[HN Gopher] YSFlight - A free flight simulator where anything is...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       YSFlight - A free flight simulator where anything is possible
        
       Author : app4soft
       Score  : 271 points
       Date   : 2022-02-11 10:48 UTC (12 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (ysflight.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (ysflight.org)
        
       | mosfets wrote:
       | Intersting to see a flight sim post would make to the front page
       | of HN lol. I'm also working on a free flight simulator lately,
       | but focusing on drones/quadcopters/FPV and stick feel. It's
       | browser based but can be played with gamepads or radio
       | controllers. Give it a try if you are interested and let me know
       | what you think, located here: https://dronesitter.com/sim
        
         | app4soft wrote:
         | > _I 'm also working on a free flight simulator lately, but
         | focusing on drones/quadcopters/FPV and stick feel._
         | 
         | Guess, it would be better post it in "Show HN" section[0],
         | beacuse your flight sim is online/WebGL-based -- it is probably
         | has nothing to compare with YSFlight.
         | 
         | As side note, it is not good to launch WebGL-app immediately
         | after user just visits your site -- my PC near stuck with full
         | CPU/GPU load; it would be much better give a user button
         | "Launch now" instead to launch WebGL without permission by
         | user/site visitor.
         | 
         | N.B. YSFlight could be used with RC-transmitters connected to
         | PC as joysticks, and even more, there are already a lot of
         | drones "aircraft" addons for YSFlight too -- so you may
         | combining it with something like Oculus or Google VR Cardoard
         | to use YSFlight for playing in FPV-mode.
         | 
         | [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/show
        
           | mosfets wrote:
           | Thanks for the advice! This is due to a recently added
           | feature that maximizes FPS, I should have considered wider
           | ranges of devices.
        
           | cshimmin wrote:
           | Yeah, clicking this link on my 2016 MPB caused all of Chrome
           | to completely hang for about 3mins until I could close it...
           | yikes.
        
         | meheleventyone wrote:
         | I found the calibration hard to use and it didn't give me much
         | feedback to say if I was doing what it wanted or not. The end
         | result seemed to get the axis extents correct but the mapping
         | all over the place.
        
           | mosfets wrote:
           | Thanks for the feedback! I do feel your pain, will make this
           | clearer in the future, already on the "roadmap" :D
        
       | 3z wrote:
       | I'm happy to see a flight simulator that isn't locked down with
       | annoying rules. What's the point of playing digital games if you
       | can't go crazy?
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Just a little bit of previous discussion:
       | 
       |  _YSFlight RIAT 2021 - The Marine 's Rally: A Tribute to Gunny
       | [video]_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28845160 - Oct
       | 2021 (1 comment)
       | 
       |  _Announcing YS Flight (2003)_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27047041 - May 2021 (1
       | comment)
       | 
       |  _YS Flight Simulator 20th Anniversary_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20303825 - June 2019 (1
       | comment)
        
         | jker wrote:
         | Thanks dang for always being such a great steward of this
         | community!
        
       | punnerud wrote:
       | Of Mac with M1 it will crash as long as you don't give
       | permissions to listen to key-input. So yes, it works with M1.
        
         | app4soft wrote:
         | > _Of Mac with M1 it will crash as long as you don 't give
         | permissions to listen to key-input._
         | 
         | So, it under macOS BigSur with M1 it works if "give permissions
         | to listen to key-input", right?
        
           | punnerud wrote:
           | Yes, just tested with the 2019 version
        
             | app4soft wrote:
             | > _with the 2019 version_
             | 
             | Ther is no YSFlight version 2019xxxx, latest version is
             | 20181124.[0]
             | 
             | [0] https://ysflight.org/download/
        
       | superfunny wrote:
       | MalwareBytes flags this site as potentially containing malware
        
         | app4soft wrote:
         | Don't use MalwareBytes[0], even MS Windows at all.
         | 
         | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malwarebytes_Anti-
         | Malware#Secu...
        
         | LinuxBender wrote:
         | This and another highly upvoted site submitted yesterday were
         | flagged by MWB. Giving it the benefit of doubt could be that
         | user submitted content for the game may be the culprit but I am
         | just guessing. Worst case there could be an active campaign to
         | infect people in the tech industry just prior to a military
         | engagement. I will assume and prepare for the worst and hope
         | for the best.
        
       | 5ESS wrote:
       | If the graphics quality increases I might play it one day.
        
       | squidhunter wrote:
       | YSFlight sim used to be my jam! Back in high school (~2004), a
       | few of my friends and I all had YSFlight sim loaded on some zip
       | disks. Then throughout the week, our schedules would occasionally
       | align so that we were all in separate classrooms but each had
       | access to a computer and we could play the multiplayer combat
       | mode over the schools network. YSFlight sim was also my first
       | introduction to modding. I was able to take the F-22, give it
       | unbelievable amounts of thrust (millions of lbf), zero mass, and
       | virtually unlimited ammunition. It was great, I could fly across
       | the entire map in a second, then loiter like a helicopter. I
       | dominated for like a week until I gave the secret away...
        
       | marcodiego wrote:
       | Don't forget Linux Air Combat:
       | https://askmisterwizard.com/2019/LinuxAirCombat/LinuxAirComb...
        
         | app4soft wrote:
         | Yep, _LAC_ [0] (fork of _GL-117_ ) even has a thread on YSFHQ
         | forum.[1]
         | 
         | BTW, I think _YSFlight_ is more related to _ACM_ [2] &
         | _Vertigo_ [3] flight simulators, instead of GL-117/LAC.
         | 
         | As for more advanced open-source flight simulator than _LAC_ ,
         | take a look on _Marek Cel_ 's[4] _Mscsim_ and _FightersFS_.[5]
         | 
         | [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27073052
         | 
         | [1] https://forum.ysfhq.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=8496
         | 
         | [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22549969
         | 
         | [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27598269
         | 
         | [4] https://github.com/marek-cel?tab=repositories
         | 
         | [5] https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=github.com/marek-cel
        
       | sockpuppet69 wrote:
        
       | bitwize wrote:
       | LGR recently did a Blerb about a floppy disk found in a computer
       | from Lockheed Martin, that had a screen saver based on an old
       | version of YSFlight on it. The screen saver would stage flybys of
       | YSFlight's distinctive, untextured models of fighter jets.
        
         | app4soft wrote:
         | > _LGR recently did a Blerb about a floppy disk found in a
         | computer from Lockheed Martin_
         | 
         | Here is already comment[0] on this with links to related HN
         | thread.
         | 
         | [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30299850#30301403
        
       | ziggus wrote:
       | This looks interesting, but the coolest part of this site is the
       | forums. I had no idea that phpBB was still in active
       | development/maintenance. It's surprising how ridiculously fast it
       | is, and how much information is packed into each page. The topic
       | pages are full of images and complex layouts, but it still
       | renders completely in less than a second. Granted, Cloudflare and
       | caching are a big help, but it goes to show what years and years
       | of continued development and optimization can do.
        
         | lpcvoid wrote:
         | This was pretty much always the case with these old school
         | forums. They where always pretty fast if run on decent
         | hardware. Unlike modern web things.
        
           | app4soft wrote:
           | > _Unlike modern web things._
           | 
           | I'm fully agree on it phpBB-based sites awesome in
           | performance and, as for me, it is exactly "classic" forum
           | engine, which also used by RCGroups[0] and FlightGear[1].
           | 
           | [0] https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/index.php
           | 
           | [1] https://forum.flightgear.org/
        
         | Cthulhu_ wrote:
         | > It's surprising how ridiculously fast it is
         | 
         | This is why server-side rendering is making a comeback; for
         | over a decade, ever since Chrome and V8 came out, the focus has
         | been on making JS faster, but in the meantime rendering plain
         | old HTML and CSS (especially without animations or other
         | complexer calculations) hasn't stopped. Especially newer
         | versions of rendering engines, employing 3D acceleration and
         | tile-based rendering will make these things really fast.
         | 
         | Years ago we decided that vBulletin 3 was getting too old (it
         | had been superseded by the slower 4 and 5 by then; slower
         | because they did more 'tidy' coding in the back-end (object-
         | oriented PHP) and tried to build a more JS-heavy front-end.).
         | We first tried Discourse - we tried it for days, trying to
         | migrate posts, but it was just so heavyweight, it seemed aimed
         | at enterprise companies with a free-to-spend credit card linked
         | to AWS, not some random fansite out on the internet. I gave up
         | eventually.
         | 
         | Instead we went to Xenforo, which was built by the same people
         | behind vBulletin up until v3, after which that company was
         | bought out and the people left. They built Xenforo with similar
         | goals as vB 3, just with a fresh start, and the result was an
         | old-fashioned but fast forum software, suitable for mobile,
         | some JS sprinkled here and there for e.g. instant posting
         | without a full page reload, but other than that a pretty
         | vanilla piece of software.
        
       | jillesvangurp wrote:
       | Interesting; I was not aware of their existence. They seem to be
       | free as in beer; not as in speech. They seem to make money with
       | shareware provided by the same company.
       | 
       | Nothing against closed source though. For example, I enjoy
       | x-plane a lot which while not free (in either sense) of course
       | has a large community providing both free and non free add-ons.
       | This seems more of a game with a focus on combat and less on
       | realism or looks.
       | 
       | An actual free, open source flight simulator that deserves
       | mentioning is Flightgear. I've played with that a couple of times
       | but always end up reverting to x-plane. But flightgear has some
       | nice features and also a nice community. It just doesn't look and
       | feel anywhere near as good as x-plane (which is a tall order
       | because it is very good).
       | 
       | Anyway, I checked out some footage on Youtube. Visually, it has
       | nothing on even Flightgear; which I'm pretty sure probably has
       | some combat mods. Or even any version of that the last few
       | decades or so, actually. It actually reminded me of some dos
       | games I used to play in the early nineties. E.g. Jetfighter II
       | (released 1990) was pretty awesome back in the day. It looks like
       | that but with higher resolution. But e.g. the ground is a
       | featureless green blob; just like in Jetfighter II, and clouds
       | are white polygons hanging in the sky, etc. And Jetfighter II had
       | a HUD that was about as feature rich as the one in this game. Of
       | course it was way more pixelated than this. But they even managed
       | a cockpit panel :-). I wouldn't call it photo realistic but it
       | didn't look half bad for the time. There are probably
       | better/later game that this thing is shooting for. But I just
       | never really got into combat flight simulation.
       | 
       | I guess they are trying to recreate some of that experience. Not
       | that it matters; but I guess the gameplay is more important than
       | the looks for this. Actually looks like it could be a lot of fun.
       | 
       | BTW. I have nothing against MS Flightsimulator. The latest
       | version looks great. But I just don't have any windows computers
       | anymore at this point. Combat is not really something either of
       | the other flightsims I mentioned are made for or even good at.
        
         | app4soft wrote:
         | > _Nothing against closed source though._
         | 
         | To be clear, _YSFlight_ is partially open-source software.
         | 
         | Here is official repo[0] of its GUI toolkit (OpenGL-based) and
         | various miscellaneous apps based on it.
         | 
         |  _PolygonCrest_ (aka `ysgebl`), an official 3D editor for addon
         | making for YSFlight, based on the same toolkit as YSFlight, is
         | fully free  & opensource.
         | 
         | [0] https://github.com/captainys/public
         | 
         | [1] https://github.com/captainys/public/tree/master/src/ysgebl
         | 
         | [2] https://forum.ysfhq.com/viewtopic.php?t=6374
        
           | galcerte wrote:
           | Yeah, but it is a shame that the rest is closed source. This
           | game could seriously benefit from community contributions
           | and/or from a fork. There is a really strange issue that
           | occurs when the map is far too big; the ground shakes
           | uncontrollably. Given how simplistic the game looks, you'd
           | expect maps to be able to get really big without much of an
           | issue, yet we have bugs like these...
           | 
           | I do remember there being a server plugin of sorts that
           | somehow managed to do things like darken the sky as your
           | aircraft climbed. Can't remember what that was called.
        
             | app4soft wrote:
             | > _the ground shakes uncontrollably_
             | 
             | Yep, that was the real problem till YSFlight version
             | ver.2015xxxx, but since ver.2018xxxx it was a little bit
             | fixed, but I'm agree that being open-source it could has a
             | chance to be fixed by community.
             | 
             | Being in actual state, YSFlight is hobby project of single
             | person.
             | 
             | That is why its hard to predict future of this amazing
             | software.
        
         | numpad0 wrote:
         | Yep, the most suitable classification for YSFlight is freeware,
         | not Free Software. It's some old guy's personal project with
         | LLC title that has been running since 1999. I doubt he's making
         | much out of it, as the download page still says the website
         | costs him $50 per month.
         | 
         | Being such an old game it runs on all-custom code he refers to
         | as "YSFlight Kernel" that don't even support texturing, but the
         | game is extremely lightweight and its flight model is at least
         | bearably realistic. That casts contrast to many commercial
         | games like Ace Combat franchises. It also has good keyboard
         | support.
         | 
         | During 2010s the author followed open source movement and
         | dumped some code on GitHub, but the core value of YSFlight
         | remains its easy and compact nature. It's a worthwhile 20MB on
         | your doomsday gaming console to bring to your designated
         | fallout shelter.
        
       | nonbirithm wrote:
       | The author also made an interesting demscene release for the
       | Fujitsu Micro 7.
       | 
       | https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=72288
        
         | app4soft wrote:
         | Author, Soji Yamakawa[0], is not only active demoscene
         | performer (few times winner of Demosplash Party) but also is a
         | big fan of Fujitsu FM TOWNS[1] -- in last few years he did an
         | open-source emulator, "Tsugaru"[2].
         | 
         | [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=in.coocan.jp
         | 
         | [1] http://ysflight.in.coocan.jp/FM/e.html
         | 
         | [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23269460
        
           | bane wrote:
           | I believe he's also a professor at CMU. His demoscene
           | contributions also often represent many of the _first_ demos
           | ever on their respective platforms. If anybody is even
           | remotely interested in Japanese retro computers he also
           | contributes many of them to the retro petting zoo at
           | Demosplash (when they 're live). The computing club there
           | goes through some serious heroics to keep many of the old
           | systems alive and is responsible for a huge amount of these
           | platform first demos in the scene.
        
       | WFHRenaissance wrote:
       | Wow, I've been flying in YSF for what feels like over a decade.
       | Up until recently it was just a game I installed on my parent's
       | computer and would play when I went home.
       | 
       | One thing I _love_ about the game is that they nailed the F-22 's
       | thrust vectoring and supermanueverability. I play the game with a
       | keyboard and a mouse (as opposed to a HOTAS setup), and after all
       | these years flying the F-22 I'm proud to say I can execute
       | stalls, a Pugachev's Cobra, and more maneuvers.
       | 
       | I'm not your typical gamer (I don't own a console, and I own 2
       | games on Steam that I never play), but YSFlight has been my "Come
       | To Jesus" moment for recreational simulation. If you're on the
       | fence about downloading it, I encourage you to do it. You will
       | not be disappointed.
        
       | galcerte wrote:
       | I never expected this to be on the front page of HN, it brings
       | back so many memories. I was big into this game when I was a
       | teenager back in 2010, 2011 until 2015, also being very active in
       | the community that made this page in that period. Sadly, even all
       | those years back, the online scene was still what most would
       | consider dead. I have a bit of a thing for "dead" games, I
       | wouldn't really consider 1-2 full servers at night to be dead,
       | which is what we had. In the following years, however, server
       | population declined even more, to the point where I would really
       | consider it to be dead. I'd love to be proven wrong though, but
       | that was what I percieved.
       | 
       | If you _really_ wanted to ride the wave, I 'd tell you to get
       | yourself a time machine and go all the way back to 2005, 2006 or
       | 2007. Servers were ablaze with squadrons (~groups of people
       | having their own paint schemes on certain aircraft, playing air-
       | to-ground missions and air-to-air missions against other
       | squadrons...) fighting and calling each other names. It wasn't
       | pretty, but according to what I was told, passion wasn't exactly
       | in short supply.
       | 
       | Fun fact: the game looks like that because it has no textures.
       | Instead, every polygon is colored individually. Through a recent
       | update did give the terrain textures. Aircraft still don't have
       | them.
        
         | ehnto wrote:
         | > I have a bit of a thing for "dead" games,
         | 
         | I feel your pain. Unique and interesting games are rarely the
         | most popular.
         | 
         | I have come to realize that you need to grab a multiplayer game
         | by the horns and jump right in when it's popular, because every
         | game has a "golden era", before which it dies. These
         | communities are all moments in time.
        
           | sslayer wrote:
           | I've come to learn that anything online is impermanent.
           | Websites/communities/gaming/business/programming languages -
           | it will all eventually be deprecated for something
           | newer/faster/better - Honestly, the only thing that is mostly
           | untouched are the underlying protocols - and there are plans
           | to change those as well. The absolute worst part about it is
           | the loss of history, however even the physical world can't
           | escape that - like tears in the rain.
        
             | tomjakubowski wrote:
             | It sure seems like stuff online obeys the Lindy effect. If
             | some sites have been around for ten years, expect them on
             | average to last another ten.
             | 
             | I would love to see any data or research that's been done
             | on this.
        
             | cpach wrote:
             | Indeed. HN has been around for quite a while though. I've
             | been a member for over thirteen years.
        
             | FredPret wrote:
             | I hope against hope that 100 years from now, they can still
             | read this message
        
         | xwdv wrote:
         | If time travel of information is possible we could send and
         | receive packets back in time to play with players located in
         | the years of 2005-2007. It would solve the problem of dead
         | servers and allow us to play during the golden ages again for
         | many games.
        
           | jaywalk wrote:
           | You were playing with info time travelers back then and
           | didn't even know it.
        
             | xwdv wrote:
             | Wow it's possible I could have been playing against myself.
        
         | meheleventyone wrote:
         | If you want to get back into it IL2: Sturmovik is great for
         | online play and even has stellar VR support.
        
           | usrusr wrote:
           | Does VR really work out though? I used to be deep into IL2
           | back in the days of endless zombie 4.09 (writing server
           | control in scala deep) and the main thing I remember about
           | what that virtual flying was like is staring at a 2x2 pixel
           | disturbance on my 1600x1200 at max zoom trying desperately to
           | tell axis from ally. Put that on an HMD and you have to
           | almost crash into them before you can identify. At least that
           | was my impression in a quick test running BoS on Valve Index.
           | Well, that was without fully deployed cockpit controls where
           | I'd have zoom on dedicated buttons.
           | 
           | The ironic part is that my IL2 past was the biggest lure for
           | getting the Valve Index, because I spent too much time toying
           | with headtracking (writing pascal and assembly, what a
           | contrast to the scala of my server control adventures!) to
           | not want that Lighthouse thing. I might have bought
           | Lighthouse standalone if they offered a version without the
           | HMD!
        
             | meheleventyone wrote:
             | Yeah they've improved spotting in the game immensely after
             | a rocky couple of attempts. The lower res of VR actually
             | helps a bit there as well. The hardest part is ID though
             | where the res does work against it a bit. There is zoom in
             | VR as well which works pretty well. I find it a bit easier
             | than a flat screen overall.
             | 
             | VR absolutely shines for gunnery though, I got a lot more
             | accurate just making the switch. In particular I never
             | really got comfortable with a TrackIR it never felt quite
             | connected in the way VR does.
             | 
             | And then just for immersion its really fun, personally I
             | don't think I could go back. I'm just running it on the
             | Oculus Link with the OG Quest so no worries about lots of
             | hardware needing to be setup. I just plug the cable in, use
             | the hand tracking to start the link and launch into IL2.
        
               | ummonk wrote:
               | Yeah the immersion is surprisingly good - like when I go
               | through a cloud and droplets accumulate on the canopy, my
               | brain gets tricked into thinking I'm smelling moisture.
        
               | meheleventyone wrote:
               | Yeah particularly with the new clouds, flying between two
               | is pretty magic.
        
           | app4soft wrote:
           | > _IL2: Sturmovik_
           | 
           | It is fully another sort of flight simulator.
           | 
           | YSFlight core pros is that is almost "just polygonal
           | flightsim", instead of "textured flight simulators" (such as
           | IL2: Sturmovik, FlightGear, DCSWorld, MSFS, X-plane, etc.).
           | 
           | And, yes, YSFlight is fully capable for online gaming[0], and
           | in part could be used with VR (with some tricks).
           | 
           | [0] https://forum.ysfhq.com/viewforum.php?f=301
           | 
           | [1] https://ysflight.org/serverlist/
        
             | meheleventyone wrote:
             | I wouldn't say that a minor aesthetic difference is all
             | that important if you want to fly air-air and air-ground
             | with a load of people. My suggestion to the parent is that
             | there are other fun flight sims to fly about in and do
             | similar things if they find YSFlight lacking at the moment.
        
               | app4soft wrote:
               | > _My suggestion to the parent is that there are other
               | fun flight sims to fly about_
               | 
               | But this is thread about YSFlight, not about IL2:
               | Sturmovik.
               | 
               | You may create new thread to discuss your favorite flight
               | sim.
        
               | meheleventyone wrote:
               | This is not how HN tends to work with discussions. The
               | parent I originally replied to said what they liked about
               | YSFlight but that they've since found multiplayer to be
               | too quiet for them. I suggested an alternative which does
               | what they seem to be interested in and has a more lively
               | multiplayer population.
               | 
               | You seem to be taking this as a slight on YSFlight which
               | is not the intention and perhaps a bit overly defensive.
        
               | app4soft wrote:
               | > _This is not how HN tends to work with discussions._
               | 
               | To be clear, I posted YSFlight on HN to look on it from
               | software developer point of view -- not as a game
               | suggestion.
               | 
               | That is Hacker News, not a Game Wiki.
        
               | throwaway675309 wrote:
               | For crying out loud, since you seem to be being
               | _willfully obtuse_ on this, he suggested a game with a
               | thriving multiplayer experience which is where the
               | original poster found this particular game to be lacking.
        
               | app4soft wrote:
               | > _This is not how HN tends to work with discussions._
               | 
               | Of course no, but I'm really not seeing any relation
               | between YSFlight and IL2:Sturmovik, except both are in
               | "flight simulators" category -- those two software are
               | totally different, from hackers point of view.
               | 
               | Also, YSFlight is freeware & partially open-source
               | personal/hobby project, IL2 instead is a commercial
               | product made by big company with a lot of devs specially
               | for selling and marketing.
        
               | meheleventyone wrote:
               | The relationship to the discussion I've pointed out twice
               | to you. Let's hope a third time helps:
               | 
               | > The parent I originally replied to said what they liked
               | about YSFlight but that they've since found multiplayer
               | to be too quiet for them. I suggested an alternative
               | which does what they seem to be interested in and has a
               | more lively multiplayer population.
        
               | runjake wrote:
               | The irony here is that app4soft themselves bring up other
               | flight simulators in this post discussion. Somehow, in
               | their logic, it's okay for them, but not you.
        
               | app4soft wrote:
               | The irony is that I'm telling about open-source software
               | flight simulators[0] and comparing them to YSFlight
               | (which is partially open-source) from point of software.
               | 
               | Where 'meheleventyone' droped IL2:Sturmovik in actual
               | thread just as "alternative game to play" -- there is
               | nothing about its software development described here and
               | IL2:Sturmovik is not in whole or even in part open-source
               | app.[1]
               | 
               | Lets not manipulate in the middle here.
               | 
               | [0]
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30299850#30302334
               | 
               | [1]
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30299850#30301295
        
           | davidandgoliath wrote:
           | DCS world is where it's at.
        
         | momothereal wrote:
         | The polygon-based graphics remind me of Need for Madness! I
         | played it in elementary school every day between 2008-2012. No
         | multiplayer until a few years later though.
         | 
         | http://needformadness.com/
        
         | Aethylia wrote:
         | Interesting what you say about textures, on the main page there
         | are two commercial jets with decals including text on the side.
         | Perhaps they did add them eventually? Or are they just very
         | high poly and still coloured individually?
        
           | app4soft wrote:
           | > _Or are they just very high poly and still coloured
           | individually?_
           | 
           | Yes, all what is flying, moving or is infrastructure object
           | ("aircraft" or "ground" addons) is just fully polygonal 3D
           | models without texture support.
           | 
           | Textures used only for the next objects:
           | 
           | - "scenery" ground surface ("elevated terrain" has texture
           | projected from behind surface texture);
           | 
           | - "clouds";
           | 
           | - "explosion ball" and "explosion smoke";
           | 
           | - "smoke from smoke generators" (which could be enabled for
           | aircraft).
           | 
           | Thats all, and all those textures could be disabled in
           | YSFlight options.
           | 
           | Read _<<YSFlight Handbook>>_ [0] where all file formats and
           | YSFlight options & internals described in details.
           | 
           | [0]
           | https://forum.ysfhq.com/viewtopic.php?t=8172&p=92286#p92286
        
             | usrusr wrote:
             | Ever since the days when early geforce displaced late 3dfx
             | I've been wondering how computer graphics might look like
             | if it wasn't all buried under deceptive texturing. Doubling
             | polygon count gives laughably low visual improvement,
             | compared to what you can achieve with clever texture fx
             | along the lines of bump mapping, but modern polygon count
             | capabilities should be so big that difference might well
             | become meaningless again.
        
           | galcerte wrote:
           | No, Soji Yamakawa (the sole developer of this game) never
           | added texture support to vehicles. Those letters you see
           | there are entirely made out of polygons and have their own
           | color, distinct to the rest of the plane's body. Sometimes
           | those polygons are embedded on the plane's mesh, and others
           | they're just floating above the fuselage. The latter
           | technique simplifies the entire plane's topology quite a bit.
        
         | dr_zoidberg wrote:
         | > Fun fact: the game looks like that because it has no
         | textures. Instead, every polygon is colored individually.
         | Through a recent update did give the terrain textures. Aircraft
         | still don't have them.
         | 
         | Of course that description made me think of Red Baron[0].
         | 
         | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Baron_(1990_video_game)
        
           | plafl wrote:
           | My mind exploded. I played that game on my first computer, a
           | 286. I think it was the first game I owned, it came in a pack
           | with Silent Hunter I think, maybe Panzer General and another
           | game I don't remember...
        
         | matheusmoreira wrote:
         | > I have a bit of a thing for "dead" games
         | 
         | I know how that feels. It's so sad to see a game that once
         | brought so much joy now has zero players. I have so many dead
         | games. Sometimes I install one and join one of the empty
         | servers. Maybe someone else will see me there and join too...
        
           | nix23 wrote:
           | 10 Minutes ago i played Gabriel Knight 3 it's a fantastic
           | game...no i don't care what others say ;)
        
       | fortyseven wrote:
       | It can bring back my dead wife?!
        
         | rei_ayanami wrote:
         | Only if you want it to.
        
       | scionthefly wrote:
       | Is it sponsored by Zombo?
        
       | tomxor wrote:
       | It's still alive! Yes.
       | 
       | For Linux users who don't want to run the .py install script...
       | The Linux binaries are hiding inside the MacOS .app dir, you can
       | run them in-place without installation, e.g after unzipping, the
       | 64bit GL2 one can be run with:
       | ./ysflight64_gl2.app/Contents/Resources/ysflight64_gl2
        
       | app4soft wrote:
       | _YSFHQ_ (YSFlight Headquarters) is international users
       | community.[0]
       | 
       | There is large list of addons created by users, which highly
       | extends YSFlight.[1]
       | 
       | Also, there are a lot of open-source utilities for addons
       | makers.[2]
       | 
       | Read <<YSFlight Handbook>>[3] and <<YSFlight Scientific
       | Research>>[4] papers for understand addons formats and some
       | internals of YSFlight.
       | 
       | [0] https://forum.ysfhq.com
       | 
       | [1] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1caVHoWU6g1YSB-
       | G-W5Q-...
       | 
       | [2] https://github.com/YSFlight-opensource
       | 
       | [3] https://forum.ysfhq.com/viewtopic.php?t=8172&p=92286#p92286
       | 
       | [4] https://sites.google.com/prod/site/ysdecaff/ysflight-
       | scienti...
        
         | app4soft wrote:
         | The story of YSFlight is long, but _FLYBY2_ [0] screensaver for
         | Windows 98 is probably one of initial implementations of
         | YSFlight flight engine (aircraft 3D models distributed with
         | FLYBY2 are now distributed with YSFlight in same DNM-format).
         | 
         | Few weeks ago Soji Yamakawa open-sourced[0,1] FLYBY2 and ported
         | it also for FM TOWNS.
         | 
         | [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30214412
         | 
         | [1] https://github.com/captainys/FLYBY2
        
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       (page generated 2022-02-11 23:00 UTC)