Interview with P3D Software Manager

[allardjd 1,853]

Interview with P3D Software Manager

There's a very informative interview at FlightSim.com of Wesley Bard, the software manager for Lockheed Martin's Mission Systems and Training business. He's described as the techncial lead for the P3D team.

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/content.php?13740-FlightSim-Com-Interviews-Wesley-Bard-Of-Lockheed-Martin-About-Prepar3D

[britfrog 180]

Thanks for that John, however as usual it is more interesting for what he doesnt say than what he does say., personally the only positive (for me) to take away is the incorporation of dx11 however there is no mention of 64bit at all. I have a horrible feeling LM are doing a sneaky on us and using the "students" etc to pinpoint the shortfalls of fsx ,after all the feedback we are giving them is FREE!!

thus making the product more industry standard , before closing the door on us by hiking the prices beyond the reach of the average student etc I do hope that I am wrong but I am starting to think that P3D will only be a stop gap before we all move onto something else.

 

as an aside, It is interesting to note the differences between the dev's of P3D and Flight, the P3D crew are all avid supporters of flying (plane spotters?) with one or two studying for exams, whereas the dev team at flight contained many real, long standing pilots. 

 

On the other hand this keynote speech by Rob Randazzo at the avsim fancon is far more revealing and upbeat. His thoughts on FLIGHT reveal the problems at M.S. for the developers of that prog which reinforced what I (we) had already gleaned about M.S. under the current management. Sadly for us supporters of FSX he seems to indicate (in his opinion) that the future of our hobby lies with X plane, but all is not lost as he also intimates that there are more than one other (so far un named ) that are in the wings developing a new platform for a sim.

In short he sees a rosy future for our hobby!  Time will tell!

 

Initially it is difficult to hear him because of the clink of plates and glasses etc but you can download his speech here:

 

http://forum.avsim.net/page/index.html/_/pri-news/rob-randazzos-fancon-key-note-address-r1315

 

 

 

[mutley 4,487]

Thanks for the link BF.

I am sure that like the hardcore users of FS9, FSX will outlive many new sims, XPX has proved to be too geeky for many and the scenery and environment are awful. The only exception was the VFR scenery from RC Simulations.

[ddavid 149]

Thanks, John - enlightening. Must find that $50 sometime, eh?

 

Cheers - Dai.

 

[allardjd 1,853]

I see good news in two things in particular here...

#1 is their stated intent to improve the performance. The obvious way to do that is unlocking the power inherent in our existing hardware by making the software better able to use it, e.g. multiple processors, better use of graphics cards, ability to use very large memory arrays, etc.

#2 is the fact that they see the academic license as a way to get the software into the hands of student engineers, designers, scientists, etc. as a broad-based, flexible, easy to use, general purpose simulation tool. That says to me that they promote and encourage tinkering with it and will provide the tools to do that. That bodes well for us too - the more open ended, extensible, tweakable it is, the more capability for it to be used as a platform for extending the flight simulation genre. If it can model the hypothetical, then it can certainly model that which already exists - the current real-world aviation environment. That use of P3D may not be exactly what L-M has in mind, but the capability to do what they describe plays into the hands of traditional FS developers too - you can't have what they envision without also creating a platform suitable for what we envision, the NGFS.

John

[CapBar 0]

If tehy develope weapons + dog fights... it will fun

 

8)

[J G 927]

If tehy develope weapons + dog fights... it will fun

 

8)

 

I note the smile but .......

 

I couldn't agree less.  This would make the simulation into a game and trivialize the whole thing. CFS is for that, or a playstation game, and if you have ever played an online game of something like Battlefield 3 and heard the chatter that usually accompanies it, then you would soon understand the reasons for not even thinking about going there!!! 

[Andrew Godden 934]

.....and if you have ever played an online game of something like Battlefield 3 and heard the chatter that usually accompanies it, then you would soon understand the reasons for not even thinking about going there!!! 

 

Oh, I don't know John.

 

I have a very regular FSX MP session with a bunch of senior professional type people and it couldn't be any more outrageous...jokes, quips, gibes, veiled digs, innuendo, double entendres, wit, outright sarcasm and blatant excessive use of MP humour (that is Monty Python).

 

Mind you, we are all 100% certifiable and actually, are a true classic case of being the lunatics in charge of the asylum...          

 

Now, I wonder who they could be.

 

Cheers

Andrew

[J G 927]

 

I have a very regular FSX MP session with a bunch of senior professional type people and it couldn't be any more outrageous...jokes, quips, gibes, veiled digs, innuendo, double entendres, wit, outright sarcasm and blatant excessive use of MP humour (that is Monty Python).

 

Mind you, we are all 100% certifiable and actually, are a true classic case of being the lunatics in charge of the asylum...          

 

Am I right in thinking that you have never played the Playstation game I mentioned?  Dont be shy, you can tell me?

 

Most of the folks I flightsim with are totally barking, and I include myself in that fraternity, but we are almost universally nice nutters!

 

The playstation chat tends to consist of belittling others on line, swearing at them and generally being as unpleasant as possible to anyone who has joined the game. It is very nasty indeed. So much so that I set up a PS3 clan for my kids to protect them from such hideousness.  Ironically, many years later, the clan survives today as a successful and very polite refuge for the mature gamer. My kids and I don't take part any more, except for the running of the service on my part.