21 ms·
MS Flight Simulator 2020 vs. Real life
- acwan93 6y agoI’m working on my PPL right now, and in my aviation circle we can’t wait until Flight Sim 2020 is released. Even at $60 + hardware controllers, it’s a steal compared to actually flying a small single-prop.
- LeoNatan25 6y agoAdding VR to the mix should be even more valuable to you. They said they intend to support VR eventually in FS2020.
- nradov 6y agoVR will be fun for some players but I expect many will struggle with motion sickness.
- Filligree 6y agoThis is a best-case for VR -- sitting still in a cockpit. The sensory input should be almost identical to real life, so I wouldn't think nausea will be a big issue.
- LeoNatan25 6y agoI think the lack of forces, especially in smaller, more agile plains, can introduce some motion sickness in experienced pilots who are familiar with, and their body expects, the forces they ought to be feeling when taking off, doing a roll, etc. But still, until artificial gravity can be generated, this is the closest it will come for the vast majority of people.
- m4rtink 6y agoThere are some small/ultra light aircraft simulators that get pretty close, being able to rotate the cockpit left right up and down. Still, can't really simulate directional acceleration/deceleration with possibly short bumps like landing gear contacting the ground and similar. But definitely, any pilot will tell you that feeling all the forces is actually big part of good piloting, as you can feel what the airplane is experiencing & act accordingly. I took a ride in some small planes (a 4 person two motor plane and a glider) as well as an advanced small plane simulator and really, the simulator was good but not really comparable. Not to mention extreme cases like air racing or aerial acrobatics where the forces are so extreme that they might prevent the pilot from having enough strength to execute control input or possibly even make them black out.
- briandear 6y ago> any pilot will tell you that feeling all the forces is actually big part of good piloting, as you can feel what the airplane is experiencing & act accordingly. Going to argue against that generally. Vestibular disorientation is a significant killer of pilots. In instrument flying, you specifically train to ignore those sensations. Fly the numbers, not the feelings.
- m4rtink 6y agoYep, that's a good point - it can certainly also be a big problem in poor visibility or other cases where you get disoriented.
- teabee89 6y agoAt Kennedy Space Center, the Space Shuttle simulation was pretty amazing. I believe the trick was to make us think we were sitting at rest at a 90 degree angle, when in fact it must have been less, such that when the shuttle did take off in the simulation the seat made an even higher angle (+ shaking). And the sudden lowering of the angle (when engine cuts off and we're supposed to float) was a pretty damn amazing illusion too. I definitely recommend it.
- JshWright 6y agoYeah, I'd love to see a "behind the scenes" of that ride (it's entirely possible one exists, I haven't actually looked...) I've ridden it several times, and while I intellectually understand how it must work, it's still super convincing.
- erikbye 6y agoFor simracing and VR, a 6dof motion rig decreases motion sickness.
- kunkurus 6y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLw0Jh-Ab5E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLw0Jh-Ab5E
- oauea 6y agoWhy would a game like this have any motion sickness?
- topkai22 6y agoMaybe not motion sickness, but I’ve yet to wear a VR set I can enjoy for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. I think some people just adapt to stereoscopic illusion better than others- I struggle during 3D movies too.
- aidenn0 6y agoThere is a small fraction (iirc 10-20%) of the population for whom a disparity between accommodation (focus) and binocular vision (what 3d movies do) causes headaches and nausea. This is why most 3d movies have very little happen in the virtual space between you and the screen. Since more than about 7 meters away is basically all the same final distance, it's fine. That being said, it's the stuff flying at you that makes 3d seem worth the extra money, so they try to balance it. Some people will still get very ill even with the small amount that movies do.
- LeoNatan25 6y agoThe term “motion sickness” describes the disparity between sensations that the mind expects to accompany what the eyes are seeing, but those sensations are not there. In a flight simulation, things like gravity, acceleration, etc. are not really possible to simulate.
- sowbug 6y agoThe physiological basis is that a disagreement between the inner ear's sense of balance and the eye's perception of orientation is an early signal of having ingested a neurotoxin. Thus vomiting to expel whatever you just ate is a good first response.
- Someone 6y agoTechnically, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality_sickness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality_sickness, but I think motion sickness suffices as a generic term. I also think discriminating between motion sickness, flight simulator sickness and virtual reality sickness is splitting hairs, or at least a gradual difference. One could claim motion sickness requires real motion, but you have that in a good flight simulator, too, and most VR setups allow one to, at the least, move one’s head freely.
- james_s_tayler 6y agoProbably not in a cockpit. At least in my experience having that cockpit as a static frame of reference really makes it quite a smooth experience. Motion sickness isn't something I experience a tonne of in VR unless it's falling from up high or those rollercoaster simulations. There is a flying VR game I used to play for awhile. Controls were a little difficult but it was quite fun and motion sickness wasn't a problem (in my case at least).
- squeaky-clean 6y agoI have a steering wheel and pedal setup that I use in VR, and it's the lack of correct G-forces that really get to you. I'm pretty good with motion sickness in VR, but Asseto Corsa took me about 3 hours of 10 minute intervals before I could take a corner at high speed, or slam the brakes without getting very very nauseous. I can see it being comfortable once you're in the air, but takeoff and landing might feel very weird :P
- james_s_tayler 6y agoYou just reminded me I used to play Dirt Rally VR quite a bit. That's amazing in VR. The sense of presence is incredible. Maybe I just don't suffer motion sickness as much? Funnily enough I've been playing Satisfactory a lot lately and I keep losing my stomach whenever I jump off really high places. I guess even non-VR games can affect you too!
- short_sells_poo 6y agoI'm not an expert but I thought a large part of motion sickness comes from the fact that you perceive motion visually but there is no confirmation from the inner ear (as in real life these two sensory inputs work together to maintain your balance). The other way it's also true (sea sickness), where the inner ear registers motion (the ship bobbing due to waves), but you don't see that you are moving (doubly so if you are inside) so again there's conflicting sensory input. I don't suffer from seasickness normally, but a few years back we had a knotted up anchor chain so I went in to service the winch and there was a bit of a swell outside. In about 30 minutes I was quite ill. Once I fixed the winch and went out it all dissipated quickly when I could see the sea & horizon moving again.
- joezydeco 6y agoMy son is also working on his PPL and has been flying 172s in XPlane 11 for the last year or so. At Oshkosh he jumped into a $250,000 Frasca simulator and did a complete flight with no assistance /and/ the sales guy turning off various parts of the avionics. He’s 15. TLDR don’t wait around for Microsoft.
- abrookewood 6y agoWhat sort of pedals etc does he have set up?
- joezydeco 6y agoLogitech G yoke, switch panel, and rudder pedals. Nothing fancy, works just fine (by his standards)
- selectodude 6y agoBe careful, too much time in a simulator and not enough time in an airplane can teach bad habits.
- alteria 6y agoI'm curious, what kinds of pitfalls can occur?
- sowbug 6y agoUncoordinated flight (roughly, not being turned in the direction you're flying) feels very weird when you're experiencing it for real. It's also an ingredient of a deadly spin if you let other things also get out of control. On a sim, you won't experience much more than a certain dial reading a certain reading, and the plane will more or less fly as expected. It's important to learn coordinated flight "by the seat of your pants" to have the habit of adjusting the rudder ingrained in your muscle memory. There are other feelings, such as buffeting before a stall, that you'll miss on a sim. But flight training is very explicit about those situations, so you'll learn them when transitioning to a real plane. Avoiding uncoordinated flight is something that pervades your whole flight experience; it might be hard to retrofit it onto a sim-trained student. There are other habits, but that's the most notable one when I'm comparing the two environments.
- zeroc8 6y agoI've been a flight instructor in my twenties but then got out of flying due to monetary and health reasons. I've just bought a honeycomb yoke together with X-Plane 11. It is close to perfect, when it comes to simulation. Back when I flew, we didn't have the sophisticated avionics, so it's been quite a challenge to adjust to the modern glass cockpit, especially in an IFR environment. Now I just wish I could fly the Cirrus Vision jet in real life, like some Youtubers do. Haven't tried the new MS flightsim yet. I hope they've put as much effort into physics as they did in visuals. Can't wait to give it a try.
- imutemyteam 6y agoI think the real cost will be the broadband. The whole map is 2 petabytes large, so each area has to be loaded seperately which will take up a lot of space.
- me_me_me 6y agoIts probably not too bad. You only see a tiny slice at a time. They must have pre-cached regions, as you specified ahead of time where you will fly.
- matoro 6y agoWould you mind sharing what setup you have for the hardware controllers? I'm looking at getting this setup for a friend but I'm not sure where to go to get the peripherals.
- acwan93 6y agoI don’t have one yet, but one of the peer comments talked about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23137228 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23137228
- shreddit 6y agoEvery time i see this quality of computer graphics i ask myself: how do i still know its not real, what little detail is still missing to photo realism...
- krm01 6y agoIt's almost always the lighting.
- qzw 6y agoYes, and particularly the way light reflects off of different materials is often still in the uncanny valley. Perhaps ray tracing will finally get us there in the next few years.
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y agoLighting and water are kinda hard to nail perfectly... there's just something about the real thing that's hard to duplicate.
- krm01 6y agoThat's the thing, light doesn't just reflect off materials. A bunch of lights gets absorbed by it, changing the color and the amount of light that is reflected back, from a deeper surface area. There are just so many things happening with light, most of it we don't fully understand yet, but we seem to instinctively see when it's off.
- Guillaume86 6y agoThey should release a Google Earth VR style app. There's a lot fewer places modeled in detail compared to Google Earth (sadly, my region in Belgium is an example) but having animated sea/weather/traffic etc would probably be spectacular. Side note: try Google Earth VR if you can, it is not possible to explain how great it is with words, it's the killer VR app for non-gamers IMO.
- dorfsmay 6y agoAre you aware of GeoFS? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoFS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoFS
- zeta0134 6y agoWhen I first got my VR headset and had exhausted the usual killer apps, I popped open Google Earth VR and was kindof blown away. I managed to find one of the old neighborhoods I grew up in, popped into street view, and proceeded to literally walk down memory lane. It was really something. Sure the quality's not that great, but what's there works well, and you get a sense of presence with the headset that is considerably more convincing than viewing the same scenes on a flat monitor.
- Guillaume86 6y agoYes it's really something you have to try to understand. My dream VR app would be a Google/MS cooperation to bring together the best of Google Earth VR and MS Flight Sim rendering in a single package :).
- pridkett 6y agoIt seems like MS Flight Simulator 2020 might hit the right place at the right time. Like many people quarantined, I’ve got a wicked sense of wanderlust right now. Going through MS Flight Simulator 2020 is different than just fooling around on Google Earth because it requires a tiny bit of effort to discover things and I think it will make it a little more rewarding. Looks like it’s time for me to build a cockpit.
- sharkweek 6y agoIt’s been interesting - I was a “gamer” for whatever that means many of my teen and early 20s years. Gave it up almost entirely with career/starting a family 7-8 years ago. We’re talking cold turkey, gave the systems away, deleted steam etc. Ever since quarantine started, I’ve been gaming like a fiend every night. Big, open world games especially. Partner has been chill about it as I wait until the kiddo is asleep, but it’s been one of the most sanity-saving activities for me while we hunker down.
- xnyan 6y agoNo reason it can’t continue after, it’s a balance right?
- jkhdigital 6y agoThere are certain people for whom “balance” and “moderation” are nothing but fleeting and elusive ideals (I am one of them). Usually it is much easier to just draw a red line around certain activities altogether.
- sharkweek 6y agoExactly - I come from a long line of addicts, some recovered and some dead. I am (now in my thirties, less so when I was younger) always extremely careful when I notice an unhealthy behavior taking a hold of me. I’m making an exception for video games during this time because honestly it’s pretty low on the unhealthy scale in my current usage, especially with the accountability of a spouse who knows I can be this way and will call me out if it gets bad.
- amanzi 6y agoThere are a lot of video games that are like this. The first time I saw Fifa 2020 on a big screen was a demo in a shopping mall — I thought it was just a group of people watching a live football game. Also, Gran Turismo on the PS4 has a whole bunch of racing tracks rendered in such precise detail that you forget you're just looking at computer generated graphics.
- Foe 6y agoSure, but the scale of Flight Simulator makes it pretty unique.
- danielbarla 6y agoYes, and hidden therein is an important distinction - basically all of the previous games that looked quite close to real life (from relatively close to the ground, that is) did it by extensive handcrafting. In a very large part, the "level designer" for FS 2020 is an AI, or more exactly, a team of humans who use AI as a tool to increase their productivity and reach by orders of magnitude. This is particularly visible in open-world games, where it is not feasible to hand craft everything. The results do seem quite spectacular, and put similar games to shame. It's early days yet, but I'm quite excited about the prospect of using code to fill in the blanks and generate content like this; it could be a great way to limit game development costs in the future.
- Scaevus 6y agoBut the difference of Flight Simulator is the realism of the world data. They used Bing Maps data to get an accurate replica of Earth and not just the terrain but the buildings and the major airports as well.
- fullito 6y agoI took part in the beta and checked out my city. It is unbelievable impressive. My City is not that big and its in germany. But still, i was able to fly over my flat \o/. And we have sandbanks and a river, autobahn, bridges etc. and it looks still great! There have been cars driving as well :)
- Guillaume86 6y agoI did the same but "unfortunately" my area in Belgium is actually modeled in detail in Google Earth and going from that to the AI interpolation in MS Flight Sim was a let down after the beautiful trailers. But really it's an impressive game, I just hope Bing Maps will continue to add more detailed areas (or someone is motivated enough to write a Google Earth plugin).
- waiseristy 6y agoHow much of the terrain is interpolated out to 3d structures? I believe they are using a combination of aircraft photography and photogrammetry for cities, but at some point they have to go back to satellite imagery for sparsely populated areas
- LegitShady 6y agoits bing maps data, is my understanding.
- sixQuarks 6y agoFrom my understanding they use algorithms to form realistic looking trees and structures from the maps data. This is the real breakthrough in my opinion. This game is really an innovation on 3D maps, and they just threw in the plane simulation as the added bonus
- Zee2 6y agoMachine learning models are used for a large portion of the terrain. Trees, generic buildings, and other models are placed in the AI's "best guess" for what the fully reconstructed scene would look like.
- neilv 6y agoYears ago, before there were better ways to do it in the Web browser, I implemented animated flight/mission review from aircraft flight data recorders, using the Google Earth Plugin, a bunch of JS and HTML&CSS, and some custom 3D assets. Today, for a desktop tool, the scenery and platform would look much better with MS Flight Simulator (though that's not the point of review), and presumably it would also render weather (which could be useful). When practical, I'd prefer to work from an open dataset and engine, so I'd lean towards using FlightGear, even if it isn't as slick in some ways.
- horsawlarway 6y agoI find it interesting that the perspective feels off still. Beautiful images, but it feels like the game almost rises up too quickly. Almost like the horizon line isn't quite where it should be. Then again, maybe it's just an effect of the particular camera lens, or the slightly off angles in the comparison pictures.
- iso-8859-1 6y agoFOV and perspective are the easiest variables to tweak to your desire. There are many things that make the images too perfect, especially the sharpness of the waves in the water. But people may prefer it like that, too perfect.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- 2bitencryption 6y agoI know many buildings/landmarks/statues have their likeness "copywritten" (however ridiculous that may seem).[0] How does MS Flight Simulator get away with reproducing the likeness of these structures so accurately? Do they have to get some kind of permission, or are they covered by some sort of artistic license? It's well known that in many other video games, statues (like Chicago's cloudgate "Bean") are replaced with some similar stand-in that doesn't infringe on the original structure. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower#Illumination_copyright https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower#Illumination_copy...
- arcturus17 6y agoFrom the link you posted: "French doctrine and jurisprudence allows pictures incorporating a copyrighted work as long as their presence is incidental or accessory to the subject being represented,[96] a reasoning akin to the de minimis rule. Therefore, SETE may be unable to claim copyright on photographs of Paris which happen to include the lit tower." Also this only covers the illumination in particular and not the landmark. What landmarks are copyrighted? I've never heard of such a thing.
- tapland 6y agoWikimedia had to remove all pictures of Swedish 'public art' (statues etc) after a ruling. I think laws and rulings like that could be a lot of trouble.
- dvhh 6y agoAnother case is the belgian Atomium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomium#Worldwide_copyright_claims https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomium#Worldwide_copyright_cl...
- solarkraft 6y agoMicrosoft seems to love their flight simulator. It seems to be one of the very few products from them that actually feels cared about. Why don't/do they use the tech in other places?
- selectodude 6y agoThey do. MSFS was Bill Gates' pet project. He loved it, and even though it was a money losing division, it soldiered on. Once he left, it shut down. This is a (very cool) advertisement for Azure Maps. It won't make any money, but as a proof of concept goes, it's going to be hard to do better than this.
- redis_mlc 6y ago> MSFS was Bill Gates' pet project. He loved it, and even though it was a money losing division It's true that it was Bill's pet project. But it was one of the best-selling PC games for 20 years and sold millions of copies, so "money-losing" is unlikely - maybe in a weird enterprise accounting way. It's also a useful standard game for their games division. Also, MS could probably get the DoD to fund all development. MSFS was used in a lot of military sims over the years, so it's a useful thing beyond gaming. (Lockheed resold MSFS for several years during the hibernation, calling it "Pr3par3d.") If you look at AW&ST around 2000, you can spot MSFS being used for terrain generation in full-page ads for military sims. MSFS is one of the most underrated software products of all time. Even with MSFS5, I was able to get my IFR rating in the minimum amount of instruction time. I would call it the first true virtual reality product.
- selectodude 6y ago>But it was one of the best-selling PC games for 20 years and sold millions of copies, so "money-losing" is unlikely - maybe in a weird enterprise accounting way. It's also a useful standard game for their games division. I guess "loses money" might be stretching it, but it was never profitable at the level that normal Microsoft software is profitable. It stuck around because BillG made it so. On that note, Prepar3D is fabulous. I am an "academic" user who has spent thousands on addons because I am a goof. I am so excited for MSFS2020.
- plg 6y agoIs it out?
- waiseristy 6y agoNo, they are running closed betas at the moment
- zone411 6y agoSomewhat off-topic, but if like you these sorts of views and have some spare money, I recommend trying a drone with goggles. When it comes to safety, some new drones already have ADS-B receivers and hopefully remote ID transponders will come soon.
- elteto 6y agoI wanted to get into flying quads but came away confused by the licensing requirements. If I want to fly something heavier than 250g, with goggles, what kind of FCC license do I need?
- FPGAhacker 6y agoI haven't been flying for about 1.5 years, but last I saw, there were just guidelines from the FAA. The problem for me has been city ordinance. My city is urban sprawl and it's illegal in my city to fly in parks, or over people. So that rules out pretty much everything interesting. If you are into the whole racing quadcopters thing, there are options, but FPV exploration was what I liked.
- elteto 6y agoThis turned out to be the case for me as well. I’m close to the water and not being able to fly over it was a huge let down for me.
- zone411 6y agoHere are a few links that should be useful: https://www.faa.gov/uas/media/Part_107_Summary.pdf https://www.faa.gov/uas/media/Part_107_Summary.pdf https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational_fliers/ https://www.faa.gov/uas/recreational_fliers/ https://jrupprechtlaw.com/section-107-31-visual-line-sight-aircraft-operation/ https://jrupprechtlaw.com/section-107-31-visual-line-sight-a... From what I understand, you should have a visual observer or obtain a Remote Pilot Certificate. IANAL.
- xeromal 6y agoWhat a great idea. I have a mavic mini and I love flying it around. I never even thought of using a headset but I was out in the desert yesterday and could've used some isolation from the sun. Just bought a cheapo headset on amazon!
- SomeHacker44 6y agoI was so excited to see side by side pics of cockpits and planes in great detail and compared. But no, all it was is landscapes. I mean, who looks out the window when flying? :) Except for the Citabria, not me, much!
- rusty__ 6y agoA pilot friend of mine assures me that whilst MS Flight Sim is going to be incredible, everyone should be keeping an eye on X-Plane: https://www.x-plane.com https://www.x-plane.com If you're looking for a more accurate, 'real' simulator it has a lot to offer. MS Flight Sim will be more than real enough for the vast majority of us but if you're interested in contributing to a product you can improve and have fun modelling/texturing additional planes, cities etc this is a project to get involved with.
- eightysixfour 6y agoX-Plane has been around so long it is kind of unreal - I remember buying a copy in ~2000 and it was already 5+ years old then. Pretty amazing longevity.
- rusty__ 6y agoI guess there's a lot to be said for having a good community of users who love the product and want to help contribute to it to make it better. Active creators rather than passive consumers.
- eightysixfour 6y agoSort of off-topic but I realized the other day that the transition from active contributors to passive consumers is when online gaming went off the rails for me. When people managed the online servers there was always an admin around to kick bad actors and to set the tone for that particular server. When you found a good one you saved it because you knew you would always get quality time there. Matchmaking killed that. I don’t think game publishers realized they were essentially firing a free workforce that was making their online play great. I think private servers is one of the reasons Minecraft has such staying power.
- rusty__ 6y agoI think you can apply this same principle to so many areas of hobbies. As soon as you get more involved and be more of a creator than just sitting there and letting everyone else do things for you, you get so much more out of the experience.
- Buttons840 6y agoXPlane 11 has Ortho4XP which will build maps from online satellite images. It's interesting that most Ortho4XP users use Bing as their satellite image source because they are more uniformly colored and have fewer "stitching" lines between areas.
- alexitosrv 6y agoGuys, partially related but, I would like to upgrade my workstation at home for running this when it gets released. Do you have a best value GPU in mind to recommend for running this at an acceptable fps? I have been out of the gaming scene with PC so your thoughts are welcome! Also, what kind of controller for PC is the recommended?
- ccvannorman 6y agoNvidia's new 2060 and 2070 should be enough; I've been shopping for a gaming PC and have a 1060 from 3 years ago. You can pick up a laptop in the 1500-2000 range with this GPU built in. Don't they have recommended/minimum spec on the product? I haven't checked...
- teruakohatu 6y agoThere is a fair difference between a mobile and full size version of GPUs. For the 2060 the difference is about 20-25%. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-mobile-rtx-2060-versus-desktop,40418.html https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-mobile-rtx-2060-ver...
- reyqn 6y agoThe 2060 laptop and desktop pack the exact same chip. Provided you can cool it well enough, you can just overclock your laptop GPU and get the exact same performance.
- alexitosrv 6y agoThanks!. I am hoping they have a more concrete requirements spec by the end of the year. I cannot even find a release date but only teasers. I have a Dell T5800 in need of upgrade in the graphics department, but it's on great condition for everything else I throw to it. I come from a NVIDIA NVS310 so I have a good margin for improvement!
- symplee 6y agoYou can check out some existing builds here [0]. And you can also save/post a public link here to your custom build, once you have a tentative one. https://pcpartpicker.com/ https://pcpartpicker.com/
- Buttons840 6y agoThe thing I love most about flight simulators is the avionics. I would happily exchange flight realism for more depth in the avionics systems. I especially love the 90's / early 2000's style with a mix of analog and digital instruments. Lot's of physical buttons, multiple small screens, a somewhat poor UI compared to modern standards, etc. I'd love to play around more with these types of simulated systems. I almost literally would just like a button pushing simulator. Are there any other games / simulators which might scratch this itch for me?
- liamdiprose 6y agoFrom xkcd's "Interplanetary Cessna": > X-Plane is the most advanced flight simulator in the world. The product of 20 years of obsessive labor by a hardcore aeronautics enthusiast who uses capslock a lot when talking about planes, it actually simulates the flow of air over every piece of an aircraft’s body as it flies. This makes it a valuable research tool, since it can accurately simulate entirely new aircraft designs—and new environments. https://what-if.xkcd.com/30/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/30/
- zentiggr 6y agoI splurged and subscribed to X-Plane's global scenery and all planes option on Android. While it's a limited experience compared to a 3-axis stick and throttle on a mid-high end PC, it's still a lot of fun to pick out places like Gibraltar, Saint Maarten, and other unique situations and fly in and out on HUD / trail view. (I had my toe in the door, did three hours of PPL instruction, never could follow up on it. And many hours of sims all the way from Sublogic days.)
- Infernal 6y ago> I had my toe in the door Heh, I had almost my entire body through the door, but stubbed my toe on the threshold! ~50 hours logged, a handful of "cross country" solos, did my night landings etc. Got sick for about a month, holidays, wedding coming up, just never got back into it. I actually lost my logbook for a number of years but I'm looking at it now on my shelf.... one of these days.
- synaesthesisx 6y agoI’m pretty excited to try this - I played lots of Flight Simulator X as a kid. I’ve read a ridiculous amount of physics - from wind patterns to cloud generation has been programmed to create a realistic simulation. Part of the appeal of course, is being able to fly anywhere on the planet and explore.
- keyle 6y agoI played that first flight simulator on DOS back in the day! Can't tell you how many hours I flew that cesna...
- mentos 6y agoCan't wait to try it out. I think after FlightSim this could make an awesome google maps competitor. Would love to get directions on streets that have great landmarks like this.
- pvsukale3 6y agoI have given up gaming since I bought a Mac. This is very interesting. I am saving to build a gaming PC for this game.
- aetherspawn 6y agoIt's so difficult to tell which ones are the originals and which ones are the simulated scenes, especially in the first one (for me).
- winrid 6y agoWhat a fun project this would be to work on.
- mhh__ 6y agoJust because no one else seems to have mentioned it yet, but DCS (think MSFS but military aircraft modelled to similar amounts of detail) is still doing a free month. DCS basically simulates as much as isn't classified and is played by an increasing number of RL fighter pilots.
- arianvanp 6y agoIt also supports VR. So you can go sit in an F/A 18c cockpit and click around. It is extremely immersive. Must note that the graphics are a bit dated to me. (Cloud rendering is completely broken; lighting is very over-saturated and not accuratre). but still a very beautiful game and an extremely accurate simulation of awesome warbirds
- jcelerier 6y agoGG Asobo !
- IIAOPSW 6y agoWhere's the hot air balloons doing 400 knots?
- tomduncalf 6y agoThis looks stunning! Anyone got any idea how well (or not) this is likely to run on a MacBook 16" with 5300M? It looks amazing, but I'm not a gamer and really I'd probably just play it for a bit out of curiousity so wouldn't make sense to invest in a proper gaming computer!
- _-___________-_ 6y agoIt might not look that stunning, but it should run. I've been gaming on a couple-generations-old MacBook a lot recently and it works surprisingly well if you're willing to drop the settings down a bit. The main problem with flight sim on a portable is the input method though. It's challenging to fly manually without a joystick or yoke, and proper immersion really requires a throttle too. You can get something enjoyable enough going with the mouse though.
- harshulpandav 6y agoCloud gaming maybe? For example, https://shadow.tech/usen/ https://shadow.tech/usen/
- tomduncalf 6y agoInteresting! I had forgotten this was possible. Thanks for the suggestion
- yreg 6y agoI think you should be okay, the 16 inch is quite beefy. You'll have to install Windows in Boot Camp though.
- PunksATawnyFill 6y agoFlight Simulator used to start at Meigs Field in Chicago. Then Mayor Daley the asshole destroyed the airport. Santa Monica is next. poundMAGA
- macleginn 6y agoPlanes do not fly over Moscow, so that one is a bit off.
- jmkni 6y agoThat's interesting, why don't planes fly over Moscow?
- madengr 6y agoMaybe after this guy landed a plane there: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Rust https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias_Rust
- dysoco 6y agoThere was a mission in Flight Simulator 2000 or 2004 where you had to land in the red square.
- macleginn 6y agoSecurity issues, I think. Russia is very centralised, and many, many things of strategic importance are in the city. Many areas around it (near state residences, army bases, etc.) are also no-flight zones: https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5902/214603206.b7/0_139f47_d07ba970_XXL.jpg https://img-fotki.yandex.ru/get/5902/214603206.b7/0_139f47_d... Some source state that it is possible to fly over Moscow in certain corridors, but only on the altitude of at least 8100m.
- fbnlsr 6y agoEver since I've seen the first trailer for FS2020, I've been more and more interested in flying. I took a plane once in my life, 20 years ago. Now I really want to discover this world, and maybe take an initiation lesson. It's such a bummer that the PPL is so expensive. One thing is for sure, I'll buy this game and learn more about flying thanks to this.
- 293984j29384 6y agoIf the 10k for the PPL is prohibitively expensive for you, then flying probably isn't the right hobby.
- fbnlsr 6y agoIt's not "prohibitively" expensive. It's expensive. Besides, it's not just the $10k, it's the $150/h every time you want to take the plane. That adds up quickly.
- the_pwner224 6y agoThe $150/hr is the bigger cost. I got my PPL a few years ago but haven't flown once since then. If you're going to fly, you need to do it regularly to maintain proficiency - you can't just take out the plane after 4 months of not flying. So a PPL is useless unless you're willing to spend $2k+ per year to maintain it. Do you need to go somewhere far away, often enough for that to be worth it?
- 293984j29384 6y agoprohibitively: used to emphasize a cost that is so high as to prevent something being done or bought. Your rebuttal again is how expensive it is to fly. Some would almost say, prohibitively high?
- fbnlsr 6y agoI never said that it prevented me from doing it. It's expensive, that's all.
- touchpadder 6y agoBill Gates locked everyone at home so we have to play his new game
- rajnathani 6y agoDiscussion from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23132593 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23132593
- hosh 6y agoI think the only way I can tell which one is real is that real life is dingier and dirtier.
- vmchale 6y agoDamn I wanna buy a joystick now :)
- urlgrey_ 6y agoThis might make me fire up my Windows box... I miss MS Flight Simulator
- DarmokJalad1701 6y agoNow if only they would add good VR support