Could Il-2 planes be ported to MSFS2020 and create extra income for the devs?

[Freycinet]

Hi Jason and all the rest of you,

 

I think everybody in the flightsimming world is very excited about MSFS2020. So great to see the venerable franchise seemingly hit it out of the ballpark. It can only be good for other sims that MSFS gets new people into the hobby.

 

So, since the plane set of MSFS is a bit limited in these early days, I was wondering if 1CGS could perhaps gain an extra income porting the wonderful plane models to MSFS? Of course the planes would be limited in their functionality in MSFS, no shooting and bombing, and probably in the damage model and flight model as well. But that shouldn't be a problem and could perhaps even entice players to get Il-2 after flying the planes in MSFS.

 

I think it could be win-win for both parties and I would love for more people to see and fly the wonderful planes and cockpits of Il-2 (and Flying circus too, of course).  The two sims could definitely need more exposure. Google searches for "world war two combat flight sim" and "world war one combat flight sim" don't really give great results for "our" sims... - What better than having MSFS as a huge shopping window for Il-2 and Flying Circus?

 

Cheers,

Freycinet

[AndyJWest]

It might be possible to port over the 3D models, though I suspect even that might not be simple. Nothing else would be usable, given the completely unrelated game engines. If this were to be a viable proposition economically, I'd have to suggest that the best way to do it would be for 1C-777 to license the models to a third party, since (as far as I'm aware) they don't have any experience with development for any of the MSFS predecessors. And developing IL-2 GB content is keeping them busy enough already...

[The_GhostRider]

Why would anyone want to port these beautifully rendered fighting machines into a civilian sim? I doubt it would be economically beneficial and it would suck resources from a team with an already substantial workload in front of them. 

[AndyJWest]

36 minutes ago, The_GhostRider said:

Why would anyone want to port these beautifully rendered fighting machines into a civilian sim?

 

There seems to be a demand for military aircraft in the civ sim market. Take a look at this thread on the MSFS forum:

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/which-aircraft-are-at-the-top-of-your-wishlist-for-third-party-devs-to-make/296417/38

 

Amongst the usual GA aircraft and tubeliners, there is more than a smattering of fighting machines.

[Freycinet]

17 hours ago, The_GhostRider said:

Why would anyone want to port these beautifully rendered fighting machines into a civilian sim? I doubt it would be economically beneficial and it would suck resources from a team with an already substantial workload in front of them. 

 

Because they are a hoot to fly?

17 hours ago, AndyJWest said:

It might be possible to port over the 3D models, though I suspect even that might not be simple. Nothing else would be usable, given the completely unrelated game engines. If this were to be a viable proposition economically, I'd have to suggest that the best way to do it would be for 1C-777 to license the models to a third party, since (as far as I'm aware) they don't have any experience with development for any of the MSFS predecessors. And developing IL-2 GB content is keeping them busy enough already...

 

Sounds totally correct!

 

3D models, plane and cockpits, lots of info about the flight model, LODs perhaps.... Quite a lot of precious material and info can be used for sure.

 

Yes, having partners work on it will of course be much better than employing our poor, overworked Il-2 developers!

[PatrickAWlson]

Much would depend on whether MSFS2020 had an open API.  Presumably, if both are close to real world physics models then it might be able to translate IL2 to MSFS.  Similarly, if MSFS has the ability to take in externally defined 3d models then that would also go towards making it possible.  Whether possible or not, I doubt that it would be easy.  FMs are persnickety things.

 

[JamesJninFS]

Sure you could do it, you could also port them to just about any other flight sim, perhaps even something ancient like FS2004 if you really wanted to. It's a matter of if you want to take the time and resources to do so. And I imagine the big problem would be that Jason and company would basically need to learn to develop aircraft basically from scratch for the new flight sim. Sure you'd be able to carry over elements like the 3D model and the audio, but scripting wise it's brand new. Now think about how long devs are taking with MSFS to make them, most if not all of them are working off of their old FSX & P3D aircraft to some extent, and also many of them have been involved with the sim for over a year. For anyone who would be basically completely new it will likely take even longer, and at that point you'll probably have other places ready to compete with them with their own Mustangs & Spitfires.

 

I'd also note the aircraft made for IL-2 & MSFS have very different purposes. IL-2 is a combat sim, so the model's very much made with features that makes sense for one, mainly useable weapons, and detailed damage modeling, these features are completely useless for MSFS. On the other hand they lack full functional cockpits, something critical for MSFS. That leaves me to wonder how much of the model you'd need to redo to optimize it for MSFS.

 

One final thing is that Jason and the team I'm guessing highly value having full control over everything they do. Not only do they have their own game it's on their own engine, that's not something you'll always see from big companies, let alone one relatively small like his. So I'd question if they really want to develop stuff for another game when they're not only not gonna understand it as well as their in-house game engine in the first place, but also have to constantly deal with whatever changes Microsoft make to the sim.