Flight Simulator thread

[[CoR]MiccyNarc]

Hey, I was just wondering what everyone's favorite FS is, what you own, what you still play, etc.

Currently I play Flight Simulator 2004. I own 2002, 98, and Combat Flight Simulator 2.

I'm considering buying IL-2, but I'm more interested in a more modern combat FS, and was wondering what you all recommend? I <3 flying low with massive engines pushing me along at Mach 2.

So, discuss flight simulators here.
By the way, my favorite FS sight is flightsim.com

A lot of info on MSFS sims with many many downloads.

[[-project.rattus-]]

For modern fighting I can recommend Lock On - Modern Air Combat or the new Falcon 4.0.

Allthough I find WW2 Aircombat much more fun than BVR-pressing-buttons-ignoring-*****ing-betty crap...

[WickedPenguin]

For Civilian:
Best: Hands-down Microsoft FS2004. No matter what your opinion is of M$, this is the ultimate simulator with the best add-ons. I use it for flight training purposes and it's helped me immensely with my pilot's license. Whether you want to fly a Cessna on a local hop, or a transatlantic Boeing Triple-7 flight, it's in here.

Don't Recommend: X-Plane. It's a fine simulator and works great on a scientific level. I understand Scaled Composites (SpaceShipOne, GlobalFlyer, etc.) use it for some testing.

However, the user interface and features leave a lot to be desired. The lack of 3D virtual cockpits, buggy *stock* aircraft, lack of clarity in the manual, and other things make this more a chore than a joy to fly.

For Military:
Best: IL-2 / Forgotten Battles / Pacific Fighters. Tons of fun to be had, good community, incredible selection of aircraft. Whether you're a gunfighter or a ground pounder, there's plenty of choices.

LO-MAC is good too, but I personally haven't gotten into it as much.

Gear:
If you're going flight-simming, you need some good gear.

I've got:
Saitek X45: HOTAS system that works amazingly well, with a ton of customizable buttons and excellent software. There's a new version out, the X52, but I haven't tried that one yet.
CH Products Yoke: When I'm not flying fighters, this is what I use, since it feels much more natural (don't see too many Cessnas or HE-111's with a control stick)
CH Products Rudder Pedals: I've had these for a year and some, and don't see how I lived without them. Whether shooting a crosswind landing, or lining up your tracers on an enemy bomber, they make life so much easier. And in FS2004, you've got differential braking, making ground operations much much easier (though watch out for ground loops in tail draggers!).

[triath]

Cool you said M$.

[Bobdog]

Originally Posted by WickedPenguin

Don't Recommend: X-Plane. It's a fine simulator and works great on a scientific level. I understand Scaled Composites (SpaceShipOne, GlobalFlyer, etc.) use it for some testing.

While X-Plane is not as pretty or easily expandable as MS Flight Sim, you should take into account that it is certified by the FAA to earn Instrument Rating, Commercial and Airline Transport Certificates on 41 planes (in a full motion flight sim platform) since it's level of simulation is so much higher level than that of MS Flight sim; as far as I know MS Flight sim isn't certified at all (correct me if I'm wrong).

[[-project.rattus-]]

Originally Posted by WickedPenguin

For Civilian:
Don't Recommend: X-Plane. It's a fine simulator and works great on a scientific level. I understand Scaled Composites (SpaceShipOne, GlobalFlyer, etc.) use it for some testing.

I agree that it is somewhat clumsy, but still, I'd recommend it. I've flown v8.1 at a friend, which is really great to fly. And right now I am thinking about buying it with the new 60 Gig Global Scenery, if shipment/taxing isn't to expensive.

[radix]

The best FS right now is FS 2004 a Century of Flight.

The X-Plane is great but I think I'll wait for the next version.

gear:
CH USB Yoke
CH USB Pedals
CH USB Throttle

[WickedPenguin]

Originally Posted by BobdogG5

While X-Plane is not as pretty or easily expandable as MS Flight Sim, you should take into account that it is certified by the FAA to earn Instrument Rating, Commercial and Airline Transport Certificates on 41 planes (in a full motion flight sim platform) since it's level of simulation is so much higher level than that of MS Flight sim; as far as I know MS Flight sim isn't certified at all (correct me if I'm wrong).

Like I said - X-plane is a great simulator as far as physics, flight modelling, etc.. It's more accurate since it draws its performance values from the actual shape of the aircraft instead of a series of facts and figures placed in a .air file lie

But as far as fun and immersiveness? It falls short.

I bought my dad X-plane 8 for this past Christmas. He'd been wanting a flight sim for his Mac for ages, and that was really the only option.

On Christmas day, I was very happy to find my parents had bought me the CH products flight sim yoke. I plugged it into my Windows laptop and it worked great right out of the box on FS2004. My dad tried it out and was absolutely wowed. The virtual cockpit, scenery, GPS, VOR's, AI traffic, ATC, etc.

He even practiced a cross-country that we were talking about taking to the Florida Keys (Marathon key, to be specific). All the way down, he was looking around the cockpit to admire the scenery.

Later that night, we installed X-Plane on his Mac. We tried really hard to like it. REALLY hard. I'd personally heard a million great things about it and was looking forward to it.

We loaded up the same type of scenario as we had on FS2004. Kendall Tamiami Airport, 8am, destination Marathon.

The first "wtf?" was when we plugged in the Flight Sim Yoke. The damn thing wouldn't work in X-Plane without the rudder pedals (which I had left at my house). We had to assign the prop RPM control to the rudder - otherwise the aircraft would go completely out of control. FS2004 has an auto-rudder checkbox.

The second "wtf?" was when we tried looking around the virtual cockpit using the hat switch. In FS2004, the camera moves around smoothly, showing the entire aircraft interior. In X-Plane, once you move past the instrument panel the entire aircraft disappears, so it looks like you're travelling through the air on a magic carpet. Total immersion killer.

Those are just a couple of things. I could go on and on. Like I said - it's an accurate simulator. B-52s, Triple-7's, etc fly like they feel they should, and the Cessna 172 is dead-on.

But the whole thing just feels unfinished, with little attention to detail, whereas FS2004 is a complete polished package. And, BTW, FS2004 has been certified in several countries as an FTD. Not sure about here in the states (though I don't see why it wouldn't be with all the hardware add-ons available - Project Magenta, full instrument panels, etc.):

http://www.popularaviation.com/ListN...Dtl.asp?id=183
http://www.therealcockpit.com/pressrelavio.php

[Case]

For any of you DIY flightsimmers or guys that like to play with hardware/software interfaces there's http://www.flightgear.org
It's a great opensource flight sim that runs on anything supporting OpenGL. While nowhere near as "polished" as M$FS it's got 3d cockpits, 10s of 1000s of airports, realtime astronomy (calculates the true position of sun/moon given datetime and location) and a plugin architecture that lets you develop custom flight models (not just custom aircraft but whole new physics systems). Check out the site and see the amazing variety of ways it's been extended and coopted for research projects, full-motion sims, etc.

EDIT: Fixed typo...

[[-project.rattus-]]

Originally Posted by Case

It's a great opensource flight sim that runs on anything supporting OpenGL.

Well, everything 'cept my rig Haven't yet been able to make it run. And you should calcualte for abou 48 hours of tedious config editing if you want anything other than your keyboard to control the planes. Also I might add that it might not be very satisfactory for someone regarding X-Plane 8 as "unfinished", as Open source produkts generally tend to look a little... ragged
Still I like it's idea, and I keep trying to get it to run.

Another free Flightsim with lots of addons: www.ysflight.com! check it out in all it's flatshaded glory!

[JCoquillon]

Targetware is well worth a look, an open beta flight sim engine with a range of addons putting you in different periods. Some great online action (WWI, WWII North Africa and Pacific, Korea etc.)

http://www.targetware.net/

[Case]

Originally Posted by [-project.rattus-]

Well, everything 'cept my rig Haven't yet been able to make it run. And you should calcualte for abou 48 hours of tedious config editing if you want anything other than your keyboard to control the planes. Also I might add that it might not be very satisfactory for someone regarding X-Plane 8 as "unfinished", as Open source produkts generally tend to look a little... ragged
Still I like it's idea, and I keep trying to get it to run.

Another free Flightsim with lots of addons: www.ysflight.com! check it out in all it's flatshaded glory!

Hrm...sorry to hear of your difficulties. I've never had any problems getting it installed and running with a CH Yoke just by following the instructions step-by-step. I've even built it using the commercial Intel compilers on linux for some additional optimizational oomph.

[[-project.rattus-]]

Originally Posted by Case

Hrm...sorry to hear of your difficulties. I've never had any problems getting it installed and running with a CH Yoke just by following the instructions step-by-step. I've even built it using the commercial Intel compilers on linux for some additional optimizational oomph.

Well, I guess I did set up my stick (old MS FF 2) properly. Thing is, the game won't start. The launcher works, but when I want to launch it, it crashes when the DOS window shows up, telling me I got a system error (in the window, no blue screen )... and I haven't found the problem nor the solution yet.