Flight Simulator Games – How real are they?
Many people question the realism of flight simulator games, so how real are they?
The games available today vary considerably in their level of sophistication, some are very basic and are not very realistic but are still fun for beginners, while others have been developed over a long period and provide a most realistic sense of flying. Some have both vision and sound and while they generally do not have physical movement like the full size simulators, nevertheless provide accurate cockpit layouts, gauges, digital avionic displays and allow you to take a “real” flight from your chosen starting point to your selected destination. Some even allow you to taxi your selected aircraft type to and from the terminal.
The more advanced flight simulator games have many different aircraft types to choose from which vary from the early days of flying such as the “Wright Flyer” through World Wars I and II right up to the present day with modern jets and even the space shuttle.
A great deal of time and effort has been put in to the more advanced types of flight simulator games with extremely effective graphics displaying accurate ground topographies. These are often updated from real world digital maps.
Full size aircraft vary in the “feel” of control especially heavy jetliners such the Boeing 747 or even the Airbus A380, many of the advanced simulator games have programmed this into their software so visually you can get a sense of it. In the most sophisticated flight simulator games when you pilot your aircraft with a control yoke and rudder bars or joystick it starts to get very real indeed.
You can enhance the feeling of flying even further by connecting your computer or laptop to a large screen TV.
To take the feeling of reality to the next level you can fly combat, not just against an opponent within the games but on internet versions you can fly against other online challengers.
Unlike full size aircraft, if you crash, you can just start all over again.
The danger is of course that you will become addicted to flying at home because the flight simulator games today are really “real”.
Article by Steve W. Barker. Steve builds and flies large scale radio controlled model aircraft, he uses a flight simulator game for practise http://bestflightsimulatorgames.com and also flies in full size aircraft when ever the opportunity arises. Steve served in the Royal Air Force as a Navigator in the late 1960s and has a life long love of aircraft.
Click here to access the flight simulator games
