The A2A Simulations Community

This sim looks intriguing. People have been bragging about the physics and graphics but I wonder about the depth of systems... The whole thing seems geared toward shorter range GA flying (the only scenery is Switzerland) but I am curious either way. What do you guys think? Anybody tried it?

http://www.aeroflyfs.com/index.php/en/e ... tures.html

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It has no depth of systems at present - it's a known limitation and although there haven't been many reviews written (simFlight.de did one, I know) those that have been written have all commented that it could be better in that regard. However the flight dynamics have received high praise all over the place.

As usual, it's on my epic list of "I'd get it if I could afford it", but I know a number of people who have got it and like it, but accept its limitations. Again, it's not going to challenge FSX, P3D or XP10 just yet.

Ian P.

Ah, good to know. I wonder how much of that could be added in by 3rd parties. FSX was in the same boat regarding systems depth and now we have Accusim.

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I was talking to one of the developers who created the aircraft models for the sim quite a bit after its launch, through my role at simFlight, and he was saying that all the modelling he did was through the SDK for the other package sold by the same company, simulating radio controlled aircraft rather than first person view.

You can certainly see the RC roots of the sim when you watch the "crash testing" video that was created of it (http://www.simflight.com/2012/01/07/aer ... h-testing/) but that does mean that even if they haven't released a formal SDK for AeroflyFS yet, there are tools available to create for it. However that same genesis of the RC sim presumably is why there is no systems depth yet - you don't tend to need to change altimeter pressure settings on an RC aircraft, nor do you tend to really need to receive VOR, NDB or ATC signals.

As I said, I don't have it so cannot say specifically what is and isn't already present - you might be better to Google reviews of it for that (Google translation of simFlight.de's here: http://translate.google.com/translate?s ... -ikarus%2F) but I do understand that most of the technical requirements are not present in the sim yet, rather than just not being in the aircraft panels, so they would need adding before much else was. I also don't know if there is even an ability to read from an external application in the way that the MSFS series can using FSUIPC or now Simconnect. That would be required before something like Accu-Sim could be done.

AeroflyFS is certainly not a "full blown" sim yet. It's still very much in its infancy and I, certainly, don't know where it will be expanding or, for that matter, if it will be expanding. They may be happy with what they have already.

Ian P.

I have had AeroflyFS for a couple of weeks now.

The good:
It is visually stunning. The lighting is almost perfect, the scenery is very high resolution so that above the tree line it is as good as a movie. Since the area modelled is Switzerland, the terrain is jaw-droppingly beautiful. Some of the planes are modelled exceptionally well, with the Pitts Special being the pick of the bunch. The VC on this aircraft is excellent.

The bad:
The flight models do not follow the real-world characteristics of the aircraft very well, in that they lack a sense of momentum. Perhaps this is a legacy of the RC sim. Second, nothing in the VCs are clickable, even though some are graphically good (the Pitts Special aside, the other aircraft are pretty mediocre). For the rest, the sim lacks the feature set we have come to expect in FSX; no seasons, no ATC, no nav aids, etc., etc. The list of omissions is long, simply because the clean sheet approach means there has not been time to develop all the bells and whistles.

In summary, if you are looking for a next generation Sim, this is not it. But if you were thinking of getting MS Flight, get AeroFlyFs instead. It is much better.

Cheers,

Noel.

Which makes me wonder if it all will expand in the future. Their website mentions something about adding more content, etc if there was interest or something like that. The lighting alone is one area that just can't be fixed in FSX and it's one of the few things that would require a new sim to get right.

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