How much is a flight simulator. How much is a flight simulator

Tickets are only available at the front desk or at the kiosk in front of the simulators in Hangar 37 and are available on a first come, first served basis.

Flight Simulator is back, and it’s real: Microsoft uses cloud to help classic franchise soar again

RENTON, Wash. – Thanks to Microsoft’s hyper-realistic new version of Flight Simulator, I now know what it’s like to fly a Cessna 72SP Skyhawk over my neighborhood… and then crash it on the next street.

And with a full-day preview of the pre-alpha version of the simulation software, I was able to fly a real Cessna almost as close to my real neighborhood. Fortunately, no failure.

Both adventures opened the eyes of a guy like me – a guy who had never taken flying lessons before and whose only prior experience with flight simulation programs was smashing (or almost smashing) virtual spaceships.

But even a novice like me can appreciate the effort put into Microsoft’s first complete update of Microsoft’s classic flight simulator in 13 years.

“Flight Simulator is actually older than Windows,” Jorg Neumann, head of the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise for Xbox Game Studios Publishing, told me. “This is our oldest franchise. So there is always a desire to animate something like this. … It was the right time. I call it convergence: we needed the right technology, we needed the right tools, we needed the right partners to really bring it back.”

Rendering tools have come a long way over the past decade, putting Hollywood-level graphics within the reach of game developers. Earth imagery began thanks to aerial and satellite reconnaissance. And cloud computing has opened up new possibilities for dealing with the huge mapping databases that have been created.

All of these trends coincided in 2016 when Neumann and his team began remaking Flight Simulator.

The project represents a renaissance for the title that served as an early demonstration of the potential of personal computers. First introduced on the IBM PC in 1982, Flight Sim as known to many of its fans was effectively grounded as an active project a decade ago when Microsoft shut down the Redmond studio that created Flight Simulator.

Microsoft launched a spin-off called Microsoft Flight in 2012, but it never really took off and was shut down after a few months. Another sequel, Flight Sim World, was developed by Dovetail Games under license from Microsoft and launched in 2017, but disappeared from the market last year. Microsoft Flight Simulator X is available on Valve’s Steam platform, but its underlying technology dates back to 2006.

A lot has happened in technology since then. The revitalized Flight Simulator, which was announced in June at E3 in Los Angeles, uses global Bing Maps imagery and the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. Then he adds artificial intelligence to fine-tune the details until the sky is filled with clouds and leaves are placed on the trees that I have cut through.

“We plant 1.5 billion trees every day,” Neumann joked.

Result? Lifelike recreation of landscapes, from the city centers of Paris, New York and Seattle to the water tower and the recently rebuilt elementary school in my Eastside.

This is true of every neighborhood, including Neumann.

“When I pass over my house, my car is parked in front,” he said. “It’s not just a simulation. It’s the real world.”

Creating a world to fly over

This month’s teaser, unveiled on Rainier Flight Service in Renton, aimed to introduce a pre-alpha version of the new Flight Simulator to journalists, bloggers, influencers and seasoned Flight Simulator users (known as “simmers”). Participants had to refrain from their reviews, photos and even their tweets until the embargo was lifted.

One room has been dedicated to computer stations, featuring a Logitech simulation yoke and throttle, as well as a Thrustmaster rudder pedal set and a David Clark headset. Each workstation has been decorated with the participant’s call sign. (I made up my own for the meeting: “AlienBoy.”)

The workstations for our Microsoft Flight Simulator pre-alpha test were personalized with callsigns. (Photo by GeekWire / Alan Boyle)

“You are the first people in the world to come into contact with humans today,” Neumann told the standing crowd. But before they set us free, Neumann and the other developers behind the project explained how they had elevated Flight Simulator’s reality level a few notches.

Developers have used various strategies to create a virtual planet. They relied mainly on 2 petabytes of Bing Maps aerial imagery stored on Microsoft Azure servers. To recreate the three-dimensional look of 400 cities around the world in even finer detail, Flight Simulator uses high-resolution photogrammetry scans.

But wait… that’s not all: Flight Simulator uses rendering tools that use artificial intelligence to fine-tune three-dimensional images and fill gaps, from remote stretches of terrain to buildings that are obscured in Bing’s photos.

“Sometimes some aerial photos can be clouded,” said Lionel Fuentes, lead developer at Asobo Studio in France, which worked with Microsoft on graphics. “Some areas are intentionally blurred.” (Fuentes told me later that the blurry areas were filled with general art and not, say, exact renderings of rocket silos.)

The creators of Asobo also delved into the physics of light scattering through hazy skies, how clouds are made up of multiple layers of moisture, and how these clouds reflect and refract light. If you adjust the Flight Simulator settings accordingly, you can see a double rainbow shining through the pouring rain as you fly over virtual Seattle.

A virtual rainbow sparkles among the droplets on the Flight Simulator Viaduct, with South Seattle College in the center of the picture and downtown Seattle in the background. (Image of Microsoft’s pre-alpha version)

The same attention to detail has gone into recreating the physics of flight – right down to the way raindrops run down the windshield and the way air flows around the mountain creating turbulence.

“It comes down to very small things like trees, buildings. They also create turbulence when you fly over downtown areas, ”said Sebastian Wloch, co-founder and CEO of Asobo Studio. “So we simulate it all.”

The developers also took high-resolution cockpit scans, ranging from the finished small Cessna I flew to large commercial jets.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is a one-of-a-kind experience made possible by a marriage of clever developers and the latest technology. It’s a gift for devoted fans of the series, an attractive entry point for newbies, and now the crossbar for the simulation genre.

January 13th, 2022 Development Update

january 13, 2022 | Published by Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Have a question for the development team? There are two important questions and answers coming soon, and now it’s time to submit your questions. See the dates for our upcoming questions and answers.

January 6th, 2022 Development Update

january 6, 2022 | Published by Microsoft Flight Simulator Team

Happy New Year is cooking! It’s great to come back. We hope you enjoyed your vacation. For early 2022, this morning we released build 1.21.18.0, now available for PC and Xbox. If you participated in the public beta, click here to learn how to exit the preview smoothly.

“If you are alone, it will have a slight tendency to roll to the left,” Italy told me. “It’s quite subtle, but it is. If you are flying in the real world and you are alone, you will find that you still have to push a little.”

Multiplayer With Human ATC

Bring the world of aviation to life on our multiplayer servers with human-controlled ATC.

Infinite Flight has multiple servers that pilots can fly anywhere in the world *. New pilots can test their skills on our Casual Server while gaining experience. With the right amount of practice on the training server, pilots and ATC can hone their skills using our training library and YouTube documentation.

Pilots who meet the experience requirements can access our expert servers! Here, the rules are strictly enforced to give everyone the best flying experience. Users wishing to be air traffic controllers on the expert server must pass both a written and practical test to join our IFATC group.

* Requires an active Infinite Flight Pro subscription

Happy New Year is cooking! It’s great to come back. We hope you enjoyed your vacation. For early 2022, this morning we released build 1.21.18.0, now available for PC and Xbox. If you participated in the public beta, click here to learn how to exit the preview smoothly.

A True Simulator, for Better and Worse

As any avid fan will tell you, fully engaging in simulation has its downsides. You have to face this game, if not completely then at least a quarter of a way. It’s available enough while you’re in the game and provides a range of helpful tutorials, but there are initial hurdles and bumps to overcome.

First you need to decide how to play: the most dedicated fans already have flight sticks for maximum immersion. Many others will be satisfied with a keyboard and a mouse or a controller. I found the latter to be better for controlling an airplane (the joystick is at least closer to the yoke than the mouse and keyboard), but there just aren’t enough buttons on the controller to meet all your flight needs. You have to use keyboard commands in conjunction with your controller for certain actions, combining the two to zoom in on the actual command console. It can be confusing in tutorials when it lists controller and keyboard instructions, but it works as intended.

Also worth noting: my non-tenkeyless keyboard doesn’t include a numeric keypad or surrounding buttons, but some of them are tied to some commands by default, so there may be some rebinding in the future if you keep using them.

Then the initial 100 GB download is long and is the first real hurdle to getting started. The game may seem to download fast at first, but most show up when you start the game, so make sure you do so if you intend to keep the download in the background and come back later. From there, it takes quite a long time to load the main menu each time you start the game. Once you pass this point, loading into the game world or tutorials isn’t that bad, but it was like the game installed on a fast M.2 SSD, which is an almost ideal scenario.

This brings me to components and performance – the main obstacle to playing this title. Microsoft Flight Simulator is truly inspiring, but it requires powerful hardware to reach its full potential. Huge world aside from live weather data, traffic, flights and multiplayer makes smooth operation a bit difficult. This is an amazing achievement, but the sheer amount it takes to load and process will put a strain on any computer.

However, the minimum requirement for Flight Simulator is a fairly low bar. The game requires at least an Intel Core i5-4460 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 processor, an Nvidia GTX 700 or AMD Radeon RX 570 graphics card and 8 GB of RAM. Recommended specs are an Intel Core i5-8300 or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X processor and 16GB of memory. And finally, the developers also provided the perfect specifications: Intel Core i7-9800X or AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 2700X processor, Nvidia RTX 2080 or AMD Radeon VII graphics processor and 32 GB of memory.

All spec levels suggest 150 GB of free space and a copy of Windows 10. The full install and download size ends in less, but for temporary installation files and not filling the disk, 150 GB is suggested. Also be warned: people with internet data restrictions or low speeds will likely want to disable any of the Live features as the game transmits a huge amount of data when you play with those features turned on.

I was playing on my personal desktop computer, equipped with an Intel Core i7-9700K processor, 16GB of memory and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super graphics processor. This is towards the top tier of hardware, especially on the GPU side, but even here (somewhere between the recommended and the ideal specs) I wouldn’t describe the game as easy or completely fluid, so I’m a bit skeptical about performance on weaker machines.

The Magic of Flight

I touched on how amazing an open world map is, but the feeling of flying a chosen plane may have its own essay. In the air, there isn’t always much to do as you fly at cruising speed, but it’s the thrill of each individual part of the journey and the sum of the parts that combine to create a mesmerizing experience.

Taking off is relatively easy once you learn to release the brakes and steer the runway. Exercise provides a low and repetitive way to practice with the instructions at each stage of the flight, so you finally get the basics down. Reducing the damage and making it easy to fail is a good way to learn, but experience is a low-risk matter.

Serious involvement with simulation provides a level of realism and immersion that is unmatched by almost any other simulation. Flight Simulator offers dozens of planes to choose from for every flight, from the modest Cessna 152 to the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner. You can set flight conditions and times, or use real weather and time anywhere – another triumph of modern advancements in the series.

By default, the travel time is 1: 1 with reality, but you can accelerate the travel time as well as take advantage of the Travel To smart function. This allows you to jump between phases of flight to get most of the action while ending the entire journey. For example, when you take off and reach flight altitude, you probably have a lot of straight, steady flight ahead of you. With the Travel To function, you can select the phase of the flight to which you want to go, e.g descending or landing. This will bring up a short loading screen and then return to the game on your flight path just before the next step. Some players want to control every moment of the flight, but if you want to take part of the flight and then go down to descent, this is a great option.

Controlling the plane in the air is quite simple and the game will display flap and landing gear reminders when needed, which will definitely help newbies learn to fly. Airplanes are appropriately sensitive to their size and speed if you are bouncing up, down, or trying to turn on a dime. The controller rumbles if you’re climbing too steeply or diving at too steep angles. With damage enabled, it can easily lead to failure if you don’t level up. For someone who wasn’t well versed in flight simulators, this was a fun and balanced dance to learn. A certain speed is worth that high altitude and vice versa. Achieving an effective cruising speed after takeoff is a lot of fun, and rolling your eyes between the different dials and counters to make sure everything is alright.it was very naturally engaging.

If you crash or damage your plane by diving too fast or otherwise breaking the laws of gravity above the lowest settings, the game instantly switches to a black screen and offers options to restart or return to the main menu. Since there is no real persistence or long-term progress between flights, you are really only wasting the time spent in that particular game load. If you fail to complete a long journey, the main downside is probably your own disappointment with not completing the journey, but you can reload or on another flight to try again.

A virtual rainbow sparkles among the droplets on the Flight Simulator Viaduct, with South Seattle College in the center of the picture and downtown Seattle in the background. (Image of Microsoft’s pre-alpha version)

X-Plane Is A Realistic Flight Training Tool

X-Plane 11 (the latest version) is amazing for its capabilities, realism, immersion and training value. Provides a convenient way to build pilot skills and maintain proficiency in the comfort of your home. If you sit down and fly the X-Plane Personal Flight Simulator, you’ll be addicted!

We saw it first hand at our IFR Bootcamps, where pilots flying these simulators quickly immersed themselves in the experience building their skills. In addition to the fun of flying, a Personal Flight Simulator can help you obtain a new rating, master maneuvers, become familiar with ATC, learn new procedures, or improve skills that can be transferred to a “real” plane.

Get Up And Running Quickly

This video program comes with step-by-step instructions and expert advice. Our goal is simple – when you are done watching these videos and following our recommendations, you will:

1. Set up and configure your flight simulator the way you want
2. Know exactly how to use it to build the skills you need
3. Save yourself a lot of time, money and irritation

Infinite Flight has multiple servers that pilots can fly anywhere in the world *. New pilots can test their skills on our Casual Server while gaining experience. With the right amount of practice on the training server, pilots and ATC can hone their skills using our training library and YouTube documentation.

Fighter Ace 360º Flight Simulator

Take to the skies in the most modern flight simulators at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum and experience aviation like never before. Our Fighter Ace 360 ​​flight simulators can roll, somersault, spin and loop as you take control.

Overview

Only 150 tickets available per day to Oahu’s hottest new attraction!

Take to the skies in the most modern flight simulators at the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum and experience aviation like never before. Our Fighter Ace 360 ​​flight simulators can roll, somersault, spin and loop as you take control.

Our breathtaking P-38 combat over tropical waters in Thunder in the Pacific gives visitors a glimpse into the life of a true Pacific aviator in the 1940s as they flew and fought at the Pacific Theater.

Fighter Ace 360 ​​Flight Simulators seat two. Have you traveled with your co-pilot? We’ll make sure you’re flying together! Each seat has control of the aircraft’s weapons systems, but flight control is shared between the two seats. Visitors can purchase a premium ticket for Fighter Ace 360 ​​for total control of the simulator’s movements.

Pricing

Divide and Conquer – $ 10.70 per person
One seat in the two-seater Fighter Ace 360

Own Heaven – $ 21.40 per person
Premium ticket guaranteeing an exclusive solo flight

Only 150 tickets are available per day.

Tickets are only available at the reception or kiosk in front of the simulators
in Hangar 37 and are available on a first come, first served basis.

All guests must obey and obey all rules and regulations. The ride goes upside down. Visitors should not drive if they have a medical condition that puts them at risk in a high-traffic environment. Visitors must be 48 inches tall to fly solo or 42 inches tall to ride with an adult. The maximum weight limit for the Fighter Ace 360 ​​flight simulator is 500 pounds. Single people must not exceed £ 250.

Since so much data is stored in the cloud, you’ll need a high-bandwidth connection to take full advantage of Flight Simulator. “The better the throughput, the better the experience,” said Fuentes.

Intel’s €1.06 billion antitrust fine overturned by EU’s General Court

The European Union Court has just lifted a € 1.06 billion fine imposed on Intel in 2009. The fine was initially imposed after the European Commission found that Intel was abusing its dominant position in the processor market to foreclose competitors.

Windows 11 is getting Android app preview and new Taskbar features in Feb

Microsoft announced today that it plans to start rolling out several new updates and experiences for Windows 11 customers next month, including taskbar improvements, a new Notepad experience and media player, and even a public preview of Android app support on the system Windows 11.