Speaking of FS9

[phantomfreak]

After reading the comments from the last post about when or if FS9 end, got me to thinking. I've been using FS9 ever since I got it as a gift in 2007, I think FSX was also out at that time. I'm sure there are probably hundreds of posts on this, but how easy or difficult is it converting from FS9 to FSX? From what I understand FSX also uses dxt/.bmp textures as well as .dds. I think I'm safe in saying that several of my repaints are flying in FSX skies. If so that's great. Do scenery objects transfer over as well as easily?

With FS2020 around the corner, do we know yet if it is compatible with FS9 or FSX with aircraft or scenery?

[Firebird]

The paints are very easy to transfer over in theory. The only stumbling block, that I am aware of, is whether or a model in FSX is a fully FSX compliant model. The reason being that it depends on what textures the mdl calls for. If it is an FS9 model that calls for a bmp graphic then converting a texture to .dds is not going to work. Using JY's C-130s as an example. the scheme format depends upon the system the model was compiled for. However, if you have a scheme for one system it is easy enough to convert to another. I have done this on numerous occasions.

I will let somebody who knows more about the subject talk about scenery conversions. As to whether you need to or not. I do know that the transparency system changed which caused much consternation amongst FSXers, and this was part of the reason why all the MAIW standard libs were converted to FSX versions. For other reasons I will let people that know what they are talking about speak.

I am not a beta tester for 2020 and the trouble is that beta testers are under NDA so they can't talk about such things. This is what I would surmise from the past. FS9 aircraft were supposed to be compatible in FSX - some were and some weren't. FSX aircraft are supposed to be compatible in 2020 - my guess is that some will be and some won't. On the scheme side of things I had not heard anything at all.
What I read in the link that Tim gave at the weekend is that there is a drag and drop converter for older models in 2020. However, they state that not everything will be able to be converted across. What I gleaned from that is the fact models with clever tricks included using facilities not carried over to 2020 have less chance of being converted successfully 100%. What that specifically means and what are likely to be affected is anybody's guess.
After all I remember when FSX came out there were various lists of models that were not compatible for various reasons.

We will just have to find out when we get it.

Two other things of note.
Firstly stuff made for P3D. P3D has evolved from the FSX source sold by MS. I gather that P3D users are wary about whether the next version is fully backward compatible with the previous version or earlier ones.
What we don't know is whether this means that aircraft produced for that are more or less likely to be compatible with 2020. Again it is something that only time will reveal.

Finally, and personally I think that this is potentially the biggest problem area for us. Nothing has been officially said about this area yet - the fde. We know that the fde has been completely overhauled for 2020. Spectacularly so. My guess is that the new AI engine will have been as well. Either it will use the same engine or again it will be a reduced set of the new one.
So the key question is will the new dynamics engines be backwards compatible with the old ones?

This was really what I need to know. In an ideal world we would have had the SDK available before the release to at least start to plan for any adjustments. From the latest I heard the SDK will not be available until sometime after release.

I have to wait and hope.

[phantomfreak]

Thanks Steve for your answers.