Why should you consider FlightGear? One reason is if you like open source software. There are also installers for other platforms, but I have not tried them. There is an automatic installer for windows that works well, and there is a GUI for launching the simulator, as well as a menu driven interface within the sim.
If you visit the web site don't be scared away by talk of compiling source code and such. In fact, it is not even up to version 1.0, the latest being version 0.9.10. I should emphasize the fact that this is a work in progress. You can tell from these screenshots that no, it will not replace MSFS for most people, but it still looks pretty decent. The simulator is called FlightGear, and you can get information about it and links to downloads here.
I finally gave into the itch to click the download link. Plus, the open source ethos is refreshing and inspiring in its own right.įor a while I have known of an open source flight simulator, but until now I hesitated to give it a try.
For us mortals, they give us a chance to dabble in things like image editing without having to spend a lot of money on a professional grade software package. These products are the efforts of many people over a long period of time, and reflect a lot of hard work and pride in what they do. Some of my favorite of these programs are the Gimp (Photoshop alternative), Inkscape (drawing), Audacity (digital recording and editing). *I'm one of those old-fasioned people who believe that computers are supposed to make life less complex and more enjoyable, not the other way around.I'm a great fan of open source software.
Found no other relevant documentation on the DMG, just some bible quotes, which were absolutely no use under the circumstances (praying DIDN'T help.).įrankly, if this software is actually used by anyone in the groves of academe doing serious research, I'm never flying again! For now, I'd suggest sticking with Warbirds or X-Plane they may not be open source, but they work. The other problems I can forgive as development issues, but this is just plain carelessness.
Installation: "Drag the FlightGear folder to Applications" say the (rather meagre) installation notes: this I tried, and got a permissions error.
Its harder to make a comment on the flight models, since my machine (eMac 700MHz, 32MB nVidia, fine according to the limited system specs on the HTML manual pages) couldn't manage more than about 8 fps (guessing, the fps display didn't seem to work), and the poor UI design meant that changing the settings was too much of a chore*. For me, detecting collisions with ground objects is a major part of the "simulation" aspect of any flight sim. Physics: I managed to roll through the terminal building on a take-off run, did an inverted loop (in a 707!) and flew straight through the ground, which then disappeared leaving only a black dot. Major settings like screen resolution and controller options seem to be inaccessable from inside the game. Not just the "ported-from-UNIX-ugly-but-works" style, I mean pull-down menus that don't do anything except tell you to use an XML editor to edit the preference files (hacking is fun, but shouldn't be mandatory). Stability: takes a long time to load (about 2 minutes) and appears to be the pizza of death, but after the screen changes resolution and aspect ratio a few times it seems to work reasonably well (is the splash screen supposed to tear up like that?).
Sound: Good, but then flight sims aren't the most complex soundtracks on the planet. Graphics: OK close to MSFS (pretty good for freeware, in other words). I'm not sure this should even be a beta release yet.įirst the good news.