Cybert99

My wife surprised me with a ParkZone T-28 Trojan for Christmas! (I'm VERY excited.) Unfortunately, I haven't flown RC for almost 20 years, so before heading out to the field I figured I should hone my rusty skills using one of the new RC Flight Simulators.

But which one to choose? There are lots of excellent programs available!

I've been researching these sims almost every night since Christmas, and I finally decided to compile all my notes and web links into a comprehensive chart to make my analysis a little easier. I thought others might find this information useful, too, so I put the chart online:

[link=http://www.emptynestgames.com/rc_sim_chart.html]Sim Comparison Chart[/link]

If you visit this page, please let me know if you discover any mistakes or problems -- I want to make sure that I am presenting the most accurate information possible. (You can contact me with a reply here, or you can send an e-mail to the address listed on the page.)

Thanks!

krayzc-RCU

My Feedback: (31)

i just loaded G-4 after having G-2 for years. The graphics are better on G-4. I will have to get my birds set up to fly sweet like i had them on G-2. If you are like me and what bells and whistles that will help determine what route you take. I was still very happy with G-2 but i did want to not be stuck with my t-rex lol.

da Rock

Thanks for this valuable tool. It's been needed since day one. I'm STICKYing the sucker because it needs to be right up front and available.

I hope everyone will keep it in mind when the next "what sim I should buy" thread opens. It will be very helpful to point those people to the sticky.

flyX

You left out a bunch of other sims thou.

and some of your data are out dated.
The last i checked..FMS works in my vista..it has issues .
The version I got didn't come loaded with all those models.
if I was selling FMS..I would link this vedio.lol
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EDANpgZRjCU

I don't know...if i was the owner or maker of lets say Preflight. I would think your chart need a major upgrade[sm=spinnyeyes.gif]
But I don't work for preflight.lol

How about thses folks ?
http://www.realitycraft.com/products...ster/index.htm

Just asking...?
Did you sort it price, alphabits , or avalibility ? lol

Cybert99

Flyx: The FMS page didn't mention anything about Vista support, so I assumed that it wouldn't work with Vista. I'll do some more research on this and update the page accordingly.

Regarding the other sims, I wanted to keep the width of my page around 1000 pixels so that anyone with a 1024x768 display would be able to see everything without having to scroll. Plus, I found very few forum posts about those other simulators. If I get more feedback about this I'll try to figure out some way to include them. Thanks for bringing them to my attention.

The horizontal sorting was sort of happenstance. G4 was just released so when I started to gather all my information it went in first. I initially intended to focus on the high end simulators only, but then I decided to include ClearView and FMS... so they wound up at the end. Other than that, it's just random. ;-)

driftair

My Feedback: (4)

Another FREE simulator that is fairly nice albeit restricted to Helicopter flight orientation is, HeliSimRC.

It can be found at the link below.

http://www.marksfiles.net/HeliSim/index.htm

SoCalSal

My Feedback: (16)

AeroFly Pro Deluxe works perfect with Vista. Plus it is the only Sim manufacture to have a dedicated help site on R.C.Universe.




to clean up the quotes........

driftair

My Feedback: (4)

Cybert99,

You wrote:

"My wife surprised me with a ParkZone T-28 Trojan for Christmas! (I'm VERY excited.) Unfortunately, I haven't flown RC for almost 20 years, so before heading out to the field I figured I should hone my rusty skills using one of the new RC Flight Simulators.

But which one to choose? There are lots of excellent programs available! "

I am wondering which Sim you've chosen.
I know my own preference is a simulator that comes with a controller so my transmitter batteries do not drain and limit my practice time.
That puts the RealFlight simulators first in my preference.
Even so I own and like AFPD and Reflex XTR also.

Most of the sims will help retouch your skills and help to revamp your confidence.

Roguedog

I purchased a 2 usb adatpers for my futaba radios for $4.99ea. off ebay. They were located in hong kong. Took 8 days to get them to Southern California.

Each came with the FMS software. Thing works great for what it is. Cool thing is that it came with three adatpers. A round and square Futaba trainer jack style and a mono jack style for JR. All three plug into the usb device which configured itself in Windows Xp when I plugged in in.

I was going to try FMS using the audio "line in" input with SmartPropo Plus, PPjoy and the expensive trainer cord jack. With this setup it was plug n play and simple. Had to do the usual calibration stuff. Works with my Futaba 9C and my Futaba T5uap. Here's the link [link=http://stores.ebay.com/CyberPort888]Cyberport888[/link] for the Adapters.

Here's the link for the SmartPropo info[link=http://www.smartpropoplus.com/BlueAndGrey/default.asp]Smartpropo Plus[/link] in case anyone wants to see thier method.
bryan

flyX

another open source or FREE sim..design for the linux people i guess.
I guess they made to work in windows and mac too.
It also works in Vista without a clitch...Imagine that !!! a free sim without a clitch.

http://crrcsim.sourceforge.net/:)
It's not perfect..but i see a skybox being used as a backdrop..so you can easily put panorama in there.
It's a also in 3D. You can see the mipmapping.
It's also has moving waves ( water ) too.lol

All I know is FMS works in my vista..if you look closely at some of the many images i posted on here
You notice the Vista glass borders. It has glitched with vista of course....but that's been resolved by
thousands of FMS users that has Vista..all you have to do is watch some of those Youtube vedios
that you link in yourself..to know that. The rest are just vedio card and system combo as any other
flight sim or vedio games would have.


There's plenty of other flight sim out there..

example
http://www.cockpitmaster.com/

http://www.ripmax.com/productframes/p-sim180.html

charlie3

I'm familiar with two simulators, FMS and Clear View. FMS has three features not mentioned for any of the others that are useful.

The model can be positioned in the top of the window so the ground is in view most of the time.
FMS has turbulence and wind gusts.
FMS will give a read out of altitude and speed which are helpful for tweaking models.

Clearview has none of these which is frustrating. What about the others?

Charlie

Frostybeard

You really must add the Reality Craft simulator. http://www.realitycraft.com/sims.php

This is quite advanced. It has realistic crashes where the plane or heli breaks up into pieces that bounce around, good crash detection,
and it is the most difficult to fly I have tried. This is the most realistic I have been able to try.
(some other demos don't really let me try or only let me try with the keyboard)

With helicopters, the helicopter will roll or pitch off to some arbitrary direction just like in real life, and it needs constant correction.

The plane I tried yawed off to the right as it was taking off, hit a pylon and knocked it over. Just like in real life. This is how I trashed my first Cessna trainer.
In other sims, taking off is very easy, like the plane would be on rails.

I feel I will get good, applicable experience using this sim.

Reality Craft also has some RC racing and dogfight games that you can download for free and compete with other people in the internet.
http://www.realitycraft.com/games.php

And the price is about 81 EUR or 116 USD. (59,99 £) including a USB controller. (46.99 £ without)

Crikey, I only have 8 flights left on my demo.

Cybert99

Frostybeard and flyX: I didn't have room for those other sims in the chart, but I did add links to them in the space below the chart.

Driftair: Well, I purchased ClearView before I even started the chart. I haven't ordered one of the expensive sims yet, I'm still gathering data. Last weekend I went down to the local hobby shop and I spent about ten minutes playing around with G4 and FS One. Maybe it was just the monitors/setup, but I was a lot more impressed with RealFlight's G4. It felt better, and it looked a lot better.

flyX

okay...make room for this one too...
It's NEW , it's FREE and it's PHOTOLISTIC too.

It's geared toward Heli and the physics of r/c heli of course.lol

It can be run in linux...So the linux owners will be happy too.lol
It works perfect in my VISTA without a clitch.. on my laptop even with only a GO6150 nvidia graphic card 128mb share
memory at best.

It's writen in JAVA

It ROCKS !!!! I'm still scratching my head..It's FREE[X(]
Photolistic sceneries up the wazzoo right out of the gate.
13 Sweet models too.


It's user active and the author's goal is stated on the page.
Time for me to learnd how to use BLENDER.lol

http://www.heli-x.net./index.shtml


a screen shot...it looks good to me..an equirectangular is an equirectangular.

flyX

Lets compair them .lol

They both don't come out of the box exactly like so..but i imagine i can transfer one to the other and visa versa.

flyX

Another Heli sim.
For the Mac owners

http://www.alphamacsoftware.com/index.php

It looks like it has 3D and photolistic (panorama) sceneries.
The models look the same as FMS's.

sims for all PC owners..

I can't compare thou...i don't have a MAC.

3DAP

I like the real flight package. I have g3.5 and will be going to g4. Great for winter flying. Also for teaching new pilots before they get on the buddy box.

nova468t

I don't know if you have purchased a SIM yet, I have both FS1 and G4. I purchased G4 last and I have to tell you that
it doesn't even come close to the FS1. The graphics, sounds, and flying fields most of all are way better. FS1 is not like
playing a video game. I am running 2g's of memory and a 128 graphics card and it does fine. I think that if my graphics
in my laptop was better the picture could be improved. I'm sorry I bouht the G4!, very disapointed.

wings

I've read through the features of both. I've read through countless threads. And on average it looks like about 50/50 feed back between the FS ONE and G4.


Since you have both your would be a perfect candidate for us to pick your brain



You say you like FS One better for the reasons you state. Would it be possible for you to point out more of the differences that aren't really obvious by the specs. Differences that don't jump out at you until you have used both?


That chart at the beginning of this thread is excellent, but obviously even he is having trouble deciding which one to lay down his hard earned cash for.

But your opinion is unique because you have both so you are not biased.

If you have to for such a detailed comparison that would be great!

opjose

Lol!

If I take his post and swap FS1 and G3/G4, it would be exactly what I would have posted... just the opposite.

I sold FSOne after playing with it for a month.

asiminakis

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

mydartswinger

I own RealFlight G3.5, I really enjoy it and has taught me so much about flying. I flew the FSOne sim at the LHS this evening, and I'm wishing that I had it. The aircraft on FSOne are more difficult to fly, and have been told that the airplanes fly just like the real ones do. If that is the case, the RealFlight sim is just too easy.

Happy flying.

frenchstan

You DON'T want to buy FSOne! The only other sim I've set up is FMS, but I can't imagine anyone making a modern sim as bad as FSOne. It is just one giant honking pain to set up and calibrate, especially with Hitec Txs. It uses arcane language and cutsey-pie verbage instead of Plain English instructions. It's full of errors and poorly phrased instructions. Here's the latest example that's got me wasting my time, again, trying to get it to work: On their Wireless Flight Simulator Adapter for FSOne, their printed instructions tell you to "Select JR 8103 transmitter when using the DX6 or DX7." The JR8103 transmitter is not listed in the transmitter options anywhere!

da Rock

People, we have a large number of threads full of personal opinions about the simulators.

This thread is unique in that it offers the features of the sims. It will be clearer and more useful if we stick to the details of the features, and leave the opinions out of this thread. And this thread is about the CHART.

We have plenty of places to post your opinions of the sims themselves, so let's keep this thread about the features themselves. If you know of ones that were not included in the chart, for example.

grimmy55

Just a quick question about Realflight 3.5,How do I change the colour of the Nextstar from its white to whatever ,it being white and when its against a back ground of white clouds ya cant see it properly there must be a solution to this some how ,has anyone came up against this ?