New Kid in Town

There's a new kid on the Flight Sim block. "Aerofly FS2" is available as a payware early access program over on Steam.

 

"Early access" means its under development and still a long way from being finished. I'd rate it as a late stage Alpha program. In its present state it's nowhere near FSX , x-Plane, or P3D in terms of systems modelling, ATC. live weather, or accurate flight characteristics.

 

Still and all it has many interesting features and pretty darn good graphics. With further development I think it will definitely be "a contender".

 

So here are a few shots for those who may be interested and haven't seen it yet to give you a flavor of the program and see how it stacks up to FSX. This is a short flight from Los Angeles (KLAX) to San Diego (KSAN) in a one of the default airplanes - a Southwest B737-500.

 

Aerofly comes with a set of 17 stock airplanes which are a mixture of airliners, general aviation, business jets, modern and vintage military aircraft, and gliders including multiple r/w liveries for all. Right now scenery that comes with the program is limited to California, Arizona, and Nevada with a recent payware release add on for New York city. Upcoming release of other scenery areas will most likely be payware add ons also

 

The graphic resolution on these shots is set to "Medium" in the options menu to keep smooth framerates so more powerful rigs than mine could probably get much higher image quality. [click on the images for a full screen view]

 

Our Southwest B737-500 lined up for a late afternoon takeoff on Runway 25R at KLAX

 

Animated crew figures are one of the features of AFS2. In this shot the Captain has his hands on the throttles ready to set takeoff power. The Captain moves the throttles and yoke in response to your control inputs. [Pay no attention to the fact that he's not wearing his Captain's epaulets or a headset, and his seatbelt and shoulder harness aren't fastened :D- details to be cleaned up in a later version!]

 

Rotate! Notice the Captain has advanced the throttles to takeoff power. He moves the throttles, turns, pushes, and pulls the yoke and moves the rudder pedals with his feet all in sync with and in response to your control inputs

 

Climbing out of KLAX in an initial westerly heading with the Palos Verdes peninsula off to the left side of the airplane and Catalina Island visible in the distance in the upper right of the shot. All of the scenery in AFS2 is photoreal

 

View of Palos Verdes over the left wing. This shot is a good example of the texture modelling in AFS2

 

Turning south towards San Diego we have Catalina Island on the right side of the airplane

 

And Long Beach harbor on the left as we climb to our (momentary) cruise altitude of FL210

 

Immediately after reaching FL210 we start our descent into KSAN along the coast just north of Oceanside with I5 and the Pacific Coast highway visible in the distance running parallel to the beach

 

It's a hazy day in the San Diego area as we fly by La Jolla Cove just off the left nose with the late afternoon sun lighting up the panel and the buildings of downtown San Diego visible in the distance

 

Getting ready to turn final for runway 09 at KSAN

 

Landing in the reply

Here's the rest of the flight [click on the images for a full screen view]

 

On short final to Runway 09. We're way low on the glideslope but have the runway made so no worries

 

Rolling out with spoilers deployed

 

Detail of the left wing flaps and spoilers. Another good example of the high level of modelling detail in AFS2

 

Low angle sunlight on the right wing flaps and spoilers highlights all the rivets

 

Turning off the active towards the terminal and passing the AA gates

 

Taxi to the gate

 

At the gate

Here are some final shots showing some of the other airplanes in AFS2 for comparison to MSFS

 

[click on the image for a full screen view]

 

The default Cessna 172

 

Pitts aerobatic biplane

 

Airbus A320

 

McDonnell Douglas F-15E

 

The F15E animated crew - these guys yank and bank on the controls in sync with your inputs

 

World War II era F4U Corsair

 

Beech King Air C90

 

F/A 18 in the Navy Blue Angels #7 paint scheme

 

The Blue Angels pilot levels out after a near vertical takeoff from Luke Air Force Base Arizona. You can see the Luke runways off the pilots left shoulder

 

KLM Boeing 747-400

Nice shots! I also have Aerofly FS2 and Am looking forward to more 3rd party add-ons in the future.

wow, this definitely catches my attention! the lighting is definitely superior to fsx and the shots look realer, although i would hope the pilot figures and the buildings are nowhere near finished. some of those screens are spectacular!

 

edit: i just googled a bunch more screenshots, and there's video too. ubelievable! this could turn out to br the 21st century sim i've been hoping for!

The aircraft look very realistic and I especially like your taste in airports!

 

Best Regards,

Mark

I realize that this is early in development, but the 737 needs some major work - it looks like an early pre-Advanced -200 with a fin extension and new engines thrown on. Look at the wingtips, slats, Krueger flaps, stabilizers, and so on. The -3/4/500 is a very different airplane and is based on the later 737-200 Advanced, which is itself very different from a 737-200. I hope they remedy this before a final release.

Mark, Phil & Pugilist - thanks for looking and the good words

 

Eric: Thanks for looking and the sim designer perspective. Like I said - AFS2 is certainly not at the FSX, xPlane, or P3D aircraft or systems modelling level. I'm not a software developer but from what I know of the process I think this is at best a mid to late alpha version of the product. Its missing a lot of stuff so quite a ways to go in terms of what it may finally end up looking like.

 

FSX, xPlane, and P3d are mature and stable but aging development platforms

 

What I found interesting - and what I though other forum members might find interesting and is why I posted the shots - was that AFS2 shows some trends which I think will eventually end up in flight sims of the future. Maybe not until 2050 but someday!:D:D:D

 

These include animated crew members that react to control inputs. The ones in AFS2 are rudimentary right now but a far cry from the stick and static figures of current flight sim versions. I can foresee the eventual coming of intelligent AI crew avatars filling up todays empty cockpit seats in the same way that AI aircraft came in to fill up the empty airports in the original FS versions. Avatars that flip switches and carry out procedures in response to our commands that will be a standard flight sim feature.

 

AFS2 also has built in native VR capability for headsets like Oculus Rift so represents another technology advance towards immersion in the sim and a trend beyond the current Track IR 2D type look around the cockpit technology

Very intresting Bill, I just may buy this. The videos and shots of the southwest are very impressive to say the least. I imagine it supports a variety of joysticks? Anyway, great looking shots Bill, now i'm off to read some of the AFS2 forums. :)

Great shots!!! Specific descriptions accompanying each of screenshots is WHAT MAKES SCREENSHOT FLIGHT REPORT MORE SUCCESSFUL AND ENJOYABLE!!!!

 

What ground scenery is the desert land where Blue Angel plane flew above, please?

 

You using FSX or FS2004?

 

Regards,

 

Aharon

Great shots!!! Specific descriptions accompanying each of screenshots is WHAT MAKES SCREENSHOT FLIGHT REPORT MORE SUCCESSFUL AND ENJOYABLE!!!!

 

What ground scenery is the desert land where Blue Angel plane flew above, please?

 

You using FSX or FS2004?

 

Regards,

 

Aharon

 

Thanks Aharon - these shots are not from either FSX or FS2004 but from a new payware sim - Aerofly FS2 - which is under development and available in an early access version over on Steam. The program has nice graphics and some interesting new features but has a long way to go to get to where FSX, P3D, and xPlane are now.

 

The scenery in the shots is the stock scenery in the sim which is all photo real. The Blue Angel shot is over Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. Right now AFS2 scenery is limited to California, Arizona, and Nevada. Other areas are being released but as payware addons

Aerofly2 early access has been released on Steam the 19th of May 2016. It is a follow-up product to Aerofly FS1, which was released in 2012. The latest update to FS2 was provided about 6 weeks ago IIRC.

There are two DLCs currently available, USA NorthEast and Switzerland.

 

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showthread.php?299280-Any-thoughts-on-Aerofly-FS-2

hey bill, a question: does it have a no panel cockpit view?

hey bill, a question: does it have a no panel cockpit view?

 

Not a pre programmed one that I see. You could probably set one up