Quoting: peta77That's some really exciting news as I was actually a little bit disappointed about the performance it has shown so far on an RTX2080ti @ 4K. It has used (according to nvidia-smi) less than 50% of my GPU and about two third of my CPU cores were just bored while having just 25fps! I hope with update 11.50 X-Plane will finally be able to fully (or at least a lot more) exploit my resources so the experience will be a lot smoother.

I would temper those expectations. They've already said people shouldn't expect an FPS boost with Vulkan. This is being done solely I think because of expiring OpenGL code and Mac requirements to use Metal. And your experience is totally typical, BTW. XP11 will bring even the tippist toppiest systems to their knees. It's because of all of this legacy code that pushes almost the entire sim through one core of the CPU, and the GPU doesn't matter all that much. So, again, sadly, your experience is typical.

One theory as to why MS 2020 will look and perform so much better is that it's a new, ground-up creation with contemporary code built around contemporary hardware and networking. I mean, all of our current sims are built around code that is 10-15 years old, or older. I wonder if, for a theoretical XP 12, they'll elect to start all over. I would imagine (maybe?) that the MS2020 announcement would have blown up any XP development roadmap, but maybe not...

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Mountain ManIf all you care about is eye-candy then X-Plane might become "irrelevant", but X-Plane has always been the king of physics and flight dynamics.

Quite right, but the MS 2020 team says they are paying a lot of attention to this with the upcoming release, with something like a thousand points of flight dynamics on the surface of every plane, or something like that. Per early reviews from hands on by journalists a few weeks ago, the "feel" of flight is outstanding, and things like stalls, turbulence, and weather effects feel utterly real and likely better than XP 11...

Quoting: Mountain ManBut before you declare MS Flight Simulator 2020 the king of graphics, the trick is actually very simple: orthophotos... My hunch is that MSFS 2020 will not store the considerable amounts of data on user's hard drives but will be an online-only title that will pull down the data only as needed.

It's not just a hunch, they've announced that they'll be streaming Bing Maps of the ENTIRE PLANET as high res orthos, 2 pedabytes worth from their server. Their advanced algorithms will figure out what buildings look like in 3D and fill in the details. Journalists were picking random points like the neighborhoods they grew up or where they went to college and found uncanny 3D realism, not just flat stretched orthos but convincing 3D locations that finally allows for true VFR flying. Early report back is that even in non-streaming lowest settings, it's an enormous advance over what exists today...

And I've used lots of orthos. They're great 4,000 ft and up, but are lacking at lower altitudes, where the MS 2020 model shines. Competition is exciting!

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: SkipperroIf we want more complex, prettier games, streaming is not the best way - it's the only way.

Couldn't agree more....

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Skipperro...but there is more to it than you just economics.

-Parents will be able to better control, both the content they kids are playing and the time.
-If the kid don't behave, parents can always cancel subscription, which gives them nice parenting tool.

As a (deeply conflicted gamer) parent of two young girls who just now are starting to show interest in gaming and wanting to that independently from me, these are huge factors I've considered and it's possible Stadia will be the first service I introduce them to, on their Linux devices of course :).

I actually think the bigger future threat to your company, though, is still the next generation's love affair with mobile. My kids, for example, love Minecraft, and prefer to play it on mobile phones to computers with big monitors... They just love the touchscreen UI and want absolutely nothing to do with mice or keyboards. Flight sims might change that soon for my older daughter, though... BTW, if anyone has educational or coding game recommendations on Linux beyond GCompris, please PM me...

Quoting: SkipperroAlso, many people don't know anything about PC hardware... Stadia will be much easier to start and don't require any investments. If it will be bad, you don't lose anything, you simply stop using it. If your 1000$ PC is bad, you've lost 1000$.

All also absolutely true...

BTW, I think one way forward for gaming hardware makers is embrace that future and try to optimize as much as possible the streaming performance on their machines. The day will come when having top-draw networking, memory, and GPU's will result in a difference gaming experience on, say, a Chromebook than what someone will have with a dedicated gaming rig... That MS 2020 Flight Sim streams its scenery, but still had machines there with 2080Ti's to make it all work in 4K. Companies like yours should try to make that purchasing experience as easy, understandable, and up-gradable as possible.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Interesting, I'm gonna watch this one... I haven't played a 4x title in ages, as there are baked-in elements of the genre I find frustrating, but the dev seems to have addressed many of those here.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: rustybroomhandle

Quoting: iiari

Quoting: rustybroomhandleI shot them an email for access to the Vulkan alpha/beta.

Did you do that on your own or is there a open request for beta testers? I'd love to test the Vulkan beta as well...

It's explained in the video linked in the article. Only for their installer, not Steam yet.

Ah, OK, then I'm out... If you get it, please post back on this thread to let us all know how it's working, especially in Wine/Proton...

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Ardje

Quoting: SkipperroMan... I'm collecting everything with Vulkan support and I have X-Plane on my wishlist for a long time, but I'm not as big of the simulator fan to pay freaking 65$ for it. I would rather save it for Kerbal Space Program 2.

I have X-Plane also on my wishlist. I did have some fun with Euro Truck Simulator, but I guess X-Plane is more realistic. And I actually don't want that.

Quoting: EhvisCompletely different beasts. ETS2 is still a game. It's open ended, but the simulation level and mechanics are still geared to have fun even without skill. X-Plane is not a game, it is just a simulator. I think most flight simulator enthusiasts will tell you that flight simulation is a hobby. With matching time consumption and expenses. I have many hours in various X-Plane version, but haven't done too much of it lately and I'm getting rusty to a degree where I couldn't even get my B727 started any more. :D

Yeah, absolutely what @Ehvis said above. X-Plane is a hard core sim to the level that flight schools actually use dedicated commercial versions of it to train future pilots. There really is no "game" here unless you buy mission or sim-economy mods, which people say are a lot of fun but I just don't have the time for...

That said, it's still an amazing product. If you wanted to flip every switch in a Boeing 737 cockpit, plan your fuel, program in your flight plan, go down your pre-flight checklist, pilot your flight in near photo realism, and even be able to see real-life air traffic around you and potentially talk to real people serving as air traffic control, all in life-sucking real time, then this is your thing and $65 is a steal (I've spent far more on planes and scenery and mods). X-Plane actually recently got me over my fear of flying for a real trip.

BTW, on the XP .org forum I've been chronicling my experiments [External Link] at trying XP in Wine/Proton and how to make the Linux version look nearly as good as Win XP with xEnviro...

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: [email protected]It's not the Netflix of gaming. You don't get a catalog of games to deal with.

You still have to buy your games on Stadia. Stadia simply helps offload it off the hardware.

That was my point, it wont' be the Netflix of gaming, which I think was a huge opportunity lost. As I posted above, I'm really surprised for how great the tech is that Google isn't being more aggressive with positioning this, because I think they're only, say, 85% confident in the tech status right now, not 100%. And as a long time Google fan and purchaser, they're honestly terrible at marketing and positioning their products...

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Skipperro

Quoting: Liam DaweStill, not entirely sure who their market is exactly...

As someone who works in the company selling Gaming-PCs I can tell you, because I've done research about possible Stadia impact on our sales...

I say it over and over again in every Stadia discussion - look at it from the perspective of someone who wants to buy a new Gaming PC, because it's meant to replace hardware and compete with local, mainstream gaming rigs. From this perspective, their market seems pretty big to me.

Great post. I think (hope?) a company like yours will be OK, at least for now, because Google could go for your jugular, but really isn't... I think they don't have *complete* confidence in the technology... yet. I mean, I have a coworker who is the perfect person for Stadia. Her son needs a computer for school. She was looking at Chromebooks, but her son didn't want one since you can't game on them, and was trying to sell her on an Alienware for multiple times the cost. Add Stadia, and that Chromebook problem is solved. I don't know why Google isn't launching with, like, a $399 "gaming" Chromebook with 3 months Stadia credit or something. That would be going for your jugular. And that real-life Chromebook scenario (you can buy a $199 Chromebook and be OK with Stadia) is actually a seriously crazy great deal for parents just looking to check the school-gaming box for their kids and move on. Maybe in a year when Google has the tech nailed and is more confident they'll do that.

Also, this streaming tech will be seriously great for people who are into certain gaming categories. I like flight sims, and there are people out there buying 8 TB drives for all the ortho scenery they purchase or generate, but even that isn't enough and the tech is getting strained. Streaming will fix that starting next year....

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I certainly am intending to try Stadia for its technical aspects if nothing else. I really do think streaming gaming can and will be revolutionary (see the upcoming MS Flight Sim 2020 which will stream Bing high resolution mapping data for the ENTIRE WORLD into the flight sim for unparalleled realism). There are many reasons to be concerned, which many have outlined, but there's huge promise here too.

As far as Stadia itself, I'm actually predicting its influence will be less than anticipated/feared, due to its pricing scheme. I thought Google would want to make the Netflix of Gaming but I think the pricing will effectively prevent that...

View this comment - View article - View full comments