I was playing around with SSS or ‘Slope Soaring Simulator’ a really nice osx/linux/pc app for radio controlled slope soaring the other day.
( http://www.rowlhouse.co.uk/sss/ )
Looking for some better control I remembered I had the driver for my xbox 360 controllers on the mac, and found it way better than my flightstick for any RC stuff.
So though I should also give RC stuff on X-Plane another shot.
What I found with the 360 controller is it improves it way beyond anything before, to the point of it being very usable as an RC sim.
running the RC planes on the tiny sticks actually works out easier than you think, and with all the extra buttons and shoulder pads you can run stuff like flaps/spoilers, rocket launches and zoom in/out all within reach of your fingers while flying, instead of reaching across keys or large flightstick controls.
tuning RC aircrafts control deflection speed to around 0.12 seconds (on XP9) slows them a small amount to simulate the slightly slower movement of servos, and greatly improves the smoothness of the flight also.
Physics wise the sim is by no means perfect for the smaller models, but there’s enough simulation of the slope lift there for it to be usable, and for basic orientation for RC flying, the 360 sticks combination is great.
here’s a vid of a 2.5M ship and a tiny 34inch hand launch glider on the slope at woolacombe uk.
http://gallery.mac.com/speedghost#100065
One thing you noticed I did on the slope is the grass tuffs nearby, these are done as a forest file in the scenery.
This gives you a greatly enhanced sense of distance from the tower point which is set at about 5-6ft (standing height )
these should be easily adjusted for other sceneries like airports for a bit of extra detail near the runways.
I’ll hopefully get a build of the scenery and some planes up soon for anyone who wants a go. I’m going to try some css files and give multiplayer a shot also.
cheers,
idx
Originally posted here:
X-Plane RC Slope Soaring, & 360 controller praise