Flight Simulator needs to include outer space!

[Dillon 2,197]

Hello all!A couple people including myself have recently suggested that MS make spaceflight possible on future flight simulator versions. I couldnt agree more. Here is an excerpt taken from one of my other posts on this board that describes my feelings about MS including space as part of, say, FS2006 or FS2008? I think it's a logical next step, really:-------I have wanted to see MS include SPACE in the flight sim ever since FS5.1!!! It's about time we get it, I mean FS2000 and FS2002 all have downloadable Space Shuttles to fly, but there's no space!! You literally cannot fly higher than 100,000 feet in FS2002. We should be able to orbit the earth in flight simulators in the future. We really should. We should have the effect of flying an airliner at the limits of the atmosphere and being able to see the curvature of the earth. How would that be?That's what I want to see more than anything else. The ground textures are great....now lets include such features as being able to see earth curvature at high altitude, ability to fly into space (unlimited altitude), and visual effects such as seeing the blackness of the upper atmosphere from 37,000 feet like in a real airliner!! how would it be to, in FS2008, be able to download the Apollo spacecraft, take off from Cape Canaveral, and land on the moon as part of a secnery/aircraft addon package? Wouldn't that be AMAZING?? Do you think this will ever happen? FS Flight Simulator expanding to include Space? How neat would it be to, say, fly from Mars to Earth and then enter the atmosphere...and turn off crash detection so that the plane/spacecraft would glow red from the heat of re-entry but not burn up, allowing you to safely recover in the atmosphere and eventually land?Or how about an "adventure" where you could dock with the space station, which would be included as part of the default scenery?? INCREDIBLE!! I hope it happens some day. It'd take massive amounts of hard drive, but by then, we'll have the extra hard drive to spare.----------------------I agree with myself completely. Honestly, MS has now gotten the ground textures near perfect. The weather is starting to get ever more real. Flight effects and dynamics are better than they've ever been. And hopefully moving cars will return to the freeways in FS2004. BUT, what area has not been explored in FS to date?Space. And space is a very important part of flying in itself. Wouldn't it be amazing to be able to rocket out of the atmosphere and orbit the earth and see it from space? Fly the Space Shuttle dead-stick throuhg re-entry as part of an "adventure"? Or journeying to the moon or other planets. It'd require huge resources of space on the hard drive but in the coming years we'll have that space to spare. I think it should be done. We saw the first primitive example of FS spaceflight on X-plane. If that can be developed into something much bigger by MS, then it truly would be the ultimate flight sim. THAT is "as real as it gets"What do you think? Would you guys like to fly and also be able to go into space in Flight Sim? It just seems logical to me, after all, they're running out of things to improve on earth itself. Brandon Williams, Aircraft developer, flightsim.comForum moderator: http://www.genesis-music.com

[Dillon 2,197]

What a great topic for discussion, I for one am for outer space being included (maybe not all the way to the moon but at least enough to see the planet). It would be nice to see the sky darken when you reach a certain altitude and watch the curvature of the earth as well. I hope the guys write this down on their wish list...

[Guest Lindy]

Actually MS had a Space Simulator a few years ago. Apparently it never caught on. I had a copy..... as a matter of fact, it was the very first piece of software I bought for my brand new, first ever P75, 1 G hard drive computer. It was an interesting simulator, but I found it not very entertaining. Perhaps I simply did not have the technical bent to appreciate it. I remain content with my flight simulators based here on earth. ;-)-Lindy :-rotor:-wave

[Guest ba747heavy]

Couple of reasons that space would never be included:1) Too difficult to model everything to be 'realistic', take orbiter for instance. Check out www.orbitersim.com and the forum on that site. Look at the number of requests for help on that board. Even from myself whom I consider to be a space junkie and slightly knowledgable in such things.2) Couldn't use the normal textures for ground, because the vid cards don't have enough onboard memory. Just look at Orbiter and the horrible ground textures.........(they are fine once you get away from Earth a bit)3) Orbiter is free and a better Simulator for space ops then M$ could *ever* make there FS.:D Space would be interesting, but not necessary IMHO.

[Guest]

Geeez, I'm still waiting for better ATC and weather!!I don't think MS should waste their time focusing on space flight in this sim. We can't even get the flight dynamics right for airplanes. I'd rather see more realism development and leave space flight to 'Orbiter'. Just my 2cents.....

[Guest Tim13]

I think that FS2008 is about right when MS could begin to explore the idea of extending the flyable atmosphere beyond 100K feet. Right now though, we are just getting a dynamic atmosphere and more realistic weather. Considering the fact that we as simmer spend most of our time flying through the atmosphere from airport to airport, the weather environment has been sorely neglected until now. Let MS get a few versions of FS under their belt with the new weather and ATC tweaks before they even think about space.On a side note, even a great free program like Orbiter Sim has a small hardcore following. I don't think that enough people are interested enough in spaceflight to warrant development of this area by MS. It would pretty much eat up a whole revision cycle just to implement it into the sim. Imagine if FS2004 were being released as essentially FS2002 with the ability to fly into space. Most people would reject that product, and it would be a sales flop. My suggestion is to get yourself a copy of Orbiter Sim, and all of the add-ons that are available right here in the Avsim library. That alone will keep you busy for quite awhile. Heck, even something as "simple" as acheiving a stable low earth orbit can be difficult to master, and that is the easiest thing that you will do in Orbiter Sim.JMHO.Tim13

[Guest Tim W]

>Geeez, I'm still waiting for better ATC and weather!! >I don't think MS should waste their time focusing on space >flight in this sim. We can't even get the flight dynamics >right for airplanes. I'd rather see more realism >development and leave space flight to 'Orbiter'. Just my >2cents..... My thoughts exactly!regardsTim

[Guest progrmr]

haha..crap..I just checked out that orbitersim.com website - check out this post from one of threads:....The most recent time I used TransX to get back from the moon, I used a quick-and-dirty method to get home - rather similar to that suggested using the Transfer MFD earlier in this thread.I simply carried out a burn when in roughly the right place behind the moon, and watched using the Major view of Eject mode in TransX. Once you reach a sufficient speed to have a hyperbolic orbit around the moon, your orbit around Earth will appear. Just keep burning until this ellipse drops all the way to the Earth's surface, and you're done!It is crude, but it works nicely in a coplanar situation....WOW! this is only one of many posts like this on their site. I think I might just try this out!

[JimmiG 244]

My opinion? I think that MS should concentrate on making flight in the earth atmoshphere as realistic as possible. It is a flight simulator, not a space simulator. If they have to simulate space flight, there will be less money and development time devoted to ground scenery, ATC, flight dynamics, airport details etc. If MS were to simulate space flight, they should release it as a new product, MS Space Simulator or something, not as part of FS. If you're interested in space flight simulation, there are a few good programs for that, like Orbiter for example.There are some things in your post that I think MS should implement, though. Being able to see the earth curvature, and a sky that gets darker with higher altitudes would be great. That's certainly not difficult to implement, Flight Unlimited III already simulates both of those effects, as well as ground fog and dynamic weather, and this sim was released in 1999. Also, while that sim doesn't simulate space flight, it does simulate atmosphere re-entry. You can cheat and climb to 200 000 ft. and then let your plane fall down and it will be torn into pieces :-lol

[Guest abent]

I'll third that for sure!Adam

[Guest]

Wow,how could they model the solar system, galaxy or universe? Would you fly to the outskirts of pluto and just hit a deadend? Like some games you cant fly off the map. The plane just comes to an invisible end and wont go any further.Good idea, but like you said, thats alot of hardrive space, and MS is already trying to tackle other issues with FS2K4. I for one love any part of flying whether it be jets, spacecraft or a flying carpet. I would rather just buy a sim dedicated to space than trying to add that onto this.Now if MS would make a modern combat sim or atleast have military planes that could fire weapons in designated areas with destroyable ground objects in FS2K2, WHOOHOO!......Things that make ya' go "hmmm" :D=Swiv=