CL seen from a flight simulator

[Jonathan_NL]

http://home.filternet.nl/~eo000199/jonathan/santacruz1.jpg" border="0">

The box on the center means that I'm flying it with the mouse. The size is actually the limits.

The simulator, http://www.x-plane.com/" target="_blank">X-Plane, is very accurate. That's what it is built for, so the graphics are of lower priority (and everything seems to be kept in VRAM simultaneously...), but not bad. I strongly recommend you to look at it if you are interested in an accurate flight simulator, not just a game like MSFS.

CL: Is your office about there? And if so, can you guess where?

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

Yes I can see almost exactly where it is http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

[Jonathan_NL]

So I guessed right. http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>
Is it somewhere above the box?

I took this one less than half an hour ago, with accurate weather and date&time:
http://home.filternet.nl/~eo000199/jonathan/ilivehere1.jpg" border="0">

I live near the hot air balloon.

P.S. The simulator is so good that I just want to put that text in. http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

Edit: And yes, I know what I'm doing with the layout. http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='::'>

[Chronic Logic - Josiah]

We are a little up and left of the box.

[Jonathan_NL]

Funny that a screenshot of a flight simulator can tell you where you are. http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'>

Made another in the meantime. The cam is pointed to NWW (geographically; never trust a compass at the Californian coast, even in X-Plane):

http://home.filternet.nl/~eo000199/jonathan/santacruz2.png">
Can you still find 501 Mission Street? (edit: may be just out of the view)

It was almost impossible to fly the thing:
• late evening (you can't see anything)
• land light off (even less)
• viewed from the side (I'm good at that though)
• hardest: mouse for pitch/roll, F5/F6 for collective and the simulator guessing anti-torque for you (no normal and complete control over a helicopter, and anti-torque goes crazy at low speed)

[Jonathan_NL]

I cleaned up my 20 MB space on the web, but I put something else in place:

http://home.filternet.nl/~eo000199/jonathan/xplanespace.png" border="0">
(the plane is the Anime from Science Fiction, the only one which allows you to do this. It can fly for only a few minutes at full thrust, but if you don't just fly straight up like I did you have plenty fuel to enter an orbit)

It's a new cool feature in v8. The demo (I only have the full v7 atm) doesn't come with the textures, but I have some high-res data and I know where to put them, so I built them myself. http://www.pontifex2.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'> There's one (usually 1024x1024) for each 10x10 degrees region. X-Plane uses them for the nearest 3x3 regions.

Santa Cruz is in view...