Hi Guys,

I've been a purely amateur AVsimmer in the past (1995-2005).  I used a SpaceOrb 360 6DOF controller and was very happy playing Digital Image Design's F22 Air Dominance Fighter, Looking Glass's Flight Unlimited 3 and Razorworks' Apache vs Havoc and Comanche vs Hokum.  Unfortunately the SpaceOrb 360 was a serial device so it hasn't been supported since about Windows XP time.

Fast forward to 2024 and I stumbled across some guy on the internet who also loved the SpaceOrb, couldn't bear to part with it when he threw out old computer stuff (just like me!), and eventually got a team together to make some hardware converting the serial input to a USB output with some embedded Python code to perform the conversion.  It works! Search for Orbotron or Thingotron or Jay Crowe if you're interested.

My question to you knowledgeable people is... can you recommend any Fixed-wing and/or Rotary-wing military flight simulators which will work on modern 64-bit computers.  There have to be better games made in the last five years than the three mil-sims I mention above.  What I'm looking for is something with particularly realistic avionics in terms of weapons targeting, but which is still a game.  I'm from a Mil-Science background so my expectations in this regard are above the average gamer.

I'm less interested in non mil-sims - I have a soft spot for Looking Glass so I'm going to try to get Flight Unlimited 3 working on my new Win 11 system (I've seen the post on your forums btw)

Thanks in advance,
Simon  

DCS!

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/

Edited November 24, 20241 yr by Pat Mussotte

Cheers Pat, that looks great.  I'll give it a go and let you know how I get on.

Also, just remembered Orbiter which I also used to 'play' a lot of (I say 'play' cos it's not really a game).  It's so satisfying to plot your own escape orbit from Earth and connect with Saturn.

Kind Regards,

Simon

Woh!  Is DCS really a 200Gb download for the basic system ???

What do they have... DTED Level 1 of the entire Eurasian continent !?

I have the disk space (on SSD) but it's the download size which is scary - I currently have a 30Gb/month plan so that will take me seven months to download, even assuming I can download in nice 28Gb chunks.

I finally managed to find a Flight Sim on GOG (Good Old Games) - they have IL Sturmovik 1946 which was originally a 2005-ish release.  It's currently on GOG's Black Friday sale for GBP 2.19.