Online Flight Sim

The Evolution of Online Flight Sim

The online flight sim has changed a lot over the last 20 years or so.  So many things have progressed.  From white lined 6×6 scenery to gray polygons vaguely resembling airplanes streaking across green fields.  With greener triangles for trees to finally nearly seamless realistic 3D models.

Even the lower end online flight sims are light years ahead of the old days, as it should be. But the real evolution isn’t in the 3d graphics, but in the styles now accommodated in all the various titles, this, my friend is the real improvement.

Flight Simulators - The Early Days

The late 80’s saw massive improvements in flight models and graphics, but the real online games were still a ways off.

In the early 90’s it seemed like the time had finally come for the armchair, okay computer chair, pilot to hit the unfriendly skies. AOL got in on the act and introduced millions to their version of WW2 in a game called Air Warrior. The Air Warrior developers also had other titles on other services under the name of WW2 Online and Warbirds Online.

Literally millions of people from all over the world would fight head to head in “arenas” that could have as many as 400 people zipping around shooting at one another. And it wasn’t just fighters either, bombers were incorporated and before long everyone was getting into the act.

Microsoft Flight Simulator Games

Microsoft came out with their Jane’s series of games in the late 1990’s. These games were based on the international weapons encyclopedia and ranked well. The arena became smaller and could be modified to suit individual tastes. The games lacked continuity though and soon people were bored with bombing the same airfields over and over.

The challenges of civil aviation did not go unnoticed by Microsoft either. Soon they were supporting multi-player gaming as well. Some of their later titles allowed multiple players to even fly the same plane over a network or allow players to operate the tower. This was all kind of boring and just barely a half step up from playing offline.

That is until Flight Pro Sim and Microsoft FSX came out, then things got interesting.

Of the two many felt that Flight Pro was the better of the two titles, the graphics were smoother and the plane choices more diverse. Both support full online play, which means you can fly from your local municipal airport to anywhere you have fuel for.

Out of fuel? Stop over somewhere and get some more or call in and practice mid-air refueling.

Crash your plane? Good news, you get a new one for free. Now we’re talking!

The thing to remember about online flight sims is that the graphics load must be at least moderate. This will help keep things running smoothly and give the pilot a better “feel” for the aircraft.

With the speed of computers increasing and graphics cards keeping pace, a moderate load game is even better than a heavier game from five years ago. This is a good thing.

Choppy graphics lead to over correction and crashes. Crashing adversely effects game play.

There are plenty of quality titles out in the marketplace today and I highly recommend one you can download right away. By doing so, you allow for misplaced and damaged CDROMS to not be a factor and can easily have an online back up. For me and my huge pile of software, this is a plus.

So get up there and grab some air!

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