Need suggestions and help with FlightGear video

[Dr Vesuvius 22]

Good Day, Flight Gear fans (and the peanut gallery)

 

I've recently started making videos on YouTube, including a series on flight simulation. Unlike most FS vids out there, I'm doing them in a "Let's Play" style, commentating and trying to convey the fun to be had with simming. Although by necessity I'm starting with Flight Simulator I think I'd like to include some Flight Gear content, as I think it's a fantastic project with a ton of potential, and possibly the future of hobbyist flight simming.

 

I'd really like to put Flight Gear's best foot forward, so to speak. So what I'm looking for is suggestions and and advice on things like...

 

What plane to use - I keep running into half-finished and unpolished FG aircraft that give a bad impression. Since part of the mission is to show something that's newbie friendly, I'd be looking for a fairly easy to fly GA aircraft. I'd go with the basic C-172, except the last time I tried that in FG it looked a bit rough around the edges. A bizjet or regional airliner would be an alternative as long as it looks finished and polished.

Where to fly - any particularly good areas of scenery? More polished looking airports?

Any particular configuration I should do to improve the look of things?

 

I know eye-candy isn't historically the thrust of FG development, though it's making leaps and strides with things like Rembrandt. But it's hard to get viewers engaged and excited about a better flight model if the sim's looking like an alpha version of FS95.

 

In summary... "What's the best the current version of FlightGear has to offer?"

 

Thanks in advance

 

Dr V

[jcomm 5,938]

Dr V,

 

I don't think I can help ritght now - FG not installed on my rig - but I recall the CAP-10B "Mudry", or the Cessna 337. For Scenery I used to fly in Portugal, but there is a good scenery for the Alps - just don't recall where to get it from...

 

Curiously I was just thinking of recording a video, and editing it to include comments, sounds, etc... I can use either LM P3d or X-Plane10. X-Plane already has an option to save a movie, but it is not working with the 64 bit version yet.

 

What program are you using to record your flight simulator sessions? In the past I had FRAPS, but I do not want to buy it back... I know there are freeware alternatives, but would be great if you pointed your choices.

 

Thx,

[Dr Vesuvius 22]

jcomm

 

I'm using a program called Bandicam, which basically works the same as FRAPS, except it seems to have a lot less impact on framerate.It's a little touchy with FSX though, and seems to split a session into multiple files for no apparent reason (I can happily record hours of Minecraft to a single file with it though)

 

There is a demo of Bandicam available which records up to ten minutes with a fairly discrete watermark, so you can give it a proper trial (unlike FRAPS' 5 second demo!)

 

"Let's Play" style flight-sim videos, with chatty commentary seem to be a new thing - I  certainly couldn't find any videos like it lsat year.  Now in the last month, at least two other YouTubers have started doing them, Infin8lives and AShadowBoxFSX.  There's only so much that yet another "FSX as real as it gets!!! @5.7GHz" wingview video can do to help grow the hobby.  Talking directly the viewers and telling them "Hey, this is what I'm doing and this is why it's fun." seems to me to be a much better approach.

 

I'll definitely look into the planes and areas you mention, and if you decide to make some videos I look forward to seeing them.

 

In the meantime, I'm still open to suggestions from anyone else.

 

Regards

 

Dr V

[jcomm 5,938]

Thx Dr V.  I'll try that one ;-)

[CyberMike 18]

I use recordmydesktop on Ubuntu. Surely one of the nicest planes is the IAR 80.