How about being able to walk around your plane?

[lionheart]

I have always wanted to walk around my plane. I have also wanted to walk around some scenery before that I have downloaded that are by some awesome scenery modelors.

I realise that there is a program that has this feature, complete with sounds of shoes. However, some of its features fail or have some draw backs and dont allow for some good screen shots. (Big time screen shot photographer here).

In my dreams of 'what a better more powerful simulator would be like' mind land, I have invisioned buildings that you could walk through. As a matter of fact, being able to land at an airport, go through a terminal, upload into a car, and drive around would be awesome. (Alot of people have talked on this, and Bill Lyons even started the craze of making vehicles driveable in FS, of which I have now created a few myself. (Ever raced Kubelwagons accross the mountainous deserts of Phoenix Arizona online before? Great fun. You can get them airborne over some good hills at speed, lol).

I did a 'test' of my own to pursue the concept of a 'person' in the Virtual environment of FS by making a 'walk man' model. Of course, I couldnt (yet) figure out a way to get the legs animated, but I did create a pilot that is standing and created an airfile (no, he cant fly), in which he traverses around via the throttle control, (and brakes). With this little 'feature' I can stroll about newly downloaded scenery and get up close to buildings, static aircraft and scenery detail, etc. (Great fun for those that like to explore).

Lastly, to go along with such a cool feature would be a 'camera' screenshot option built into Flight Simulator. (I really think it should have had this long ago, especially now that your skies and scenery have advanced to such high standards).

(Imagine....... Your in a long flight with friends online. You land first. You disembark your parked plane and run out to the side of the runway to watch your friends come in on approach to land and click some cool screenshots as they touch down.... wooo hoooooo).

Ok, I bothered you guys enough...

Bill

[lionheart]

I do realise that it would be theoretically impossible to have access to all the terminals 'interiors'. I am talking about starting in that direction and having a certain few 'terminals' or special buildings that 'would' have some interiors.

I think this is a 'next step' in the future of Flight Simulation. You might think, 'What does this have to do with flight'. Ok, imagine starting out in the student class room of an airport. You are to walk out to your plane, unlock your bird, pre flight it in a walk around, then board and power up your aircraft and do your cross country.

I know one girl that purchased both of the last two Flight Simulators only for travel interests. She at first didnt have any urges to fly, only to travel. She would 'get by' on a flight, (no knowledge of flying), just to fly to Italy or Israel, etc. She would voice some thoughts in our FS2004 forum on what she wanted in Flight Simulator. For instance, she flew to Vegas and wanted to see the lights at night. She had to use her Boeing 777 and taxi down the main strip to see the lights and effects in FS. She loved the town, but the plane kept hitting buildings.

This person turned out to be an excellent little sim pilot and I think we got her into the dream of being a real pilot.

What I am saying is that people that love to see the world and travel, might like more then just flying and walking around, driving around, and maybe a couple of buildings with interiors in them that you can walk in might start a really fun trend with the world of Flight Simulator as well as attracting people that are into seeing the world, not so much flying. This could effect positive sales in offering people of adventursome spirits the ability 'see the world' in FS as it did this young lady. (Who knows how many are out there that are just like her).

(Do you think I might have FS on the brain? eeeks....)

Bill

[sclincoln]

I've often thought (and sometimes opined) that FS needs some type of preflight capability. That's the natural next step for those who like to start cold and dark. In the next iteration, I'd be happy enough if all that was allowed was a quick walk around but in the future it would be good to be able to wander.

It would be pretty cool to start out in the terminal/FBO and get weather briefings etc, then walk out to the plane, get in going and have a flight, disembark, etc

[Treker4747]

I like the idea of being able to walk around the plane, on the tarmac, ON the plane, and doing a pre-flight. But can't get behind puting in cars, driving to a downtown location, walking the strip, etc.

This is a FLIGHT simulator, not a vacation simulator. More impressive and realistic looking scenery would be nice (cities are sill 3D-Blocks sitting on satelite-maps of the ground) but I don't think we need to be able to walk from McCarran to the monorail, take it to the strip, walk into the Belagio, place bets, get drunk, lay a hooker, take a cab back to the airport and then fly to the location.

Specific terminals for major airports and more generic looks for the others (I'd hate to think of how much GB it'd take to detailistic do the terminals for all 10,000 or so airprorts in the game) would be nice. Hell, it'd be nice to land a big jet at an airport, walk out the jetway after deplaning, walking across the terminal to your next job. THAT'D be neat to do.

But I don't think we need to go TOO nuts in the 'ground experience' since the "game" is supposed to be more about the flying.

Make the ground and scenery look better (still don't see why they can't make the ground a detailed and realistic look and then as you get to altitude THEN switch the ground to the Satelite scenery.

When I fly a Cessna around New York city it should LOOK like I'm flying around a city and not plain blocks sitting on a overly bit-mapped ground.

[kingnorris]

>I don't think we need to be able to walk from McCarran to the
>monorail, take it to the strip, walk into the Belagio, place
>bets, get drunk, lay a hooker, take a cab back to the airport
>and then fly to the location.



OMG!!!! ROTFLMFAO!!!!!!!!

[kurtvoss]

if you want to walk around AND fly.....buy GTA san andreas!
Not to mention the poor fps you would get from having that option...its taking it to far. Leaving the atmosphere is the only real thing i want on the next FS.

[khaliah]

>
>>I don't think we need to be able to walk from McCarran to
>the
>>monorail, take it to the strip, walk into the Belagio, place
>>bets, get drunk, lay a hooker, take a cab back to the
>airport
>>and then fly to the location.
>
>
>
>OMG!!!! ROTFLMFAO!!!!!!!!
>

Don't laugh too loud, this will be possible within the next 5 versions.

[lionheart]

Part of 'actually' learning to fly is that you do a walk around before your flight. Even most captains of 'heavies' do their walk around the airliners.

If you have ever had Active Camera, you will know how cool it really is to walk around your plane with the added effect of perspective and scale of height to your plane. It is a very unique feature that 'does' bring the FS experience a bit closer to reality.

Now, how in the world does something similar to Spot plane view but ground bound directly link to a game that teaches you how to steal cars, shoot cops, and on top of that bring down frame rates? You have my curiosity spiked? 80

Bill

[sclincoln]

I can see where wanting to be able to walk around inside buildings could bring down fps since the inside of buildings would then have to be modelled. A Walk-Around view would be cool, especially if you could click on the gas caps and check for water, open the hood and poke around, etc and then transition seamlessly into VC view. Spot plane view doesn't quite do it. I haven't had Active Camera since it went payware but I liked using it to walk from the FBO, do a walkaround and then get into the plane (although that didn't really work that well).

[kurtvoss]

it would be pointless and boring, why would you want to check the water, fuel etc when you know it all works correctly!
It would only not work if you set it not to work! Also walking inside buildings is even worse!
Its like saying lets make a racing simulator so you can walk around in the pit stop or go and buy a hotdog.
Im all for walking INSIDE the plane or even just to step out to refuel. Also if you saw moving vehicles like baggage cars or fire engines would look good and would make it look a hell of a lot more realistic.