Dovetail Games going in with ORBX

[Ian Warren]

Something I picked up from the A2A forums

Following the completion of long term discussions, Dovetail Games is pleased to announce we will be partnering with Orbx Simulation Systems in order to bring key aspects of their technology to Flight School and Flight Simulator, both scheduled for release this year. Orbx Simulation Systems has dominated the flight simulation scenery space since CEO John Venema founded the company in 2006.

"We are thrilled to partner with Dovetail Games as they usher in a new era of 64-bit simulators built on robust technology that we have a decade of experience in developing for", says John Venema, CEO of Orbx Simulation Systems. "We've developed a solid working relationship with the Dovetail team and we're confident that our terrain will look absolutely stunning in their enhanced 3D engine and provide a level of immersion unlike anything experienced before. We look forward to a long a productive partnership."

“We are incredibly excited about working with Orbx on Flight School and Dovetail Games Flight Simulator”, says Stephen Hood, Creative Director at Dovetail games. “Orbx represents the pinnacle of what can be achieved in terms of in-game scenery, so collaborating with them on these projects was the obvious choice for us. We are deeply committed to partnering with both new and existing developers and content creators moving forwards to create the best possible combination of technologies to power our simulators – this is only the beginning”

[toprob]

Provided it's open to development, I would think that this will be a great sim, it could be the one great sim we've been wanting. But I still think that I'll be using Prepar3D for the next few years, until it is fully developed.

[Ian Warren]

That is the thing, with camera gear today, the photo resource and the programs to build , first thing I look at is the aircraft , seems everyone is going for a slice of the pie , I'll wait for the LM version 5.0 before looking at the buy , general public are finding depended the PC pretty much the same so developers are looking all directions to beat each other.

PMDG is looking toward XPLANE , LM has a finger in the pie and the Dovetail with this announcement, I look at aircraft dev's for the better wind vain and see what direction they are heading and most still stick with FSX even with all its buggy things.

[toprob]

Yes, would be real interesting to see who's at the top in five years, whether there's a clear winner or the market is spread. Funny, though, I still can't foresee a time when Xplane is on top.

[Ian Warren]

I still can't foresee a time when Xplane is on top.

Agreed ... That is one thing I have studied and found the same conclusion , even by today's standards it is seriously lacking .. words from well over ten years back .. "Looking so much like Noody Land"... something about appears to be out off date even before it gets a foot in the door .... and course the library objects, and to think I get knocked for my 1960s THUNDERBIRDS

[Flying Kiwi]

The problem with X-Plane is the assets are so poor - certainly in New Zealand. Take Wellington Airport, for instance. Things you see in X-Plane's version of NZWN:

- United Airlines Boeing 747 (aside from the old Qantas 747SPs, I think only one full-sized 747 has ever landed at NZWN, and that was in some sort of emergency situation. United has never flown to Wellington, although they did fly to Auckland and I think they're planning to again)
- NASA Boeing 747.
- Hercules planes (or something similar) doing weird flip-flops before taking off.
- NO BUILDINGS

Now sure, you can add buildings, and apparently a lot of people customise airports and submit them to the X-Plane developers, who then approve them and add them to updates. Which is great and all, but I want to use a flight simulator to actually fly, not spend all my time creating scenery (of course, I mean absolutely no offence to those folks who develop the excellent scenery here!!!). But having so many airports without any buildings, not to mention the ludicrous AI aircraft, just creates a very bad impression. For all its imperfections (including decidedly average default scenery), FSX does have terminal buildings at airports and the AI aircraft at those airports are reasonably credible (generic airlines notwithstanding).

I will say this much for X-Plane: the topography is excellent. Kapiti Island for example looks very realistic in X-Plane. The aircraft (at least the ones I've tried), fly well enough, although I wouldn't say they're significantly different to the FSX ones. And it's nice to have it available in 64-bit. One of the great drawbacks of FSX is that it's in 32-bit and will only ever be in that.

Actually, another problem with X-Plane is its horrible user interface. The UI in FSX is much more intuitive. I suppose the X-Plane UI gives you a lot of flexibility, but most of the time it just makes your head hurt!

So for me, it's currently all the way, although I'm looking forward to the new Dovetail Games offerings, especially if they use Orbx scenery. I've never actually tried Prepar3D - the whole "it's not for entertainment" thing put me off, but I guess plenty of people do use it for that purpose. Another factor is it's not on Steam - I have both FSX and X-Plane on Steam.

[Ian Warren]

This is ORBX scenery going in with FSX Steam, nothing connected to Xplane, yeah I got that horrid feel with that program.

[toprob]

I can imagine that Kapiti would look great in XPlane, the water is a lot better than FSX. It's a pity you can't just pick and choose the best bits from each sim....
I listened to the interview with Dovetails Stephen Hood, admittedly at the time I'd had three beers, which is my limit these days, but I did think he made a lot of sense. He did say that long-term Dovetail wanted to make the best simulator ever, so I'm reasonably happy that there's a great future for simming. As I said, though, the best bits won't come this year or the next. By the time I retire (5 years) I'd be happy to know that I am able to use -- and develop for -- the best sim ever.