Flight Gear 3.4 has just been released!

[gsagostinho 16]

And it is really amazing, I can't get tired of the detailed weather engine and the atmospheric light scattering:

 

 

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

 

And to see some amazing screenshots and detailed explanation of what the atmospheric light scattering system is capable of, have a look on this post: http://www.flightgear.org/tours/the-magic-of-light-and-haze/

 

Best,

Gilberto

[CyberMike 18]

Stunning, if 3.4 looks like in those images it leaves all other sims behind.- What airplane is that?

[gsagostinho 16]

Hi,

 

I believe that is the 777, but I may be mistaken (I rarely fly large jets).

 

In my view, FlightGear had some huge leaps in quality in the past year or so, it has some really stunning features. For instance, the weather engine (in advanced mode) takes into consideration the terrain layout when generating a weather pattern, so mountains, sea, etc., influence the weather. As much as I like to fly X-Plane 10 as well, it is amazing to be able to fly with tons of clouds in the sky or even in a complete overcast and rainy day without having a drop in performance (try that with X-Plane clouds... I can only fly in clear days on my computer...). And the ALS system is gorgeous, the sky looks better than any other sim with dynamic change of colours according to haze, sun position, weather, etc. This is miles ahead of other sims.

 

FG's main problem, in my opinion, is with its scenery. The resolution of the mesh (that is, the information about elevation) is not very high, so mountains sometimes look like pyramids. Also the contours of cities, forests, the path of rivers, coastlines, they often have too little resolution for my taste. But that is just details, and it should only get better with future releases.

 

And as for planes, there are some very amazing ones. The Cessna 337 is really nice, also the DR400 and the Cap10, and the new Extra 500 is looking gorgeous. And the 777 is said to be really realistic and looks better with each release (but too complex to me). Also, a bunch of guys (myself included) are working on some huge improvements for the cockpit of the default Cessna 172.

 

Give FG3.4 a try and I think you may be pleasantly surprised!

 

Best,

Gilberto

[jcomm 5,919]

I certainly WILL!

 

Thx for the Note!  Looking Gorgeous!!!

 

If only I could use it with Aerowinx PSX, instead of FSX:SE or XP10 :-/

[Arthur42417 193]

FG is nice but the planes look terrible.....are there any fsx/xp10 devs supporting FG?  The VC for the 777 is awful.

[CyberMike 18]

Well you're free to help them. Some planes are nice and get better and better like for ex. the IAR80, CitationX, http://wiki.flightgear.org/Boeing_787-8_Dreamliner etc.

[jcomm 5,919]

Not my video! but inetersting review of the nes in 3.4

 

 

[gsagostinho 16]

FG is nice but the planes look terrible.....are there any fsx/xp10 devs supporting FG?  The VC for the 777 is awful.

 

It depends on the plane, and they are all getting better. And as CyberMike pointed out, helping the community is the best way to get good looking results. I am now working with a team to improve the default Cessna 172 and we are reworking all textures, the 3D model, adding realistic procedures, adding knobs, buttons, etc.. Here is how the default panel looks like:

 

And here is a sample of our work so far:

 

Also, keep in mind that FlightGear is like any other complex flight simulator which needs a lot of tweaking. Some stuff isn't just on by default (we want people with low end computers to be able to run it). If you have the machine capable of, please do turn the Atmospheric Light Scattering ON, use custom shaders and move all sliders to the right individually, use TerraSync to download the newest available scenery for your area, use random buildings, add more density to trees and clouds, etc. Also, FlightGear has an excellent wiki and an excellent forum with very friendly people, and there you will find an array of new features yet to be implemented in a major release. For instance, we do have volumetric grass around airports and an addon named FGcamera which works similarly to Ezdok in FSX.

[CyberMike 18]

Looks good, the more like the real airplane, the better.

[gsagostinho 16]

Looks good, the more like the real airplane, the better.

Thanks! And that's our philosophy there as well In case you want to follow the advances, here is the thread where we post our progress: http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=25157

[radino 1]

FGCamera v1.2 available http://wiki.flightgear.org/FGCamera and show video

[gsagostinho 16]

FGCamera is fantastic! I hope it will get incorporated in FG on the next release.

[gsagostinho 16]

Some more nice recent screenshots from the forum and wiki:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And some more progress with our Cessna 172:

 

And currently developing cockpit shadows, reflections, rain and frost effects (which will be available on the next FG release):

 

Right now even the circuit breakers are working

 

Interested? Give this Cessna a try: http://forum.flightgear.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=25157

[jcomm 5,919]

Thx for sharing agostinho!

 

I will re-install FG tonight.

 

I'm always devided between it's truly remarkable features ( for a freeware project ) and the sometimes rather limited flight dynamics, although a few powerful FDM engines are used already, including JSBSim.

 

But indeed it is looking just great!

 

I would like to be able to create a bridge between FG 3.4 and Aerowinx PSX, as there was in the past for an older version of FG and PS1, allowing to use FG as a visuals generator for Aerowinx PSX, as an alternative to using XP10 or FSX/P3D.

[gsagostinho 16]

@jcomm My pleasure!

 

I use both FlightGear and X-Plane 10, but lately I find myself using FlightGear more. This is partially because of the active development of the C172, but also because FG has truly some very nice features.

 

Surely you are right about some of the issues FG has. About the FDM, some aircraft have better flight dynamics than others, and I believe some are very nice to fly. In the end of the day, we can't compare FG aircraft with projects like PMDG, created by a group of several paid people during several months that will cost you more than the sim you fly. In FG, all aircraft are default aircraft basically

 

But yeah, give it a try and see if it's for you. And be sure to spend some time tweaking it (activating atmospheric light scattering, manually setting the shaders to high values, setting the weather for detailed, etc.). If you need some help tweaking it in order to get the best looking results, feel free to post questions here or also on FG's forum at http://forum.flightgear.org/

 

Cheers!
Gilberto

[jcomm 5,919]

Yes Gilberto, I've been doing that with each new version, and always discovering truly remarkable features in this project.

 

Right now I would really be interested in a port to Aerowinx PSX, allowing me to use it as a visuals only generator for that sim.