Microsoft Flight Simulator Landing on Windows 10 Next Month (betanews.com) 63
Fans of Microsoft's famous Flight Sim won't have long to wait until the latest incarnation arrives. From a report: This promises to be the most detailed and authentic version to date, with incredibly accurate landscapes that are ever-changing, coupled with highly detailed aircraft, covering everything from light planes to commercial jets. Microsoft Flight Simulator has been around since 1982 -- feeling old yet? -- and the new version will be available in three editions -- Standard ($59.99), Deluxe ($89.99) and Premium Deluxe ($119.99). The Deluxe edition comes with five extra planes and five extra international airports. The Premium Deluxe adds a further five planes and airports on top of that. Microsoft Flight Simulator launches on August 18, and you can pre-order on Windows 10 or pre-install with Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta) today.
Will this have... (Score:5, Interesting)
...the Boeing 737 MAX? Because you know everyone is wanting to replicate the fatal flaw, and see if they can save the plane.
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You need the 10K control set with force feed back (Score:2)
You need the 10K control set with force feed back
Re:Will this have... (Score:5, Informative)
...the Boeing 737 MAX? Because you know everyone is wanting to replicate the fatal flaw, and see if they can save the plane.
As if the recovery procedure is all that difficult if you know what's coming. Stab Trim to OFF (both switches) and then manually trim using trim wheel in center console. Easy Peasy.. At least in the simulator.
Ya'all act like this was some difficult to thing to deal with, it's not, if you catch it right away. The problem that killed two planeloads was that the way the problem presented itself was confusing to the untrained and unware pilots. It's hard to fault isolate in the heat of the moment, which is why pilots are extensively trained in emergency procedures and there are check lists for fault isolating all manor of problems. If you let the MCAS run amok too long before you hit the Stab Trim switches, you are going to have a problem trying to manually trim the aircraft back to normal because the manual trim wheel is apparently very hard to move if the aerodynamic loads are high on the stabilizer, which is true when an aircraft is way out of trim.
On your computer, unless you have force feedback for the manual trim system, it's going to be easy to recover.
Re:Will this have... (Score:5, Informative)
The problem is, with the MAX Boeing also changed the size of the trim wheels, reducing them and thus increasing the force you need to put into them to trim the aircraft appropriately in a good situation anyway, so its not just that the manual trim wheel is very hard to move with high aerodynamic loads, its that its even higher than pilots are used to flying the NG or Classic...
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You cannot recover from the same failure in the NG or the Classic either, the load on the flight surfaces is just too high for manual trim. The failure mode just never happened before, because MCAS did not exist and because on those you can disable automatic trim without disabling electronic trim.
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The pilots were not untrained or unaware on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. They did not "let the MCAS run amok", they did everything by the book.
If the book had told them that the only way to disable MCAS without disabling electronic trim is to set flaps, they might be alive. Or the plane might have been torn apart from overspeed with flaps. However, the book did not tell them that, and it is not exactly obvious, so we will never know.
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Easy Peasy.. At least in the simulator.
In which simulator? The previous one which Boeing made changes to after it acknowledged the simulated experience of the MCAS flaw is different and the recovery is different to the simulated example? Or post 2 crashes one that Boeing updated to try and appease the FAA in an attempt to not get grounded forever?
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It does, but the landing mod costs extra
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Duuuuuude....too soon. However, do you think that plane would come with the appropriate maps?
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I was thinking they could practice Pentagon landings, or the White House lawn landing. The last undertrained flight crews that tried it missed, but I'm sure their flight simulators were not as sophisticated 20 years ago.
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Simulator cannot reflect the actual problem, physical strength needed to keep nose up on the aircraft when MCAS starts to fail. You're going to need a one powerful force feedback motor to simulate that.
Not to mention the motor on your trim wheels that you'll have to fight against, those are also very difficult to manipulate manually due to forces involved. I've seen a few videos of people simulating the MCAS failure pattern in proper simulators, and actual pilots who were very fit were finding it all but im
Of course... (Score:1)
Damn it. I just cleaned out the old supply closet and tossed my old FlightStick Pro.
It is an impressive piece of rugged hardware but even if I had a modern flight simulator I'm not sure how I would plug it in these days. Time has not been kind to 15 pin D-connector serial ports.
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You are going to be maaaaaaad [amazon.com].
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I have one of those and they don't work with many flight sticks. Because of limitations on the number of inputs on the gameport some older sticks needed special drivers to support all the buttons, throttles, POV pads etc, and they don't work with that USB adapter.
There are plenty of used USB flight sticks on eBay for about the same price as the adapter though.
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There are a handful of devices that convert these signals to an HID interface over USB.
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Thats the problem, those dont just use the "Game Port" part of the interface, which only support a max of 4 axis, and 4 buttons, and certainly no two way communications. They also use the soundblaster/compatible midi bolted onto the gameport for the additional buttons/force feedback.
Most USB -> Gameport adapters do NOT support the MIDI requirements, and will fail with those flightsticks.
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You can use an Arduino Mega2560 (or a couple of other models) to turn a classic game controller into a USB HID controller. If you have room for the mega, it has an absolute arseload of inputs. Someday I may even convert my F22 Pro.
Landing? (Score:3)
Re:Landing? (Score:4)
Shouldn't it take off first?
Taking off is easy.. Landing is hard.
As a student pilot, I flew the departure on the first lesson (and every lessen), but it was a number of hours before the CFI let me fly the landing without a lot of help.
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Wrong. Taking an aircraft from unstable flight (taking off) is more difficult than landing because the plane is stable during a landing unless Tom Hanks is flying.
Tom is that you?
Re:Landing? (Score:4, Funny)
Wrong. Taking an aircraft from unstable flight (taking off) is more difficult than landing because the plane is stable during a landing unless Tom Hanks is flying.
Tom is that you?
LOL.. Remeind me not to fly with you anytime soon, you obviously don't have a clue how this piloting thing is done. I suggest you go take some lessons, or perhaps just one of those $100 introductory rides.
Seriously.. Taking off is easy... Once you are lined up on the runway, throttle up and once you reach a specific speed pull back gently until the nose comes up a little and you will start climbing. It doesn't take much skill or knowledge to get off the ground. Landing on the other hand, involves a whole lot of pre-planning because you've got to "Run out of airspeed, altitude and ideas" at the touchdown point on the runway. Now if you don't care WHERE you land, I suppose it's easy in that it is inevitable you will hit the ground regardless of your skill level, but if you intend to walk away with a airplane that's still useable, it's going to take a bit more skill. Now landing a single engine non-complex aircraft is really not that hard, but my point is that Landing is much harder than flying a departure.
Sids and starts ATC (Score:1)
The demos that have been shown show remarkable graphics indeed (though it probably needs a beast of a system to look that good) and makes me wonder where is Bing Earth, because the scenary in that game looks way beyond anything Google Earth can do rendering wise.
But what I find even more interesting is realistic flight planning, including sids and stars. In FSX, you could program departures and arrivals into your flight computer on premium Boeing and Airbus addons, but they never worked with the ATC. ATC ju
There *is* a free version, but ... (Score:5, Funny)
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Hah!
--
'Hah!' - Bart Simpson
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Hehehe good one!
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The second scenario was the Sopwith Camel from SJC (San Jose/Mineta) to SFO (San Francisco), through fog, while navigating class A airspace. Basically, your grounded indefinitely.
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Looking at the previews I thought the idea here was too use Microsoft Earth imagery and AI to have the entire world in the game. Go anywhere, use any airport, look at your house out the window...
Are they not doing that now?
Will there be a Steam edition? (Score:3)
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Pre-Windows (Score:3)
Is this the only piece of Microsoft software still being released that predates Windows? Or is Excel really just Multiplan?
Re:Pre-Windows (Score:4, Informative)
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Is this the only piece of Microsoft software still being released that predates Windows? Or is Excel really just Multiplan?
There also was Quick-C Quick-Pascal and Quick-Basic, which Later became Visual C, Visual Basic and latter still, visual Studio.
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I remember playing MS Flight Simulator off a single floppy while working in the computer lab at the college in 1992. I remember there being at least half a dozen airports available, including O'Hare. Once I had gotten pretty good at it I decided to fly whatever jet there was into the Sears Tower. It didn't collapse into itself though, I guess I was 9 years too early.
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Not even close. Word and Excel both came out for the Mac before the launch of Windows 1.0. (Word existed in a less-WYSIWYG form for DOS and Xenix even earlier.)
But why are you calling Flight Simulator "Microsoft software?" It was developed by subLOGIC starting around 1977-1978 and sold for other 8-bit platforms starting in 1979. Microsoft licensed it from subLOGIC in 1982. Oh well, nobody remembers Forethought, either, I guess. You know, the people who created PowerPoint, launched it on the Mac, and w
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is there an implied criticism of MS here? I also don't remember countless other companies that were gobbled up by IBM, Sun, Oracle and other big tech companies.
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Probably even FoxPro -- that database Microsoft coincidentally acquired just months before launching Access -- is forgotten. :)
Coincidentally, the local Craigslist had a listing for a FoxPro 9 coder a few days ago - they were offering a whopping $20-32/hour. And of course, before FoxPro/FoxBase there was dBase, and Clipper if you wanted to compile it while spending a lot of money in the process.
Whole world? (Score:2)
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The airports in the list are hand designed. So yeah, if you're flying into O'Hare and you've got the basic version, you get the AI generated airport.
I'm surprised they made O'Hare premium. It's been in MSFS since the beginning.
List of planes (Score:5, Informative)
TFA didn't even have a list of planes. From List of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Planes and Aircraft [windowscentral.com] the list is:
Basic:
Airbus A320neo, Aviat Pitts Special S2S, Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, CubCrafters XCub, Daher TBM 930, Diamond DA62, Diamond DA40 NG, EXTRA 330LT, Flight Design CTLS, ICON A5, JMB VL-3, Robin CAP 10, Robin DR400-100 Cadet, Beechcraft Bonanza G36, Beechcraft King Air 350i, Cessna 152, Cessna 172 Skyhawk (G1000), Cessna 208 B Grand Caravan EX, Cessna Citation CJ4, Zlin Savage Cub
Delux adds:
Diamond DA40-TDI, Diamond DV20, Beechcraft Baron G58, Cessna 152 Aerobat, Cessna 172 Skyhawk
Premium deluxe adds:
Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner, Cirrus SR22, Pipistrel Virus SW 121, Cessna Citation Longitude, Zlin Shock Ultra
The quoted link also has a bunch of information about how best to run it etc
Re:List of planes (Score:5, Interesting)
They need to add a few aircraft:
DHC-2 Beaver so they can do some bush flying. Let's see some amphibious flying.
DHC-6 Twin Otter so they can do some trips to the South Pole.
CL-415 so they can do some water bombing.
Grumman Ag Cat so they can do some crop dusting.
That would be a cool update that would open up some amazing flying.
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Having a Twin Otter available would *rock*.
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How about the Hercules? Then you can land anywhere except open water. Those things are used everywhere from Antarctica to the Arctic.
meigs field DCL? (Score:4)
meigs field DCL?
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LOL... LONG gone...
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I'd pay extra for the "Fuck You, Daley" expansion that would bring it back.
VR Support (Score:2)
I just watched the full trailer and DAMN if that didn't look amazing! If they actually do implement support for VR as the devs are saying they will, this may actually be the single game to push me over the edge for purchasing a VR rig. Of course, Star Wars Squadrons might beat them to my purchase ;-)
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If you're into realistic sims, warfare and VR, get DCS. It packages all of it in one single simulator.
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DirectX 11 (Score:1, Interesting)
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Why then does this require Windows 10?
Does the Microsoft Store support previous no longer supported and declared obsolete OSes?
Facetiousness aside Windows 10 has changed a LOT when it comes to gaming if you design a game to take advantage of it, which MS is absolutely doing with its XBox integration and Microsoft Store. Asking if it also runs on previous OSes because it's DX11, is like asking if poo is the same as chocolate because it's brown.
Now whether any of the benefits of Windows 10 as a games platform are actually benefits, and whether th
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What do you mean my Windows 10? I don't run it personally nor support it, and the fact it's poo doesn't change the reason why MS won't release Flight Simulator on earlier versions.
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Looks fantastic, hope it has VR support (Score:2)
The visuals both in plane and environment have absolutely made me drool. I really hope we get to see this in VR as well. There was talk about a VR version being worked on in November and that would be amazing. Seeing a large control deck in front of you on a PC is good and all, but seeing it in a stereoscopic head tracking headset is just a completely different beast altogether.