[Mogzilla]

What do you wish X-Plane could simulate?

Personally, I'd like wash and condensation forming over the wings.

I'd also like this to be able to be simulated. ---> [attachmentid=9772]

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•  MSH80_eruption_mount_st_helens_05_18_80.jpg (3.46MB)
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[betelAIR]

More realistic treatment of water to match the wonderful job done on Global Scenery. It's how it always goes: paint the walls and you have to get new drapes.

[KenK]

I wish it had better low-level graphics. About the only thing that looks good are airports. Nice for airplanes, but rather dull for helicopters. It's difficult to judge distance to the ground with out some detail.

[Sean P.]

I would like better default system modelling, a non hack way to add curved taxiways, and continouous curved taxilines, and a partial adoption of the UTM/UPS coordinate system, for placing objects and taxiways. (of course, for an adoption of the UTM/UPS system, austin will also have to stop the assumption that the earth is a perfect sphere)

[Scooter]

AI traffic and ATC properly. More realistic weather effects - snowing for instance.

[Kangaloosh]

1. Better modelling of flight at/near the stall: I cannot get any aircraft to spin properly. There is a beautiful X-Plane Pitts that must have taken ages to build in Planemaker and it won't flick!

2. Apply gyroscopic precession to single prop aircraft: X-Plane must be modelling gyroscopic precession to get the helicopters to fly, so adding this effect to aircraft should be a very easy fix. We could then fly tumbling manouvres too, as above I have tried with the Pitts - lots of rpm and near-zero airspeed, full rudder should tip nose 'head over heals' - no luck.

3. Treatment of fuselage as aerodynamic surface: I may misunderstand the problem I am experiencing, but you can get some of the GA aircraft almost sideways at lowish speeds with a bootful of rudder. That just doesn't happen in my experience and I assume it is because X-Plane assumes that V-Stabs are the only surfaces providing a lateral moment. I have looked in Planemaker and it seems that all you can supply for the fuselage is a drag coefficient, which presumably is only valid front-on. So presumably X-Plane ignores the fact that the aft 4-10 feet of many light aircraft are fairly flat in profile and add to yaw stability? Does X-Plane's 'blade theory' only apply to the airfoil sections?

This post has been edited by Kangaloosh: 29 January 2006 - 09:11 AM

[Reticuli]

The earlier versions of 8 that I tried like 7 or 8 months ago spin real well. Then they went away, then started coming back again. Does the latest version have them gone more? Are you sure you have art stab off? Are you talking about flat spins/spirals or uncontrolled roll spins on prop planes? If you mean the latter, I don't think I've ever seen those on X-Plane. Janes' World War II Fighters does that quite well.

I'd like to see a universe rendered in a possible 800x600 3D stereoscopic world with native eMagin headtracking. ;-) Another thing WWIIF can do...heh heh heh.

[J-Wa]

More realistic wether, such as better effects from snow and rain plus ice build up on the aircraft. Cloud effects when rain is starting and other such features would be smashing.

[UIO Spotter]

More realistic weather. Sky colors, on the ground.

Moon reflection on water if possible.

Moving parts such as doors, reversers

Pop up panels

[brett s]

1. Better modelling of flight at/near the stall: I cannot get any aircraft to spin properly. There is a beautiful X-Plane Pitts that must have taken ages to build in Planemaker and it won't flick!

You mean post stall, not at/near stall
There are a couple things not modeled that make a big difference here - the way inertial forces are applied along with aerodynamic blanketing of surfaces by the fuse & other things not existing.

2. Apply gyroscopic precession to single prop aircraft: X-Plane must be modelling gyroscopic precession to get the helicopters to fly, so adding this effect to aircraft should be a very easy fix. We could then fly tumbling manouvres too, as above I have tried with the Pitts - lots of rpm and near-zero airspeed, full rudder should tip nose 'head over heals' - no luck.

Means either your timing was off, or the plane's radii of gyration is higher than it should be. Hammerheads are easily done with proper technique. X-Plane models rotors & props identically, there's no difference in how they are treated. Note that gyroscopic & aerodynamic precession has more to do with setting up control phasing in helicopters (so the rotor disk goes where you move the cyclic) during normal flight, this isn't modeled.

3. Treatment of fuselage as aerodynamic surface: I may misunderstand the problem I am experiencing, but you can get some of the GA aircraft almost sideways at lowish speeds with a bootful of rudder. That just doesn't happen in my experience and I assume it is because X-Plane assumes that V-Stabs are the only surfaces providing a lateral moment. I have looked in Planemaker and it seems that all you can supply for the fuselage is a drag coefficient, which presumably is only valid front-on. So presumably X-Plane ignores the fact that the aft 4-10 feet of many light aircraft are fairly flat in profile and add to yaw stability? Does X-Plane's 'blade theory' only apply to the airfoil sections?

All body parts generate lift when at any AoA other than zero - it's a rather generic thing that looks at the area & shape, but this isn't a full-blown CFD application