Dovetail Games Flight School

Started by Sparko, April 22, 2016, 12:06:41 AM

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Sparko

If anyone is considering getting into flight simming or wants to learn the basics of flying, Dovetail (the guys who bought the rights to Microsoft Flight Simulator) will be releasing their first stand alone sim on 24th May this year.  Pre-purchase is £11.99 from Steam.

More details here

Some more info on what Dovetail have in the pipeline for 2016 here

sulky_uk

there is/was some concern about the lack of information coming out of dovetail about this sim and the forthcoming fs2016 which releases q4 2016, it may be worth while waiting till the likes of PC pilot/frogglesim/Flightsim.com and mutleys hanger etc getting hold of it and reviewing it.

Also the rumour is that all existing FSX a/c, scenery and other addons wont work with either new sims. Orbx is on board and supplying some scenery as part of the new sim..but whether or not old stuff will work, well dovetail/orbx arent answering questions on it.

PS this info is about 2 weeks old..so it may be slightly different...but thought id let people know of "simmers" concern before parting with money.

the decsion is yours though


I came into this world with nothing,
through careful management I\'ve got most of it left.

albert

Flight School does look rather pretty, which should be the case given the last time the MS engine was updates, Dovetail bought the rights to further develop FSX right?
Cheers, Bert

Sparko

Quote from: albert;412374Flight School does look rather pretty, which should be the case given the last time the MS engine was updates, Dovetail bought the rights to further develop FSX right?

Yeah, but I believe this is something they have developed themselves. As Sulky has said though a lot of addons wont work with the sim due to be released in Q4 of this year.....but it's a new sim using new technologies that doesn't rely upon the FSX engine which is pretty old now, so looking forward to see what it's like.

...and for £11.99 it's worth seeing what they can do.

I, like other simmers,  have invested a lot in FSX and previous versions of it but I'm quite excited to see what they have come up with.  The MS engine is extremely old and has a lot of bugs nowadays so I'm all for a new sim, I just hope it turns out to be a success

TeaLeaf

Quote from: Sparko;412395...and for £11.99 it's worth seeing what they can do.

I, like other simmers,  have invested a lot in FSX and previous versions of it but I'm quite excited to see what they have come up with.  The MS engine is extremely old and has a lot of bugs nowadays so I'm all for a new sim, I just hope it turns out to be a success
Kind of where I am too.   I bought flight school for the same reason, for £11.99 why not?    

My future worry is that the sim does not work heavily with existing addon providers to make sure there is some way they can be repackaged into the new sim.   The major investment for most flight simmers is not  the initial game, it's the individual aircraft sims, scenery, mesh, LC layer (Land Class), vector layers etc that you buy afterwards.   Orbx is a classic, to get the Base, Vector and LC packages you're looking at about £125.  Want the awesome PMDG 777-300ER?   That'll be another £75.  

Flight simmers spend many times more than the game cost on their addons to give them the sim experience that they want and I fear that the take up might not be too great if they completely lock out existing addons.    That's why I hope their Orbx partnership is not just for totally new product, but for engineering into the new sim the existing Orbx products in some way.   I would not mind paying a *small* fee to Dovetail them into the new sim, but I am worried about ending up in a situation where I would have to re-buy all of the addon packs I have.  That kind of financial problem could decimate their market for the new sim.

FSX defintely is in need of the update, it is 10 years old now and the technology in it is ancient - and it shows.   But the addons market is what has kept it flying for all these years, so if the new sim is good, then it will be critical to bring as many of the addons with you as possible to make sure the take up by the community is good.
TL.
Wisdom doesn\'t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.  (Tom Wilson)
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. (Michael Jordan)

albert

So will FSX+'16 later this year support the planes and mods? As a developer I would be hesitant to make 2 games if I can make 1 and make features than clamp onto it to make another. If that's what they do then everything Flight School falls down on will at least initially be inherited by the new FS version now?
Cheers, Bert

Sparko

Quote from: albert;412398So will FSX+'16 later this year support the planes and mods? As a developer I would be hesitant to make 2 games if I can make 1 and make features than clamp onto it to make another. If that's what they do then everything Flight School falls down on will at least initially be inherited by the new FS version now?

I would be extremely surprised if the developers at Dovetail have not realised the importance of compatibility of third party addons.

The only reason FSX is still used as a base/template for flight simming is because of the addons available.

It would be very naive of them to not consider this, but as Sulky has said, there isn't much info out there on the interweb at all and they are keeping very quiet about everything which isn't too reassuring really.

But, in order for them to capitalise on the market they need to make sure they work with as many third parties as possible, I would hope this is obvious to them to be honest.

I guess we will find out soon

vobler

This is from a thread on Avsim where a guy from DTG are posting answers to peoples questions.

Because of the leap in technology that DTG Flight Simulator will offer over FSX: SE it means that it will not be compatible with any existing add-ons, plugins or alike. This includes FSUIPC. Naturally we will provide developers with all the tools, documentation and support they need to create great new content for this new platform and will be working closely with them during that process. What we hope is that by doing this we will all see a new wave of brand new exciting add-ons which advances the genre rather than old add-ons and plugins simply being ported over.

Don't forget that FSX: SE is not going anywhere, so you can continue to use all of your existing add-ons with that sim just like you can now.

- Martin

albert

So DTG are expecting the add-on developers to upgrade their existing products to meet the new platform. That could lead to less content and extra expense for existing customers if they wish to keep the products in use that they already own but on the new game.

I have to say, unless DTG have made the actual experience of flying and the immersion significantly higher, I would be reluctant to invest in buying the game and replacing the add-ons I have already bought.
Cheers, Bert

sulky_uk

Hopefully as with p3d developers will offer massive discounts. Also apparently it is based on fsx, not a whole new sim. Rumour has it they are implementing all the updates that Microsoft had ready for fsx but never released. Btw Dovetail were given 15tb of code from MS when they bought the rights. So my opinion is they will rebadge and make it look theirs.

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I came into this world with nothing,
through careful management I\'ve got most of it left.

albert

It might look like FSX and use its code but that quote from Vobler tells me they have no intention of supporting add-ons the way they are in FSX. I expect they will want to control all the add-ons via their shop and steam, cutting out the JustFlight's of the world from the direct sales.
Cheers, Bert

vobler

I think they will support add-ons like in FSX, but the add-ons must be compatible with 64 bit code and the latest graphics standards and new possibilities in the game.

..from the quote above:

What we hope is that by doing this we will all see a new wave of brand new exciting add-ons which advances the genre
rather than old add-ons and plugins simply being ported over.

TeaLeaf

Yeah, I know, but things like the LC, Mesh, Vector etc are not going to improve, they are based on the best satellite data which is not going to change as a result of '64 bit code'.  What might change is that you can load more, without running into memory crash problems.   That's the sort of thing I was referring to in the main, but I still hope they move the PMDG stuff over with a huge discount for existing users, which I know they won't as you just have to look at Prepar3d to see that they charge full price for both versions. :sad:
TL.
Wisdom doesn\'t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.  (Tom Wilson)
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. (Michael Jordan)

sulky_uk

Quote from: Sparko;412395. .....but it's a new sim using new technologies that doesn't rely upon the FSX engine which is pretty old now


Not according to Orbx's CEO John Venema who was interviewed in PC pilot magazine that was delivered to me today, and i quote

However dovetails new 64-bit DX11 DGFS simulator due late in 2016 is very exciting: being FSX based means we can plan to create new content for that new platform without radical reinvention of the wheel.

So that means they have probably utilized all the code they got from MS, but he also mentioned this

 .... we plan to release 150 products for dovetail flight simulator
:blink:


I came into this world with nothing,
through careful management I\'ve got most of it left.

TeaLeaf

Quote from: sulky_uk;412432Not according to Orbx's CEO John Venema who was interviewed in PC pilot magazine that was delivered to me today, and i quote

 .... we plan to release 150 products for dovetail flight simulator [/I]:blink:
I'd guess this is their entire library of current products, the LC, vectors, etc along with all of the airports.  That's probably about 150 if you count them all up.
TL.
Wisdom doesn\'t necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.  (Tom Wilson)
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. (Michael Jordan)