How will we compete?

Global multiplayer for X-Plane 10 Mobile, and amazing 3D buildings for AeroflyFS 2020, how is IF going to compete?

I understand that the IF Development team is very small compared to these others, but does that mean that we need to expand to compete? Many hands make light work, as a wise one once said.

Some ideas I had to possibly enrich the sim:

  • Allow community generated add-ons/work, as sims like X-Plane have. Not many mobile sims have this feature.
  • Maybe there is a way to link IF scenery to Google 3D scenery? I don’t know if this would be through a partnership, application, etc.
  • Take on some voluntary developers, as an alternative to the first suggestion. If we got 50 volunteers, we would then have 56 people working (assuming we currently have 6 developers). That’s more than 9 times the current workforce.
  • 3D buildings are a must-have soon in the future.

I know it’s not a very popular opinion, however I feel like it had to be said.


I really do appreciate all the work the devs do for us, and I am very grateful. I did not mean for this topic to “attack” anyone, but just to state my opinion on the current situation.

Keep up the great work devs!


Feel free to state your opinions down below.


@pilotboy


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What will make IF stand out from the rest, is the community. Good luck on the competitors to try and make something better.

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Hmm that’s a bit overconfident and redundant, IF is certainly the best right now but I think it’s too proud to say it’ll always be the best.

Progress must be encouraged!

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I am a are of and use the features category frequently. However the issue is with the time it will take to get any features, with such a small staff. I appreciate your feedback!

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I will agree with you, the IFC is the best flight sim community. 😊

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I mean IF has dozens more aircraft and dozens more liveries then either of those other sims have

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The solution is not to say, “IF has been and will be the best”, it should be “How can we improve to continue in that position”, not fanboy and say, “we’re the best always” @Thunderbolt

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Respectfully, X-plane has these features yet they haven’t even managed to implement an effective UI, the planes aren’t that good visually either. I can’t even manage to fly or use the rudder independently from the ailerons. Overall it’s pretty awful in comparison when you can’t even have much control over the aircraft.

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IF is far superior to both you mentioned. Xplane mobile severly lacks in mobile scenery and the rendering is on the level IF was before global. To sum it up it is literally trying to cram the crappy default desktop version into a mobile device.

Aerofly’s aircraft phsyics are literally fictional. There is no sembilism ofrealistic physics in it at all and the 3d buildings are literally FSX original level. Very low quality.

Sure IF doeant have 3D buildings or completely functional cockpits but the Rendering and the light physics (pre Metal) are closer to FS2020 levels than either Aerofly or Xplane. And the flight physics and aircraft selection are more economical and higher quality than what the competition has put out. Like the reworked 772ER alone is better quality and physics wise better accuracy than the desktop Xplane Flighfactor 777. IF just cant be competed against on the same level.

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The best feature of IF is it’s commuity, the Expert Server with ATC and it’s schedule, and this is a thing the others don’t have

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This costs money and performance.

This would delay releases as there are a bunch of device issues to worry about.

Same as before. And to do what exactly? You are welcome to join ATC or Airport Editing.

This is on their radar.

Every product will have competition. Choose to do something and do it well.

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I’ve always thought it’s completely fair to be critical of a sim that you pay for and it’s staff. I think that the IF has predominately done a great job in taking feedback and respond to it.

I think IF has chosen things that they want to focus on, and there’s things that XP wanted to focus on.

When it comes to things like 3D buildings, it just seems like the other mobile sims just rushed and put them out. For things like XP with buildings, I’m glad IF just didn’t throw them in like XP and duplicated them.

For mobile sims, I’m happy IF has gone for realism way over just being a sim.

I look forward to what’s next. And looking forward to how this community continues to push the IF staff to strive for more

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Why can people not take feedback? 2 recent posts get flagged because people can’t take feedback

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I would volunteer to work on livery design and application if given the chance.

I think there should be a livery editing team, that you can get in to if you have the necessary experience to do it, that would be headed by the 3D artists to ensure QC.

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I would as well @Javier_Blancas.

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Honestly, with me having all three of these flight sims, I think Infinite Flight is the best. Don’t get me wrong, X-plane and FS2020 does have things IF doesn’t, but all in all IF has the most features when weighed against XP and FS2020.

For example, both XP and FS2020 have (mostly) fully interactive cockpits, and FS2020 may have better scenery, but there are so many more things that IF has that the other two don’t. Like. XP does have global and actual buildings, but it’s just a mess, especially now with multiplayer. I mean, you can’t really even talk with each other through ATC. So you see more collisions than you do on Casual Server. And FS2020, it doesn’t even have multiplayer or global.

Servers are another thing. I love how IF has different servers for different reasons. XP just has one, and it’s worse than Casual.

Community is probably the thing that makes IF so great. Full of nice, helpful people. And XP or FS2020 doesn’t even have a community.

So really, at the rate all these flight sims are going, I think IF will always be the dominant flight sim.

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@Chris_S perhaps we could have some of the following development teams:

  • 3D structures :
    Design any 3D buildings or items (trees) that could be implemented to the sim.
  • Livery Design :
    Design and update liveries.
  • Aircraft editing/design :
    Work on creating new and updating old aircraft.
  • Features design/editing :
    Misc. features, such as gate number pop ups and stuff like that.
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Certainly a great question! We are very much in tune with what others do and feel that healthy competition is good in any market.

You’ve mentioned a few great simulators, each with their own focus and way of presenting what is essentially the same product (flight simulator).

The Infinite Flight you’re enjoying today is the exact same Infinite Flight that launched on the Windows phone many years ago. You’ll never be asked to purchase our app again only to get a small handful of updated content. We believe in linear development of the same fundamental simulator which allows you to feel more plugged into the journey.

Our key focus is the community aspect and sensation of flying. Buildings, rain, clouds and lighting truly do elevate the experience, but none of it matters if the core aviation experience doesn’t feel right. You need to be convinced that you’re flying what you’re flying. Accomplishing this ensures you can enjoy the other community aspects we’ve focused on like ATC, multiplayer and the massive online network that keeps you flying every day of the year without it ever feeling stale.

That being said, we have begun to work on some of the things you mentioned like lighting, buildings, clouds and more. These things are undoubtedly a missing piece of the puzzle, but ones we couldn’t yet justify until the core Infinite Flight experience lived up to the simulator name. We really appreciate all of the feedback, good and bad, and can’t thank you enough for being with us!

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Thanks @Tyler_Shelton and @mwe2187 , that really made me feel good knowing that staff/IFVARB appreciate the feedback I gave. Again, I really do appreciate all the work you do.

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