Hiflyer 129 Posted March 5, 2010 Author Share Posted March 5, 2010 At the same time as they announce the release of Twin Oaks and Darrington Muni, wherein it expressly states:- So serendipitous? No. Commercial developer realising the limitation of their product and attempting to exploit it? Probably. Simmer needing to do their own research before buying? Definitively... Hmmmm. I was looking more at the inception dates of their first posts and of this subject, as regards to serendipity. More interesting to me were Stickied sections such as: UTX Canada/Usa compatability, GEX compatibility etc Also stickied was the forum statement: This forum has been created to provide links and patches to other scenery add-on products such as Ultimate Terrain X (UTX) and Vancouver+ (V+) so that users of FTX Pacific Northwest have a seamless experience. Orbx is working with FSAddon and Allen Kriesman to ensure the best level of compatibility, and we will post links to updates, new versions and patches as they come to hand. Etc. Whatever else, it does appear that they themselves seem to be taking an extremely proactive stance. If they really are agressive about this, they might become the scenery other designers take into account when thinking about compatability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snave 466 Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 Again I see this as a glass half empty argument - What about all the developers on whose `land` they now `sit` that they AREN'T working with...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hiflyer 129 Posted March 5, 2010 Author Share Posted March 5, 2010 Again I see this as a glass half empty argument - What about all the developers on whose `land` they now `sit` that they AREN'T working with...? You are correct. Its all going to be how one decides to interpret these sorts of things. And.... also correct that the whole idea might tend to be (as seems to be the general consensus) unwieldy.... I just keep in mind the saying "Well, ya' gotta start somewhere!" Otherwise spoken as "Mighty oaks, from little acorns grow." And sometimes not! We shall see. My "gut hunch" is that we are looking at some serious long term future thinking in these moves. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snave 466 Posted March 5, 2010 Share Posted March 5, 2010 My hunch is that it won't - cannot - happen, unless scenery goes in the same `wholistic` (sic) direction as ORBX, and it won't, the sheer amount of work and the need for source information, along with individual developer preferences ensure that. FS is not, and never will be, a homogenous single entity, it's an accumulation of sundry parts, parts which may be put together in any sequence or combination by the developer. Developers make individual small fields, medium and large international airports. Some have their own mesh, some as Mathijs noted, extend their `sphere of influence` well beyond the confines of the airport boundary. Others incorporate their own mesh, yet more are designed to accommodate this texture set or that generic area addon. And what about photosceneries? Precisely because there is no agreed format or structure as to how FS addons may be constructed, it is physically impossible for your hunchj to be correct, except in the general sense of the occasional `collaboration` which has been a factor of the FS scene since the very earliest days and is nothing new. As it happens it is also this freedom that provides lots of `levels` for opportunities at which developers can get involved with enhancing the default. Or, of course, someone elses already-enhanced addon... I understand your thinking, but it just isn't wide enough to encompass all the possibilities, and without understanding the permutations, you cannot begin to understand the intricate inter-relationships that can both take FS to new heights - and completely screw it up for the simmer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hiflyer 129 Posted March 5, 2010 Author Share Posted March 5, 2010 My hunch is that it won't - cannot - happen, unless scenery goes in the same `wholistic` (sic) direction as ORBX, and it won't, the sheer amount of work and the need for source information, along with individual developer preferences ensure that. FS is not, and never will be, a homogenous single entity, it's an accumulation of sundry parts, parts which may be put together in any sequence or combination by the developer. Developers make individual small fields, medium and large international airports. Some have their own mesh, some as Mathijs noted, extend their `sphere of influence` well beyond the confines of the airport boundary. Others incorporate their own mesh, yet more are designed to accommodate this texture set or that generic area addon. And what about photosceneries? Precisely because there is no agreed format or structure as to how FS addons may be constructed, it is physically impossible for your hunchj to be correct, except in the general sense of the occasional `collaboration` which has been a factor of the FS scene since the very earliest days and is nothing new. As it happens it is also this freedom that provides lots of `levels` for opportunities at which developers can get involved with enhancing the default. Or, of course, someone elses already-enhanced addon... I understand your thinking, but it just isn't wide enough to encompass all the possibilities, and without understanding the permutations, you cannot begin to understand the intricate inter-relationships that can both take FS to new heights - and completely screw it up for the simmer! The only real problem I have with all of that, is that at its base, its very close to saying "So it was, so shall it ever be." Yet with the exit of Aces and the resulting uncertainty, there is now a huge power vacuum. Aerosoft itself senses the opportunity (and danger) and I always saw the new flight Sim as a direct result of that vacuum. Something new/different has/had to happen to keep up the momentum, and probably relatively soon. Who else but the big players remain to set that new general direction? In the meantime, some consolidation (maybe a lot) seems likely. I guess the real question might be, under whose banner(s)? Probably only time will tell whats up with that half full/empty glass. Like a sports prediction, we should check back in..... 2012 to see how everyone did. (And keep our eyes open in the meantime) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snave 466 Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Actually, far from it being `so shall it ever be` I have proposed that `Future Sim` have a form of construction that invites just such compatibility. See some of my posts on the subject in the appropriate forum. Meantime, the 26 page manual for PNW contains a hefty list of `ifs` `buts` and `alsos` regarding compatibility with previously-released productry. Rather than see ORBX as a paean to permutation I think they are drinking from a half-empty glass..! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hiflyer 129 Posted March 6, 2010 Author Share Posted March 6, 2010 Actually, far from it being `so shall it ever be` I have proposed that `Future Sim` have a form of construction that invites just such compatibility. See some of my posts on the subject in the appropriate forum. Meantime, the 26 page manual for PNW contains a hefty list of `ifs` `buts` and `alsos` regarding compatibility with previously-released productry. Rather than see ORBX as a paean to permutation I think they are drinking from a half-empty glass..! Manual? I thought those were only for if you get in trouble! More seriously, I look back to my original question, and do see small signs in that direction. When I made that inquiry, I was never expecting that there would be some concerted rush towards what I was talking about, and other posts have shown there were factors I was unaware of and/or had not considered. On the other hand, it certainly appears that somebody at the above mentioned location is indeed buying or obtaining others products and aggressively testing for compatibility. More than that, answers are available for those questions people are asking, above and beyond "Go speak to the other guy" or my original "I don't have that product, so I don't know." Given the factors presented by you and others here on the difficulty's of going even that far, I would say its still an impressive commitment to customer service, and would add that in the business world, if one provides a service that people find very useful in a given industry, then such services tend to eventually become universal, raising the standard. On the gripping hand (warning: sci-fi reference) the Flight Sim market is....... Quirky........ I am beginning to think of it as a cottage industry, which makes me increasingly uncertain if regular market forces fully apply. Edit: When I mentioned "So shall it ever be" I was talking about the impression that the current flight Sim market would be unresponsive to certain changes.... I think we are agreed on "future Sim" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snave 466 Posted March 6, 2010 Share Posted March 6, 2010 Yes, welcome to the realisation of the cottage industry - from here on it makes what appear to be nonsensical decisions and half-assed products MUCH easier to comprehend. `Quirky` Hmm, like that. Avoids the negative connotations, yet conveys the absurdity and `glass half full/empty`. Yep, definitely going to start using that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hiflyer 129 Posted April 18, 2010 Author Share Posted April 18, 2010 Keeping my eyes open, I managed to stumble across this: http://www.fsgenesis...egory_Code=ATAP Seems like an obvious step to take, so I'm glad somebody has stepped up to the plate! So far that's 2 things mentioned here that somebody is now actually taking a look at. (which is Tres' cool!) Be interesting to see how it all turns out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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