[simpits-tech] A hard-fought victory!

[dabigboy at cox.net]

---- geneb <geneb at deltasoft.com> wrote: 
> 
> One of the reasons that X-Plane isn't my sim of choice is the poor out of 
> the box support for very wide displays.  With FS9/FSX and Prepar3D, you 
> can create custom views that allow a good 180+ degree wrap-around display 
> using a single computer.  In order to achieve the same result in X-Plane, 
> you have no choice but to go to multiple computers.  That really drives up 
> the cost of the whole simulator.
> 
> FlightGear also does an excellent job with wide-screen displays from a 
> single host.  v3.0 is coming out in Feb!

I want to love FlightGear, I really do....it would be the ultimate DIY flight sim solution. But I just can't. There's something about the graphics and terrain, the overall look of the sim, right down to the runway/airport environment, that just seems to kill the illusion. It doesn't seem as solid and as natural as X-Plane. Just look at some of the mountainscapes in X-Plane (even v9, but especially 10), or the cloud  layers and weather effects...it's one of the things that makes X-Plane so good. On a full flight sim with a big screen or wrap-around visuals, it also fits in perfectly with the "big sim" look. I have tried FG several times over the years (in fact a version from 2010 is still on one of my PCs here), maybe I should give v3 a shot when it comes out.

As I recall the big issue with X-Plane and big displays is the way it falls apart at wide FOVs....what's interesting is that while working on my own sim, I noticed that v9 has a TON of options for projection systems if you have the commercial key...cylindrical, dome projection, vertical and horizontal offsets, differential FOVs.........I wonder if the large FOV problem is fixed with a commercial key? Anyone want to spend $700 on a key and find out? :)

At the moment I am not too concerned about the cost, in fact it has always been my preference to focus on one PC per display...seems like the least I can do to maximize frame rates. I am running v9 at fairly good graphics settings on a 4+ year old Core 2 Duo with 2g RAM, and a 9800GT that I picked up on ebay for $40, and getting 80+ FPS most of the time, never less than 40 or so (except near extremely detailed airports). Systems like this can be had for almost nothing now if you know where to look, cheaper than one really good PC for single-PC visuals.

I am going to play with v10 and large FOVs....if it's still hosed, I wonder if Austin would be responsive to feature/fix requests on this? It *would* make setup and config a lot easier when I build my cylindrical screen.

Matt