Soaring in FSX, with ASN + CumulusX!...

[jcomm]

Is it just me, or are we missing something important in the pictures?  :unsure:

 

 

Hmmm, I can't figure out what you're referring to ?

[Rocky_53]

There is one extra element that I always fly with when gliding with Cumulus X and my Aerosoft Discus, and that's photoscenery. It can become so real at times, especially when circling above the Welsh mountains in a thermal, that I can actually forget I'm flying in FSX! B)

[jcomm]

Yes Howard, I have even considered buying MegaScenery Portugal, recently released, but I fear turning my smooth FSX install, which is plain vanilla FSX Gold with just the LPMA scenery and a selected number of aircraft add-ons, into a show of stutters :-/

 

Anyway, I am sure that with photoscenery it can only get better :-)

 

Both ASN and CumulusX! have very well reproduced the effects of ridge lift ( thermal and orographic, and combined ...) and flying on some mountain areas is an excellent experience.

I am still waiting for the long announced Aerosoft AS-K21, one of the gliders I have logged more hours in IRL...

[Rocky_53]

Yes Howard, I have even considered buying MegaScenery Portugal, recently released, but I fear turning my smooth FSX install, which is plain vanilla FSX Gold with just the LPMA scenery and a selected number of aircraft add-ons, into a show of stutters :-/

 

Anyway, I am sure that with photoscenery it can only get better :-)

 

Both ASN and CumulusX! have very well reproduced the effects of ridge lift ( thermal and orographic, and combined ...) and flying on some mountain areas is an excellent experience.

I am still waiting for the long announced Aerosoft AS-K21, one of the gliders I have logged more hours in IRL...

 

Hey matey, sure, I hear what you're saying, but when I decide to fly the Discus, I choose the Welsh mountains which is scenery released by Just Flight VFR and is IMO the best photoscenery on the market from any vendor. It is far better than the rest of the UK and stands alone in it's quality. Anyway, when I'm not flying the discus I simply disable the photoscenery in the FSX library. BTW, also when flying with the scenery I set LOD to 8 and switch off autogen, this returns some really sharp scenery, although I guess I'm probably teaching my grandmother how to suck eggs! Also, if you enjoy mountain flying, you could try downloading some of Bluesky scenery, in particular some of the hi res scenery. Here's a pic of what Just Flight's VFR Wales looks like from a XC I did from Snowdon down to Gloucester gliding club last year...

 

[jcomm]

Whow!  That picture looks GREAT!!!

 

I think I will have to give that JustFlight scenery a try!

 

I admire the glider pilost flying in England, and being able to pick thermals in days we around here would never even consider

being worth going to the airfield for a beer with other chaps...

 

That scenery looks simply AMAZING!

 

Thx for the precious hint Howard!

[Brenchen]

Hmmm, I can't figure out what you're referring to ?

 

Gliding is all about that wool, where's the wool  ? jks

[Guest Flyer10]

I am still waiting for the long announced Aerosoft AS-K21, one of the gliders I have logged more hours in IRL...

 

Dublin Gliding Club? I started flying gliders there 25 years :lol: Do you guys still have that K13? It was the first glider I ever flew :biggrin:

You want a K21? Here's a treat for all of you who want gliders for your sim and bonus the FSX Gliders work in P3DV2

http://www.fsglider.de/p_sg3_e.htm

 

The is also a K21 in X-plane 10 but you know that already :lol:

 

Now after being nice I am going to have to dis soaring in FSX or P3DV2. With the exception of Cumulus X which is somewhat accurate I am coming to the conclusion that  thermals and Ridge lift in FSX and P3DV2 with ASN installed are IMO far from accurate. The ridge lift is good in that its there but that's about it! As far as the thermal are concerned. I set the date in southern Ontario that I know was an excellent soaring days last year and expected to find very good cross country conditions and 6000' cloud base. The cloud base was about 4000' in the sim and there wasn't a thermal to be found. I did encounter lift though a steady 1knot in a straight line for a few KM :huh:

I suppose in the reality this can happen along a front but I wasn't flying along a front! I then set the condition to a nice summer day 6000' cloud base lots of buffy Cu and I swear the thermals where a big a town :lol: I had trouble finding sink. I wish they where like that in reality. Anyway the Jury is still out. I will have to experiment with it a bit more and see if like HiFi claims ASN produces "Thermals with realistic simulation based on temperature and surface type". Based on that description I sure would expect to find somewhat realistic thermals but I haven't yet!

By far Condor the Soaring Simulator is the undisputed champion of realism in a flight simulator for gliding. It would be amazing for glider pilots to have that realism along with the eye candy of FSX or P3DV2. Hope to see it some day

[Rocky_53]

As a matter of info, I understand the dev (Luerkins?) is working on an update that will include wave lift! Now that would be cool.

[Guest Flyer10]

Luerkins as in Peter Lürkens. Developer as in Cumulus X or is he involved with ASN? Wave would be a real treat. Never been lucky enough to find myself in that situation. I believe it is simulated in Condor but I have not gotten into it there either.

[jcomm]

I agree with you Flyer10 regarding the poor thermal model in FSX with ASN. CumulusX! does a much better job in this area.

 

X-Plane thermals are also very poor ...

 

Silent Wings is still my preferred glider sim, although I used Condor a lot more...

 

Having some sort of wave in FSX with CumulusX! or ASN would be great :-)

[Guest Flyer10]

 

 

one of the gliders I have logged more hours in IRL...

 

Right now I get it! IRL... as in "In Real Life!"

 

I though you meant IRL as in "Ireland" where I originally learned to fly gliders hence the Dublin Gliding Club reference! :lol:

[Brenchen]

I agree with you Flyer10 regarding the poor thermal model in FSX with ASN. CumulusX! does a much better job in this area.

 

X-Plane thermals are also very poor ...

 

Silent Wings is still my preferred glider sim, although I used Condor a lot more...

 

Having some sort of wave in FSX with CumulusX! or ASN would be great :-)

 

What about Condor?  There's a lot of talk about its great realism (although the glider panel graphics are a bit outdated). 

 

Having said that, I did a quick google for a comparison of SW and Condor, here they are just for reference:

• http://forum.condorsoaring.com/viewtopic.php?t=9116
• http://forum.silentwings.no/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=407

Sorry to veer off track from FSX and CumulusX!  :ph34r:

[jcomm]

Chen,

 

I had both. Bought Condor 1st, and then latter SW.

 

From the pov of flight dynamics, and feel of being there, specially on a well designed model, I really prefer SW to Condor.

 

Also, the approach SW follows to generate convective lift is, IMO, more advanced than the one used by Condor.

 

For only flying though, Condor is a lot better ( very fast even with more than 10 gliders online ), and the interface that allows

you to create competitions in Condor is also a lot more detailed than in SW.

 

SW is my preferred soaring simulator, followed very closely by Condor. Then comes Flight Gear with it's advanced weather mode in third place, and  SoTS, FSX, X-Plane and Aerofly FS all share the 4th place. Long ago I used to be a fan of SFS 3, but it is no longer being developed :-(

[lodestar]

Condor is realy great! I tried SW demo, but i tried only default glider and i didn't liked graphics. 

 

When i tried condor for first time i thought someting is wrong with flight dynamics, but it was only about flight controls sensitivity. In menu, you can adjust that, just like with FSUIPC in FSX. I set everything to medium and it feels great in my opinion, but i never flew glider in RL so maybe we should listen to jcomm on this  :lol:

 

I decided to keep Condor only, becouse i used nvidia inspector(fsx profile) and it looks beautiful. With default scenery is a litle bit cartoonish, but with photoreal scenery i have sensation of being there. 

 

With SW, i can't tweak graphics via nvidia inspector. I managed to get decent graphics with SW, but performance was realy bad after that, so i gave up. But jcomm, if you have any suggestion on this, i will try again.

 

After some minor flight controls and graphics tweaking, Condor is my nr.1 flightsim. I'll be able to comment more on this next month, after my trial lesson in real glider  B)

[jcomm]

Zeljko,

 

you're good with Condor, and then, SW stopped long ago, there are no longer any online sessions, no nothing :-(

 

In condor you have lot's of servers available, always!