NZFF

I know what you're all gonna say - Outerra is at least 1 year away, maybe 2, maybe 3. And that is absolutely true. But take a look at this vid (I downloaded it using the Keep Tube add-on via Firefox in hi def) and see why I keep waiting for the next sim and find FSX so poxy & clunky...

http://www.outerra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=183

Bear in mind that this is not even Alpha yet in it's lifecycle. If we could have that in FSX NOW, wouldn't we be happy campers? Hell, yes! So imagine what this will look like once it's polished up & released! Note that the ship is just a "placed" object: no physics or detailed interaction at all at this point.

IslandBoy77 wrote:

QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ Dec 10 2010, 06:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I know what you're all gonna say - Outerra is at least 1 year away, maybe 2, maybe 3. And that is absolutely true. But take a look at this vid (I downloaded it using the Keep Tube add-on via Firefox in hi def) and see why I keep waiting for the next sim and find FSX so poxy & clunky...

http://www.outerra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=183

Bear in mind that this is not even Alpha yet in it's lifecycle. If we could have that in FSX NOW, wouldn't we be happy campers? Hell, yes! So imagine what this will look like once it's polished up & released! Note that the ship is just a "placed" object: no physics or detailed interaction at all at this point.

Thanks for the post IslandBoy77. Well, maybe I missed something, but to my eye my FSX with orbx scenery looks streets better than the outerra clip, and is at least as smooth. But then I use nVidia cards.

Cheers, Bill

Well FSX is over 4 years old now and if Outerra was released in two years time that would make it 6 years apart. In the historical scheme of things thats about two generations of PC's and FS releases. so I fail to see how this makes any comparison with FSX except that we all know you don't like FSX!

FSX + REX + some good scenary + ENBSeries looks a whole lot better than that...

deaneb wrote:

QUOTE (deaneb @ Dec 23 2010, 09:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well FSX is over 4 years old now and if Outerra was released in two years time that would make it 6 years apart. In the historical scheme of things thats about two generations of PC's and FS releases. so I fail to see how this makes any comparison with FSX except that we all know you don't like FSX!

Yes, you're right, I don't like FSX - the point that you and everyone else keeps missing is that rather than ploughing massive amounts of dead-dosh into add-ons for a poorly-written obsolete bloat-fest like FSX, it is wise to have our eyes open to what's on the way. My point - that you clearly miss - is that even in Alpha stage, before it even close to being finished, the Outerra engine is massively ahead of FSX. This is a good thing, and should engender happiness and a sense of expectation, not "circling the wagons" and building "fortified positions" (something that many simmers here on NZFF have an extremely bad habit of doing). Those who tie themselves to obsolete, poorly-written software are welcome to do so - the rest get ready to move on...

husker wrote:

QUOTE (husker @ Dec 23 2010, 09:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

FSX + REX + some good scenary + ENBSeries looks a whole lot better than that...

Ah yes - PLUS this and PLUS that for poor old FSX. Have a good look at Outerra in hi-def: mathematically-generated terrain that can be run on modest hardware, atmospherics that look real (without add-ons, BTW) - and in Alpha stage, no less. The point you and others keep missing is that the next gen of engines don't NEED a stack of expensive add-ons to look good (although there will be add-ons, they will actually BE add-ons, not "replace-ons" like with FSX).

Lapun wrote:

QUOTE (Lapun @ Dec 23 2010, 08:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the post IslandBoy77. Well, maybe I missed something, but to my eye my FSX with orbx scenery looks streets better than the outerra clip, and is at least as smooth. But then I use nVidia cards.

Cheers, Bill

Hey Bill. I use FSX and some add-ons myself. This post is to let people know where things are going outside of the blinkered world of FSX / FS9 - I've seen the Orbx scenery: it's certainly good by FSX standards, but as soon as you get closer than a couple of hundred feet, it looks JPEG-awful. Outerra doesn't use that type of terrain generation. If one looks at where Outerra is now, and then extrapolate forward, one can catch a glimpse of a finished product that is actually worthy of the label "Real-World Flight Simulator".

At the risk of this getting a bit 'flamey'...
There are a couple of thing which are obvious to me watching the Outerra videos -- first, it did strike me that FSX does a very, very good job of representing the world, with its landclass system, something which Outerra has not yet even begun to deal with. (I think I've only seen one type of tree, for instance...)

The second thing is just how beautiful the atmospheric effects are compared to FSX -- this is the one area where FSX really falls short, it uses very simple techniques to render atmospherics and lighting, I suspect that even with all the addons in the world it'll never be able to truly represent atmospheric filtering and real lighting. And that's a major issue for me -- whoever cracks that first gets my vote.

IslandBoy77 wrote:

QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ Dec 23 2010, 09:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, you're right, I don't like FSX -

Well I agree with Dean but will go a little bit further to say if you don't like FSX you can always uninstall it and go play other PC games if you can find something that interests you more than adding well made NZ scenery and aircraft to FSX and doing an armchair tour of our great country.

Doug

IslandBoy77 wrote:

QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ Dec 23 2010, 09:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Those who tie themselves to obsolete, poorly-written software are welcome to do so - the rest get ready to move on...

I'm more than ready to move on to whatever comes next. But for now FSX is all we have, so its less a matter of being tied to something obsolete, than the fact there is presently no other viable option for the majority of flightsim users.

deaneb wrote:

QUOTE (deaneb @ Dec 23 2010, 10:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But for now FSX is all we have, so its less a matter of being tied to something obsolete, than the fact there is presently no other viable option for the majority of flightsim users.

And more than that, I still think that FSX is the most brilliant flightsim I've ever used, and it continues to astound me almost daily. That's not to say that I don't think it has faults -- it has plenty of them, in that way it reminds me of me... fabulous, but deeply flawed!

toprob wrote:

QUOTE (toprob @ Dec 23 2010, 10:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

fabulous, but deeply flawed!

LOL - a good description for most of us !!

IslandBoy77 wrote:

QUOTE (IslandBoy77 @ Dec 23 2010, 09:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, you're right, I don't like FSX - the point that you and everyone else keeps missing is that rather than ploughing massive amounts of dead-dosh into add-ons for a poorly-written obsolete bloat-fest like FSX, it is wise to have our eyes open to what's on the way. My point - that you clearly miss - is that even in Alpha stage, before it even close to being finished, the Outerra engine is massively ahead of FSX.

Hold on - did you LOOK at those videos? They're not running "in engine" - thats clear...the best you could say is that they are running in the equivalent of FSX's "slew" mode. The first one is simply a programmed camera fly-by. Thats indicative of the lack of physics in the engine perhaps, but at the end of the day, with simulation software, thats actually where a large proportion of the processing power goes to, much more so than in, say, an FPS.