That looks nice!

Thx HiFlyer!

 

Those night shots look really nice!

The SDK is available now and includes a new aircraft DR400 that has cold and dark features (all the source materials are included), a new airport model Kingman including source, and a sample C++ program to connect an external program to FS2. Good start!

 

https://www.aerofly.com/aerofly_fs_2/sdk/signup

This looks promising.

 

 

Besides the actual SDK you will need either 3D Studio Max 2012 or newer

 

That's a pity, 3D Studio Max costs way too much to be an option for freeware developers. Hopefully someone can find a way to make it work with Blender

presumably we can use other programs and export it to the .3ds format. Most decent 3D programs can export to .3ds.

Hopefully yes, unless they've made it into a 3DS plugin. Blender can export out to 3DS

There've been questions about exactly how good the framerates are in Aerofly FS 2 over its recently released New York Scenery.

 

So lets take a look at 1440p (Well, the recording is 1080) with all settings on "Ultra" except shadows. Framerate counter is on the lower left Corner.

 

System specs are in my signature.

 

I think AeroflyFS 2 could be perfect as a "serious" glider simulator.

 

It has super high FPS, is optimized for high res orthophotos in limited regions, has very good lighting in VFR conditions, and has been designed with VR in mind.

 

These are all features that (I presume) are primarily important if simulating glider flying, a type of flight in which, on the other hand, the limitations of Aerofly FS 2 have zero importance.

 

If they further improve the modeling of micro-weather phenomena (thermals, etc.) to get it on par with e.g. Condorsoaring etc., and add some hi-fidelity gliders, that could bootstrap it into being the simulator of choice for the virtual gliding community.

 

A much faster path than trying to add complex systems, ATC/AI, complex weather, etc. If it gets adopted by the gliding community, it could help them financially for the future.

Running Aerofly Fs2 with the rift and now NYC and it is pretty great.. some shimmering but no where near the level of P3D or Xplane 11 so far.

 

I had to tone down the settings though, even for my system(see sig) and 1080 card, otherwise i was getting jitter, now its smooth, the 2d screen shows 27-45 fps as i fly near the city in the default cessna.

 

I had to lower the VR scale to 1.50 instead of 1.8 or so.. i lowered the visual settings too.. 

 

Texture = high

Terrain = high

Shadow = medium

Buildings = high

Trees = high

 

Pretty sure, anything higher, especially ultra yielded the jitters..

 

Anyone else finding this to be the case with their 1080 + rift with NYC area?  Overall quite pleased.

.

I think AeroflyFS 2 could be perfect as a "serious" glider simulator.

 

It has super high FPS, is optimized for high res orthophotos in limited regions, has very good lighting in VFR conditions, and has been designed with VR in mind.

 

These are all features that (I presume) are primarily important if simulating glider flying, a type of flight in which, on the other hand, the limitations of Aerofly FS 2 have zero importance.

 

If they further improve the modeling of micro-weather phenomena (thermals, etc.) to get it on par with e.g. Condorsoaring etc., and add some hi-fidelity gliders, that could bootstrap it into being the simulator of choice for the virtual gliding community.

 

A much faster path than trying to add complex systems, ATC/AI, complex weather, etc. If it gets adopted by the gliding community, it could help them financially for the future.

 

Aerofly 1 actually had more detail for gliding. I asked on the forums, but since this is essentially a new engine, some functionality has to be done over apparently.

 

You're right though, especially considering how bare-bones current soaring sims are graphically, Ipacs could probably attract quite a bit of that market.

I think AeroflyFS 2 could be perfect as a "serious" glider simulator.

 

It has super high FPS, is optimized for high res orthophotos in limited regions, has very good lighting in VFR conditions, and has been designed with VR in mind.

 

These are all features that (I presume) are primarily important if simulating glider flying, a type of flight in which, on the other hand, the limitations of Aerofly FS 2 have zero importance.

 

If they further improve the modeling of micro-weather phenomena (thermals, etc.) to get it on par with e.g. Condorsoaring etc., and add some hi-fidelity gliders, that could bootstrap it into being the simulator of choice for the virtual gliding community.

 

A much faster path than trying to add complex systems, ATC/AI, complex weather, etc. If it gets adopted by the gliding community, it could help them financially for the future.

 

It's a good point Murmur, and one I considered as of version 1. Unfortunately the flight dynamics have had some limitations in that field and also the way the two gliders were modelled was certainly not taking the best out of it...

 

IRL I've flown gliders essentially identical to those portrayed in v1 and now v2. I can see the potential there, but AEFS2 in that area still lags way beyond either SilentWings ( my preferred in the flight dynamics ) and Condorsoaring ( my preferred in the soring as a Sport modelling )...

 

Weather in any soaring-oriented sim is crucial as you point out. Flight Gear has, in this area, some really good features, including wave effects!  In AEFS1 orographic winds were seriously flawed. The effects have been tuned down in AEFS2, but not it lacks some important features.. I've given up feeding ideas at their forum because there is simply so much stuff they certainly are already focused and working on and will supposedly attract  more users that I don't want to distract their path...

 

But that's true Murmur: concentrating on a GA aircraft simulator, basically for VFR, including even ultralight aircraft and more gliders, autogyros, etc... would be a great idea!

 

Problem is when you get an Airbus or modern Boeing in, you're in the road for problems with all of those users who will ask for the sophisticated systems functionality and always compare that to their other sims...

 

( Addendum: But I should say they ( the gliders ) feel better than then ANY gliders I've been able to use in either MSFS and X-plane ! Unfortunately one of the most advanced and promising projects for modelling a glider in X-Plane 10 was probably abandoned by it's author due to the limitations of X-Plane's flight dynamics modelling, and the guy did know aerodynamics and did use true data and Airfoil Maker to keep the model as close to real as possible... )

KPRC Ernest A Love Field Runway 03L displaced threshold arrows skewed off to the right

No compression of nose landing gear on Learjet 45 when braking

Autogen trees in lakes

 

Is there a dedicated section of the IPACS AeroFly 2 forum where issues like this can be sent direct to the developers?

They reply to most issues reported on their forum, and some of the fixes have been implemented rather quickly.