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Hi Aviator!
This is a tiny flight simulator based on a Cessna-172R with a G1000 glass cockpit. (This is the plane I fly in real life, so I thought it would be a challenge to see if it can be done with Pico-8.)
The flight model is not based on theory but on my observations as a pilot. I have to say that it's quite good ;-) Within the limits of Pico-8 it quite feels like the real thing.
Disclaimer: while I created the instruments and the flight model, the majority of the programming work was done by @freds72, including 3D outside view, code structure, eye candy, music, etc. Many thanks Fred, this would not have been possible without your ninja programming skills!!
If you want to go flying right away, the cheatsheet will get you in the air in less than 1 minute:
If you are more the serious type, there is a 34-page flight manual, which explains everything in detail and features 20+ flight lessons.
We also created an entire area you can fly in (with a mountain, an island, ships and much more):
Just as a sneak preview, here are some of the things you can do:
Smooth landings
High speed buzzing
Illegal low-level flying at night
Instrument flying in the clouds
Here is the real cockpit on a flight in the Swiss alps to compare:
Update 1.1
- fixed polygon gaps
- added collision detection for wind turbines
Update 1.2
- sub-pixel polygon rasterization
- faster textured clouds
- fixed ugly crash
Update 1.3
- fixed: crash when geometry is fully clipped
- added: HUD-mode (player 2 down key to toggle)
For those interested, unminified source code & assets can be downloaded from:
https://github.com/freds72/tiny_sim
Thanks to:
- Mini json parser from Tyler Neylon: lua JSON parser
- trifill (untextured): @p01
- music lifted from "public" MIDI files, simplified and converted with midi2pico.
I really appreciate the amount of documentation and extra-pico8 content and instruction that this game has. I think a lot of game makers should take this level of detail for their releases. It really ups the level of polish a game has and while I'm not into flight sims, I find this aspect of this game (and the presentation itself) to be above and beyond. Kudos and you other developers, take note...this is how a game is really 'complete'. It doesn't stop when the code's done and the game posted. Manuals were/are a thing and really add the immersion of any game!
My God, how long did this take? This is absolutely beautiful. Bravo!
Thanks!
The repo gives you the stats - we spent something like 4/5 months on it (given we both have full time jobs). That said, @yellowbaron had the MFD display ready before (see older versions).
Source: repo commit activity
Shame on me... 1.3 is posted now. Bonus: full screen HUD-mode.
Wow! Awesome job!! I never flown a Cessna, but the flight model ressemble the one from Flight Simulator (played since FS4).
As far as daytime, even though if it'll resemble gray blocks on green, it would be a very welcome addition just for flair. Also a little advice, add pixels in a light grid pattern so we can get a better sense of visual altitude
thanks - flight model is @yellowbaron real life experience dumped as lua code!
dots are displayed (dark blue) - you may have missed them!
daylight version is not planned (even if would be a nice extension)!
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