Surely not!!?

Gamasutra - Report: Microsoft Makes Big Cuts At Flight Sim Studio (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21981)

Well if it's directly related to poor sales of FSX then I'm not surprised. FS2004 was a highly respected version of MSFS that still works well on almost any hardware launched within the last 2 years. Development of third party add-ons was relatively simple and many great developers invested heavily in this area. FSX has turned the sim into an eye candy laden piece of drama that lacks flying realism and demands expensive hardware. The flight models just get worse with every new version. The average user is satisfied with a piss poor 12fps but experienced users will be looking for twice that. And there is the problem. Recently, MS have been targetting the sim at the wrong crowed, wooing them with graphics and eye candy. All the while casting aside the serious FS user who demands accuracy and realism with respect to flight modelling and atmosphere modelling and efficiency (efficient software that is not resource hungry).

Well, it's hardly suprising as I think that FS2004 probably reached the limit of what is possible with PC, monitor, and "micky mouse" set of flying controls.
I have watched computer flight simulation since the original wire graphic one which ran on the old Apple ][ way back in 1980. In those days the cost of such a computer (6502 CPU, 16K of RAM and a cassette tape for softwre loading) was prohibitively expensive for the average U.K. enthusiast - before the days of the Sinclair Spectrum! Since then we have had the Microsoft Flight Simulator which was based on "FS2" for the Apple ][ and started life on a 360K disc. Since the earliest days I have seen it produce very rapid progress in many aspects of flight training and as it has become more sophisticated (as the power of PCs has iincreased) it has become an ever more useful tool in this application. These days with the myriad of 3rd. party addons available, it is also useful with some aspects of type rating training and I know that the Military have not been slow to appreciate its usefulness for the unique training that they need to provide.
Unfortunately, software houses have to make a regular income and modify and develop their products so as to maintain demand. Microsoft are now desparate to sell copies of Office 2007 so have designed it to produce .docx files. This is instead of their standard .doc files which just about everybody uses and this is to try and make all the excellent wordprocessing software they have written before the 2007 version obsolete! This sort of trick is not possible with FS software so, as far as Microsoft are concerned, this software has reached the end of its useful life. No doubt, before long, it will enter the category of "Abandonware" and hopefully be freely available for copying to continue its valuable role in the pilot training field as well as all its other gaming applications.

P.P.

Corr blimey, there's a bit of nostalgia for you!

Absolutely agree with you on the .docx shite. Though it is possible to at least half inter-operate with the 'Office 2007 Compatibility Pack'.

Oh yes - I've got the compatibility pack as well so I can just about open the files, but it is those people who have bought their shiny new laptops, managed to cope with Vista and then want to send me a text file. Office 2007 is there, all shiny and new and just waiting to do so for them! Of course, they don't bother to note that it is generating .docx files, don't realise that it can be made to generate ordinary .doc files, and then in about 80 days, when they have a load of new .docx files on their new harddrive, the program will stop working so that unless they shell out about £80 they will no longer be able to access them. Sneaky.
Last time I acquired a new laptop, I managed to find one with XP on it, played around with Office 2007 and noted all this, then completely uninstalled it in favour of my old tried and trusted Office XP (2002).

But then, personal computing has always had to put up with this type of trick - due to the innovative business acumen of Bill Gates - it's worked for him!

P.P.