Super Flight Simulator?

By John Dow

Is there a market for a Super-Pro Microsoft Flight Simulator?

After the disappointment of FS2000 I was a bit hesitant to shell out hard-earned cash for FS2002 Pro, particularly at the $US75.00 price. I’m now glad I did take the plunge because it is nearly everything it claims to be. However, before I go any further I will list the things that I think Microsoft should have attended to before the release:

Microsoft could have done better:

The only panel you'll get in the Mooney	Sunken airport at Bulolo, PNG

Since the sim has a worldwide following, ATC voices in accents other than the US ones would have been nice.

Textures and airports need better cross-checking. For instance around my home city (Canberra, Australia) which is the Australian capital, the textures and autogen are so far from reality that they might as well not even be there. The textures for New Zealand, one of the greenest countries in the world, seem to be more suited to desert countries.  And the airports in New Guinea are often grossly out of place (Lae for instance by half a country) or at the wrong altitude by a long way (Bulolo for instance, see picture).

How good is FS2002?

These are only minor irritations though and overall I’m more than satisfied. This means that poor old Flight Unlimited II and III, until now my first choices for VFR flying, don't get used at all.  In particular after experiencing autogen, the old flat scenery, even photorealistic, just doesn't feel right any more (see pictures below). There are still some things FUIII does better than FS2002 such as winds, weather and some graphics, but the gap is narrowing. So a big thank you to the Microsoft team for an excellent product.

Easton State in FS2002 with sliders up full	Easton State in FUIII,  without autogen the land seems bare!

What is my point?

The purpose of this op-ed though is to suggest that there may be a case for producing a truly professional version (a ‘Super-Pro’ edition) of the simulator in the next release at a price double the current pro version, with features geared more towards the more serious sim pilots. Pilots who frequent this and other web sites, who spend hours fine-tuning their flying experience with ever more realistic downloads, and yet always sensing that a few more inbuilt features and tweaks would be well worth the extra expense.

If such a ‘Super-Pro’ edition was found to be viable, I would suggest the following be included:

• More finely tuned flight models less forgiving at the edges of the envelope. Particularly during low speed manoeuvres I’d rather have the aircraft stall more readily than in real life, rather than less realistically as the aircraft seem to do now. More attention should be paid to asymmetrical stalling as well. I remember when I first got FUII I let the approach speed drop off too much in the Baron on final and before I knew it, one wing had stalled and I went in wing first.
• A proper ‘pro’ startup would involve setting the weight and balance, fuel, flight planning, weather checks and pre-flights before being allowed to get into the pilot’s seat. And the aircraft would always be parked off-runway, engines off. Such a start-up should be the default option in the ‘Super-Pro’ edition.
• Winds and weather should be modelled on the Flight Unlimited III model, where winds and turbulence at any setting decrease closer to the terrain, and random weather and in particular weather fronts passing through. It could become an option to augment the real-world weather.

Current Satpac mesh scenery view from over Canberra airport.  Prominent local mountains are way under- sized and textures are way off what is actually there.	With an inbuilt graphical scenery editor it should be possible to fairly quickly fix up elevations and textures to more accurately mirror the real world.

• An integrated 3D scenery editor that would allow ‘on-the-fly’ scenery editing would be a huge boon for VFR pilots (see pictures).  Such an addition to FS would allow any scenery and textures obviously out of place to be quickly fixed up. For instance around my home airport (Canberra, Australia), the layout of the textures is so wrong as to be laughable, and the important hills are not quite accurate, even with the SATPAC mesh scenery. An integrated scenery editor would allow me to tweak the mesh and textures, and of course upload the results for others to benefit. Another scenery feature I’d like to see is the ability to create sloping and undulating grass strips.

• Every aircraft in the line-up to have a virtual panel, with superior graphics. Also the completion of the missing aircraft pieces in virtual cockpit views. At the moment if you move the viewpoint in the Cessna and look around there are pieces missing (see picture above). The addition of these missing pieces would allow the cowling to be visible when you raise the seat, much more realistic! [The Zlin (z142c22.zip) by Milan Lisner (CVA Design) shows what should be visible in a virtual cockpit, see picture above]. And finally an option to remove the virtual prop at settings other than still or idle, after all in a real prop plane you do not see the prop from inside the plane unless it is stopped.
• Much better damage and failure modelling than at present. A log file could be created for each plane in the line-up and as stresses and engine loads are added the plane should be affected. For instance rather than an overspeed or excess g-loads simply causing a crash situation where the plane stops dead in mid-air, the airframe and engine could suffer non-catastrophic damage that would affect performance but not necessarily lead to a crash. Also Failure Modelling could be built in to the Super-Pro edition as a default feature rather than having to be selected from the intro screen, and linked to the log file. That way if you take out the 172 and fly full power for several hours straight, or stress the airframe outside the manufacturer’s limits, the program could ‘punish’ you with an engine failure out of the blue or an unstable aircraft, as would more than likely happen in real life. Once again the Flight Unlimited series led the way, particularly in modelling the damage to flaps and undercarriage when going too fast.
• Maybe, just maybe, Microsoft would be prepared to give us an integrated and comprehensive aircraft editor, allowing seamless and real-time adjustment of graphics, flight dynamics and panels etc.

Wrap-up

So, I hope the above opinions generate some discussion both here and within the development team for the next version of this flight simulator.  I understand some third-party developers may be a bit upset at my suggestions, but as the program has shown time and time again there is always room for people to add on to the product, even if the product were to end up a much more wide ranging program as I have suggested here.  The advantage I can see of incorporating the scenery and aircraft editing into the core program would be the ease of use. 

I for one would be prepared to pay double the current price of the Pro version for a comprehensive well thought-out Super-Pro version.  How about all you other serious simmers out there?