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X-Plane Flight Simulator For Linux

Posted by timothy on from the ich-fliege dept.

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."

4 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Flight physics by green+pizza · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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?

    1. Re:Flight physics by AJWM · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.)

      --
      -- Alastair
    2. Re:Flight physics by Chris+Hiner · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

  2. Now this is cool. by trilucid · · Score: 5, Interesting


    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 :-).