So I'm still scooping and drifting around random systems on manual and I've been wondering...
Is Aerodynamic Flight something worth implementing? I'm honestly fine either way but it seems like a shame to have some really sleek Aerodynes like the Wave and no way to exploit them for advantage in Atmosphere (perhaps to balance a lower deltaV?). I'm not really sure where to start, but it seems to me it wouldn't be that difficult to implement some kind of simple lift / drag model into the engine. Not sure about all the physics details (L/D ratio constant? Relative to speed? Different flight regimes?) but they would have to be balanced with "Fun!" anyways 😉
In the long run would it be easier to implement a crude custom flight model or figure out how to implement one of the existing open source flight physics engines... or is it a feature even worth bothering with?
It will be cool! It always felt a little strage to fly a Wave manually in atmosphere like it's box shaped. 🙂
It's true that I can use set speed to have a behaviour that's a little more plane-like, but the feeling is lost as soon as I roll left or right, or stop the engines.
How much extra data would you need about the individual ships? I've never really looked into custom planes in Flightgear that much beyond installing them, some are pretty large files with complex models but I don't know what kind of data the various FDMs use, how much would be superfluous, how much ships designers are willing to invest in the feature...
At minimum I think we need aerodynamic lift, selective to certain ships either with a 0/1 toggle or maybe a few options for different capabilities... but if there are going to be a lot of atmospheric operations (and all kinds of atmospheres! 😀 ) then it may well be worth going into more detail...
I wouldn't want to divert from Space Flight, though... it is a SPACE sim, after all!
Yes an in atmosphere flight model would be good. Maybe the way to add this is to calculate both the Newtonian physics and the atmospheric flight models together, then blend the input/forces depending on the situation?
Not really sure how to tackle the transition from one to the other one entry / exit from each world or environment. What about Gas Giants where some of the atmosphere is going to be denser than water!?!
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