Flight simulator implements extremely accurate time of day modeling with correctly placed sun, moon, stars, and planets for the specified time and date. Flight simulator can track the current computer clock time in order to correctly place the sun, moon, stars, etc. in their current and proper place relative to the earth. If it's dawn in Sydney right now, it's dawn in the sim right now when you locate yourself in virtual Sydney. The sun, moon, stars, and planets all follow their correct courses through the sky. This modeling also correctly takes into account seasonal effects so you have 24 hour days north of the arctic circle in the summer, etc. We also illuminate the correctly placed moon with the correctly placed sun to get the correct phase of the moon for the current time/date, just like in real life. Flight simulator has the ability to model a wide variety of aircraft. Currently you can fly the 1903 Wright Flyer, a Boeing 747, a Cessna 172 and 310, plus various military jets, and much more. FlightGear has the ability to model those aircraft and just about everything in between. Flight simulator has extremely smooth and fluid instrument animation that updates at the same rate as your out-the-window view updates (i.e. as fast as your computer can crank, and not artificially limited and chunky like in some sims.) Flight simulator has the infrastructure to allow aircraft designers to build fully animated, fully operational, fully interactive 3d cockpits (which even update and display correctly from external chase plane views) . Flight simulator realistically models real world instrument behavior. Instruments that lag in real life, lag correctly in Flight simulator, gyro drift is modeled correctly, the magnetic compass is subject to aircraft body forces -- all those things that make real world flying a challenge. Flight simulator also accurately models many instrument and system failures. If the vacuum system fails, the HSI gyros spin down slowly with a corresponding degradation in response as well as a slowly increasing bias/error. A number of networking options allow Flight simulator to communicate with other instances of Flight simulator, GPS receivers, external flight dynamics modules, external autopilot or control modules, as well as other software such as the Open Glass Cockpit project and the Atlas mapping utility. A generic input/output option allows for a user defined output protocol to a file, serial port or network client. A multi player protocol is available for using Flight simulator on a local network in a multi aircraft environment, for example to practice formation flight or for tower simulation purposes. The powerful network options make it possible to synchronize several instances of Flight simulator allowing for a multi-display, or even a cave environment. If all instances are running at the same frame rate consistently, it is possible to get extremely good and tight synchronization between displays. |