Using Flight Gear 3.0.0 - a Basic Guide...

In this post, and another one or two I intend to publish in this forum, I'll try to summarize the aspects of installing and running Flight Gear that I believe are basic, but important specially for new users.

I am really spending a Great Time with Flight Gear, comparable only to the joy using MS FLIGHT gave me 2 years ago. Contrarily to MS FLIGHT, this Flight Gear Project has a rather brilliant future, IMO, and for me it became by far my preferred general flight simulator! Although there are yet just a few high standard aircraft add-ons available, there are many others very nice to teka just for a short ride.

If flight modelling quality, even some systems detail, and weather, are strong points in a simulation software for you... then you should really give Flight Gear a fair try! 

This simulator shouldn't make you trash yoir other sims, no way!  But being freeware, it poses no threat either ;-)

I hope you find it useful, and please feel free to ask any questions. I am still learning my way across Flight Gear 3, but will try to give you my best answers / advices...

DOWNLOADING:
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First of, get the latest installer from Flightgear.org:

http://www.flightgear.org/download/

Do not, right away, download any Scenery.

The Scenery in v3.0.0 is now V2, a kind of HD v2 of X-Plane :-). This new scenery is the future of the scenery engine to be used from now on on Flight Gear, covers the whole World, and it uses "Terrasync" to automatically download the scenery for you whenever you place your aircraft at an aerodrome where you've not been previously.

Sometimes, since there are constant updates to this new scenery database, based, among other sources of data, on OSM, you get a download of certain components even when you're going to a place you have visited before.

In the future, if you like FG3, you can then download a frozen version of the Scenery V2 for selected areas, by tiles, like you do for X-Plane 10.

INSTALLING:
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When the installer prompts for an install directory, make sure you do not install under "Programs". I always have a selected folder in my PCs to install all of the simulators under it.

If you're running a 64 bit version of Windows ( or other operating system ) do not chose the option to install the 32 bit version on 64 bit systems!  Use what you have, and you'll be running a modern 64 bit simulator!

During the install process the OpenAL installer will popup and ask you for permission to install - accept it, because it is used for the sounds using the Open AL library.

In Windows you'll notice that Flight Gear 3.0.0 creates a subfolder FlightGear under your Documents folder. That's where it'll, among other things, place the Terrasync-downloaded tiles.

INITIAL SETUP:
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Just like with any other flight simulator, you'll have to adapt Flight Gear to your system. It can run really fast or really slow, depending on the rendering options you chose.

Graphically the latest advances in Flight Gear 3.0.0 scenery rendering are made through the "Rembrandt" platform. Most of the aircraft are already Rembrandt-ready, but some will display weird effects, like non-transparent canopies, if they're not ready for that type of rendering. You'll have to disable Rembrandt on the FG menus prior to the flight session. It can be done according to the following picture. Tick or untick the Rembrandt option.



It is also on that menu that you can chose the amount of filtering applied to your textures. The highest the heavier on you system. I have been experimenting, and having some success, with Nvidia Inspector, because although FG3 is OpenGL, so is X-Plane, and we know that there are some settings that will still apply and can turn your display crispier and increase your FPS.

In the "Features" sub-menu of the "Advanced" options tab, on the last screen before the simulator session is started, there are a few default ones you can try ticking, just to see if your system can sustain it... "Enhanced lighting", "Distance attenuation", "Horizon effect", "Random trees", "Specular highlight", etc...

Weather modelling is, IMO, one of the strongest features of Flight Gear. I actually even prefer by far it's weather effects rendering, even being "sprite-based" and not volumetric, to those of X-Plane 10 and FSX, but I agree that sometimes it may look not as good as those programs can make it look... Yet, for me the most important feature in weather modelling are, in the first place, the physical effects of weather, and believe me, they're very well done, and getting better from version to version, in FG3!

You can use Basic or Advanced weather modes. You can use RL weather which is METAR-based, and couple it with the Advanced mode, or chose among a list of weather scenarios that are representative of the most common weather situations you could find in real life.

I particularly admire the accurate ridge lift effects, as well as the thermal model, whenever there are convective clouds and / or the ground bellow you has characteristics that can trigger thermal activity when combined with Sun radiation calculations and other weather variables.  I have to say I have had a great time soaring in Flight Gear 3, and, from a RL glider pilot perspective, I am finding it very very good!

The following menu allows you to chose, among other factors, the overall intensity of turbulence. Turbulence modelling in a flight simulator is problematic, and the approach followed in Flight Gear looks to me as a very good one.



Some simulators have mild turbulence effects, others overdo it's effects. This way, and although different turbulence levels are still set internally according to the weather situations, you can fine tune the overall impact of turbulence for your flights.  

Still on the initial setup menu, make sure you tick the "Terrasync" option, so that scenery is automatically fetched from the Terrasync repositories for you whenever you visit a new World tile or it has been updated with new scenery elements / features...

I usually do not tick the "Time of day" contrarily to the image above, but choose to use RW time / date. I have AI traffic enabled, random trees, Real Weather fetch, auto-visibility, etc...  Chose whatever fits you better. Enhanced RW lighting, Specular highlight and 3D clouds are good choices too :-)

On a next post I will elaborate more on the Simulator Sessions, it's options, joystick configuration, choice of good aircraft add-ons, etc....

Don't forget to visit your Flight Gear folder!!! Under "data\Docs" you will find a wealth of precious information, as, for instance, the default and specific keyboard shortcuts for many aircraft, under the "keyboard" sub-folder!