ALPHA Aircraft

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Jumpshot724
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ALPHA Aircraft

Post by Jumpshot724 »

Something I've noticed with most AlphaSim payware aircraft....it takes >50% throttle to get them moving and keep them moving on the ground. This seems highly unrealistic and coupled with the soundpacks it even sounds way off. Has anybody developed a fix for this??

I've noticed it in the following payware a/c I have from them:

B-1
B-2
B-52
C-5
-Joe W.

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KevinJarvis
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Post by KevinJarvis »

I agree.
While I appreciate all the hard work that goes into such items, AlphaSim has never been high on my want list. :cry:
Kevin Jarvis

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MIKE JG
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Post by MIKE JG »

I remember that someone brought that up on their forums once and Phil said something to the effect of "well that's the only way we can get them to perform correctly". I called BS on that right there on their forums and they got all pissed at me.

Their explanation was that to get the aircraft to accelerate correctly on takeoff, that they had to design their FDE's with that much resistance to movement.

Now to their credit, I will admit that Kirk Olsson's F-16 accelerates way too easily and is not very realistic in that area. While the AlphaSim birds take longer to get going which to me feels more like the real thing.

But there are plenty of other payware aircraft out there where those companies seemingly have figured this part out and you don't notice it on their models. Why AlphaSim can't/won't admit that some of their models while looking great, fly like garbage, is beyond me. Their F-22 FDE is way out of whack.
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird »

I am sure that a learned colleague of ours, who has a lot more fde experience than me, will be the first to say that an fde is a complicate balancing act and invariably if you change one thing in it, you will have to change at least one other to counter act this.

In simplistic terms, to improve the situation with those aircraft, you need to reduce friction with the ground. This will most probably be easiest by reducing the empty weight of the aircraft. However to counteract this you will need to reduce the thrust of the engines, to still have a similar take off roll. You may then find that you need to alter the aircraft drag factors whilst airborne to keep the speed and/or acceleration.

If you are going to try this, then I would suggest rather than overwriting lines in the aircraft.cfg file copy them and comment out the original. This means that you can always see the original line and its easy to undo if necessary.
One other tip I would give is do not make more than one change at a time, and don't make the change too big, so that you can see its impact and knock on effects. It makes it slow and laborious at times but you will get better results.

One other thing I would say is that Alphasim are not wholly as inaccurate as you might think, in some aircraft. I know about the Spey F-4 and its engine idle is probably higher than you would think, 51.5-56%. Also the thrust setting for normal landing is both engines at 80%, and this not to take into consideration speedbrakes, as the F-4 did not use these for landing, at least for terra firma.
Yes it would take more than 50% throttle to get the F-4 moving, as it couldn't be less than 50%. The problem, in this case, is the inaccurate engine idle rpm not the fde.

Hopefully, this info is interesting. However, if not please feel free to rewind and delete the last 2 mins of your life :lol:
Steve
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KevinJarvis
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Post by KevinJarvis »

MIKE JG wrote: I called BS on that right there on their forums and they got all pissed at me.
In my experience with them on a personal level, they don't take criticism very well.

My apologies. I didn't want this to turn into a bashing thread.

But hey, I do appreciate all the hard work.
Kevin Jarvis

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davidbernard
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Post by davidbernard »

Alphasim did release a number of aircraft that are great fun to fly and have more or less accurate flight model, depending on the specific model. I guess it also depends on the developers involved. They sell some of the best helo models available.

Although I bought a lot of their aircraft models I think it's not a very sympathetic company. They're not the best in taking well meant criticism (which is quite normal if you host a customer forum on your website in my opinion).

During the last period I saw developers leaving and their forum is now closed. Not a very good sign if you ask me.

David
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