Aerofly 2 on lower end devices vs higher end ones

    Trisnpod, can you not zoom in the Baron panel in "2"? The gauges must be illegible that small.
    Did no one ever try to get IPACS to fix the "FS" Baron HSI which rotates the wrong way and has the numbers arranged in reverse order? My iPad cannot be the only one with that bug.

    Edited once, last by Overloaded (March 28, 2015 at 9:36 PM).

    In the "FS" Baron turning left makes the HSI card turn anticlockwise !!! With north straight ahead the W is to the right, the S bottom and the E on the left. If I then turn left the card rotates anticlockwise and by the time the world rotates clockwise below me and the plane is facing west, the wrong rotation and reverse labelling HSI has produced a W on top. It is like reading in a mirror. Is my "FS" the only one like this? I presumed that IPACS couldn't be bothered to fix a fault.

    Edited once, last by Overloaded: Right on both sides ! (March 5, 2015 at 9:25 AM).

    1024 wide 100% crop retina mini Aerofly 2 Baron. Equivalent to a 20 inch diagonal retina screen.
    This is to show the screen quality without down sizing necessary for the 1024 maximum pixels post limit. Down sizing and adding unsharp mask produces a more boxy image than the real life simulator (?).

    A retina screen is over 2000 x 1500 pixels so viewing such a native resolution image in a mini mark one 1024 x 768 screen will give additional distortion and false aliasing not visible on a retina screen.

    For clarification: The download size is always the same. Every user, no matter what iOS device, has the same App.

    The performance difference we have to compensate for is almost a factor of 10, e.g and iPad 2 is around 10 times slower compared to an iPad Air 2, so don't be surprised that Aerofly 2 looks different on different iOS devices! Our fear is that this gap will increase in the future making it even harder for us.

    We just decide during start what quality we will be using. On 512 MB devices, e.g. most non retina devices, we HAVE TO stay below 200MB in RAM or we will run the risk of crashes. On 1 GB device, basically all retina devices, we consume around 300 to 400 MB. We could use some more RAM, but we will reserve this for new features for coming updates.

    iPad Air 2 has 2 GB, this is what Aerofly 2 can really use and we really run a completly different configuration on this device, sometimes using over 512 of RAM.

    All 64 bit iOS devices also use double precision for collision detection compared to float precision on older 32 bit iOS devices.

    Some other areas: On fast iOS devices the terrain is rendered using around 500000 triangles, on slow iOS device its around 100000. We also use higher resolution height data here of around 10 meters.

    RAM usage varies tremendously depending on where you fly. The worst case so far is the Oakland and SF Airport area. It was a real challenge to avoid crashes in those areas on low memory devices.

    Keep also in mind that while flying over the scenery, Aerofly 2 is loading/unloading airports, height data and ground textures and this happens with hardly any stuttering, its absolutly amazing what these devices can do.

    IPACS support, as Donka has said, an excellent contribution and indicative of how cooperative and customer concerned, the people behind this very personal-identify withable-bonding-and pride inspiring, quality flight simulator is. I show this sim off to anyone who is receptive and who might be interested in it, not to show off how skilled or cool I am but to indicate how exceptional it is, what a dogmatic no brainer getting it immediately is.
    I got an iPad because of this app, I have shown it to android users and have actually been asked to let them know when the android version has been released. This uncontrollable evangelistic urge will be more rabidly overpowering if the coming, the promised, the awaited, the glow on the morning horizon update is even half decent.

    Are the 64 bit iPads those with Apple A7 and above "CPU" or whatever the chip nomenclature is, that is full size Air and above, and mini retinas? I'm new to iPads.

    Thanks Donka, I cant really get my head around the performance of both the hardware and software. I knew the speed was only about 1.3 whatevers but had no idea it was 64 bit. That is chasing desktops and towers in a pocket device.
    500000 triangles in Aerofly? Is that about 800 by 600 or a potential scenery detail variation typically every two or three pixels? I must have got that wrong. Surely the iPad would melt?

    • Official Post

    500000 triangles is the density of the mesh, the 3D model.

    The model is defined with 3d points called vertices and triangles connecting these points. The more points the more round a shape can get. But with higher triangle count the graphics card has to process a lot more data each frame.
    In a 60 frame per second simulation like the aerofly FS the graphics card renderes 60 * 500,000 triangles = 30,000,000 triangles per second.

    Here is an example of my PC-21 for the old AFPD simulator. It has 15,560 vertices and only! 7099 triangles.

    I hope that clarified things,
    Jan

    And for those considering new hardware, if iPacs can deliver credible clouds in Aerofly 2 on the iPad Air 2 or similar spec machines then absolutely go for one of them. The bump to 2GB Ram and increased processing was one of the reasons I upgraded to the Air 2 with the likes of Aerofly 2 in mind and something like clouds, if implemented well, really would take this to the next level.