Posts by John Hargreaves

    I'd love to see the New York scenery get a second art pass and really pump up the detail and resolution, especially now that we have the R22. It could serve as a showcase for the potential that AFS2 has and start to set the sim apart. Currently I find the level of detail broadly similar to other sims, but AFS2 wins hands down on smoothness and framerate. If moving water and sea/road traffic make it into the sim, one 'showcase demo' area such as Manhattan would really wow the audience so to speak.

    I'd happily pay for a 'New York plus' version add on pack.

    When we have new information we will post it in the forum and as an announcement. Currently we have nothing noteworthy to report except that we are still fully developing Aerofly and we will continue to release updates in the future.

    I do think you guys can be a bit modest and reticent sometimes. It might seem like 'nothing noteworthy' is happening to you, but lots of us consider FS2 to be an exceptional piece of work that is growing all the time. We're just interested is all, and if you are proud of something, it's ok to share that with others.

    Anyway, it's your project, as JJ says above, thanks for your work and keep it up.

    Here's the 'full' rundown on their AFS2 plans:

    "Our plans for AFS2 in 2019 are less defined than for P3D and XP11, although we will continue with some ports of the most popular airports which fall within an IPACS region DLC coverage, and perhaps porting the TrueEarth GB series to the sim. It remains our favourite sim for the smoothest VR experience due to its incredible frame rates, made even faster with the recent Vulkan support. We are constantly in communication with IPACS and thus have insight into some exciting new developments in store for 2019"

    That last sentence looks intriguing, I think we just need to keep on spreading the word.

    It's a bit like riding a unicycle with a circular saw strapped on top of your helmet. Also, the difference between an experienced pilot and a rookie (I know I'm in the latter category) in terms of how smoothly a helicopter behaves, is significant. Don't worry OP, you are doing fine.

    Try just getting the damn thing up in the air any way you can and then practising moves so that you have a bit more space around you. Tiny constant inputs, but don't forget there is a slight delay between your movement on the stick and the eventual movement of the aircraft.

    I read on the OrbX forum that sales hadn't been as good as they hoped for the AFS2 products. I think it's still early days for this sim, progress is quite slow (I understand why don't worry) and it hasn't quite built the necessary momentum yet.

    XP11 is a bit further long the development path, so it is currently the new kid on the block, but once all the major features are present AFS2 will shine and they will have all that OrbX back catalogue that will port across nicely.

    The cyclic does need lots of regular tiny inputs but once you get up to speed, the weather vane effect means you won't need the anti torque/rudder quite so much, but the wind strength and direction can also affect it. The yaw string is a good indicator that the helicopter is happy, if that is straight up the middle it is balanced and smooth.

    Could you maybe start a flight at 1500ft and then get used to moving it around without anything to hit nearby? It does sound like there might be an issue with your controls possibly - do you fly helicopters in any other sims? XP11 or DCS World?

    The VKB pedals are great for helicopters, really sensitive around the centre. Again, not cheap, but if you already have a decent joystick, you probably don't want to ditch that and splash out a grand on helicopter controls. I've taken the big spring out of my warthog joystick, which makes it much better as a cyclic, and still has the four small centring springs so it works ok with fixed wing.

    I used my warthog throttle as a collective for a long time, reversing it so it pulls back to raise it and that was quite good. earlier this year I got a proper Robinson R-22 collective from OE-XAM and it is much better, but you have to be properly into helicopters to justify the expense. Worth every penny I've spent though for the kit I use.

    I agree from a personal point of view. I know that a lot of simmers love the discipline of using ATC and real world procedures, but for me all that stuff feels too much like being at work and it's the first thing I switch off. I use flight sims to fly and get the feel and freedom of flight, kind of like it must have been back in the 1920s when there was nothing else up there and you could pretty much go where and when you wanted.

    DCS standard moving water and a living world with traffic, people and animals moving about their business down there would transform AFS2 to another level entirely. That would be top of my personal feature request list.