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X-Plane - An Obsession For Realism

caseih writes "Popular Science is running an article on Austin Meyer, the creator of the popular X-Plane flight simulator. Although not an open source project, X-Plane has a devoted community of flight enthusiasts and developers who are striving to make it the most realistic flight simulator ever. In fact, flight characteristics are calculated in real time from aircraft design data, not static tables like MS Flight Simulator. PopSci has a neat picture showing X-Plane calculating the lift-drag vectors in real-time across an aircraft. Meyer's quest for realism in his simulations dominates the development and use of X-Plane."

15 of 376 comments (clear)

  1. Re:First post with something meaningful to say! by WasterDave · · Score: 0, Funny

    Bigger computer.

    --
    I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
  2. Phew! by bitfoam · · Score: 4, Funny
    "Popular Science is running an article on Austin Meyer, the creator of the popular X-Plane flight simulator."

    For a moment there, I thought this was a story on Mike Meyers and his next Austin Powers movie, featuring a futuristic X-Plane thingy that spoofs Moonraker.

    I'm honestly not sure whether to be disappointed or not...

  3. In related news... by Phekko · · Score: 2, Funny

    A motion has been filed to ban "The Sims" because it is "too realistic and offers insight on human life and behavior that can be misused in various different ways"

    --

    Sigs for Nerds. Sigs that Matter.
  4. No kidding! by gantrep · · Score: 1, Funny

    Leave him a new keyboard while you're at it. His is obviously broken.

  5. CFD by tqft · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Aren't all the data known in advance?"

    Short answer - no.

    Medium answer - a lot of pre-computing

    Long answer is a course in fluid dynamics.

    --
    The Singularity is closer than you think
    Quant
  6. vectors and math by jinglecat · · Score: 1, Funny

    "Hey baby, that is a nice vector you have there. What is your sign, Tan? Cot? Sin? Cos?. Ah, Cos! You look like you have the flare of a cosine"

    "Hey baby, you have a nice derivative on your slope, what is the rate of change on those curves?"

    "Hey baby, can I integrate your function?"

  7. Re:Best Quote by madmarcel · · Score: 3, Funny

    Most programmers already do:

    "This is going to be the best damn game EVER!"
    "This is going to be the best damn spreadsheat EVER!"

    But then management and accounting step in and things get all messy :o

  8. Free as in too much BEER by elrond1999 · · Score: 5, Funny
    It's hard to imagine Microsoft coming home drunk one night from a party and accidentally uploading its entire source code, as Meyer did a few years back.


    It was almost open source :)
  9. Almost as closed source as Miscrosoft by Johan+Veenstra · · Score: 2, Funny

    "But there are disadvantages to being a one-man show. It's hard to imagine Microsoft coming home drunk one night from a party and accidentally uploading its entire source code, as Meyer did a few years back. "I woke up the next morning and found an e-mail from a friend alerting me to what I'd done. My heart stopped. I had basically given away 12 years of work. I thought my life was over." He was able to remove the files before anyone could spread them around, but to this day he feels like he dodged a bullet. "I don't drink anymore," he says."

  10. Re:Obsession is simple. by marko123 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm just waiting for the cybernetic implants which allow simulations indistinguishable from reality

    Not sure how to break this to you buddy, but you're already in one. For extra realism, the cybernetic implants' simulations seamlessly texture map flesh colours over their shiny metal.

    You want proof? I'll give you proof. Half the shit you read in the newspapers could not possibly be happening. Democratic nations giving up their own freedoms to fight tyranny. It's a joke! You know programmers' quirky senses of humour? There's your proof. If only I can find the "Off" switch....

    (quick note to you grammar nazis ha-ha fuck you! find the wrong use of an apostrophe in this!)

    --
    http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
  11. Oh. My. God. by marko123 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The screenshots are unbelievable! Look at the little people!

    --
    http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
  12. Re:In contrast, Salon.com's "Air Osama" article by rtaylor · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why don't Americans read their own literature and
    need Russian to remind them?


    Russians have longer attention spans than Amer... That dog has a puffy tail! Hee hee hee hee! Here puff! Here puff!

    --
    Rod Taylor
  13. Re:In contrast, Salon.com's "Air Osama" article by Laur · · Score: 2, Funny
    About this exact situation - airplane crew is poisoned with their breakfast got from new (and untruthworthy) supplier, and passenger with some flight experience from WWII saves everyone onboard.

    Hey, I saw Aiplane too! That movie's hilarious!

    "Surely you can't be serious."

    "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley."

    --
    When you lose something irreplaceable, you don't mourn for the thing you lost, you mourn for yourself. - Harpo Marx
  14. One of the Meyer brothers? by rhiorg · · Score: 3, Funny

    If we could somehow get Austin Meyer and Sid Meyer to work on it together, we'd have the world's finest airport management simulator ever.

    Then if we also enlisted the help of Oscar Meyer, we'd have winged weenies waging war.

  15. Re:Wrong Section: X-Plane is not a game by Cat_Byte · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hell even Quicken is a game to me. Trying to keep the dollars from turning red is pretty hard. The bank monster eats even more of the dollars when it goes red and you have to make sure your character doesn't starve to death or go homeless.

    P.S. don't play that game called Stock Market. It conflicts with the Quicken game.

    --
    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.