I used to love flight sims, but a couple of things had turned me off long ago. Can I run them by you? Maybe a lot of fixed?
I was never comfortable with the joystick hat thing for looking around. I really want many monitors to display the sides and maybe the top of the cockpit. Monitors are cheap now. Ideally the flight sim would be able to use displays stretched over multiple computers so that I don't have to have a million video ports in my gaming machine. I think the only real alternative is a head tracking device. Doesn't have to be full VR glasses, it would be sufficient if a turn of the head did turn the viewpoint.
Heavy-handed DRM, compatibility problems, that sort of thing. I don't even know what flightsims are left and how they are distributed.
Did anybody try flightgear? An open source flightsim. Doesn't look very pretty in screenshots but how is the functionality?
There are only a few flight sims that truly support multi-monitor set-ups, but since I don't fly this way, I have not really looked into it. Hopefully some of the other experts around here will have some feedback.
I'd say TrackIR is a must have for any true simming. Its rather affordable and a very good, simple system. Once you get comfortable with it, you'll wonder how you managed before without it.
What is your primary interest? Civilian or military flight? The main civilian options are MSFSX and XPlane 10. They are both available on steam and pretty affordable with tons of add-ons both free and payware. Military sims you have a lot more options. But in deciding, you really need to decide what you're looking for...is it fidelity of aircraft systems? Maps? Dynamic campaign? Etc., that is most important to you. Also, are you looking for something historical, or modern?
You may want to download DCS World on steam. It is free and I believe it comes with at least one free aircraft. You can then choose whether or not you want to buy any of the modules. The aircraft in DCS are considered to be some of the most highly accurate and advanced modeling, but there is no dynamic campaign and only two maps to chose from, one of which is in alpha state.
You can also check out Falcon 4.0 with the BMS 4.33 mod. Another super high fidelity sim, and with the latest mod you can pilot a number of different aircraft. The big draw is the dynamic campaign, which remains unrivaled even after all these years. You can pick up copy of Falcon 4.0 on GOG for pretty cheap and BMS is free.
If you want something a little more historical, you have the IL-2 series covering WWII and Rise of Flight or Over Flanders Field covering WWI. All of these titles have a number of add-ons and mods that give you a tremendous amount of aircraft, maps, etc. to choose from.
Give us some more details on what you're looking for and I think we can narrow the search.
I'm somewhat flexible, a smooth running software is more important to me and I can adjust what I want to do.
Given a choice I would like a high-fidelity, drawn-out flying experience in a military jet. But I don't need dogfighting. If I get to fight the first thing I'd like is bombing things on the ground. Let's say Phantom-over-Vietnam style. Fighter-bomber, own control, lots of flying for a short burst of aiming with the whole aircraft.
I actually own most of the software already from back then, included a Falcon 4.0 with printed manual. But many are CDs with DRM, so I'd go for anything steam-like and buy again. Still have a PC with 7 CD-ROM drives and I don't want to have to re-activate it :D
What happened to that Russian publisher with Lock On, Black Shark and the like? I know they made enemies with their DRM, but surely they must be on Steam now, or somefink?
Digital Combat Simulator (DCS) is produced by Eagle Dynamics who put out the original Lock On/Black Shark sims. They still use an "online activation" DRM and while it is fairly seamless you may want to search on "DCS" in the forums to see some of the issues folks have had.
I think you should look into a cheap copy of Falcon 4.0 from GOG and install BMS on top. DCS and BMS offer the best in high-fidelity combat aircraft simming. BMS will give you more of a complete flying experience since it has a good campaign engine. F-16s do their fair share of ground-pounding these days. You can fly more than just the F-16 in BMS but I am pretty sure only the F-16 offers the kind of hi-fi simming you are looking for.
Link to the BMS site: http://www.bmsforum.org/forum/content.php
Redwolf, you need something like this: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/digital/
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.matrox.com%2Fgraphics%2Fmedia%2Fimage%2Fproducts%2Fgxm%2Ftriplehead2go_digital_setup.jpg&hash=986775b514a9ae0356ac10f6e30adb016ddd8a0b)
TrackIR was a huge upgrade in flight sim enjoyment for me.
Runs right out of the package, but you'll likely want to tinker with the sensitivities, and save your own profiles, after you get more acquainted.
Likewise, there were progressive leaps in fun as I got better HOTAS sticks. Perhaps it's preference, but I was never quite happy until I picked up a CH Figtherstick, due to it's very light centering spring. Better fine response without the variance of spring resistance in cheaper HOTAS.
Rudder pedals also helped. More so when I was doing WWI flight sims because they have a lot more rudder authority in such low speed and high lift aircraft as bi/tri-planes. Felt I needed it for those, but it improves the enjoyment & immersion in all of them.
I love my flight sim and run Microsoft Flight Sim, Steam version. I don't fly combat stuff but happy with my Cessna and Piper aircraft. There is a vast amount of freeware both aircraft and scenery and textures, But to run things with a multitude of add-ons you do need a decent processor, that's more important than the flight sim to be honest. The better the processor the smoother the frame-rate and the highr the detail you can achieve.
I use TrackIR and so convenient to glance at instruments and around at the scenery.
For payware aircraft I have Accu-sim, The closest to owning a real aircraft, in a sense, because the plane will suffer wear and tear with each flight, even parked and offline, the plane WILL suffer if it is left and neglected, it's why the system allpws you to walk around the plane to test flaps, prop, check oil, etc.
Dovetail who brought Microsoft Flight sim released Flight School and is just that, teaches a novice to fly. I don't have that even though I had immense problems landing - but TrackIR helped with that as well, just glance out there for the runway.
I don't use a joystick. in GA it's much better with a flight yoke.
Any help to you at all?
TrackIR indeed looks like what I was missing in dogfight sims. Joystick hat for the lose.
I have enough monitors, just would like to avoid putting them all on a PC with 2 graphics cards with 4 ports each. It looks like some of the software can actually do the cross-machine thing.
I guess all I have to do now it actually try them out. No doubt I have to buy another joystick... again.
Slightly more Spacebound, but I find TrackIR especially good with Elite Dangerous.
I'm holding out for the first good VR flight simulator. Not going to invest much in them until I see it on the market.
Quote from: ArizonaTank on August 01, 2016, 09:27:34 PM
I'm holding out for the first good VR flight simulator. Not going to invest much in them until I see it on the market.
ahhhh yes, a couple of quid under the current £600 for an Occulus Rift will be nice.