Flight Modeling vs. Flight Handling.

[ACE-OF-ACES]

Without splitting too many hairs..

Most of the attributes that set one plane (or car) apart from another can not be 'simulated' on a $1000+ desktop PC with $400 worth of joysticks, throttle, rudders

Why?

Because most of the attributes that set one plane (or car) apart from another is the way it moves..

And as we all know our lazy-boy ain't going nowhere when we fly our games.

A lot of people confuse flight simulation with flight simulators.. A modern PC flight simulation game can and in most cases does run a far more complex flight model than the air force F16 flight simulators of the 80s and 90s..

Mater of fact most military and commercial (read air liners) flight simulators care very little about how realistic the performance values are..

Why?

Well because most military and commercial flight simulators are more concerned with training the pilot on how to make use of all the systems on board..

That is to say most military and commercial flight simulators 'ASSume' the pilot already knows how to fly.

But there are things that can be done short of a million dollar motion platform to simulate motion..

How?

Easy, because the human senses are very Very VERY easy to trick!

For example, in a stationary jet simulator (F16 if I remember) simulated the sensation of the air breaks by simply attaching a small motor to the shoulder harness (seat belts for car drivers).. Thus when ever the pilot would apply the air breaks, these motors would simply tighten up (read pull back) on the harness, which to the pilot felt like he was being forced forward into the harness.

All the brain needs is the visual and the physical 'que' from the sensation of the harness and the brian will do the rest (read fill in the blanks)

That is just one example, there are tons of ways to trick the human senses into thinking the body is moving when in fact it is not moving at all.