Early review

[RayG]

So, I have been flying around in this new flight simulator for a while now and I think it is time for an early review. I will start by writing about the pros and cons at the moment from my point of view.



First the pros:

Virtual Reality

The biggest pro of this sim must be its support for VR. I dare to say that this title has a place in the top 10, maybe even 5, of best VR experiences around at the moment. You have to see it to believe it, the scale is top notch, the lighting is breathtaking and control of the virtual cockpit is well thought out and just works. From the first second you are in the cockpit you really feel like you are there.</p>


Lighting

The lighting engine of this flightsim is really the best you can get right now. Metals are shiny and reflective, the sunlight on the cockpit and instruments just feels real, the asphalt of the runways and taxiways and the markings on them feel real. The landscape is wonderfully rendered with the use of atmospheric scattering and somehow buildings all seem so real. Then when it gets dark you can be amazed by the cockpit lighting of the various aircraft included. You can control the levels of the background lighting, map lights, individual displays, etc.


Variety

There are lots of airports which are all wonderfully rendered wether they are small local airfields or large airports like San Francisco Intl. You will find well known airliners around the airports and all different aircraft types are at the right location of the airport. So you will actually see the large passenger aircraft at the double jetway gates and the cargo aircraft at the cargo section for example.

The scenery is also very varying as the developers have chosen a part of the westcoast of the United States as the first area. You can visit the Grand Canyon and the dry lands surrounding it, fly over Las Vegas and see the strip wonderfully lit up at night, go to San Francisco and see the bay... Oh and if you get tired of the US, you can always download the Switzerland DLC and visit Europe.

Then the aircraft, you will get 16 of them and they are all very high quality. They are extremely detailed and there are many different types like a 747-400, an A320, a Cessna C172, a Baron 58, two gliders, some stunt airplanes, two military fighters and some historical aircraft. Graphically they belong in the high grade payware section.


Support

The developers are responsive and actually listen to the community. Some feature requests are implemented within days. Great work guys!


Ease of use / loading times

The sim is really easy to use, you can select an airport from the map, choose a starting location (runway, final approach, platform) and choose an aircraft and you can go. Want to plot a route, just a matter of a few clicks with the mouse. And the best of all? Very short loading times, just a matter of seconds.



Then the cons:

Night lighting

While the aircraft cockpits and building lights excel at night a lot of night lighting is still missing. For example the planes all have working taxi/landing lights, but they do not light up the ground or other objects. There are no taxiway lights and no lights on the platforms. The roads have no lights on them and cities without buildings do not have any night lighting. The lighting that is there is beautiful and rendered very realistic, so the potential is there, but it really needs to be filled in. As an avid X-Plane user this really is the biggest omission right now and I think it should be handled with priority at least partially.


The world is still too flat in many areas

The larger cities are wonderfully detailed and absolutely not flat, but other regions are very flat. In X-Plane this is solved by using Open Street Map data to render roads and buildings. It would be great if at least some level of automatically placed buildings could be implemented so the world gets some more depth.

Airports are great at the moment, but they still lack windsocks, taxiway signs and lighting armaments making them flat in many places too.


Still lifeless

Everything around you is still very static. From the water to the roads to the airports. More effort should be taken by the developers somewhere down the road to breathe life into the world. This can start by introducing some animated scenery objects like windmills, windsocks or maybe a rotating ferrywheel in Vegas.

The waters right now are just a satellite image which has both its ups and its downs. The upside is that the water looks very realistic from high up, the colors can differ and streams are visible from the sky. The downside is that there is no reflection of the sun and no movement when you get lower. Another downside is that waterplanes are not possible at the moment. A semi transparent overlay with waves and reflection may do wonders here, bringing the best from both worlds.

When you look at the roads you see nice roads from higher up. But these roads are also just static images and the cars are stuck on them. A road system like in X-Plane would be awesome here, with lights and moving cars, at least for the highways and main roads.

The airports are also still very lifeless, there are a lot of planes though which is awesome. But they are all static and there is nothing else happening at the airports.



Conclusion:

If you are into flight simulations, you should definitely buy this one, if only to support the development team to make this sim into the flight simulator we've all been waiting for (it really has the potential). This is a must buy if you are into VR as this is one of the best looking VR applications available. There are lessons, so if you don't know how to fly an aircraft, this is a great opportunity to learn the basics.

The sim has a long way to go, but I have the confidence that this one will become a big contender as the main simulator for lots of people. It already is a lot of fun though, there is a lot to see and the airports and aircraft are beautiful. I think you get some great value for a very small price and it will only get better from here.



Wishlist:

I think improving the cons mentioned above has the highest priority, but there are a lot more things that can be improved of course. My personal wishlist is about this (in descending priority):

- ATC (at least ATIS, Ground, Tower) and at least some ATC controlled traffic
- Pushback option (maybe a button to drive backwards as a short term solution)
- Cloud shadows
- Plane loading (fuel/passengers/cargo)
- Opening doors, windows (at least in the small aircraft)
- Being able to walk around the aircraft (pre-flight inspection)
- Moving jetways
- Being able to start cold and dark at the gate (more detailed aircraft systems)
- Landing lights and strobes lighting up clouds (large cities lighting up the clouds would be a nice plus)
- Icing effects, rain on windows, fog effect on windows
- A more complex weather system with weather zones
- Sceneries of the Netherlands and the Canary Islands (man I can only dream :)

A lot has not been covered yet in this review, but there are probably other people around who are more qualified to review other parts of it like flight dynamics, weather, etc. Also please understand that this is just my opinion, yours may be different. I like to hear your opinion as well :)

[DerekSpeare]

The flight dynamics really need some attention.

[SPARCOinc.#33]

👍

[pmb2015]

Very well on spot, in my opinion.

[Rattner219]

Originally posted by DerekSpeare:

The flight dynamics really need some attention.

I couldn't possibly disagree more, sorry.

[Matthias]

The best review i have seen so far, thank you very much RayG :-)

[Daffy]

Regarding some of the "wishlist" - I'm wondering if IPACS would consider talking with REX Simulations to port over their new Skyforce implementation; at least the 3D airports package. They've got some sample videos on Utube. Pretty amazing stuff.

[smoothpp]

Aircraft Motion Physics would be nice in external views.

I don't expect Aerofly to ever have the depth of P3D or xPlane, but what it does, it does very well.

[TBurd01]

With a claimed accurate flight model, already amazing visuals, and VR they would do well with the helicopter[www.helisimmer.com] crowd.

[cabnz]

Nice review but where it comes to adding more features, I think it then becomes a fine line between features and performance.

I definitely think it's the best flight sim out there for VR and the general feeling of flight but I don't want FPS to be affected by to many added features. Don't get me wrong, there is definitely features I want added to and I hope they are added in the near future but just remember, adding extra stuff makes your system work harder and therefore introduce stutters and frame rate issues.

Just a thought.

[RayG]

Originally posted by cabnz:

Nice review but where it comes to adding more features, I think it then becomes a fine line between features and performance.

I definitely think it's the best flight sim out there for VR and the general feeling of flight but I don't want FPS to be affected by to many added features. Don't get me wrong, there is definitely features I want added to and I hope they are added in the near future but just remember, adding extra stuff makes your system work harder and therefore introduce stutters and frame rate issues.

Just a thought.

True, but they could implement more performance/quality sliders so that people can tune the sim to their requirements. A VFR flyer or a bush pilot will have totally different requirements (more autogen) than a jet pilot.

Also I don't think that adding such features happens overnight, it may take years until they reach the level of X-Plane/FSX/P3D and computer technology will probably advance even faster now that VR has come to the scene. So if it grows along with the technology it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

What features do you really want added in the near future?

[Beru]

What I'd love to have from this sim is the experience of being a pilot:

I start at the gate of a chosen airport. I can ask the steward to start the boarding, and I can hear people coming to the plane. I can decide the route I want to do programming the FMC, and I have to ask clearance to ATC to fly there. I want to follow the checklist to start the plane, and I'd love to feel I have a FO in the cockpit with me. Sort of what FS2Crew does.

Then, I can close the doors of the plane and the finger is taken away, I can push back and start the engines, hearing realistic sounds (Hello, IXEG). ATC instructs me about how to taxi to the runway and I can go through the final checking with the FO until we are ready to take off. I can make public announcements to the passage and I can operate the navigation systems of the plane to certain degree of control.

During the cruising time, I can enjoy the views with updated weather and sort of Orbx quality terrain. I can also speed up the time if I want. Control the top of descending and prepare the ILS approach. ATC guides me to the destination and I land overpassing some turbulence areas which projects rain on the windshield where I see the cockpit shaking. Finally I land, I get to the proper destination gate and I can order the cross-check and doors opening.

All that things creates for the the flying experience. I don't expect to control fuel data or more in depth systems, just have the feeling I getting the "fun" part of prepare a fly and be the Captain of the plane. :)

[Matthias]

I think we all can have a sim like that in ............. year 2099 ;-) just kidding mate :-)

[DerekSpeare]

Originally posted by Rattner219:

Originally posted by DerekSpeare:

The flight dynamics really need some attention.

I couldn't possibly disagree more, sorry.

The F18 is incorrect. I ran a test at 1000 AGL (above open water) with full AB. Max speed at this alt was mach 1.59. I pulled it into a high nose climb and sustained 7.3+ G. This is impossible in the real plane.

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/performance/q0030b.shtml

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F/A-18_Hornet

Note OP: Thanks for your review.

[Peter Zwegat]

Nice review, Ray. I totaly agree with all you wrote. But I also think that we have here the performance versus detail/variety problem. I would love to see correct lighting (planes and ground) and much better weather (real weather, rain, snow, ice, wet runways etc.), contrails, smoking wheels, etc. etc.

But with my 980ti (enough of RAM and an i7) I already experience a good amound of stutter, when turning my head (VR / Vive) in an airliner set up in Zurich. Turning down some knobs did the trick (espcecially the shadow quality). But what that tells me is, that we are already at a kind of limit. Which makes me sad, but that's a fact. I don't know if the performace is sagnificantly better with one of 1000€ graphiccards. But I doubt it.

What we right now have, is an easy to use sim with astonishing graphics, with some cons, but with a very "fluid picture". I think a high framerate and no or nearly no stutters improves the feeling of flying an aircraft (expecially with VR on your head): Would I want a sim like FSX (at the beginning) with sutters over stutters no matter what rig you use...?

I'm not sure. Saying this, I also would welcome all the suggestions you made. More atmosphere, more feeling. But I fear the consequences...

Best wishes,

Pete

[HiFlyer]

Peter, I play at 1080p though not on a fancy 4k monitor (I have no interest in one) and can tell you that with my 1080Gtx and all options maxed I easily get 120fps and often get long stretches at 200fps and above. I don't have a VR headset yet, but when I do, I'm told that the new cards have specific VR optimizations that should keep the framerates quite acceptable. It might be time to consider making the jump, if you're into VR!