Gaming FSX coming to Steam, new version later

[Hielor]

http://www.wpcentral.com/dovetail-games-resurrect-flight-simulator-series-using-microsoft-tech

Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition will be released in late 2014 on Valve's game download service via Dovetail Games. It will contain the content in the Gold edition of the 2006 released Microsoft Flight Simulator X combined with its Acceleration Expansion Pack.

Also, Dovetail Games will be continuing the franchise:

The bigger news is that Dovetail Games will use the Flight Simulator engine from Microsoft to create new flight sim games on its own. Dovetail said that it is "currently investigating new concepts in this area and is expecting to bring a release to market in 2015." The specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

I'm a little concerned about the new games' ability to be competitive in this day and age, considering that FSX is approaching a decade old at this point. Microsoft Flight may have been a disaster overall, but it did have pretty good improvements over the FSX engine in terms of performance and graphics--too bad they're not able to integrate those.

 

[tl8]

Bit of a curve ball, I think most people thought Prepar3d was the future.

 

[Deleted Orbinaut]

I wonder if we'll be able to transfer our existing licenses over.

 

[Bibi Uncle]

This is an unexpected move. I already have the Gold edition, but I look forward for this new version from Dovetail. Many imporvements can be done to the renderer. It eats the CPU like hell, while the GPU is idling in the background. If they fix this and bring the graphics similar to Flight, I'd be joyful.

 

[Hielor]

I wonder if we'll be able to transfer our existing licenses over.

That would be awesome, but I somewhat doubt it. More likely it'll be $15-$20, down to $5-10 or so on sale, which puts it into the realm of "games I'll buy on Steam just for the sake of having them on Steam even though I already own one (or more) boxed copies."

 

[Zatnikitelman]

For what it's worth, this is the same company that took over Railworks, which itself is a descendant of Microsoft's Train Simulator. Dovetail is planning a new train simulator based on the Unreal 4 engine. I wonder how related this is to that?

 

[Screamer7]

In my personal opinion, I think the most annoying thing of FSX is the VAS issue.
FSX was never designed to do what we demand for it to do today.

You are limited to 4000 megabytes of VAS and that is it.
And it is just because FSX is a 32 bit app.

Now, when I took off from A, overflying B and landing at C, I'm almost certain to get an OOM at C.
Please remember that I'm referring to pay scenery and not the default FSX scenery.

A 64 bit version will address this issue very efficiently, like XP10 64 does.

 

[Hielor]

An update:
http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/9/5884419/deovetail-games-microsoft-flight-train-simulator

The game due in 2015 is explicitly not "Microsoft Flight Simulator," it's just that Dovetail will be using the engine to power a game they plan to release in 2015. Whether that will be "Flight Simulator 2015" or something completely different remains to be seen.

I think if they just do a ton of optimization on the engine, get it to make use of modern multi-core CPUs and polish off the DX10 stuff, it could be a fairly decent engine even 8 years later.

Plus, the ACES studio didn't get shut down until 2009, so there's 3-ish years of work on the Flight Simulator codebase that we may never have seen. If that's part of this deal, the engine may be farther along than we know.

 

[n122vu]

Plus, the ACES studio didn't get shut down until 2009, so there's 3-ish years of work on the Flight Simulator codebase that we may never have seen. If that's part of this deal, the engine may be farther along than we know.

I agree, and I also think the planned release date supports this. I think if they were going to make major improvements, we'd be looking at an 18-24 month time-frame for developing & testing the code, rebranding, marketing, etc. If some of those improvements are already complete in the code orphaned by ACES in the shutdown, they'll need much less time.

 

[orb]

The game is available on Steam starting from today:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/314160

Differences between the boxed version and information for existing owners of the boxed version.

 

[Hielor]

From the changelog:

UIAutomationCore.dll work-a-round is now supplied by default with FSX:SE. This fixes a number of crashes relating to UI interaction on 64-bit versions of Windows.

:lol:
That right there makes it worth the money! Well, on sale, at least...

---------- Post added at 11:21 ---------- Previous post was at 11:12 ----------

That would be awesome, but I somewhat doubt it. More likely it'll be $15-$20, down to $5-10 or so on sale, which puts it into the realm of "games I'll buy on Steam just for the sake of having them on Steam even though I already own one (or more) boxed copies."

Also quoting myself for price prediction. I was low on the non-sale price, but accurate on the sale price--and really, who buys games on Steam that aren't on sale anyway...

 

[n122vu]

Just as an FYI...

OK. So Dovetail have released FSX Steam edition. The entry price for the time being is $4.00. Among the new features are multiplayer support that works (the old one uses Gamespy), and naturally a store and ads for you to spend more money on downloads. The page also contains quotes from the press that relate to the original FSX, not the "new" steam version. Here's the FAQ from Dovetail for existing FSX users. And no, I'm not getting it.


Existing FSX Owners, check here first
If I already own FSX should I buy FSX: Steam Edition?
That decision is up to you. Your existing boxed version of FSX will continue to work after the release of FSX: Steam Edition, however future updates will only support the Steam Edition of the simulator. We have made some functional changes to FSX in the development of FSX: Steam Edition, but in terms of content nothing new has been added at this time.

What changes have you made in FSX: Steam Edition from the Microsoft-supplied boxed version of FSX?
This is a re-release of FSX Gold Edition so you should not expect dramatic differences. However, we have updated it to include all standard Steam functionality, we’ve removed CD checking and combined the components of Gold Edition into a single installation. The major change we've made is in replacing the now-defunct GameSpy multiplayer systems with Steam features, enabling multiplayer to work seamlessly once again. Our aim in this first instance has been to ensure that the software will run for as many people as possible rather than radically improving or updating it.

Will there be new content with the initial release?
No, the initial release will only contain the content that was provided with the original FSX GOLD pack which includes Flight Simulator X Deluxe and Acceleration pack, both official Service Packs, with the addition of Steamworks multiplayer

What advantage, if any, is there for existing customers to purchasing FSX: Steam Edition?
First of all, although we know that some people are resistant to digitally distributed software we see many benefits of it, not least of all ease of reinstallation and not having to find keys etc. Secondly we have restored the multiplayer features using Steam capabilities and we have sorted out a number of software problems. However, we do appreciate the current benefits for existing users are modest.

 

[Fabri91]

Well...fair enough, really. Plus right now it's only 5 eurobucks, so I'm thinking about getting anyway.

 

[Hielor]

It's certainly not the first time an old(er) game has been re-released on Steam without any new content. The $24 normal price is too high IMO but the current sale price is worth it.

Also, that FAQ sounds like there might be new content coming as updates or DLC to this one, so yeah...

 

[orb]

Also, that FAQ sounds like there might be new content coming as updates or DLC to this one, so yeah...

At least 11 DLCs are planned, according to what can be seen in database:
https://steamdb.info/app/314160/dlc/

 

[N_Molson]

Thanks. I've been searching a way to put my hands on FSX, now I have my chance ! X-Mas before the day !

 

[IronRain]

Did I bought it? Yes!
Am I going to use it? No.

I'm happy with the "local" installation I currently have and I have made far too many modifications to randomly reïnstall FSX. I do want to support the development though, and it's great for when my new computers arrives (but, just like the SLS, this is being pushed into the future due to the lack of funding :lol

Thanks for the heads-up, btw!

 

[Evil_Onyx]

I'm with IronRain,
Bought it but wont install until my current install becomes unplayable.
I wonder how all the 3rd party addon sites are taking the new distribution method?

 

[N_Molson]

Bought it for 5€ this morning. Won't be able to test it before January, but I'm happy ! I missed it back in 2006.

 

[orb]

I won't be able to test it until January, either, unless I'll free some of the disk space.

BTW, according to posts in the Steam hub (some of) add-ons started being updated with compatibility patches for the Steam edition.