Hot air balloon + real winds + high res 3D scenery

  • Hi - I'm new to the forum but not to flight simulation. I was simply wondering if there is much demand for a hot air balloon in Aerofly? Combined with real world winds this is something that would greatly appeal to me. I like the idea of drifting randomly and never being quite sure where I'm going to end up.

    Until quite recently I satisfied this urge for ballooning on GeoFS - but once you've experienced Aerofly VR it's difficult to go back to a 2D screen, and GeoFS isn't playable in VR of course. Ideally I would like a VR ballooning experience over Google Earth style 3D objects. (GeoFS uses Google Earth scenery but they haven't managed to import the 3D objects which GE now has around most major towns and cities.) How does Google Earth produce these 3D effects? Is some sort of algorithm applied to the 2D image? If so, wouldn't it be quicker/easier than making the 3D objects and placing them individually? They look amazing on a flat screen, but would they look as good in VR? I appreciate that they would only look good if generated from very high resolution images, but a hot air ballon can't cover ground very quickly anyway, so I'd be satisfied with limited areas.

  • Don't wait for it. ;) First of all it will take a LONG time before we get real world winds in Aerofly FS 2 (if ever) but secondly, using scenery similar to Google's 3D stuff would require a complete new sim engine. Won't happen. I did read a while ago that someone managed to use/show GE 3D scenery within Prepar3D but the news about that, on another forum, was quickly removed, probably because of legal issues. But apart from all that: the GE 3D scenery is very rough and doesn't look good up close so it probably also won't look good in VR where everything is being blown up to real life size. The effect is nice on a 2D screen indeed but don't expect it to be used in a flightsim anytime soon.

  • Ian,

    For now just try flying the gliders over some of our big cities - San Francisco, New York ($$DLC), Denver, LA, etc. You can start at 5000 feet or so, trim it up so you are going as slow as you can, move your view (Hit "1") outside the aircraft, and just enjoy the view. Not quite the same but similar in view in VR.

  • Thanks for your reply and yes - I'm sure you're right - none of this is going to happen any time soon (though the hot air balloon itself would presumably be easy to simulate). In the absence of real-world weather I would have to set the direction and strength myself using some weather data site. Not ideal - but better than nothing.

    I take your point about needing a completely new sim engine to offer Google Earth style 3D scenery - and the fact that it might not look as good in VR. I have downloaded Google Earth VR but unfortunately I can't get any of it work beyond the introductory tour. In the intro tour the 3D effects look pretty good to me, though obviously not quite as well defined as on a flat screen. The other problem is that you don't quite have the sense of vastness and scale that you get with Aerofly VR. I guess that comes from haze and other atmospheric effects, as well as being in a believable cockpit. It tends to look a bit like a model village viewed from 6 feet high. (Shades of the Father Ted scene with Dougal and the plastic cows!)

  • Ian,

    For now just try flying the gliders over some of our big cities - San Francisco, New York ($$DLC), Denver, LA, etc. You can start at 5000 feet or so, trim it up so you are going as slow as you can, move your view (Hit "1") outside the aircraft, and just enjoy the view. Not quite the same but similar in view in VR.

    OK, many thanks for the suggestion - I'll try that.

  • Hello Lan C,

    the hot air balloon is a very good idea and you're right this would not be hard to simulate once in the air.

    The actual inflation of the balloon can't yet be simulated with Aerofly but the buoyancy could be simulated. One could probably simulate thrust vectoring of the balloon as well. I'm not an expert with hot air balloons but I think they can direct hot gas into certain areas of the balloon to make it tilt to the side or forwards and backwards. That way you could steer the balloon to a certain degree and not just go up and down and then use the different winds at altitude.

    Currently there is no wind shear with altitude as far as I know, so not everything could be done right now.

    Scenery wise, well we have a huge area of scenery on the west coast stretching east to Colorado, so with a hot air balloon and only a slight breeze you could fly for days :D

    Regards,

    Jan

  • Hi Jan - many thanks for your reply. Even just to have the balloon with a realistic basket etc and reasonable ascent and descent physics would be great to begin with. If there was also wind shear with altitude and/or real-world winds I'd be very pleased indeed.

  • Hi overloaded. Yes I have used the pause key to do that, but I think it's the randomness and quietness of balloon flight that appeals to me - never being quite sure where you're going to end up. Also the fact that you can land it in odd places - a bit like a helicopter. Of all the current aircraft the ASG 29 glider is the best for viewing scenery in my opinion, but I imagine it would be great to lean over the basket of a balloon and look down with no intervening glass.