MSFS team members blogs:

[Garry Russell]

Hi Leif

I don't know about backwards capable..but it does seem to be backwards.

I agree..too many gimmicks and not enough real issues, almost like a diversion from reality... that being the need to improve the realism on basics.

Garry

[DelP]

Well said Leif...

The wildlife bit is fine for those who like to fly low and slow..and lower and slower...perhaps FSX is also a testbed for an impending 'FS Safari 2008' game... :think:

I can't use the demo with all sliders to the right on my machine..and an upgrade will have to wait due to lack of cash :roll: ..and I don't see a squad car pulling all those vehicles in for speeding...

I've put the Dove into the demo....the 2D panel appears in VC view and there are some transparency problems with Garry's textures....which leads me to believe that Garry knows something that the MSFS team don't....

I'll wait and see...for a couple of years maybe......

ATB,

Derek

[DaveB]

Nicely put Leif (and CB)

Mind you.. I wouldn't mind the sound of the odd Grouse up in Scotland but I rarely stay on the ground long enough to appreciate it!!

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Garry Russell]

Hi Del

:redface:

Have you done the mod that stopped the transparacy issue

envmap.bmp was missed..copy from FS9/Texture to the FSXDemo/Texture

ATB

Garry

[PeteP]

"ATC Speak, is particularly difficult to translate from English to other Languages"

Strewth, I think that's just about the weakest, most nonsensical excuse I've heard to date for not improving ATC is FSX! For a start, in addition to English, all ICAO "ATC speak" is automatically rendered into French, Spanish and Russian - the 4 official languages of ICAO - and, I've no doubt, every other national aviation authority translates it into their mother tongue for use in their own territories. At the risk of being berated for hijacking a thread, perhaps I should clear-up a very commonly-held fallacy about the status of the English language in International ATC.

I'm sure many of you are under the impression that English is the "official" world language of Air Traffic Control - it isn't and it has no priority over a state's national language(s). Despite the fact that English is the de facto lingua franca ( ) of international aviation, it has no legal standing as such. All ICAO Annex 1 requires is that:
The English language shall be available, on request from any aircraft station, at all stations on the ground serving designated airports and routes used by international air services.

What this means in practice, is that all states are free to carry out ATC in their own language with English being available only as specified above. In order to do this, "ATC speak" has to have been translated into the national language so I think MS needs to look for a better excuse! :tuttut:
PP

[DispatchDragon]

Cheers Peter
I was hoping you would happen along - and I cheated slightly -but even so the argument was totally ridiculous to me.


Leif

BTW - Ive been using your Pompey scenery for beta'ing the Andover
nice runways

[PeteP]

Hi Leif,

Ive been using your Pompey scenery for beta'ing the Andover nice runways

Good grief - have you really? I'd forgotten about it but you've reminded me that I really must add some sort of representation of the Airspeed factory at the southern end otherwise having that huge displaced threshold on 36 looks ridiculous!

All the best
Pete

[DispatchDragon]

Just needed good short grass fields to bounce in and out of with the SuperBudgie - fits the bill wonderfully

If you added some of the buildings seen in the Portsmouth photographs
it would be marvellous pete

Cheers

leif

[Chris Trott]

Strewth, I think that's just about the weakest, most nonsensical excuse I've heard to date for not improving ATC is FSX! For a start, in addition to English, all ICAO "ATC speak" is automatically rendered into French, Spanish and Russian - the 4 official languages of ICAO - and, I've no doubt, every other national aviation authority translates it into their mother tongue for use in their own territories.

Pete, I believe this quote was taken somewhat out of context. My understanding from Mike was not that the translation itself was the issue, but the translation of the language into the programming was difficult. As French, Spanish, and Russian all have unique sentence structures when compared to English, it's not just a "replace this word with that word", you must get the ATC speech engine to properly construct its sentences for each individual language that the ATC is given in on top of maintaining the interoperability of it working in English *AND* the "native tongue" for a given area if it's in a place where you hear both.

Also, remember that for you to have multiple accents and dialects around the world, you must hire a voice actor from that region and record every possible word that can be generated from the Speech Engine and then add it to the program. Being that in FS2004 each ATC speech sound file is about 25K and there are several thousand words and letters possible for each voice, that's a *LOT* of space just to add 2 or 3 voices to each major region of the world. Not to mention that some places, like India where you're likely to hear a nearly perfect British Accent from many of the controllers as many learned their English in Britain, you have to make exceptions to the "regional" profile, so it becomes even more complex.

Again, like was said by the developers - they have a finite amount of space to work with and they have to fit into it. Sadly, some of those things we'd like won't. Anything that requires sound databases are going to be high on the list for culling because they are the largest consumption of space and thus have to be the ones most heavily scrutinized.

[DaveB]

Chris..

As far as accents are concerned, this has been done before with addon prog's like ProFlight2000 which contained 40 domestic and international voice sets which in turn came from 25,000 individual clips giving a combination of probably millions. Although produced for FS2000, it was superior to what was being offerred by M$ then and is still superior to the current incarnation in FS2004.
I honestly think that for M$ to say they have a finite amount of space and then go on to say how complicated it would be to have individual 'domestic' languages structured in the correct way is a cop-out. All most folk want (me for one) is a more realistic, less Americanised ATC and I reckon that would apply to our friends on the Indian continent who would hear English but with an Indian accent.

Don't think I'm having a go because I'm questioning your reply either. M$ have had years to have a decent shot at this and instead, we get wildlife sounds and animals. I'd really like to see the results of that worldwide survey they did as I'm sure wildlife wasn't high on anyones wish list :roll:

ATB

DaveB :tab: