This editorial has spung
up from an argument that I was witness to on IRC the other night. Two
guys were arguing about the merits of Novalogic sims and how important
an accurate flight model is etc. I joined in just for the fun of it and
took a position contrary to my own views just to play devils advocate.
This got me thinking about the subject and as a result I started to re-evaluate
my own position on this topic. I started by attempting to work out what
I am trying to achieve when flying any sim. This editorial is the results
of that process.
Pilot Sim Vs Flight Sim - By Mark "Frugal" Bush
Now I have always considered
myself a hard core simmer and anyone that knows me well enough would probably
put me into the hard core category (I mean I always considered EF2000
sim lite :) If it ain't got a manual heavy enough to use as a door stop
I need some convincing.
But is that really that important. Let's look at why most of us fly sims.
As far as I can tell from my own conclusions about myself and from questioning
several other simmers, most of us are looking for the same thing (ok so
the 8 people I've spoken to may not be representative of the whole sim
community but hey let me run with this for a while).
What most of us appear to be looking for is the chance to be a pilot
for a few hours. We are really trying to simulate the experience of being
a pilot rather than trying to simulate flight as such. When we sit down
to Falcon 4 or Mig alley or whatever may be our sim of choice we are
looking to lose ourselves in this fantasy world where we are really an
F16, F80 or whatever pilot. You could say that we are looking for a pilot
sim rather than a flight sim. This explains why some of us will spend
thousands building real cockpits to complete the fantasy.
What the sim must be able to do is keep us in that world for a few hours
and allow us to suspend our disbelief long enough to complete our mission
or campaign. In fact if you join a Roger Wilco session during a mission
you will hear everyone playing the role admirably. You won't hear people
saying things like "I'm firing an amraam at this bugger" or "He's coming
right at us" Instead you'll hear "Fox three" or "Leads in hot". Funny
enough the fact that I often fly with Americans really adds to the experience
for me. The sound of Bear saying something like "Be advised Contacts
bearing 270 45 miles angels 20 Awacs confirms hostile" in his American
accent really completes the package. Alas my strong cockney accent replying
"Roger, Roger new course 270 cleared to engage" possibly has the opposite
effect for Bear. We talk the talk as well as walk the walk. Why do we
do that? We do it because that's what real pilots do and for that hour
or so we are real pilots in the little world created inside our monitor.
Flight sims are basically Cowboys and Indians for grown ups. Except in
the school yards kids are saying "You be Buffalo Bill and I'll be Wyatt
Earp", whereas we are saying "I'll be lead and you be wingman". Funnily
enough you will often see the schoolyard fights of "My sim is bigger than
your sim" breaking out all over the newsgroups and forums.
So how important is a realistic FM in sims. Well if we are truly honest
about it, most of us would not recognise a realistic flight model if it
jumped up and bit us on the ass!! Sacrilege I hear you say (and this coming
from the man that has always said FM above all else). Now I'm not saying
that most of us don't understand the physics behind flight or what mathematically
constitutes a good flight model. In fact many of us have a very thorough
understanding of the subject. What I am saying is that most of us have
no clue what it really feels like to fly a real military jet.
One thing I do know is that it's not the great fun we imagine it to be.
In real life pulling a 9 G turn hurts and it hurts a lot. You ever see
a pilot getting out of a fighter he just landed after flying some bfm
he is invariably sweating profusely. Why? Because he just worked his ass
of that's why. I'm not saying it's no fun at all, I mean I can imagine
the adrenaline rush feeling the acceleration, not to mention the view
from the canopy which must be far superior to the little square window
you get to look out of on a commercial jet.
The reality is though that we have no frame of reference as to what is
a good flight model. We go by feel and opinion most of the time. If in
our opinion it doesn't feel like we imagine the real jet feels then it
ain't gonna hold us in that little fantasy for very long is it. And there's
the rub. It doesn't matter how accurate the FM is, if it doesn't convince
us that it feels like the real thing then we won't buy into it. As most
of us don't know what the real thing feels like the importance of accuracy
is just an illusion.
What is more important is what it takes to convince us that it feels real.
This depends to a large degree in our background and outside interests.
These often determine where we get our opinion of what feels realistic
to us. In other words what needs to be in the sim in order to keep us
in that fantasy. If you got all your experience of aircraft from watching
films like Top Gun or Iron Eagle then you don't have many high expectations
of the avionics etc. In that case Janes USAF or the Novalogic sims are
gonna be fine. Lets see it has a hud, radar screen and weapons just like
in the movie. In these films you see someone lining up for the shot, the
radar locks and wham bad guy is dead, simple really. Now if a sim can
give you that and make you feel like you are Maverick from the movie then
it's done it's job.
If however you are more of a propeller head like me and got your references
from reading Janes and talking to real pilots and learning as much as
you could about the planes etc then your expectations are a little higher.
For me a simplistic avionics suite kills the immersion and pulls me out
of that little world. Does that mean the avionics and flight model have
to be accurate. Of course it doesn't, it just means they have to be convincing.
What it takes to convince me is probably far more than your average guy
on the street but far less than it would take to convince a real pilot.
Put simply, the workload involved in operating the various radar modes
and weapons delivery methods coupled with the wingman and awacs comms
in Falcon 4 (using game commander for added immersion) is enough to convince
me that I'm a pilot for that hour or so that I'm flying. The flight model
feels how I imagine it would feel and adds to that illusion. Is it accurate,
I think so but ultimately who cares!! It's doing it's job of keeping me
in that little fantasy and that's all that really matters.
If you disagree with my conclusions ask yourself this question. Assuming
there was nothing on or in the box to give away the quality of the flight
model. Which would you prefer, a totally accurate flight model that doesn't
convince you that you are flying, or a totally convincing sensation of
flight that is bought about by using an inaccurate flight model.
