Hints and Tips
for Flight Unlimited III by Peter James
Your enjoyment of Flight Unlimited III can come from many different
experiences.
To make each experience the most enjoyable, easy or even realistic you
will learn
over time what things you can do to accomplish this.
As the designer of FU3 I would like to share with you my list of hints
and tips that I
use and think other pilots of FU3 would want to know. I will break them
down into
subject areas. Most of these items are things that may not show up in the
users
manual.
Quick Flight Graphic Options
The graphic options are used to optimize your frame rates. A flight
simulation is no
good whatsoever if your frame rates are jerky. The high levels of detail
in FU3
require you to tone your settings to allow for the highest frame rates
possible. If your
machine is less than a PII400, I would recommend turning off the "distant
mountains"
window. The frame rate is higher without the distant terrain visible.
When you fly to
the mountains, or off towards the horizon, you will have the terrain show
up sure
enough, but frame rates won't be as low. If you are running on less than
a PII300, I
would turn off the "lens flare" option. Every time you look at the sun,
you will
normally get a cool solar reflection in your face. Turning this off will
gain you a frame
or two when turning toward the sun. Next you want to make sure your
"terrain
detail" slider is set to low. Frame rates will remain better in areas of
mountains where
not quite as much detail and modeling will take place. You should be able
to leave
this on if you're running a PII350 or higher. Keeping the "distance
clipping" slider to
low will also keep frame rates up a bit. This controls how far out all
details are
drawn. Lastly, keep the "building density" to the low end of the scale if
you're
planning on flying near the city of Seattle or other densely packed
areas. If you're
planning on flying outside of the metro area, then a full detail level
will not impact
frame rates much at all. While flying, you have direct control over the
level of density
on a scale of 1 - 5. Using the F12 key while flying, you can alternate
each level of
building density by hitting ctrl-shift-m. Each time you hit this key
combination, you
will see the new level of detail displayed and you can watch your frame
rate change
on the fly (ctrl-f).
Quick Flight Audio Options
This screen is pretty much set the best way as default. The only thing I
do is turn off
the "closed captioning" box as I don't want to see a scrolling line of
ATC
transmission... I want to just hear it as I would while flying a real
plane! You can
always ask ATC to repeat a transmission as you would in real life (grin).
Also,
keeping your sound effects slider on high means you'll hear more of the
small
rumbles and other flight sounds that round out the audio experience. By
default this is
high anyway.
Quick Flight Aircraft Options
The only thing here is a frame rate issue once again. If you have a
high-end machine,
by all means, keep the AI (air traffic) density up to maximum. This will
give you a
much more realistic "rush hour" effect at the SEATAC airport and more
general
aviation traffic flying around at the smaller airports. All this fun will
lower your frame
rate (especially at SEA, BFI and PAE). So, if you're on a PII400 or less,
keep the
slider half way down or at minimum. Even at minimum, you'll still notice
at least one
airplane at most airfields beside yourself, but frame rate impact will
not be
noticeable!
Quick Flight Weather Options
This "granddaddy" configuration screen is the one I mess with the most.
It has the
most options and one you'll visit frequently. First, if the "fair weather
cumulous"
button is on, this means you'll get nice puffy clouds during sunny days
when fairly
close to a weather front. This produces clouds between 3 and 6 thousand
feet and
will decorate the sky with those "oh so nice to fly through" puffies! The
frame rate
from this cloud doesn't go down much, so unless you're really on a slow
machine
(PII266 or less) I'd leave them on.
The "enhanced cumulous" button refers to big thunderstorm clouds that
have
smaller normal cumulous clouds near them, around them or stuck to them.
This
option should be left on unless you're on a slow machine or you want to
view pure,
"naked" thunderstorms with no "clutter" clouds around them! Sometimes,
storms in
the open are more menacing looking, so this option is one I turn on and
off.
The haze slider will not impact frame rate at all but controls your
average visibility
and haze level. For crystal clear days and no atmospheric haze or smog,
keep it far
to the left. This will give unlimited 100 mile days! However, if you are
flying in the
LA area, and want to have smoggy skies, slide it about 1/2 way or all the
way right.
All the way right will drop visibility to around 2 miles or so (IFR is
less than 3 miles).
To create amazing sunsets and sunrises, have the slider about 60% right!
Also, our
haze rendering is so realistic, that when you go up over mountains, or
higher ground
elevations, the haze will thin out. If you should fly around the
mountains, you'll notice
the haze will dam up at the lower elevations. It's quite remarkable! This
is a really fun
slider to use often!
The "cumuloform visibility" slider is a real frame rate controller. Even
on a fast
machine, you'll want to use this often. What this does is set the cloud
models to
appear at a certain distance from your plane. For example, when on the
nearest
setting, clouds will only be drawn about 5 miles and closer. The sky may
appear
clear, even when set to stormy, but when you're within 5 miles or so of a
thunderstorm or large cumulous, it will only then come into view. This
way, people
flying on a very low-end machine can enjoy the effects of our storms and
cloud
models. If flying this way, put the haze slider to maximum. This will fog
up your forward visibility and make it not so obvious that your clouds only
render close.
Now, for most computers of a PII400 or greater, keep the slider half way.
This
leaves clouds visible that are roughly 10 to 30 miles away. This is my
favorite
position, as any clouds drawn farther out than that will start to look
miniature and
floating out on the horizon. So, I usually only use it at 1/2 way, even
on the fastest of
machine.
"Sky detail level" is a slider that goes up to a level of "2". I keep
mine on
maximum all the time no matter how slow a machine I'm on. This toggle
will let you
see more than one cloud family at any one time, like stratus and cumulous
or
nimbostratus. You can see some lower clouds and higher clouds too. This
is the only
setting that will enable you to see the beautiful cirrus clouds as well.
This toggle does
not effect frame rates much.
The "wind accuracy" slider determines whether or not you'll get wind flow
over
mountains and terrain. By having this on maximum, you will always get the
most
realistic mountain thermals, updrafts and downdrafts. Frame rates may go
down
slightly with this set at maximum but the effect is well worth it if you
want to see what
it's like to fly on a windy day near any terrain. If you're flying the
Stemme glider, you
must have this on maximum in order to experience the proper conditions
for soaring.
By having this feature minimized, you're frame rates may be slightly
better, but you're
missing out on so much that to me it is not worth it. Keep it set on max!
The last
setting worth mentioning on this page is the "turbulence" slider. This
really doesn't
effect frame rate too much but indeed effects how much rough air you'll
get. In good
weather this slider really won't make much of a difference. However, in
bad weather
this slider may determine how long you keep your wings! For me, I keep it
about
half way. If you really want to fly in thunderstorms and live, better
keep the slider on
minimum, even though you may be sacrificing realism to some extent here!
Quick Flight Options Controls.
The only thing here that I think needs mentioning is the "joystick
sensitivity"
slider. By default, I designed this slider to be at minimum to the left.
This will enable
the most realistic feel for each aircraft in "normal flying" conditions.
Most airplanes
are not overly sensitive, but most joysticks are. This is the best
compromise we
could make when trying to simulate the exact feel of flying an airplane.
To achieve
this however, means that some elevator sensitivity has been reduced. If
you need
maximum deflection of the elevator when performing full stalls, spins or
other
aerobatic maneuvers, you must put the slider to maximum sensitivity. This
will give
you the movement necessary to create a full break stall, but will make
landings and
takeoffs more sensitive than by default. The "dead zone" slider will set
how much lag
there will be between your first joystick or yoke movement and the
reaction of the
airplane to that movement. By default I found the minimum setting the
best when
used with the lowest sensitivity.
In Flight Hints and Tips
Now, let me share with you some of the "goodies" I have discovered over
countless
hours flying Flight Unlimited III.
When attempting to create your own weather scenarios you must know
something
about meteorology. Our weather engine operates on the real principals of
the
atmosphere. Our weather severity slider puts everything in motion. When
set to
the best side (left) you will always get slight deviations of good
weather. Subtle wind
changes and temperature changes are the most that will ever happen when
the slider
is on the best weather. Taking the slider up a notch to the right will
enable the chance
of clouds to be present as well as the chance of more wind to be evident.
A notch
farther up the slider will produce warm frontal weather. Warm fronts
generally mark
the advancement of warmer air into a region of cooler air. Warm fronts
can have
widespread IFR weather associated with them. If you are looking for some
good
IFR weather to fly in, just keep the slider about half way down.
Generating random
scenarios will eventually give you a weather scenario that you like. If
after time you
still don't have exactly what you want, you can "pull" the front to where
you want
with the mouse. Left clicking will let you move the front by dragging and
right
clicking will let you rotate the front in a specific direction! You can
move the areas of
rain too by sliding the front up or down and the associated rain areas
will follow!
Warm fronts create the lowest visibility near the front. For instance, if
you want to fly
from good weather to bad weather, position the front about 150 miles away
from
you or your starting airport. As you fly towards the front (note, the
weather works in
any outer terrain region connected to either the SFO or SEA weather map
region)
the notable signs are the gradual lowering and thickening of clouds. By
the time you
get to within 50 miles or so of the warm front it will be raining or
snowing and your
visibility will drop. You may encounter clouds near the ground at this
point, and a
world where visual flying will be impossible. You can manipulate the
winds near the
surface by right clicking and dragging the wind arrows to control
direction and
speed! In summer the warm fronts may bring thunderstorms but more likely
clouds,
fog and showers. In winter the warm fronts can bring snow and in-cloud
icing ahead
of the warm air.
If you want to have the worst possible weather (more winds, turbulence
and unpredictability) then you must choose a cold front scenario. Cold fronts
will
produce more uplift, squally weather and the chance of thunderstorms in
summer.
You can dictate the number of thunderstorm areas by regenerating the
button and
checking the map. Just like in warm fronts, you can control the stormy
areas as well
as frontal position and wind barbs. The cold fronts will have less high
clouds
associated with them and more of a packed in area of cumulous clouds near
the
front. Any thunderstorms that form will live along the leading edges of
the front (most
of the time). If you are caught flying towards nasty weather near a cold
front you can
fly out of it much faster than in a sprawling
Home
|
By Peter James (Lead Designer)
Our night lighting was devised using a technique
of heat sourcing when reading the satellite terrain data, we are able to
use methods to extract the actual temperatures of the ground. Thus,
you can easily find out where the populated areas are, right down to
small towns. This automatically made our night lighting be placed right
where real lighting would occur or at least very close to it! That's why
over hills and mountains, you won't see lights, they will not curve up
hills (in most cases) they will follow low spots and valleys!
whew.
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