I thought the player aircraft in CoD is using simulated sound now?! Are you guys sure the new sounds are based on samples?

Not these. the car device uses sensors connected to the engine: rpm & manifold pressure.

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I do believe this tech is too heavy for CoD on our machines ... but maybe in a year or two ...

I think it's somewhat in-between. Purely speculation on my part, but i believe they dynamically synthesized the sounds and then recorded a lot of smaller-than-usual samples to make the transitions more gradual, plus adding some positional filters. But then again like i said, i'm just guessing.

If what we have is completely generated on the fly, i'll be pretty impressed.

COD uses samples. You can here this when advancing the throttle from idle in the 109 as the samples transition. Nonetheless, it's done quite well IMHO. Also, asking for entirely synthesized sounds from a company that's so busy developing an already stupendously complex piece of software is asking a bit much, again IMHO (the youtube links show examples from a company (*) who seem devoted only to synthesizing engine sounds - a bit much to expect 1C to branch out into that world just yet surely?) Sure, in a perfect world....but not right now, there are other things that are more pressing. For purely synthesized sounds in a simulator, an example I can think of is 'Live for Speed', a car racing simulator, whose forums have already had multiple debates on samples vs synthesized (ie LFS vs rFactor/any ISI engined game basically). To me LFS sounds are a bit bland, an opinion not without merit, nor only my own.

* - Quote from company website:
"SONORY is a company specializes in synthesizing the sound of vehicles and its applications in modern industry.

Company developments make it possible to generate the sounds of real cars and motorcycles. At the same time we can also develop an absolutely new, original sound.

We render services in engine sound simulation of cars, motorcycles and other vehicles in video games, commercials, animation, and simulators."

So...hardly fair to expect the already overworked 1C to reinvent all this stuff and get it to sound good to us.

A2A is also doing some good sound work for their accusim products. They posted this video a couple of days ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejsc1BwKDn4

A2A (ie FSX) uses samples - again, further proof that this method is good enough for now, IMHO. (A2A Spitfire sounds are excellent)

Making 100% synthesized sounds would be:
a) Extremely tedious to get it right, i.e: same 'completeness' as recorded samples.
b) Quite more CPU demanding.

By 100% synthesized sounds I mean sounds generated by an algorythm (or several) making different tones at different frequencies to mimic the real sound, with precise patterns etc etc... very very complex and time consuming.

I don't think Maddox Games should focus on synth sounds right now ... maybe in a few years. Giving the job to a different company would be a good idea, remember a lot of tech in the industry is used from different companies.

It wouldn't need te be very CPU demanding. A lot of soundcards have a DSP which can be used for post processing, the smartest move would be to use the instruction set and capabilities of a videocard for "rendering" the sound, even sound reflecting in the air using parameters like humidity, temperature, wind direction and dust/rain/snow.

Maybe a bad idea in 2011, but I would think by 2015 computers should be fast enough.