been caught off guard by the revelations flowing onto and out of the forums
today concerning a “new” flight SIM that has been quietly under development
since 2009.
The product? PREPAR3D. Pronounced “prepared”. And the SIM is a total earth
environment simulator, down to and including submersible objects. Yes, as in
submarines. This is hardly surprising given that the developer is Lockheed
Martin, the huge aerospace/defense contractor.
So, what makes PREPAR3D such a big deal?
Well, the core technology is Microsoft’s own ESP technology, developed by the
ACES team. This is the team replaced by Microsoft when MsFlight went into
development. Remember about a year ago when recruitment ads were spotted looking
for MsFS SIM developers? Everyone thought this was proof positive that Aerosoft
was in the SIM business. Now, you wanna guess who placed those ads?
So, what does it all mean?
Well, simply put, all of those who’ve invested tons of money on FsX add-ons and
who’ve been fretting about: 1) the lack of future development for the core SIM
by MicroSoft, and; 2) the continued nagging voice in the back of your head
telling you that the flight physics in MsFS’s core is not really the best – now
have cause to rejoice. It’s only assumption at this point but fair to assume
that if an aerospace contractor is putting together a SIM based on existing FsX
tech that item number one is to clean up MsFs’s questionable physics. That this
might be accomplished while at the same time utilizing the vast pool of add-ons
now available for FsX? Well, your investment just received a massive transfusion
of high powered technological life support. There’s simply no other way to look
at this right now, and perhaps because – right now – the FsX community is riding
on the building crest of a very large wave of emotional energy. A lot of
questions appear to have an answer, and the answers floating around look very
good indeed.
But the truth of the matter is we simply don’t have answers to all these
questions and hypotheticals right now. This is an evolving story!
Yes, but not for everyone. Obviously a great many people are working on this,
and images are coming out. There’s no end in sight right now, but given that a
picture is worth a thousand words let’s look at nine thousand of ‘em! Nine
images taken from within PREPAR3D and up on their site. The first thing you’ll
undoubtedly notice is that Orbx and REX are apparently already strategic
partners in this venture, and that Lockheed aircraft feature prominently. Take a
look at just a few of the images available:
