Aerofly FS 2 Plugin 2.1.1.0

Thanks for the tip, but when I tried it the reduced smoothing didn't help. Unfortunately it made things worse. As I bank the plane over the sensation was much more of it going in step changes rather than smooth. For a car in contact with the ground this is no doubt fine, as each turn of the wheel generates an adjustment of attitude very quickly, but when you're floating on air the whole thing is much more fluid.

Even the washout return seemed "steppier". To be honest I'd love a smoothness setting of 150. I don't suppose I could get hold of the SimTools source code and do a bit of a personal tweak? I'm also seeing continued oddball behaviour with washout - situations like where I bank to the left, allow the bank angle to hold yet instead of having the axes washout to neutral they keep creeping to a greater bank angle. Not every time but sometimes. If I could get into the code maybe I could work out what's going on there?

What language is it in? Even if its obscure I've got a degree in computer science so I could probably get the hang of it.

Just wondered if anyone is happily using FS2 with Rift on a platform at the moment. I've pretty much given up for now, for 2 reasons.

1. Rift isn't reliable with the motion compensation code. It ruins the immersion when you are watching out for a loss of sync with the compensating touch controller
2. My preferred SimTools settings rely heavily on washout to make the Extra settings ease out smoothly, and the washout filter algorithm doesn't quite work (for me anyway - yobuddy is looking at it)

So for now, I'm building a G-Seat as motion cues shouldn't require washout or motion compensation.

Hi @Spit40 just reading this thread on trying to get the smoothing washout,return thing sorted for FS2 (i am trying to get the same thing happening for xplane) and noticed you mentioned a motion cancellation software for oculus(that you mention is not working to well)

I mounted my sensor on the rig but its not doing to well on that front either, do you have the details of the cancellation software you mentioned

Cheers

No problem. Here's the thread.

https://www.xsimulator.net/community/threads/vr-motion-cancellation-time-to-test.10241/

Read it through as there were two versions developed i recall and i needed the second.

I'm starting to look into GameDash in readiness for the release of GameVibe. Will GameDash take data via this plugin or does it need a separate plugin?

Thanks for the clarification. @value1 - any chance?

Let me know, what you want

Great thanks. I'm not quite sure how to specify requirements as i haven't used gamedash and am still guessing how gamevibe will work. Can everything available be exposed or do i need to make a list? The ones that come to mind are rpm, flap movement, something to detect being airborne or on runway, wheels raising lowering, airspeed. Is it possible to export a list of everything available?

Sounds like a good idea. Cheers.

@value1 - One thing I’d like to ask for with plugins is to expose speed for Game Dash for us windy types. Aerofly FS2 just added a really fun to fly open cockpit Bucker Jungmeister that would really benefit from wind.

And thanks so much for the plugins for all who write them!

Also, thanks to all in this thread. Learned a lot about filtering including why I saw no effect in my tuning yesterday - gain.

Hey - I agree 100% about the Bucker! Did you see my post on the FS2 forum
https://www.aerofly.com/community/f...0-buecker-jungmeister/&postID=52058#post52058

@Spit40 - I hadn’t. But you nailed it. Once you try wind, where it’s missing it stands out. Even planes with enclosed cockpits get a little speed-dependent wind in the vents. It also adds a lot of comfort for VR.

That Bücker is just a really fun plane that’s easy to throw around. Was exploring the strip and Nellis in Las Vegas and just having a great time yesterday!

I have a Triumph TR3A and driving that around, especially on a cool evening, you feel much more connected with the real world than the cocooned protected feeling you have in a modern car. Flying the Bucker reminded me of that, and now you've got me very tempted by a blower. I much prefer the GA than commercial jets. I'd love it if they'd model a DC-3 though.

Can you recommend a blower that isn't too bulky?

I have the Sea Flo 4" axial blowers but I believe they also make 3" diameter too. The setup I have is using an Arduino Uno, a Monster Moto shield, and a 12 volt power supply. There are a couple of good threads here on wind setups. I got mine when first exploring motion and wasn’t sure on how it all worked so just bought a setup from Avenga76. Turns out it was really easy but he did some nice touches with velocity stacks, flow straighteners, and the MM and Arduino is in a box with active fan cooling and heat sinks on the MM. He also puts chokes on the motor leads which helps protect the MM and let’s the fans run with a higher PWM frequency (basically silent) without overheating the MM. It sounds like a lot but not really bad if you DIY, and the velocity stacks and flow straighteners aren’t absolutely necessary but do up the air velocity. But he gives lots of details and photos in the threads.

Just another FYI if you go with wind, I started with the flexible accordion tubing but it causes lots of turbulence in the tubing and slows down the wind. 4" thin wall drain tubing was cheap and smooth so keeps the velocity up.

And last, you need Game Dash to run wind so if you don’t already have Pro, that’s an additional upgrade.

But totally agree on open cockpits - flying and driving. Especially in VR you get that same connection and so much more to see. It’s just more of a thrill and wind is the last puzzle piece to all that.

@Spit40 - just got out of my rig after a couple of hours and with Gain at 20 and Return at 50, Smoothing at 30, I didn’t have any stepping feeling. It was totally smooth. Some of the feel of the movement was gone but as I was slowing down and dropping flaps for landing, I could feel the motion and then the restoration and only one time after some rolls did it hang with some tilt still in place that some wing wagging fixed. But for a data point, it was smooth in both Aerofly FS2 and XPlane 11.

Thanks @Zed. Are you applying washout to roll and pitch or roll/sec and pitch/sec? Also may I ask what configuration you have?

• Aircraft you're flying
• DOF settings
• Tilt angle your platform provides

I certainly get the issue of landing and finding the aircraft hasn't levelled or that it sticks at an angle. I get a situation where I bank strongly, and its as though the math overflows and I quickly level off. I also get the return to level being jerky - much steppier than the initial tilt. I had wondered if it was the Arduino or the motors but the graphical output of SimTools data streaming to the Arduino indicated that washout was introducing some glitches to the unwashed acceleration forces.

I’m using roll/sec and pitch/sec in both XP and FS2 - IIRC. I’ll check again tonight so I don’t tell you the wrong things. Where I got the stuck tilt was with the Extra in Aerofly. The Corsair, 172, and Bücker didn’t do it at least the way I was flying those. I was doing stalls and spins in the 172. Just high banks in the Bücker. Was doing big loops in the Corsair but IIRC, I did get a little tilt after a corkscrew approach to land.

In XP I was only flying the 172 but exploring turbulence behind heavies. No problems to report there except for the feeling of reduced motion which I think is again the washout restoring while the motions are still happening and reducing the ultimate throws. So more tuning to do but overall very pleased. Flight really needs washout. May even put minor amounts in my driving profiles. I went with basic setups before that don’t have any filtering so get to redo them all now.

I’ll get screen grabs of the settings. Still have more tuning to do especially since I suspect the washout is reducing the actual throws I was getting before. I haven’t measured my tilt angles but would guess on pitch I get maybe +10/-5 degrees and for roll +/- 10. Movements really aren’t very extreme since I’m in VR but it can get violent. I rolled the Bücker inverted at low altitude and wasn’t on it quick enough to keep from settling inverted into the runway and balled it up. Threw me around like crazy. It was surprising. It's a full-frame 2 dof rig with 45 mm C-C on the output arms and the attachment points are a little more than a foot (12-15" - haven’t measured but will) radially from the U-joint on either side to the rear. I don’t remember the actual values but I think I’m at 70% for pitch/roll/sec, with 20% each heave and surge but going to up surge to around 50% when I get back in. I don’t remember yaw but think it’s around 40%. But I don’t think anything too extreme in these.

As I write this, one other thing that may or may not matter is I run JRKs and they apply a scaling such that inputs from SimTools are always full range. I would think the Arduino software does that too but I put no limits on movement in SimTools but also don’t know that is even possible. The movement limits are totally in the JRK setup.

Hope this helps. It is an important effect and makes flying much more immersive. Before I added filtering, there were lots of jaw-dropping sensations but then the hard restores and lingering tilts would break the immersion. Will post setups and more info tonight. It’s got to be something simple why you are getting the stepping because no traces of that here as things are configured now.

Was flying for a couple of hours last night and just having a blast. New respect for Aerofly. It just works so well in VR. Can’t wait for other life in the sim world and hopefully we get wind in the plugin. That’ll make it the go-to sim for me for showing off flight sims with motion unless people want more the more technical XPlane/P3D or DCS for combat.

Thanks for that super comprehensive response @Zed - you must have got loads of coins for that !

I think I'll have to do more testing in different aircraft tonight. I'll start with your DOF & washout settings and make more detailed notes on what I experience. Do you run with motion cancellation BTW? I see you're on Vive, so Matzman's compensator presumably works fine. Its flaky in Oculus so that's one more reason I've got a bit frustrated with the platform and have put my efforts into my G-Seat. When you fire up the afterburners in the F15 those surge flaps really tell you something is going on.

If I still get jerky motion, I'll write some simple arduino code to pitch and roll the platform in a steady way and check that happens smoothly.