I have never used "real" weather in a flight simulator. I couldn't care less whether the weather (ho ho) is the same in the simulator as it is in the real world. I generally fly around with clear skies these days, partly because it keeps the framerates up in P3D, and also because it enables me to see the scenery better! Don't misunderstand me though. Realistic clouds are great eye candy, but I still think that improvements need to be made. A good example would be "complete overcast". When I select "8/8" cloud cover, I expect to see a complete, 100% blanket of cloud. Not 6/8 with lots of holes in it.

I'd love to know what Dovetails plans are for shadows in Flight School.

 

I've asked the questions in the main thread so hopefully we'll get an answer in the coming week.

 

In the latest screenshots, the light rendering is spectacular, the new engine is really showing its power, but I can't see a single shadow. On the Steam page they have small images, some of them show shadows on the aircraft. I wonder if they're still experimenting with the tech?

 

Would be nice if Flight School and Flight Simulator share the same rendering engine, it could mean any advances made to the main sim over the coming year would be pre-viewable in Flight School. Good for Dovetails marketing strategy and more cost effective than running two separate engines with different tech.

Honestly, I actually tend to dislike the realtime weather in our favorite sims. As you said, there are effects, cloud types and conditions we just don't see, simply because the current tech can't really depict them. There are some interesting attempts to work around it a bit, but still major flaws exist in my eyes, at least, in X-plane (for one instance) where weather can change very violently from Metar to Metar and layer to layer. (a common problem)

 

Yeah, I hate sudden transitions like that, with injected real weather. There's nothing worse than suddenly having the bottom of the cloud layer drop to the runway when you're on short final!

 

However, I hear that this has been alleviated with at least one add-on -- FS Global Real Weather -- which does a smoother interpolation between the last data update and the next one. If you already own it for FSX/P3D it works in X-Plane without having to buy it again. I haven't tried it yet, because I've heard that an add-on is in the works for SkyMaxx that might do something similar, so I'm waiting to see how that turns out.

 

Meanwhile, when I want to fly with "real" weather I just do a one-time update with the free NOAA Weather plugin and then turn off further updates so I don't get those jumpy transitions in X-Plane. I mostly fly bush planes and helicopters on FSE assignments no more than 200-250 miles, not cross-country, so it's not too unrealistic to fly in the weather conditions at the departing airport. I don't use real weather all the time, but it's a nice change of pace, and adds challenge to FSE jobs when I'm bored of flying over the same countryside. 

 

One of the main reasons I'm tracking the new DTG sims is that I'm very curious about what they'll do with weather modeling. It's the last frontier for realistic computer flight simulation. With a 64-bit program for massive RAM access, and today's ultra-fast CPU's, I think civilian flight sims could be doing much better than they are now with weather modeling. I don't expect to see weather injection in Flight School because it would probably interfere with the scripted lessons. But they have a real opportunity here to improve weather modeling in the follow-up flight simulator.

I use FS Global Real Weather.

I bought it to use with X Plane but I use it with FSX and have used it with P3D.

Its got several options for weather updating.

One is the obvious update every 5 minutes or so but there's another option to download the weather once.

 

I like this because it avoids sudden updates but also avoids the sim becoming unresponsive while the new weather is applied.

 

 

But they have a real opportunity here to improve weather modeling in the follow-up flight simulator.

 

We shall see!

@tbaac - IIRC FSX itself has the option to do a static download of real weather but perhaps the package you use does a better job of rendering it.

Hi Sam.  I was comparing it to ASN that I used to use.  I bought it for X Plane as a vague alternative to ASN.

I've used FS Global Real Weather with FSX now and usually just use the static weather.

 

Back in 2013,  a review on avsim concluded, "This is quite simply the ultimate simulation of atmospheric conditions, period"

http://www.avsim.com/index.php/_/reviews/fs-global-real-weather-for-fs9fsxp3d-r1631

 

Of course, that's just one opinion.

a decent training simulator that can teach me the basics of flying properly in easy to understand baby steps is something that interests me.

 

This Flight school can become a full fledged flight school product...but adding IFR training... I have one amazing IFR training program with me..and it has never been replicated so far..

 

asa IP Trainer. The best I have every seen.  IT has all the IFR courses (not the modern GPS and G1000) that you can simply watch  and learn, or you can execute with an IFR trainer prompting you..or you do it yourself and you would be rated.

 

The only problem is,  it needs its own dedicated Radio (NAV) which I did not want to invest in that cannot be used in my MSFS. And without it, you cannot turn the radio frequency fast enough to pass the check ride.  

 

So there can be a  software flight school that trains a person in complete IFR proficiency. It has been done before (the product is now so outdated) 

 

Also Chris, this is something that may interest you.

 

http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/vor-appr.htm

 

http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/howitbegan.htm

 

Quote

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

---------------------------

Air Mail Service pilots were the unsung heroes of early aviation. In their frail biplanes, they battled wind, snow and sleet to pioneer round-the-clock airmail service along the world's longest air route, the U.S. transcontinental. In the process, thirty-four pilots lost their lives.

Since September 1920, the Post Office Dept. had flown the mail from New York to San Francisco, but during daytime only, transferring it to trains at night. As a result, elapsed time was 72 hours at best, or a mere 36-hour saving over the fastest all-rail trip.

Flying the mail was risky business. During the nine years the Post Office Department operated the Airmail Service, there were over 6,500 forced landings. On the average, airmail pilots had a life span of only about 900 flying hours.

The Post Office Dept. increased the pressure on its pilots by announcing that the air mail flights could be conducted on a schedule 93% of the time.

Flying in open-cockpit biplanes, exposed to the bitterly cold air and harsh weather conditions, the pilots often became so numbed and exhausted that they couldn't think clearly or make decisions quickly. Not publicized by the Post Office Dept. was the fact that in order to fight the cold and the constant pressure of deadlines, with on-time delivery expected under even the worst of flying conditions, many of the pilots carried bottles of liquor along when they flew.

Carrying the mail was not the only business of aviation. In 1914 the world's first regularly scheduled air-passenger service opened up along a 22-mile route from Tampa to St. Petersburg, Florida. The service could carry only one passenger at a time and cost $5 for the 23-minute flight. It was a financial failure and lasted only a short time.

These early days of aviation presented a unique set of problems and the inability of aircraft to navigate in rough weather and darkness topped the list. The government became involved in 1926.

Paraffin :

I don't expect to see weather injection in Flight School because it would probably interfere with the scripted lessons. But they have a real opportunity here to improve weather modeling in the follow-up flight simulator.

 

I'm hoping it's in there for free flight. Certainly, the weather in the most recent screenshots suggests they've started improving the weather rendering engine and possibly even FSX's weather injection itself.

Latest shots look very similar to what I'm seeing in ASN (minus REX Soft Clouds)

 

Fingers crossed, we'll see.

I'd love to know what Dovetails plans are for shadows in Flight School.

 

I've asked the questions in the main thread so hopefully we'll get an answer in the coming week.

 

In the latest screenshots, the light rendering is spectacular, the new engine is really showing its power, but I can't see a single shadow. On the Steam page they have small images, some of them show shadows on the aircraft. I wonder if they're still experimenting with the tech?

 

Would be nice if Flight School and Flight Simulator share the same rendering engine, it could mean any advances made to the main sim over the coming year would be pre-viewable in Flight School. Good for Dovetails marketing strategy and more cost effective than running two separate engines with different tech.

 

I can't remember where but I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that cloud shadows wouldn't be included in Flight School but Dovetail would look at it again for Flight Simulator. I can't find this quote now though so maybe it's been retracted...

 

The bad news Flight Simulator will not share the same engine with Flight School, the good news is that's because it will be even better. Dovetail have confirmed that they are still evolving the technology which we can preview in Flight School for Flight Simulator. I guess we all have to be just a little more patient but they seem to be doing a good job so far.

 

Cheers,

Dave.

 

 

I can't remember where but I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that cloud shadows wouldn't be included in Flight School but Dovetail would look at it again for Flight Simulator. I can't find this quote now though so maybe it's been retracted...

 

DTG Martin answered this one in the other thread - and confirmed that this won't be included in Flight School, but that it's being looked at for Flight Sim:

http://www.avsim.com/topic/483642-ask-dovetail-games-about-dtg-flight-school-flight-simulator/page-17

dtrjones -

I can't remember where but I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that cloud shadows wouldn't be included in Flight School but Dovetail would look at it again for Flight Simulator. I can't find this quote now though so maybe it's been retracted...

 

Yeah, I saw that one.

 

The bad news Flight Simulator will not share the same engine with Flight School, the good news is that's because it will be even better. Dovetail have confirmed that they are still evolving the technology which we can preview in Flight School for Flight Simulator.

 

I read that too, but when I thought about it, it can mean the same thing.

 

April, Dovetail launches Flight School. May June, July, Dovetail continues to improve the tech. It could decide to keep both code lines completely separate, which will ultimately entail more work and more cost.

 

Some alternatives...

a] They update Flight School with the new tech incremental builds and generates interest in their main sim for release later in the year.

b] They update Flight School with the new tech AFTER releasing the main sim (Shame, but there we go)

c] They keep Flight School as it is on release and have separate programmers kept on for debugging only without any major updates (I don't think that's dovetails way)

 

They can't say Flight School will use the same rendering engine presently, simply because it won't, it's an early release and the tech isn't fully developed.

 

It would be great if they took route (a). it'll be good for marketing and fun for us.

 

I asked Martin this question last week, He hasn't been back yet.

[edit] - Should add, I'm only talking about the visual rendering engine here, nothing else.

 

they seem to be doing a good job so far.

 

Don't they just, those latest images are stunning.

Add shadows and soft clouds and those images would look like photos.

 

 

TrackIR is not officially supported however. 

 

Martin,

 

Not officially supported but works anyway or not officially supported and will not work at all.

 

If the latter, then this is a huge dealbreaker for many in the community.

Hard to understand why DTG does not support TrackIR, it is seen as essential by a lot of simmers especially for pattern work.

(posting here to keep the Q&A thread clean)

 

Well, so Martin just said TrackIR is "not officially supported" for Flight School. 

 

That's maybe a deal-breaker for me, although I was interested in seeing what they were doing with this product. On the other hand, maybe it works anyway, but they just don't want to deal with tech support issues for newbies? I think they might be underestimating the number of "gamers" who already use TrackIR (or similar) in other types of games.

 

On the other, other hand, maybe we're expecting too much from a $15 product. I just don't want to fly patterns without it, so my interest level has taken a bit of a dive.

 

 

 

 

DTG Flight School has not been designed or developed with the existing flight sim community in mind.

 

TrackIR is not just limited to flight simulations, a lot of gamers who are into other simulations, racing sims etc also own and use TrackIR.

Are these not the type of players you are trying to attract ?

 

Crazy decision to not support something that makes pattern flying much better, especially in a product that supposedly teaches flying