Yes, certainly there are some (I even develop for one). I won't go and start naming other companies and examples here on FSDT's forums though, that is disrespectful to you.
Since I've explicitly asked for it, it won't be obviously considered "disrespectful". And of course, it would make sense saying there *are* other companies in the flight sim world that offers free major upgrades after 5 years, if the upgrade is REALLY a major one so, in this case, we are discussing about:
- Redoing the ENTIRE ground from scratch, removing every trace of FS8/9 legacy code, in order to get full DX10/DX11 compatibility. This has the side effect that even the runway lights would have to be custom modeled from scratch, because that method doesn't work with plain AFCAD runways.
Due to how this works, and the fact that we are basically the only FS developers that HAVE 100% FSX native code *including* ground AND for very large airports (not bush airfields), I'd say any comparison ends up here, because another developer wouldn't even have to do this, since they don't have this feature to begin with.
I repeat that this is a REAL 100% native FSX code, that DOES NOT require the DX10 fixer and it comes with the performance improvement associated to the complete removal of the old FS8 code ( 30% fps gain at JFK, in the very problematic NY area, it might be even better at KLAS ).
Something that still requires the DX10 fixer does NOT qualify to be comparable to this, and certainly won't require such a massive redoing so yes, we would offer it for free, and we DID IT, with the O'Hare and Zurich updates (Zurich had 2 major free updates)
We did all of this for JFK V2, instead, which is why JFK V2 is not free, although it's heavily discounted as an upgrade.
- A new terminal, which involves redoing all the taxiway and parking layout around it so, the KLAS update might be potentially more involved than the JFK update, but it won't cost more.
So, to refine my previous question: can you name a developer that offers a FULL, major upgrade with full DX10/11 compatibility in true 100% native code without requiring the (not free) DX10 fixer (and that wouldn't stop the performance loss of the still present FS8 code), 5 YEARS after release, FOR FREE ?