Dynamic soaring simulator

[Mr Rowl]

The most recent version of my (free) slope soaring simulator supports dynamic soaring (amongst a few other things ;-).

I'd be interested to hear how it compares to the real thing...

http://www.rowlhouse.freeserve.co.uk/

Also

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/slope_soaring_sim/

where I note how to set things up for DSing.

Cheers - Danny

[bjaffee]

Is there some trick to getting a standard 2-axis joystick to work with this? Looks cool, but playing with just the mouse is getting old.

[Mr Rowl]

Under M$ Windows just press 'j' and it should select the joystick, though opening the config window does seem to mess up the joystick (I don't know why).

If you need to tweak anything, including the joystick assignments, you can edit flight.cfg with a text editor like WordPad.

Under linux the underlying GLUT library doesn't support joysticks, though there is a GLUT version that does.

[Daemon]

One thing that'd be nice is a config setting to decrease the sensitivity of the joystick. I haven't really been able to play with the R/C simulators much since I upgraded to win2k. I'd never undo that ugprade because win2k rocks, but unfortuately they did away with the Sidewinder Profiles tool which let you create exponential reponse curves so it wasn't so twitchy around center. Crrcsim and yours are just somewhat of a pain to fly now with any speed, so I don't.

BTW, a good DS groove isn't just dead air behind the ridge, but includes air from the rotor coming back uphill some short distance behind the dead air.
It goes.. Frontside, ridge top, dead air, up and back flowing air, major downflow, down and outflow and then just normal moving air with some turbulence. I need to get one of of those little battery powered bubble makers and go out and let it go on the front side to see if it can be captured on video without getting the local fire department involved. ;)

ian

[beefa]

mate.. this thing rocks. Im only new to flying, and after spending a few hours on this thing in my spare time while building my plane. when it came to flying the next day, it was a natural progression straight to the plane... flying off a cliff in a 30-35knott gale : ) average flight time was 30-40 mintues, first time ever flying.
If playing this sim for a few hours helped, then my hat goes off to Mr Rowl... you saved me a heap of money : )

The fact that you do this free makes it even better.... but do you think you could put a speedo in : )


regs,
Beefa

[bjaffee]

Okay, thanks, I got the joystick to work. Had to change the settings in the config though. Pressing "j" or using the config menu still don't work though.

[Mr Rowl]

Thanks for your replies...

I've coded up an improved wind field that allows for reverse flow in the separation region. Makes DS pretty easy (too easy?) to get into.... but it also winds up a bit faster!

Also, this weekend I'll add an "exponential" parameter to the controls. Probably get a new version uploaded towards the end of the weekend... depends on the weather how much time I spend on the slope...

[bjaffee]

Where on the map do you DS, and do you have to setup the config file for it? I can DS pretty good in real life, but I have yet to find the spot in the sim.

[Mr Rowl]

You probably won't be able to find anywhere to DS on the default map (which is randomly generated - you can change the seed in flight.cfg), and there are some things you need to modify that can't be changed from the configuration GUI...

Just to get things started I set up an idealised 2D ridge. To use it (and the wind field with a separation region) edit the flight.cfg file (e.g. with WordPad) to use:

wind_scale 2.0
wind_file ds
builtin_terrain_type ridge
glider_file glider_crrcsim.dat

and I suggest using the f3f crrcsim model, though the sierra model works too if you "add ballast" (either edit glider_sierra_mk2.dat or increase the "gravity" to 15m/s/s).

To make things easy (if you're not into hacking around config files), I've uploaded the modified flight.cfg file to

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/slope_soaring_sim/files/

so you can just download it and replace the original config file.

Before you launch use the down arrow key to move the body further to the back side of the ridge until you can only just see the glider.

Remember - the wind field is better in the version I've yet to upload! You can see the wind field by pressing the "w" key (hold it down for a bit, preferably whilst paused. Then press "W" to get rid of the wind arrows.

[bjaffee]

Nice! I finally got to try out the DS version. Very cool. Only thing missing is the sound!

[heli frapper]

Just came across this so will download it and try it out

Using laptop mid 2002 HP 950mhz with some form of decent acellerated graphic card handles lot of graphic hungry games very well

I have usb joy stick thrust master

Is it possible at a later date to hook in my graupner MC 16/20 to usb port or other ports and where could I obtain cables to do this??

No urgency on response as its summer so generaly out slope soaring the real mcCoy but would prefer simulator for DS to help learning while trying the real thing


Stephen truck driving north europe mostly