On Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 10:24 AM, John Denker wrote:
> On 09/22/09 08:03, Ron Jensen wrote:
>
> > I would like to hear all the cockpit sounds in exterior views because I
> > am still sitting "in" the cockpit. My rudder pedals are under my feet,
> > my throttle quadrant is at my knee, and the stick is in my hand. I am
> > still flying the aircraft so it is important to hear the common cockpit
> > sounds. Markers, radio calls, etc.
>
>
> 1) By that argument, there should be no Doppler
> effects -- or distance effects, or azimuth
> effects -- in any view, including flyby view,
> Tower view, et cetera. That would greatly
> simplify the audio code!
>
> 2) The counterargument is that maybe you are
> sitting somewhere, flying the plane via remote
> control. There are lots of RC pilots in the
> world, including in the FGFS user community.
> And even some in the USAF.
>
>
The thing to remember here is that this is a virtual experience ... a
simulation. We can do things in the simulation that cannot be done in real
life. We can experience the simulation from perspectives that are not
available in real life. In many ways, this is the power of simulation and
visualization.
When practicing IFR approaches in a simulator, you don't have to fly back to
the start each time. You can reposition yourself instantaneously and fly
many more practice approaches in the simulator than you could in real life
within that same time period.
So we need to be careful about justifying decisions based solely on realism
or non-realism. We can spend the rest of our lives presenting examples and
counter examples if we look at the issues from only that level.
We need to be asking not only what is realistic or not realistic, but what
makes sense? What would users possibly want to be able to do? And what
would the most common usage or default configuration be?
I love having our various external views available when I'm replaying real
flight data. Sure, some of these perspectives would be *very* hard to
recreate in real life, but they are a very useful tool for visualization and
validating that the aircraft looks like it is flying right, or looks like it
is flying the same way it flew in real life.
If you are primarily acting as a pilot of an aircraft, how much of the
external world can you actually hear over the sound of your own engines?
How much time does a typical user spend in the simulator with the engines
off? I would say this is not a high priority for a "flight" simulator based
solely on a realism argument. But in a simulator I (and I imagine many
others) spend a lot of time viewing our airplane from the outside. In that
case having the sound system perform in a way that makes sense for an
external view is nice.
Sure, from a realism perspective I would die quickly after I saw my 747
flying at 45,000 from the outside. That's not a view I really would be
excited to see in real life. At that point, I'm probably not paying
attention to Doppler effects and if I can hear the cockpit audio or not, and
I probably wouldn't hear any of that anyway over the sound of my own ears
exploding.
So keep in mind that a simulator offers unique features and unique abilities
not available in real life. When we diverge from what's possible in
reality, the best we can do is offer something that makes sense and fits
within the flow of what's going on. If we can't agree on exactly what that
is, making the behavior configurable with a reasonable default is often a
good option.
Best regards,
Curt.
--
Curtis Olson: http://baron.flightgear.org/~curt/
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