X-Plane Flight Simulator For Linux

sho-gun writes: "It seems that Austin Meyer, creator of X-Plane, is going to be porting his simulator to Linux. X-Plane is an incredible flight simulator which models flight dynamics by using blade-element theory. Many big companies use X-Plane for development. Currently only the support programs (the programs that build the planes, scenery, airfoils) are available but the full application should be available soon, according to the website. Along side with the open-sourced Flightgear, this certainly is good news for flight simulator fans that use Linux."

Comments

Flight physics

[green pizza]

The very coolest thing about X-Plane is the extensive set of flight physics. Land the Space Shuttle, Fly on Mars. They sound cool, but are rightfully difficult! (but fun)

Any word on the price of X-Plane? Is there a chance it may be GPLed? Or at least priced lower than the Win/Mac versions?

Re:Flight physics

[AJWM]

In the simulator, you don't have 10 different people in the traffic pattern, with a frazzled tower controller who gets confused every now and then.

Actually, you can, depending on the sim software and the setup. Years back there was simulator software (SubLogic's? I don't recall) that let you see the other aircraft in the pattern if you networked the machines, and there was also software called something like ATC (Air Traffic Control) Simulator, which also tied into the same net and showed the aircraft on a radar screen. Don't recall the details of how the communications worked.

And I can't imagine anyone playing air traffic controller for fun.

(Oh, and speaking of physics, I've yet to see a PC-based simulator that could model a spin. Although I haven't looked lately.)

Re:Flight physics

[Chris Hiner]

Actually, there are people that play air traffic controllers for fun. See http://www.vatsim.net/ for example.
With the right equipment, you can even talk to the various ATC people as you fly your filed flight plan.
Right now, according to the Who's online list from vatsim, at http://data.satita.net/who.html there are 43 ATC people (some just observers, some instructors and students), and 155 pilots flying.
There are even virtual airlines out there...
I was amazed when I stumbled across some of them a few weeks ago. Search google for "virtual airlines", there's enough of them that they've got their own directory category.

Re:Oooh slashdot spam

[Ogerman]

Not everything needs to be free, bub. It's only free if people are willing to write it for free.

On the other hand, it makes no sense whatsoever for any software NOT to be free, regardless of whether or not the programmers are willing to work for free or not. For instance, companies who need a simulator can take FlightGear and pay someone to expand upon it to suit their own needs. Or a gov't agency can write open code which will benefit them AND the commercial aerospace industry (not to mention gamers..) The social value of generating public goods is immense. So lets dispense with this "not all software should be free" BS. Intellectual property wrecks havoc on the efficiency of dynamic industries such as software.

I'll buy it!

[steve.m]

I got 5.x a few months back, and upgraded all the way to 5.66 (which i'm happy with). I wasn't too impressed that even though I'd only had 5.x for a few months, there was no upgrade path to 6 (gotta pay full price) - so it's the only reason I keep Win98 around.
when 6 gets released on linux, i'll be buying it and trashing my 98 install.

go petru! go austin!

Re:Yet another tool of terrorists...

[Frank.B.Parker]

Hey, if you want to make the powder somewhat more credible, use a simple trick: put a few drops of fruit juice into a glass, and leave it out during a night or two. The drops will develop into a beautiful mold. Dry and grind the mold, and mix it with the talcum.

The first analysis of the powder will misidentify the mold traces as anthrax. Only the second and third test (which are more detailed, but also take much longer) will reveal it as a false alarm. But at least, it will stay on the front page for a day, until the more precise tests come in!

Now this is cool.

[trilucid]

From the page on Mars sims:

... The result? If you take off with 60 knots on the airspeed indicator, your REAL speed is SIX HUNDRED KNOTS! (about Mach 1) Take it from me, Mach-1 takeoffs are quite a thing to behold, when the plane will barely leave the runway at that speed.

To me, this is the best reason I've seen yet for creating sim software that uses real-world physics and modeling. I don't know of any other sims in existence that offer this level of "playability"; am I wrong here?

These guys have gone to great lengths to make this thing "the real deal", and I applaud their decision to make it usable under Linux. I stopped messing around with Windows-on-Linux type stuff months ago (well, partially due to the fact that almost everything I use runs under Linux ;-] ). The biggest thing I've been missing is stuff * I * find fun, which generally isn't the usual FPS games.

I can tell already I'm gonna be spending entirely too much time modeling new plane designs (and consequently flying them into the ground, d'oh! ).

Are there any other projects out there that focus this heavily on the physics modeling side of things for sims? Please tell me some of them run on Linux :-).

Re:Late Linux ports of games is a losing business

[avalys]

You obviously don't understand how Austin's business model works - when you buy his simulator, you get a cd that serves to verify you paid for his sim - you can then download free updates from his web site until the next major version. If you pay for the sim, you can download it for win32, macos and now linux. You don't have to pay for each individually. I bought x-plane a while ago, and previously used it only on windows. Now I can use it on linux without paying a cent.