gsagostinho

FlightGear 2016.3.1 "Rio de Janeiro" has been released! Installers for Windows and OSX as well as source tarballs of FlightGear and SimGear are available from https://sourceforge.net/projects/flightgear/files/release-2016.3/ More info at http://flightgear.org/

In the past, FlightGear had two stable releases per year, and the stable releases always had an even number after the period (x.2, x.4, x.6 etc.). Since the beginning of this year, the release cycle changed to a trimester base, and the new version numbering has the advantage of telling you exactly when a version was released (e.g. a 2017.3 will be released on the 3rd trimester of 2017). I personally would have stick to the old system, but already got used to the new one :-)

Hi all, thanks for all replies. Here are some answers: - yep, that's FlightGear version 2016.2. Also note that version 2016.3 will be released very soon! - the sceneries I used in these screenshots are: Freiburg (EDTF) in the winter and autumn pictures, Gibraltar and California, I believe. Unfortunately the California region is not looking any longer as these screenshots, as these textures which I had created looked very good for low VFR flights but not so good for high altitude flights, and so they have been reverted. - for anyone considering trying FG, I would suggest trying the most recent versions instead of the older versions (The UNNINSTALLER mentioned version 3.0 for instance). The improvements in these last two years have been great, and also the newer versions tend to have better performance as well, and include a much improved default Cessna 172P - @HumptyDumpty there was someone working on a detailed scenery for India in the forum I believe, but I don't recall who that was. Try searching for it there, you might find how that project is coming along. Cheers! Gilberto

The sad truth is that very few hardware companies bother supporting FlightGear, and while most yokes/throttles/pedals should work fine, it might be a bit more tricky to get some more complex hardware (like radios) to work. So unfortunately I don't have a universal answer for this, particularly since I don't know the hardware you are mentioning, so maybe it's worth to check it with these companies themselves or ask in the FG forum if anyone is familiar with them. That all said, if you already own them, then you can simply download FG and try it, since it's a free sim!

Hi all, just want to share some screenshots of the Cessna 182S which has recently been released. More info at the FlightGear wiki page.

@N1125Y Hi Yair, according to this page of the FlightGear wiki, the Saitek yoke, throttle and pedals work just fine (same for the CH products). As for the other hardware you mentioned, I am not familiar with them at all. Maybe the best place to ask about it would be on FlightGear forum. Cheers! Gilberto

I hope you will enjoy the new release, radino.

The FlightGear development team is delighted to announce the v2016.1 “San Francisco” release of FlightGear, the free, open-source flight simulator. This new version contains many exciting new features, enhancements and bugfixes. Download FlightGear v2016.1 for free from www.FlightGear.org/download Have any questions or need help with something? Try FlightGear's official forum at forum.FlightGear.org/ FlightGear – Fly Free!

Thanks a lot for the encouraging words, jcomm!

Hi all, I decided to create a blog to share some of the short flights I often do. I try to always add some short text and a chart of the flight, and hopefully some nice screenshots as well. Here is the link if you'd care to check it out: http://fgflights.blogspot.cz/?view=sidebar Here are some few images from the last posts: Cheers, Gilberto

Cool! Maybe you could also try creating a new thread in the forum or sending an e-mail to the development mailing list would help as well (but I warn you that the devs are super busy lately, there is some huge migration of data server going on).

Hi jcomm, Cool, so you know about configuring the good stuff About the Aerowinx PSX + FG 3.4, did you try contacting the user that created that old version? I checked his profile and he has been online in the past 6 months: http://forum.flightgear.org/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=7774 Cheers! Gilberto

@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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

This here is even better:

It's not a review

Hilarious stuff at from 17:50 to 18:05. But as ohsirus wrote, this video is actually great. Also, I have been checking Steam's website very often, and it looks like X-Plane 10 is doing wonderful well there!

Does anyone knows anything about the current situation of this project? It seems their last post was done some 8 months ago.

Bacana, um abracao!

Hi jcomm, I am very glad you liked that script of mine. If you'd be interested, I also shared another script that takes care of the night lights (they are now gradually turned on during dusk, instead of at once). You can check those scripts here: http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=23164 Take care, Gilberto