Microsoft "Flight" Marks Return to Flight Sim Business

[Matt Molnar]

MS announced today that they are developing new flight simulator software with a product called "Flight", following the demise of their long-lived Flight Simulator series in early 2009.

No word on ship date or pricing, just this trailer:

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/

[hiss srq]

Just saw that this morning..... Shame...... RIP MSFS

[Speedbagel_001]

Glad to hear something new is coming. I couldn't believe it when they pulled the plug in the first place. Let's hope this time around there will be a native Mac version!

[T-Bird76]

Hopefully this one won't be as much of a memory pig as the last one. FSX has some stellar graphics but was a resourse pig which made it horrible to run.

[Matt Molnar]

Let's hope this time around there will be a native Mac version!
Doubt it, but FSX runs great on my iMac via Bootcamp.

[Speedbagel_001]

Yeah, after MS has refused for decades to make a Mac version, I doubt it too. Just hopeful thinking I guess.
I've always wondered how well it runs in Bootcamp. What kind of iMac are you running it on? What kind of framerates are you seeing?

[Matt Molnar]

I have a 24in iMac, I think it's two generations old now: 2.8GHz CPU, 2GB RAM and using Windows Vista Ultimate for the Windows side. I haven't measured the frame rates, but most of my graphics settings are either at the highest or near the highest they can go and it runs pretty smoothly.

[Speedbagel_001]

I have a 24in iMac, I think it's two generations old now: 2.8GHz CPU, 2GB RAM and using Windows Vista Ultimate for the Windows side. I haven't measured the frame rates, but most of my graphics settings are either at the highest or near the highest they can go and it runs pretty smoothly.

If I remember correctly, if you type SHIFT + Z twice while in the simulator it'll put some info at the top of the screen. One of the items it shows is your current frame rate.

Nevertheless, that's impressive that it runs smoothly on your setup, especially with only 2GB RAM. My home iMac is a little older than that (Last of the "white" iMacs) so I've been reluctant to go the BootCamp/Windows route only to be potentially disappointed if it ran like a slug. My nearly decade old Gateway can't run it more than about 5FPS, but FS2004 works much better.
Ironically enough, the iMac at my office is the latest and greatest Core i5 27" model. I know FSX would just FLY (pun intended) on this iMac. Too bad I have to use it for actual "work"!

[Fighting_falcon_51]

MS will probably not make a native version of this game. And if they do it will most likely be poorly optimized.

It will probably run fine in bootcamp. If this game utilizes DX11 most Macs wont be able to use it (except for the current gen) simply because the hardware does not support it.

[megatop412]

Speedbagel- believe it or not I was running FS4 on a Mac Plus when I was in college. Unlike my roomate's Mac SE, the thing didn't even have a hard drive- I had to load the OS first then the game, unlike my roomate who could just boot straight away from the hard disk. But that was OK, because I was so glad I wasn't running FS2 on the C64 anymore. At least NOW I could fly from Chicago to JFK in the Lear!

[Speedbagel_001]

Megatop, that's awesome!

I can relate - I started with FS from nearly the beginning. My memory of it might be a little fuzzy though!

First saw FS1 running on an Apple // back in '82 or '83. Got my own //e in '84 and a fresh copy of FS2 for the Apple - I was amazed and spent many hours exploring the "skies". Now, the Mac version was a little bit different in those days since there was no such thing as "color" on a Mac, for instance until about '89 or so. In those days, the Apple versions were originally published by Sublogic, which I think was founded by the author of FS, Bruce Artwick.

At some point, Microsoft got involved with the Artwick Organization and started publishing a version for PC's. Around the early '90s, there was a new Mac version that supported color and I got that for my then new Mac IIcx. It was many times better than the old Apple version but started lagging behind in scenery and aircraft options that you could get on the PC version. Shortly afterwards, the Mac version got thrown to the dustbin of history and Microsoft hasn't cared one bit.

It's probably our last chance to get a new native Mac version from Microsoft now that they're starting the franchise over again. But yeah, I know it's not likely due to graphics/coding differences. I guess we'll all have to see what the system req's will be - all in due time.

Here's a good website to recall the previous versions and a very detailed timeline:
http://fshistory.simflight.com/

I have to read through it myself as it's quite a story with many twists and turns...