Ian StephensIn recent years, we’ve heard a huge amount about new simulators. From the Dovetail takeover of Microsoft Flight Simulator to the development of X-Plane, we have plenty of options. However, there’s always rumors that a new name might come along and shake things up.
Every year, it feels like a new contender briefly emerges as a potential candidate, before fading. We see many simulators appear and then just vanish into the atmosphere again. From funding problems to licensing issues, there’s always a fundamental gap that stops creation from going ahead.
However, this may be about to change.
Introducing JetWay, the latest idea to hit the market for a new simulator. Headed up by Russell Williams and Jet-Fuel Studios, this new simulator has already caught a lot of interest. The most unique part, though, is that Williams and co. are turning to using a Kickstarter fund. Many other ideas have fallen flat in the third party simulation world – could this finally change that?
JetWay, then, is likely to introduce some new changes and ideas to the world of simulation. However, doubts already exist in the community about whether the project will ever get finished. After all, this isn’t the first – or the last, sadly – new simulator to get a press release.
The plan then, at the time of writing, is for a September 2017 single-player release. With multiplayer allegedly not too far behind in the ‘things to implement’ list, this is sounding encouraging. However, the schedule is incredibly ambitious for a small development team.
With supposed experience in real-life flight for development of “major flight simulation title” this may be different. We’ll be bringing you regular updates as to what the team can offer, as we hear more.
The Challenges Ahead
First off, you should ready the FAQ on the funding page. It’s got good information and the team are quite frank about the challenges ahead. And that’s what we want to look at before we take a look at potential features and implementation.
First off, the developer is quite open on the page about the timing this is all going to take. At least they are honest; too many crowdfunded gigs have ambitious timing and never admit it’s out of sync with reality.
The other big challenge is funding. However, given that they have closer to three times the amount needed than double, that appears to have been corrected. Also, Russell is quite open about the fact that impending parenthood will impact on the time and financial input he can make. They reckon they have the core mechanics ready to dance for the project, but need time to make it all work.
Seemingly the team have the design in place, the flight mechanics and the coding is started, too. The plan appears to be to make a simulator that is both interesting and attractive. Many seem to be one or the other, so the hope is that this simulator can bridge that challenging development gap that appears to exist.
What’s Coming?
Want to see more about this? Well, keep an eye out for the tech demo coming. The plan is that within four months they’ll have an Airbus A380 and a Phoenix Airport development completed for testing. It’s also supposed to come with taxing, take-off and aircraft loading features implemented.
This is due to be released in the near future, so we’ll keep you updated on that in the future.
Aimed Features
Some of the aimed features will include;
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The ability to actually step in and out of the aircraft. This is a small but major implementation, if made possible, that would make a pretty big difference. This will be done in first-person, too, which is another nice touch to add.
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Making the whole aircraft functional. This means that everything from locking cabin doors to COMs being in use will be made active. We’ll wait and see just how true that aim becomes, but it’s an ambitious and exciting plan to have. Hopefully, they’ll get this right like nobody else has.
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Start or join an airline of your choice. Whether you want to fly for your local airline or you want to jetset around the world, you’ll find lots of options (hopefully) to pick from. No mention yet if licensing will be an issue, so we’ll have to wait and see.
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Ground services and airport details will be made more exciting and in-depth than ever. This has always been a minor let down in the development of most airport sims. Hopefully, this will go some way to correcting that problem. Flights should feel far more alive, as should the airports themselves!
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General and improved sound quality, from new cabin noises to co-pilots speaking to you. It will be a nice touch that, if you ever use any third party mods, you’ll be aware does a good job. This sounds great and projects the right kind of atmosphere from within the cockpit.
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Struggling when flying? Then let your co-pilot get involved! This aims to make your team more engaged than ever. Now you can get help, so long as the co-pilot you are flying with has the skills needed. If they don’t then you have to take on the task yourself, awesome!
Other Intentions
However, some other ideas were suggested in the profile for JetWay, including;
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The chance to interact with passengers, speaking to them using a multiple choice menu wheel. This sounds awesome and would add a more immersive feel to the flight itself. At the moment flights can feel dull and a little unwelcome; this would go some way to fixing that problem.
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Making sure passengers respond to how you fly, too. Sick of seeing passengers engrossed in books when you are flying like a maniac? Then this will change that. The hope is that this will make pilots have to change their flight style to make sure that passengers will feel comfortable during the journey.
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The ability to use both IR/VR compatibility. Again, this sounds a little ambitious and we’ll wait to see how the team handle that particular challenge!
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As we mentioned before, the co-pilot will need high skill level to be of any use to you. However, the pilot will level up as time goes on, making sure that they grow as a pilot with you. Not cutting the mustard? Then sack the guy! Get in a new pilot who you can trust.
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Walk around the airport until you are ready to fly. A small but essentially important add-on that really improves authenticity.
Will all of these features be added? We sincerely doubt it. That’s just the old pessimistic side talking, but it’s pretty easy to see that this is a big project that’s going to be tough. We just hope that it does come to fruition – the market needs new, exciting competition.
Comments below!
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It says the Kickstarter is already over, with only $82 pledged.
The Kickstarter page notes that funding was unsuccessful on Sept. 12 raising $84 of the desired $8,000. To make a AAA title with quality graphics, models and physics, requires way, way more than $8,000.
If all of that extra detail is incorporated into the possible simulator program, it will require some pretty powerful computer processing hardware, video cards of upwards of 3 to 4 gb and higher, maybe multiple video cards as well as huge amounts of RAM. I doubt if it could be run on the "average" computer. I'd be more concerned with the flying experience rather than adding plane "walk-thru' and extra ground effects and other memory-wasting "fluff." It's no problem for me to build my own computer, I did it for FSX and would modify it again to run just about anything I wished to, but most people don't have that capability. Stick to the basics. (I'm a 4 year simulator commercial pilot with well over 250 hours).
Whatever happens to Air to Air Military Flt Sims (F-18; USN Fighter, etc.)? Why aren't there any sims that offer air-to-air and air-to-surface engagements?
the kickstarter campaign ended already :(
Plenty of Options?!...for me it always been FSX and XPLANE...but the question is: WILL DOVETAIL WILL RELAUNCH A REVAMPED FSX BY THE END OF THIS YEAR??????
I really wish you well, hooks into existing REALLY GREAT DLC are key here... if you haven't already, 1. start building libraries that can be shared ... a. are .dll compatible with FSUIPC. 2. Consider licensing proven, ubiquitous, and; 3. Base your
A new flight simulator is what everybody is waiting for. I´m still using the FS9, don´t like the FX. Microsoft could improved the FS9, but nothing was made, despite add ons airports with more traffic . So if a new simulator is coming, I think that it will be very much appreciated among the simulators and I´m looking forward forf it.
Best rgds Richard São Paulo, Brasil
The best flight simulator I ever had was FSX since the beginning. Sine the appearance of windows 10 all I have is problems. I hope that some day soon a new flight simulator will come and replace all the others that are not so good.
At the present time I am satisfied with Steam FSX. There are occasional problems; The drop down menus and sub-folders do not always work. Also, when in ILS mode the aircraft does not always line up with the runway on approach.
There help desk is slow to answer and they seem to send you to Steam sites to have you do the research and hopefully a fix. Does not always work. Then a print out of your entire computer system is always required.
Over time problems do get solved. Patience is required however.
if you haven't already,
1. Develop relationships with creators of existing REALLY GREAT DLC are key; A. Negotiate with them as to the location and use of their internal hooks. B. start building libraries that can be shared, with them and; C. Are .dll compatible with FSUIPC. 2. Consider licensing proven, ubiquitous, code libraries and; 3. Base your world on a sphere rather than planar 4. Research the best PD collaboration/versioning tools.
I wish you luck! I am Pointing lots of Healing / positive vibes to dad and his new family.
...and to y'all creative warriors, as you charge into the good fight against complacency and the gods Murp & Yslaw, the crushers of Insipired Aspiration...
The influence of those two demons can be significantly reduced by making sure you develope good structure and intel on avoiding their manifold paths
👍 Chas
Good on them and I wish them well........... A little surprised that they chose to introduce an Airbus 380 to start with as many in the market do not fly heavy metals - especially as involved as the 380!!! Would have thought Cesna or Beachcraft would have been the way to go to introduce the sim. I think low and slow would have been the better option to start with, but hey, if it all goes as expected, then I'll be in.
I am very disappointed in this article. It claims the developer has collected about triple what was asked, yet when I go to Kickstarter, it shows only $82 out of $8,000 and that the campaign only ran from Aug 23, 2016 to Sept 12, 2016 and yet you released this article Sept 20, 2016 giving no one with any interest a chance to help.
The other problem I seem to have is that I can find no information on the developer or this project anywhere on the internet. Did you wait for them to fail and close shop before posting this article or what? What happened to them?
My first thoughts were similar to @Dan Silverman. To achieve such ambitious screen imagery, computing resources beyond the reach of many private users would be required. And with multiple thousands of dollars (some 450Gb) of add-ons invested, I would not want to start from scratch again, no matter how tempting a new Sim was.
Still it is human nature that we will always strive to achieve new and better things so I wish them well and will watch with detached curiosity. Cheers Anton.
I don't care for it at the present.
I can't believe you think this is real. Just look at the funding level rewards. $200 and you can get an X52 + 2 T-Shirts etc. Hello! An X52 can be purchased for $150, add a couple of $5 T-shirts... this isn't funding for any real cause. They can't make a dime on this. SCAM
Just to remind people than in the last 3 years we have had an explosion of Flight Simulators! X-Plane, Prepar3D 1,2,3 FSX-Steam Edition, DTG Flight School, soon to come X-Plane 11, DTG Flight Simulator, Prepar3Dv4, AeroFly, without mentioning the Combat Flight Simulations out there. The Market is Hot and without coming out with something truly special is a pretty Steep heel to clime!!! It look to me like they wanted to create a simulator with all the addons Included!!!
I have used flight simulation since very early the days of the Bruce Artwick organization. Bruce was one of the best innovators of FS, which is one of the reason that Microsoft brought him into their fold. The 2008 market crash saw the demise of MS flight simulation and with that disappeared the days of single FS platform supported by a single manufacturer. However, the demise of MS FS created another side to the coin, a big rise in independent developers across the different products such as FS2009 and FSX and Steam. These indies have produced myriad products, some mediocre and some quite exceptional, which may not have happened if MS had stayed in the game.
What would be ideal is to have the development community come up with a flight simulation platform that embraces the needs of the FS community from novice learner to users with advances skills. I would love to see a consortium of developers concentrating in a profit sharing platform that would embrace all aspects from a basic platform to the full complement of aircraft, weather, et al that would satisfy all users.
MS has let us down but their absence from FS world has created a better world for the advancement of FS.
I'd like to comment on the many offerings out there of so-called flight lessons......flight schools....etc. etc. All have one common problem. There are no lessons. Only tests. And , at the first sign of trouble, the sessions end. Yet, when a student pilot messes up, that's when a lesson should begin....not end. A lesson is a presentation with modelling, demonstrations, illustrations, and encouragements. Not scolding, criticism, and the barking of a series of unconnected orders. That is why so many shy away from flight sim schools. Basically, they are not schools. They are simply tests, and impatiently delivered ones. Hopefully, some day, that too will change..........
Been flying since 1995 Newest is FSX but I had to build a hot computer to run it. i7 processor good motherboard ad an Nvidea card but works fairly well frame rate unlimited. All the scenery and aircraft I an get my hands on so my suggestion, take all the good from FS9 and FSX put together, improve the bad and stay away from Steam, I do not like having to sign in to get any features. Self contained. That is my wish. Online only for multi player and live weather. Get rid of those security issues when installing like FSX!
FSX for me. I have played with them all, P3D, XPlane and so the list goes on. With all the new computers getting faster CPU speed - don't forget the price people have to pay, the developers have tried to stay on par with graphics as well, but, the realism of flying goes to FSX, if you know how to tune it. From Win8 to Win10, these programs are gearing up towards the Cell phone market and not gaming. Final word from me.................FSX Regards Ben, South Africa
I'm still waiting for a Simulator that takes all ground structures from satellite while flying!
Well, the project is very nice, and ambitious, and I could think to contribute to help de DEV, but I have laks of informations, such as, will it be a 32 or 64 bit? I hope 64, otherwise we will have the same problem we are getting with FSX and P3d, OUT OF MEMORY (VAS). Wich engine are they planning to use? Will there be capable progam to interface with the sim? Will there be real weather and how? Will it be possible to fly with 2 different (mods) Pro and casual? I mean, I use PMDG or Aerosoft Airplanes, but when I don't have a lot of time and just want to make a small flight, I use an A318 from Rikoo and I fly from Milan to Rome in 0.45 min. @ Charles Gorton, If you want to play with Fighter jet and this kind of stuff, you can use DCS or DCS 2.0. @Dan, I don't think you need and high end computer to run this simulator, may be you need an High end computer to run everything max out, if you want all the possible details. Computer with 4gb of RAM for actual games in 2016 are already "OLD", with this kind of hardware this people can not use modern "games/simulators". If we are speaking about a new Sim, it doesn't make sense to create it in order to suite 6-7 years hardware. When I start P3d with all the add ons, my rom goes from 1.3 Gb to over 4GB, with an old (FSX engine) , I think now in 2016 the minimum RAM should be 8 GB ( I have 16gb; 8x2) . Regarding the GPU, i hope this SIM will be GPU dependent and NOT CPU, so finally it make sense to buy an gtx 1070 or 1080, with the actual sims the bootle neck is always the CPU, especcially FSX, with P3D it start to use Tessallation .
I would rather have major improvement on the fsx,P3D and x plane than have a new simulator.We are a small community and I do not think there is room for a simulator more.The makers of addons will not paticipate, I am sure. Happy flying
I don't know whether or not someone has ever proposed an option for a flight simulator that contemplates sitting in the cabin as a normal passenger and looking out of the window to the vast panorama downwards in search of some landmarks in it (rivers, lakes, towns, large cities, monuments and so on). The idea is optionally pinpointing these landmarks with some kind of non-invasive signal and then being able to explore them on some source of information (wikipedia? descriptions, photos even short video clips). It would be doing a sort of a real air trip. Obviously take-off and landing should be fully automatised: in other words one should enter the plane, sit down and comfortably enjoy a complete route without having to do anything.
Well probably I would check out other versions of flight simulations if I knew they were as good as FS9 or x plane 9 but what if they don`t work on my computer" Core 2 XP professional" maybe old and outdated but it is really a very broad simulation when you count all the additions and mods FS9 can handle! Probably why others just fade away and die.
What about those who enjoy vfr flights in light aircraft? The whole scheme seems way too ambitious and, as already mentioned, I don't think a PC has yet been built which is capable of running this proposed flight sim. I have been simming since FS2002, graduated through FS2004 and am more than happy with FSX Gold Edition (without Steam)
Sirs, I have read all the comments shown here but I couldn't find anything so "identical" to my previous post, as your warning stated. Are part of the comments not shown along the ones visible? However, good luck!
I for one would like to see a Flight Sim Program that uses both CPU and GPU efficiently, Also it needs to be compatable with at least FUIPC and SIM CONNECT. As I am retired i would like to be able to use my FSX add ons & my Saitek Hardware, as its too late in the day for me to start collecting add ons again. Also its good that you are asking for our needs. Thanks J M Smith
You guys ought to check out Aerofly FS2. I have an early release version from Steam meaning it's still new but constantly being updated. As of now, it has full photoreal scenery with real world elevation data, the whole country of Switzerland and California, Nevada, and Arizona including 3D buildings and airports, trees, roads, highways, bridges, the whole nine yards etc. Boeing 747 jumbo jet ; McDonnell Douglas F-18 combat aircraft; Cessna 172; Vought F4U Corsair fighter aircraft; Extra 330 aerobatic monoplane; Aermacchi MB-339 military trainer; Marganski Swift S1 aerobatic glider; Lockheed P-38 Lighting fighter aircraft; Boeing 737 airliner; Airbus A320 twin-engine jet airliner; King Air C90 Gtx twin-turboprop; Sopwith F.1 Camel single-seat biplane fighter; Learjet 45 business jet ; Pitts S-2B aerobatic biplane; Schleicher ASG 29 high performance sailplane; Beechcraft Baron 58 twin-engined piston aircraft check out their website www.aerofly.com
First of all, will it be a 64 bits application ?
This sounds like it's going to be a fantastic simulator. From what I've read I can hardly wait. It almost sounds too good to be true. I personally use both FS9 as well as FSX. I like 2004 a little better but FSX has items that 2004 needs. I tried x-plane and didn't quite like it nearly as much as 2004,FSX. I hope this does work and is completed with the goals that are laid out. If it happens this will be a grand slam in the flight sim community. I'm all for it.
Hello Fellow Simmers,
My name is Russell Williams and I am the founder of Jet-Way simulator. I wanted to let you all know that we re-launched our project on Kickstarter! We are not solely concerned with the financial aspect that Kickstarter provides, but for the audience and criticism that comes with it. Yes, Criticism. We want to know everyone's opinion, Good and bad. That is the only way a GREAT simulator will ever come to light. Sure, We can create a sim. without any of your input, but than it will be like every other that came before us. We want and strive to be different in every aspect.
From reading some of your comments and this article I can tell that a lot of you are skeptical about Jet-Way. That is only normal with the world we are living in and we do not blame any of you for having those thoughts. We are still in the early phases of development, So for those asking for detailed specifications and for details about Jet-Way that have very simply not been incorporated yet, Please be patient. We are doing our best. My team and I were modest about what we asked for on Kickstarter, Due to having sufficient funds to get us to where we are now, but due to the unexpected death of a Team member, Friend and investor, that has changed.
I wanted to personally update you all on the situation and to let you know that Jet-Way is underway once again. We see no future obstacles that will prevent us from having our "Flight test" released in September,20`7. If any of you have questions, Input or concerns, Please feel free to message me on Facebook or directly on Kickstarter, anytime. I hope that you all can see that we are doing something GREAT! Not only for our team, but for all of you! Please read the Kickstarter and see what's new! We appreciate the support!
Hope to hear from you soon!
Best Regards, Russell Williams & Team
Please please please can AI audio from ATC and pilots not be all American accents.
Hi Jetway folks
I for one would be up for it, I wish you all the best and please keep in touch.
Best Regards Dave
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1224402202/jet-way-flight-sim-a-way-of-life-re-launched?ref=profile_created
This is the new kickstarter!
Can anyone explain to me what happened when I was told that my computer was able to transfer all mymicro7 to 10? Now my fliught sim. X has black screens and drops out after 10 minutes or so and no answers from anyone! Now I can't fly....any suggestions? Help PLEASE!!!
Hello Dan,
If your problem persists. Please feel free to message our team on Facebook and maybe one of us can assist you in trouble shooting your problem to get you back in the air! Look us up on Facebook, 'Jet-Way'. Hopefully we can help you out!
Best Regards, Russell Williams & Team
I would just like worldwide accurate scenery/elevation/airports/navaids and fully working a/c such as PMDG. Seasons and weather are a must.
hi everyone, 2 years have passed, any news?