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...continued
There
are five primary scenery areas, each covered with
25 meter Landsat imagery. The engine then
selectively inserts 10 meter and five meter imagery
at major airports, or other areas where ground
activity is critical. "Our ground elevation model
can support post spacings anywhere from every 256
feet up to over 10 kilometers per post," Harvey
explains. "We scale the coverage around the world
and place higher resolution post spacings within
our scenery coverage areas, and broader spacings
outside these areas. In time, particularly once we
release our file formats, users will be able to
import high detail elevation data wherever they
want."
Something
that is stirring up a lot of discussion among
general aviation enthusiasts is the meticulously
detailed cockpit interior. It is more than
wallpaper; it is a powerful interface augmentation
that includes fully functional avionics and radio
stacks in the original manufacturer configuration
and layout. Pilots will now have total control over
all aircraft systems. "Real pilots will tell you
the FAA could care less if you have fun looking at
scenery when flying an aircraft," Harvey stresses.
"The primary study of flying an aircraft is
learning radio navigation and instrument use. Many
students even practice with shielding visors so
they are not able to look out the window for visual
reference. They must learn to fly on instruments
alone."
Given
the critical importance of the instruments,
Terminal Reality thought it would be clever to do
them in detail, particularly in the radio stacks.
"Our competitors feel some items in the original
aircraft are more important that others," Harvey
continues. "We feel that if the manufacturer put
something on the primary panels, it is probably
there for a reason, and should be usable by the
pilot." This also means that, in many cases, one
panel is not enough. Most of the larger aircraft
offer a combination of panels, including primary,
overhead, floor, and side. Each of these can be
fully scrollable with any number of interactive
knobs, switches, and gauges. Without a doubt, no
product has come as close to matching the look and
detail of FLY!'s cockpits.
With
its inherent complexity, it is obvious the
simulation will appeal to serious general aviation
pilots, but will it be approachable by novices?
Harvey promises that although the sim doesn't have
a built-in flight trainer, the designers do offer
many shortcuts and help items so beginners can
slowly become accustomed to the aircraft. "A
beginner would probably be insane to jump into the
turboprop or business jet and try a full start-up
sequence without first training on the single and
twin engine aircraft," he warns. To help beginners
learn the basics, FLY! will offer built-in
scenarios that place each of the aircraft in
pre-defined states, such as starting on the runway
with the engines on, or in the air, or in final
approach. The product will also come with a
comprehensive printed manual that covers the basics
and theory of flight, and focuses on using the
various systems.
All
of this detail and interactive realism has a strong
pull on the processor, and a rugged system will be
required to get the most out of FLY!. In fact, the
minimum specifications call for a mid-level Pentium
PC with a 3D accelerator. The product will support
a variety of APIs, including Microsoft Direct 3D
and 3Dfx Glide, and take advantage of AGP-based
video cards. The programmers are adding polish to
the visuals as time allows, including lens flares,
beautiful sunrises and sunsets, and full
environment mapping on the planes, enabling the
sun, clouds, and ground to reflect off the surface
of the fuselage and wings. As if that were not
enough, the correct moon placement and phases have
been modeled, and the 400 stars brightest to the
naked eye will be in their correct positions for
the time of day, year, and viewer
location.
The
remainder of the core technology will be just as
solid. There will be force feedback support, as
well as full Internet multiplayer support. In
addition, all components, including the scenery,
aircraft, cockpits, imagery, and more are designed
to be modifiable. Terminal Reality will release the
file specifications and editors to the public
shortly after the initial release.
During
a recent visit to TRI, I asked their marketing
director, Jeff Smith, to explain the goals of the
design team. He motioned to a stack of opened game
boxes that included all the top notch flight
simulation titles. "That is our competition," Smith
admitted. "We are not shipping until our simulation
is better than each one of those titles." The team
has worked diligently to bring the various
components of the flight experience together in one
product. Based on what I have seen, FLY! will give
both the beginner and the advanced enthusiast a
great flight experience, one that focuses on the
details sorely missed in other PC flight
simulators.
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