Can't help but having some leather in your cockpit, eh?
Game Discussions Microsoft Flight Simulator
- Thread starter Jenner
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Can't help but having some leather in your cockpit, eh?
Headtracking using your phone or a tablet. I've not idea about it, but saw this and thought I'd share. It seems to give 6 degrees of movement/freedom.
www.polygon.com
This $10 head-tracking app makes Microsoft Flight Simulator easier
SmoothTrack for Microsoft Flight Simulator turns your iPhone or Android device into a head-tracking tool. The $10 app might be the best peripheral yet for the popular simulation game.
www.polygon.com
Headtracking using your phone or a tablet. I've not idea about it, but saw this and thought I'd share. It seems to give 6 degrees of movement/freedom.
This $10 head-tracking app makes Microsoft Flight Simulator easier
SmoothTrack for Microsoft Flight Simulator turns your iPhone or Android device into a head-tracking tool. The $10 app might be the best peripheral yet for the popular simulation game.
Found this video on the various options available. Since my EDtracker never worked, I'm going to give FaceTrackNoIR a go. Works with a standard(ish) webcam apparently, and also supports Oculus Rift tracking.
I did a few flights last evening/night. I am still immensely impressed with the realism of the scenery and performance...
I like doing the Courchevel landing challenge as I have direct experience of the area through skiing and used to watch the landings!
So I took a different light aircraft and flew from Geneva to Courchevel. I had to be careful in selecting an appropriate aircraft as I would be going reasonably high (8000ft). Here is one screenshot of flying into the western Alps...
Then I thought I'd do a night flight over the Alps from Florence to Geneva in the A320neo. I used a full flight plan and here are some of the night time shots...
I like doing the Courchevel landing challenge as I have direct experience of the area through skiing and used to watch the landings!
So I took a different light aircraft and flew from Geneva to Courchevel. I had to be careful in selecting an appropriate aircraft as I would be going reasonably high (8000ft). Here is one screenshot of flying into the western Alps...Then I thought I'd do a night flight over the Alps from Florence to Geneva in the A320neo. I used a full flight plan and here are some of the night time shots...
Since the last weekend I began starting all my flights from parking with everything shut down. It's a strangely satisfying feeling starting the airplanes from dead cold into flight-ready just from clicking / twisting / pushing / pulling on the 3D cockpit buttons / levers / knobs.
Ironically, the hardest so far (haven't yet tried the jets, only props and turbo-props) was the Icon seaplane, because even though the controls are very simple and "car-like", the fuel pump is hidden on the ceiling behind your head, so I couldn't find it with head tracking alone, had to use the mouse to look behind and upwards enough until I found it.
All of this just adds even more to the already existing feeling of distinct personality between each aircraft.
I just wish that either the taxii marking were more visible or there were airport maps so I could do proper ground control taxing without having to enable the ribbon. the alternative is using the VFR map zoomed in and just ignoring ground control.
Meanwhile noticed lots of cool little things, like the fuel menu popping up automatically if you park next to the fuel station, or how the "end of flight / flight log" screen pops up when you properly shutdown the aircraft on the ground.
The pushback service on the other hand is a bit quirky, you need to ask the tower (and they relay to the pushback operator) when starting the pushback and to which direction, and when to stop pushing back. But while the comms are going back and forth, there will be a several second delay between you asking for the pushback to stop and actually stopping, so you need to learn the delay and ask for the pushback to stop in advance.
IMO this is both needless complication and also quite unrealistic, pilots do not control the pushback in real time using the tower as an intermediate. They request pushback and the operator pushes the plane back until it's properly oriented to proceed on it's own. So asking for pushback "left" or "right" would be both sufficient and also much more pratical.
So far pushback mechanism is the only slight flaw I noticed in the otherwise absolutely fantastic, intuitive and immersive comms implementation. Still it's a first world problem.
Ironically, the hardest so far (haven't yet tried the jets, only props and turbo-props) was the Icon seaplane, because even though the controls are very simple and "car-like", the fuel pump is hidden on the ceiling behind your head, so I couldn't find it with head tracking alone, had to use the mouse to look behind and upwards enough until I found it.
All of this just adds even more to the already existing feeling of distinct personality between each aircraft.
I just wish that either the taxii marking were more visible or there were airport maps so I could do proper ground control taxing without having to enable the ribbon. the alternative is using the VFR map zoomed in and just ignoring ground control.
Meanwhile noticed lots of cool little things, like the fuel menu popping up automatically if you park next to the fuel station, or how the "end of flight / flight log" screen pops up when you properly shutdown the aircraft on the ground.
The pushback service on the other hand is a bit quirky, you need to ask the tower (and they relay to the pushback operator) when starting the pushback and to which direction, and when to stop pushing back. But while the comms are going back and forth, there will be a several second delay between you asking for the pushback to stop and actually stopping, so you need to learn the delay and ask for the pushback to stop in advance.
IMO this is both needless complication and also quite unrealistic, pilots do not control the pushback in real time using the tower as an intermediate. They request pushback and the operator pushes the plane back until it's properly oriented to proceed on it's own. So asking for pushback "left" or "right" would be both sufficient and also much more pratical.
So far pushback mechanism is the only slight flaw I noticed in the otherwise absolutely fantastic, intuitive and immersive comms implementation. Still it's a first world problem.
I did a few flights last evening/night. I am still immensely impressed with the realism of the scenery and performance...
I like doing the Courchevel landing challenge as I have direct experience of the area through skiing and used to watch the landings!
View attachment 187314
Then I thought I'd do a night flight over the Alps from Florence to Geneva in the A320neo. I used a full flight plan and here are some of the night time shots...
View attachment 187315
View attachment 187316
Flying at night over cities is absolutely glorious, unfortunately screenshots don't do it proper justice.
I've added a little bit of video too: -
Ha! Now you're getting ready for DCS.
I actually have DCS... and IL-2... and X-Plane 11... and Rise of Flight
Granted, I don't play DCS as much as the others. MSFS2020 and IL-2 are my current favorites.
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ACE COMBAT™ 7 is on sale on Steam right now. I don't know if I would like this or not. I think I would love it if it supported VR. I don't understand why this game released with PSVR support and not PC VR support. But back to the game itself, I tend to prefer more realistic games over arcade flying games, and I'm not sure where AC fits in this spectrum. It looks beautiful, and perhaps it would be a good counterbalance to the realism of MSFS and IL-2, but it it's so arcade-like that I don't feel like I'm actually flying a plane (kinda like how Everspace feels too arcade-like to me), then I probably wouldn't enjoy it.I actually have DCS... and IL-2... and X-Plane 11... and Rise of Flight
Granted, I don't play DCS as much as the others. MSFS2020 and IL-2 are my current favorites.
Anybody have any experience with this game to compare and contrast it to something like MSFS? I'm specifically interested in the flight model; unlimited ammo doesn't bother me.
It is ultra arcade. I did a few missions, it is 'pound beers while mowing down enemies with the gamepad' gameplay. It isn't a SIM in any sense at all.
Thanks, you just saved me $20!
If anyone is still in doubt, this shows the kind of vibe it is aiming for. Things like 'landing' are only allowed in missions, in free-flight such fancy concepts are disabled.
It's arcade console game ported to PC. How good can that be? They didnt even bother porting the VR. Should give you an indication about the quality to expect.
When this game was first announced, I was still on PS4 and it looked amazing, graphically-speaking. Even when I switched to PC, it looked really good compared to the sims of the day (FSX and XPlane). But now that I watch the video having played MSFS 2020, it just doesn't look as good as it once did... Funny, that!If anyone is still in doubt, this shows the kind of vibe it is aiming for. Things like 'landing' are only allowed in missions, in free-flight such fancy concepts are disabled.
In that case you might want to wait for a sale on AC7... It's closer to the 90's Afterburner than to any of the titles I mentioned.
edit: ninja'ed by everyone else
Thing is, it IS on sale, but after recent comments I still don't want it, LOL.
Just for info and if anyone is in anyway interested, I have put a video up of the short hop in the Patagonia Bush Trip Challenge, one of the later ones. I can't remember if it has any of the glaciers etc.
It may be useful as I was flying them on autopilot using the heading and altitude changes to fly from waypoint to waypoint (to get the challenge award).
(SD is uploaded, it is still converting the 17 minutes of 3440x1440 HD video...)
It may be useful as I was flying them on autopilot using the heading and altitude changes to fly from waypoint to waypoint (to get the challenge award).
If, on the other hand, you want to hop into any military flight sims, I highly recommend IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad (and it's many expansions). It's WW2 era, the planes are ridiculously detailed, 3D interactive cockpits, fantastic career mode, each aircraft has it's own distinct personality and controls, and the "feel" is just absolutely top notch, so much I sometimes just take one of the planes for a spin in free flight just because how great it feels. you can have a look at this thread if you want to know more: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/il2-bos.511113/
Plus it features a fantastic, very detailed damage model, not just visuals and not just "health pools", each individual mechanical system can be damaged or destroyed either by enemy fire or by overstressing the frame or engine (like flying too much on full throttle, too harsh manouvers, excessive speeds, etc), and both the flight model as well as the "mechanical model" will reflect it in a realistic way. If your flaps are destroyed, you will keep flying, just have to manage without flaps. It it's a wing, or the rudder, the plane will spiral out of control until you crash. If you have an oil leak, oil pressure will keep dropping until it starts damaging the engine etc, which will then start to fail and eventually stop. your pilot can be shot. You can become temporarily unconscious if you pull too many G's. If control surfaces or wings/tail is damaged slihtly, the plane will be very hard to control but you still may be able to pull an emergency landing in one piece. or Not. Etc, etc. Being able to limp back home with a crippled airplane just feels fantastic.
Rise of Flight is also a great WW1 flight sim, but is done by the same team and it's slowly being integrated into IL-2.
DCS too is great, but it becomes too expensive beyond the 2 initial airplanes. And being a modern military sim, I've been postponing reinstalling it because I shudder at the thought of having to set (and remember) the trillions of keybinds...
Yes, I've been doing that on some of the planes. Will have to investigate whether there are start-up checklists, as I've only really managed it on the basic Cessna's.
I actually enjoy the taxiing process, which is the main reason I like to start at a ramp / gate, and I agree with you about the pushback, it's a bit fussy (can also be buggy). Did have an issue yesterday at JFK when taxiing to the runway I apparently hit an invisible and un-passable obstacle, and ended up having to spawn at the end of the runway to get away.
Despite the bugs / glitches, still really having fun getting to know the different planes and systems, and decided to start the North American bush trip - as it goes through my neighborhood (one of the airports is literally two miles from my house).