Aerofly 2 Released; Beta; Steam Games

[hairyspin]

Rest gently Paul, we'll mind the shop meantime. You concentrate on getting better!

Gliderfan, I was one of the itinerant weekend windsurfing racers. One weekend at Hastings, the next Carnoustie, perhaps Marazion next month. Exhausting, exhilarating, expensive but great fun. Some events were 4-day windless seats on the beach and others the most intensive workouts imaginable. I didn't come home laden with trophies, but I do have some happy memories.

 

[Heretic]

And how smooth is this? Whoops! Wrong video! (Switches)

...

The animated pilots are a nice touch.

 

[HiFlyer]

Thanks for your concern Bill. I take things one day at the time and I get my pleasures where I can and this forum and it's members are high on my short list of pleasures that the doctors keep chiseling away at.

I'll add my best wishes; a heart attack is a pretty sobering event. Take care of yourself!

The animated pilots are a nice touch.

I really do see an opportunity here for scenery designers to do cities and airports for this once the SDK is released, and the sales of the base sim make it attractive.

But which will come first? The chicken or the egg?

 

[Gliderfan]

I have never hit the like button so many times in one thread. ...I needed this since my wife brought me to the emergency room early yesterday. I thought my heart was going to go "Alien" on me and blow out of my chest.

Hi Paul. Sorry to hear you've had it rough. I hope you are now stabilised, and I'm glad you enjoyed the fun comments here. I only hope the earlier discussions didn't actually cause your problems By the way, I'm hoping it wasn't a real heart attack that you had. I'm aware that acid reflux and or a hiatus hernia can mimic heart attack symptoms and usually cause nothing more severe than heart arrhythmia and feeling faint and clammy.
Either way I hope you're on the mend now.

I was one of the itinerant weekend windsurfing racers..at..Carnoustie

Ah yes Carnoustie! Or as its known locally by the Scots, CarSnooty, since its a rather posh and upmarket area.
I used to kayak-surf there in the 80s. Nice waves.

Say, when did the A320 become "Single Pilot Certified?"

Step back from me gypsy! I want no trouble from you!
Sorry Bill, wrong character.

My reckoning is that the 'other' A320 pilot is standing up looking out the cockpit in first person view, for whatever odd reason

 

[=rk=]

Rest gently Paul, we'll mind the shop meantime. You concentrate on getting better!

Gliderfan, I was one of the itinerant weekend windsurfing racers. One weekend at Hastings, the next Carnoustie, perhaps Marazion next month. Exhausting, exhilarating, expensive but great fun. Some events were 4-day windless seats on the beach and others the most intensive workouts imaginable. I didn't come home laden with trophies, but I do have some happy memories.

Wait seriously? Ever hear of "The Gorge" in Oregon USA? I moved here in '92 for the wind and even sewed sails for a company called "Windwing." Now I toot my own horn for one small sec...

I have never hit the like button so many times in one thread. It's nice to see everyone getting along.
I needed this since my wife brought me to the emergency room early yesterday. I thought my heart was going to go "Alien" on me and blow out of my chest. It's left me weak and shaky and a half bit depressed. These posts help to cheer me up.
Rick W., the "Chill Pill" is very apropos, life is to short.

Best wishes by all means and swift recovery. Feel free to use as many of those pills as necessary to alleviate the condition. KEEP A BLANKET NEARBY, because the one health risk is, of course, excessive chills.

 

[Heretic]

I really do see an opportunity here for scenery designers to do cities and airports for this once the SDK is released, and the sales of the base sim make it attractive.

But which will come first? The chicken or the egg?

If the SDK is usable enough and the title goes on sale often, I can very well see the sim blow up in popularity. That photo tapestry on the ground simply cries for a Sketchup model importer and the planes do seem simple enough to be accessible to the common folk. Basically what you've been crying for the entire time.

With a bit more bang for the buck in the base package, this could become to civilian sims what Strike Fighters is for military ones - rather simple in all aspects, but billions of mods to keep people busy.

But a FSX replacement? Not with standardized weather, a simplifed FDE, missing ATC, missing AI and autogen at 2001ish density levels.

 

[hairyspin]

Ah yes Carnoustie! Or as its known locally by the Scots, CarSnooty, since its a rather posh and upmarket area.
I used to kayak-surf there in the 80s. Nice waves.

Then I won't need to explain the "ice creams". Especially in March...

I certainly have heard of the Gorge, Rick; how are your knees? And did you ever come close to being eaten by a barge? Great slalom racing water!

 

[=rk=]

Then I won't need to explain the "ice creams". Especially in March...

I certainly have heard of the Gorge, Rick; how are your knees? And did you ever come close to being eaten by a barge? Great slalom racing water!

Well there was this one guy and a pirate ship, I'm pretty sure I was sailing that day...it is an awesome place to fly too, the Columbia cuts through the Cascades a mile deep, hence the phenomenal winds and literally everything comes here to try their wings, lately it's the Growlers down from Whidbey to "e-bomb" (I just coined the term) the Hood River Bridge.
Holger Sandmann freely shared a very beautiful addon of the area for FS2004, I'm thinking of doing a modern version. I wonder how the area is represented by the sim in this topic..

 

[lionheart]

Glad you are feeling better, Paul. Take care of your body. My poor family have been through so much.

Gliderfan, you are hilarious....!

 

[HiFlyer]

One of the latest Steam reviews: I actually think its quite fair and balanced.

Recommended
16.5 hrs on record

EARLY ACCESS REVIEW
Posted: June 8

As an old flyer I owned another lately released flight sim and was curious to compare Aerofly FS2 with the other one (knowing, that the intentions of the two differ a little).

Yes, this is not ment to be a full blown simulator (as the other product). Provided that, I was surprised how many of the systems are implemented in Aerofly FS 2. But many (crucial) systems are not.

Pros:

- nice scenery (good graphic engine!!!); very fluidly on ultra settings; gives a much better sense of flying than other stuttering sims (including recently released ones)
- many nav aids available, including ILS
- good variety of airplanes; well modeled
- acceptable physics
- short loading times
- nice views
- easy flight planning (for unpatient pilots)

Cons:

- some important systems are not implemented (yet)
- no ATC (yet); at least some background chatter would improve the atmosphere highly
- bad sounds (aircraft)
- no real weather (yet?)
- no weather presets
- limited scenery/area (west coast US)
- needs more 3D objects (trees, buildings, etc.)

Conclusion:

For a quick ride this is the right product. Very nice grahpic engine. Dovetail should get together with these guys, regarding the engine. I know that the area to fly is limited. But with the fast loading times and the fluid graphics - even on ultra settings - I see much potential for more. Some systems need to be implemented as quick as possible as they are crucial for the product as it's ment to be used:

- LNAV for all airplanes (since you're not able to fly you flightplan automatically without LNAV); at this time it's only implemented in B747 and B737
- the autopilot needs also be improved on most of the airplanes. For example you're not able to set vertical speed on the Learjet (you have to use shortcuts). NAV mode is mostly not implented; In the B747 you're even not able to tune any radio NAV. Also VNAV would be a nice to have
- more detailed configurations for the main instruments (PFD, ND Lear)
- radio navigation (two NAVs on all modern planes, ADF, etc.)
- Real weather and weather presets
- ability to safe and load flightplans
- ATC chatter (at least, just for the atmosphere)
- AI traffic (you feel very alone in the air)
- better sounds for the aircrafts
- exterior lights should actually emit light!!

I wish to see more scenery, knowing that this means a lot of work. Overall I was surprised by the qualitiy of the product. It seems I expected less. For now Aerofly FS 2 is better than Flight School from Dovetail. Expecially regarding the scenery and graphics engine!! Here you can see where to go in that matter!!! But also the variety of planes is well balanced. The physics are ok. Could be much better for a product which tries to sell itself with the slogan "highly realistic physics".

 

[Gliderfan]

I really do see an opportunity here for scenery designers to do cities and airports for this once the SDK is released

Yes. Or as you rightly said last week on Ava-sim, "..Aerofly would be a much more natural partner to a company like Diamond Visionics" (than NGIS)

Gliderfan, you are hilarious....!

Thanks, but all I did was to parrot the maestro

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhAg0COnqds

 

[lionheart]

One of the latest Steam reviews: I actually think its quite fair and balanced.

Recommended
16.5 hrs on record

Yep, it is lite on scenery objects, though it does have a lot of city buildings and airport buildings, AI planes at the airports, etc. I think if they put in EVERY tree and tons of cars and boats and things, it will become bloated and lame and take forever to bootup and hard to tune and require a 16 core computer with 32 gigs of RAM and a 10 gig graphics card. Right now, it boots up instantly, flies smoothly.

I remember when I downloaded the X-Plane 10 preview/demo when it was first launched. I wanted to see those neighborhood houses with backyard furniture. It was like 5 FPS. I could barely slew. I never bought it because of that.

By the way. I had an issue with jitters with the first update that I had received. IPACS recommended turning off VSYNC. I did and its smooth as glass now.

 

[HiFlyer]

ipacs aerofly [developer] 9 hours ago [Official]

Aerofly FS 2 - Update Version 2.0.1 EA1.8

Dear Aerofly users,

This update is a preparation for our initial SDK version. With this version Aerofly FS 2 can sent flight information to an external DLL or over a network connection and can receive new messages from the DLL or via network. Its currently not public yet.

Drop us a note if you are really somebody interested in this initial version of the SDK. We are mainly looking for people who are really interested and have strong C++ knowledge, to provide us with some feedback.

 

[lionheart]

I checked out the update yesterday evening. Even more smoother now. Glassssss.... Smoooooooth... Love it.

I lost an hour just flying around Phoenix, checking out the ground landmarks.

At the top right is Sky Harbour airport (International). Camelback Mountain is just over the cowling. Scottsdale is above the plane, and North is to the top left. Over the core of Downtown (really way downtown) Phoenix.

Dusty ole Phoenix. Land of dust and cactii.... Check those wings out. Lovely bump mapping...

 

[lionheart]

If the SDK is usable enough and the title goes on sale often, I can very well see the sim blow up in popularity. That photo tapestry on the ground simply cries for a Sketchup model importer and the planes do seem simple enough to be accessible to the common folk. Basically what you've been crying for the entire time.

With a bit more bang for the buck in the base package, this could become to civilian sims what Strike Fighters is for military ones - rather simple in all aspects, but billions of mods to keep people busy.

But a FSX replacement? Not with standardized weather, a simplifed FDE, missing ATC, missing AI and autogen at 2001ish density levels.

I agree. Its a totally different sim compared with FSX. I like it. I actually like it more then FSX to be serious. It instantly boots up, not a lot of things to adjust and tune. Runs like glass. Photo real scenery/terrain. Now the wait for updates and improvements like ATC and the SDK.

How much is Sketchup? (if..... they use that).

 

[=rk=]

Free

 

[Gerli]

What? No DLC? No Season Pass? No microtransactions? No Pay2Win? No Kids teabagging you when they fake an emergency landing and beat you already on final...?
I like it

 

[lionheart]

The attention to detail has me in awe... Check out this glider bolt with wire in the Swiss racing glider, and the pavement at Montgomery field in San Diego. Even the tower is correctly modelled, lol... AWESOME!!!

Note that detailed wire, the texture of the heat shrink tubing on it, the coating of paint on that bolt. The stitching is also 3D. Looks like the rivets might also be 3D. They appear to be domed.

I had to reduce the resolution on the photo to upload it. On the original, you can count the pebbles in the surface of the Tarmac. Note it doesnt look tiled. How on Earth did they do that?????

Does anyone know what lake this is? Its above (North) of San Diego, probably due North of Ramona airport. This has a dam on both sides. Wild...

Loving this Beechcraft. Really learned how to trim this beast. NO longer using AP.

 

[jvile]

Does anyone know what lake this is?

Diamond Valley Lake which is a few miles south of Egan and Hemet, CA

 

[Heretic]

How much is Sketchup? (if..... they use that).

I know that Arizona is a rocky place, but there can't possibly be rocks big enough to live under...

(Sketchup has been popular for designing scenery buildings for FS9/X/P3D for ages.)

http://www.sketchup.com/

There's even a large repository for prefabricated models:
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/?hl=en