beautiful experiences in Flight.
Thank you,
The Microsoft Flight Development Team

October 13, 2011 – The Microsoft Flight Team is hiring!

The Microsoft Flight team is looking for a community and website manager. If you find the job description below appealing and meet the requirements, we want to hear from you! Please e-mail us your resume at msflightjobs@microsoft.com
Community & Website Manager Position for Flight
JOB DESCRIPTION:
Are you a passionate gamer with a deep understanding of social media and online communities? Microsoft Studios is looking for a web-savvy community manager with editorial and PR experience to drive engaging and innovative end-to-end user experiences for Microsoft Flight. As a web and community and website manager, you will work onsite at our offices in Redmond, WA with Team leads, Marketing and PR on strategic initiatives within our website and communities, and help evangelize our game to the world.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
The day-to-day tasks of the community manager position include the following responsibilities:
Management of our website, the one-stop destination for everything related to our game on the web. This includes planning a calendar of editorial content and becoming the external voice of our game.
Build and execute on processes for providing support to our end users
Help plan and execute a beta program for the game, managing and moderating the beta site
Think differently to develop innovative PR, marketing, and grass roots opportunities to promote the game’s brand, while keeping players engaged and entertained.
Work with our development team to spec/design/support community feature efforts
Resolve issues that arise within the community by working with owners across the studio and Microsoft as a whole.

QUALIFICATIONS:
A successful candidate will:
Be a self-starter and independent contributor with follow-through on all initiatives.
Utilize excellent communication skills, both oral and written.
Be able to lead a team and make day-to-day decisions to resolve any and all community & website issues that arise.
Organize internal and external resources and drive a clearly communicated schedule to hit deliverable deadlines.
Have a decent understanding of front-end / back-end web development processes, encompassing everything from goal-oriented spec design, to internal test environments and production deployment.
Create and maintain working relationships both internally and possibly with vendors externally to leverage ongoing community and web projects.
Possess first-hand practical knowledge of social media and web communities – what makes them tick, what works and what doesn’t and how the medium is trending, etc.

DESIRED SKILLS AND PLUSES:
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience
3+ years gaming and/or other editorial experience
5+ years working with online communities
3+ years of PR experience
A passion and understanding for gaming communities
A fascination with aviation
Understanding of web technologies, including CSS, Community Server, ASP.Net, SQL, Windows LIVE ID web services

heavenlywild

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#533367 14-Oct-2011 14:11

Thanks for the update! I have been a Flight Sim fan for over 10 years... I can't wait to see the demo!

dontpanic42

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#544191 11-Nov-2011 11:04

More screenshots:

http://flyawaysimulation.com/images/38/microsoft-flight-screenshots/

dontpanic42

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#546178 16-Nov-2011 20:04

Another Microsoft Flight blog update:

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/#news-performance_hardware

November 15th, 2011 – Performance & HardwareLearn about how Microsoft Flight was developed with performance in mind

Amongst the most popular questions the Flight team has been asked via e-mails to msflight@microsoft.com are those about the release date and game performance. While we aren’t quite ready to talk about a release date, we did want to share a bit about our approach towards performance and hardware.
Performance optimization has been a core focus of our development from an early stage. To achieve this, we constantly monitored game performance metrics across a range of hardware configurations and reacted each time we saw a new feature or code change that caused a dip below the established thresholds. The end result is that Flight looks fantastic on a brand new PC, but because of the emphasis on performance throughout development, it also runs well on older desktops and budget laptops.
We’ve found the game runs well on lowgraphics settings with hardware meeting the following specifications:
CPU: Dual Core 2.0 GHz
GPU: 256 MB card capable of shader 3.0 (DX 9.0c compliant)
HD: 10 GB Hard Drive space
OS: WinXP SP3
RAM: 2.0GB

It was also one of our goals to ensure that the game can run well with highsettings on hardware that is attainable today. Based on our testing of core scenarios, the game runs smoothly on high graphics settings with the following hardware specifications:
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 960 @ 3.20GHz, AMD® Phenom™ II X6 1100T 3.3 GHz or better
GPU: ATI Radeon™ HD 5870, NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560 or better
HD: 10 GB Hard Drive space
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
RAM: 6GB
The graphic below illustrates the visual difference between the low and high settings.

Click on image for bigger size.

Please continue sharing your feedback with us and check back in December for an exciting announcement.
Thank you,
The Microsoft Flight Development Team

dontpanic42

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#552537 2-Dec-2011 10:56

The Microsoft Flight BETA program is now accepting registrations!!! :)
I have signed up and eagerly await!!

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/#news-beta_program_accepting_applications

December 1, 2011 - Beta Program Now Accepting Applications
As promised in our November update, we have big news for all of our Flight fans: the Microsoft Flight launch sequence has begun!

We’re thrilled to announce that the Microsoft Flight Beta is scheduled to kick-off in January 2012 and we are now accepting applications to participate in the beta program – to apply click here. Note that any beta applications sent via e-mail to msflight@microsoft.com will not be considered for inclusion in the beta program.

We will be sorting through your applications over the coming month and will get back to qualifying participants with additional details throughout our beta phases in January. As we taxi for takeoff, we will continue to provide intriguing updates about the future of Microsoft Flight so please keep checking in on our website or on our Facebook Fan Page.

Fasten your seat belts, return your tray tables to their upright and locked positions, and get ready for Microsoft Flight to takeoff!

The Microsoft Flight Team

heavenlywild

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#552545 2-Dec-2011 11:14

Signed up, fingers crossed!

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