FlightGear Flight Simulator

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FlightGear Flight Simulator

Developers
	FlightGear.org developers & contributors
Publishers
	PUBLISHER
Release dates
Windows	December 17, 2007
macOS (OS X)	December 17, 2007
Linux	December 17, 2007
Taxonomy
Monetization	Freeware
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Genres	Simulation, Vehicle simulator
Series	FlightGear Flight Simulator

FlightGear Flight Simulator
FlightGear Flight Simulator	2007

Article in-progress, over the next few days. please wait.

The FlightGear Flight Simulator 2020.3 Long Term Stable (shortened to FlightGear 2020.3) is a free, open-source, multi-platform, cooperative flight simulator development project made by FlightGear.org. It also simulates space flight in Earth's orbit.

FlightGear's flight dynamics engine (JSBSim) is used in a 2015 NASA benchmark to judge new simulation code to the standards of the space industry.

FlightGear 2020.3 has over 700 aircraft and spacecraft projects that can be filtered by advancement level in art/FDM/systems in the launcher's browser. The rest are available through 3rd party hangars or from development repositories. It's used professionally for research and development, and is available for home desktop or DiY project users.

Note: The project is a bit different from "arcade" commercial flight simulations and flight games. It's more Linux scientific software. Being opensource, the sim has received development form the science and engineering community. Some aspects of the sim presentation, features, and project itself may go against gamey software practices/norms. Examples: to be cont...

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Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Developer website		GPL source code is also available.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Freeware	yes

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
No microtransactions	None

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows

Save game cloud syncing

No save game cloud syncing information; you can edit this page to add it.

Video

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Can specify any resolution. Launcher > settings > show more > window size > custom size , or through command-line options.
Multi-monitor		Supports 10+ monitors on 1 PC. One GPU to many monitors/views on same PC. Multiple GPUs to multiple monitors on same PC. Multiple views on multiple monitors across multiple separate PCs or other devices. See configuring view windows and how to activate multi core and multi GPU support.
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Default keys: x/X to change FoV. You're meant to zoom in/out when clicking on 3d cockpits. Use extreme FoV like binoculars when looking at environment, or from airport tower views. ~0.1 to 120 deg by default.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Use launcher. See wiki. Use command-line options to get higher AA: --prop:/sim/rendering/multi-samples=N , valid values for N: 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		To hit vsync limits, unlock FPS throttle from in-sim menu > view > rendering.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		No upper limits. Unlock FPS throttle from in-sim menu > view > rendering. Can reach 60+ FPS on 4k monitors with high end GPUs.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Ray tracing (RT)

Input

Input is a complex topic. FlightGear allows complete control and interfacing with hardware, for more professional and DiY cockpit/hardware settings.

See Input devices wiki page to start.

For basic home use flight specific hardware like Joysticks (flight sticks), Yokes, and Rudder Pedals are often used. Throttles (throttle quadrants) are less common.

Control axes from input can be used in any way to operate flight control surfaces - see common plane surfaces. This includes 2 axes from a mouse. Note for helicopters: Joysticks have a constant centering force, and don't reflect the way sticks work on helicopters - one solution is to remove springs if possible, another is to use a mouse for stick axes (or dual mouse on Linux) - see Helicopter flying. Buttons/sliders/throttles from joysticks, keypads, or custom devices can also be set up to control different things in different contexts.

FlightGear can recognise input devices with profiles in XML text files. These profiles are just a starting point, and can be customised for the aircraft you fly. See latest Joystick inputs, and other input. See the hardware section on the forum and stickied threads for more profiles - console/gamepad controller profiles are also available.

There is a Joystick menu that gives limited customisability (as aircraft and possible uses for buttons/axes are too diverse). There is a fgjs/jsdemo configuration utility for new/unknown hardware.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Possible to have complex key remap bindings, combinations, contexts for different keypad hardware or joystick buttons (not just keyboard) and aircraft. Done via editing XML files. See Howto:Reassign_keyboard_bindings.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Done via XML files for different axes in different contexts, completely customisable. Simple sensitivity via menu on post-2020.3 nightlies. Keyboard + mouse control possible, but harder to fly most aircraft without an axis for rudder. Use LMB+mouse movement for rudder, or less preferably use auto-coordination. Can use mouse for stick axes for helicopters if centering force on joystick is uncomfortable.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Tracked motion controllers

Additional information
Haptic feedback		See Force Feedback.

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

See FGData/translations for new language updates to the latest 2020.3 LTS release.

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Dutch
French				Translated manual.
German				Translated manual.
Italian				Translated manual.
Polish				Translated manual.
Russian
Turkish
Simplified Chinese				Not sure if simplified or traditional
Slovak				Translated manual.
Spanish				Translated manual.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play

Other information

API

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Middleware

No middleware information; you can edit this page to add it.

System requirements

System requirements for FlightGear is a complex topic. A large range of hardware is supported than normally expected - as FlightGear is an opensource scientific and engineering software historically from the Linux community, and is run on non-gaming (e.g. weak GPU) hardware in research and education settings. In DiY (home cockpit) or professional simulator settings FlightGear is run in complex configurations, like having multiple instances of FlightGear running limited parts of the sim following a master instance, effectively distributing functionality across multiple embedded processors/systems over LAN or internet - e.g. using an ipad/iphone/android device to display instruments/maps , having multiple Raspberry Pis with stripped down builds of FlightGear drive displays/instruments , running physics/systems/graphics using separate PCs/devices, driving multiple views on different PCs etc.

FlightGear can scale to a huge range of hardware. FlightGear keeps renderers from older eras, has lots of settings configurability, has multiple weather and physics engines with differing requirements, and is backwards compatible with older versions of aircraft.

For marginal systems it's recommended for people to try running latest FG with lower settings, older renderers like shaderless, older terrain (e.g. WS 1.0), older aircraft, or less complex aircraft, before switching to older FlightGear versions.

At high settings FlightGear 2018 and later can fully use a GTX 1060+ at 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution.

Your target frame-rates (FPS) should be lower than for reflex based shooter games, as response speeds of aircraft control systems and aircraft turn rates are slower (30-ish FPS for a lot of aircraft and flying activities).

See wiki pages for requirements:

• FlightGear Minimum Startup Profile
• FlightGear Hardware recommendations
• Performance tips for worldwide 3d buildings, roads, cities (2020.3.7 and later)
• Example screenshots of appearance when using equivalent of GTX 1050 Ti or higher at 1080p, at 25+ FPS, with 4 core i5 or equivalent CPU.
• Aircraft from older versions of FlightGear

The following, taken from the official FlightGear wiki, should be considered a baseline. As stated above, what airplane is being flown, how detailed the underlying simulation, the renderer and detail of rendering, etc. will change these requirements.

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-2500	Intel Core i5-4xxx series AMD Ryzen series
System memory (RAM)	8 GB	16 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 960	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-2500	Intel Core i5-4xxx series AMD Ryzen series
System memory (RAM)	8 GB	16 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 960	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti

Linux
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-2500	Intel Core i5-4xxx series AMD Ryzen series
System memory (RAM)	8 GB	16 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 960	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti