Glider Simulator

Glider Simulator was originally designed as a training program for sailplane lovers. So real reaction to handling and flight simulation were primary targets of this simulator. In addition, an important part of the development of this program has been the simulation of both thermal and ridge lift used by glider pilots as the only "engine" to keep their planes in the air allowing them to cover very long distances, attain great heights and stay aloft for extended amounts of time.

It was developed to be comparable in quality with other simulators in the market. To attain this a good virtual cockpit which is easily controlled with your mouse, provides a natural means for "looking" around outside your cockpit in any direction. In addition, a high degree of realism is obtained using different external views, aircraft shadows, glass cockpit reflections for faraway gliders, clouds, with cloud shadows being built into the program.

Other Features Include: Flying Your plane responds to your action. As with a normal glider, co-ordinated use of the rudder is very important. The program also allows Wing Slips to be used when approaching the runway and can be executed very realistically.

Views A careful selection of textures will allow you to enjoy the blue and green colors of Austria, the greens and reds of Africa, or the browns and yellows of Southern Spain.

Playing Whether you are learning to fly under the constraints of club rules or competing against your colleagues in a World Championship, your skills as a pilot will be put to the test.

Learning The simulation is formulated according to the laws of physics and flight. Thus, to do your best you should know your glider's performance capabilities, it's Polar, and how to obtain the best use of it.

Aerodynamics Stalls, slips, and control feedback, force joystick and sound are carefully modelled. Force feedback joysticks are fully integrated in the simulation. And a final addition from version 5.0 is the possibility to use your webcam to pan your view.

Weather model The model uses two cloud layers: cumulus and stratus. The volume is created by the use of a sprite model for every cloud. Clouds form and dissipate with time and depending on the weather condition. The weather model represents atmospheric movement of lows and highs. The fronts are also included in this model.

AI Artificial Intelligence. Gliders, motor gliders and birds compete for the air. Leave, and the sim takes the control and you will see an expert teaching you.

Terrain engine LOD technology is used for better result. In particular ROAM “Real-time optimally adapting meshes” approximation gathers the information to give accuracy and speed. There are photo-realistic sceneries, with the addition of trees and buildings.

On-line play This is very smooth, with no limit to the number of participants. The on-line multiplay option is a must and has been included. You can easily make new friends in the air.

Set up your sessions in advance or just in time. This allows others to join you and play your task. Record NMEA output and IGC formats are available. You can also replay your task in 3D mode at a lower scale for a clearer analysis.

Webcam Webcam can be used for panning in internal view.

Tools :  Design3D - Used to create additional gliders for the game  Cockpit - Used to create cockpits for the gliders  Terrain3D - Used to create additional soaring sceneries/locations from simple roadmaps  Note: These tools are functional but still considered to be under development. As such, they are supplied in an "As-Is" status but will be futher developed and refined in the near term. However, they have been provided with the registered version to allow the user the ability to easily extend the current functionality of the program. It should be noted that all of the gliders and scenery supplied with the program have been created with these programs at their current state of development

System Requirements: Glider Simulator is an advanced and complex gliding simulation. As such, you cannot play it well if you use only keyboard controls. Use of a joystick is really a necessity, with the mouse playing an integral part of the simulation and allowing you to control your view.

DirectX version 8.0 or higher must be loaded. Requires: Windows 98 or higher.

The game has been successfully played with a computer running Windows 2000 on a Pentium II (350Mhz), 128 Meg of RAM but with a good (GeForce 4) graphics card on a 15 inch monitor. This includes acting as the host for multiplayer sessions as well. However, best performance is obtained using a system with a Pentium III or better, 256 Meg or more of RAM in addition to a good graphics card. As said before, a twist joystick, or even better, a joystick with rudder pedals, are essentially required as well to provide the most complete soaring experience.

Published by First Class Simulations.