FlightGear Flight Simulator

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FlightGear Flight Simulator

Developers
	FlightGear.org developers & contributors
Publishers
	FlightGear.org developers & contributors
Release dates
Windows	November 6, 2020
macOS (OS X)	November 6, 2020
Linux	November 6, 2020
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:

Multiple release streams. The Long Term Stable (LTS) releases are for most people. They receive regular stablised features, and bug fixes which can continue after the next LTS. Current release is 2020.3, and the previous LTS release was 2018.3. In addition, the FlightGear project releases development previews, and nightly builds of the branch for the next LTS - often significant features - e.g. support for VR headsets in the next branch after 2020.3 (called 2020.4 for now). These installs can exist side-by-side, and are aimed at power users, contributors, and the curious. Stability is taken more seriously than in games.

Aircraft project updates since last LTS listed in changelogs are updated by the launcher before flying the moment they are available, and are often available for the previous LTS if compatible. The next branch has in-development aircraft. Scenery models and terrain improvements are automatically downloaded on demand.

The sim is a command-line program like a lot of Linux software, and the launcher UI and the in-sim UI don't cover absolutely everything. Command-line options change a property tree. You can enter command-line options via the launcher, or edit the property tree using the in-sim menu, however.

In reality aircraft control schemes can't be standardised, like in arcade flight software, without faking physics or controls as each craft category and variant of craft is it's own creature - e.g. a hotair balloon / flying animal like pterasaur / supersonic jet / ground effect vehicle / helicopter / Space Shuttle. So proper input schemes needs tweaking text files, and UI approaches are limited. Some common controls like joysticks with a constant centering force are unsuitable altogether for helicopter stick controls. The most needed range of motion for aircraft controls, needs to map to a compromise for available range of the home control device. For example helicopter sticks have a large range of motion, but helicopters are flown with small wrist motions. The range of input will differ by typical activity - e.g. transport flying to aerobatics. You should adjust sensitivities and controls for each aircraft for your specific hardware, including before reporting control sensitivity issues.

• There's no faked flight physics for an easy mode as is common with arcade flight software - instead users are given simulations of easier craft and training methods like in real life - like the simpler Ercoupe or gliders, tutorials for Cessna C172P, AI co-pilot for Alouette helicopter, various options for autostart from the aircraft menu, adding altitude with Crtl+U, or mid-air starts on approach or level flying . There may be more forces and effects in advanced aircraft projects than equivalents remembered from arcade flight software from long ago or currently, and no given option to turn down such effects - applies even for a simple training craft like the default Cessna 172P .
• Graphics settings are turned off so the sim starts up on non-gaming or older hardware, common in more professional or education settings (e.g. weak GPU or laptops). Renderers from older eras are kept around unlike commercial software which keep only the latest technology - e.g FlightGear 2020.3 still supports 3d graphics without shaders. Turn on view/rendering and environment settings with menu inside the simulator as well as launcher menu.
• The simulation of flight is the most important thing and some research projects may be available with just a flight dynamics model (FDM) and no 3d art. The quality of art and physics/systems for a craft project are separate - with different development qualifications. If windtunnel data is unavailable for a craft, or CFD is not done, flight physics is going to be limited no matter the quality of the 3d art - contrary to expectations set by arcade flight software. Use filters in launcher to sort projects by advancement in FDM/aircraft systems/3d art.
• The focus is on simulation - weather engines with weather simulation dependent on terrain, rather than coarse "live" weather services in gamey products which also railroad to what ever weather is common/present at a region/season. Users are expected to configure weather and environment settings .

FlightGear 2020.3 was released for Windows, macOS, and Linux on the website on 6 Nov. 2020. The release version was 2020.3.2. The current release as of Sept. 2022, is 2020.3.13, or 11th update since launch. See 2020.3 Changelog. Currently there is no development preview active, just the next branch with nightly releases.

2020.3.7 added automatic downloading of 3d models of buildings, roads, cities etc. , based on Open StreetMap (OSM) data and automatic generation, for the whole world.

Addons in the official repository, like RedGriffinATC, have been updated since release. As of 2020.3.13, addons need to be downloaded manually, unlike aircraft in the official repository.

Next branch

As of Sept. 2022, VR headset users should look at the next branch (mainly tested on Linux) .

WiP...

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		Arbitrary resolution support. Configure via Launcher > settings > show more > window size > custom size, or through Glossary:Command-line options.
Multi-monitor		Extremely versatile in type and combination of monitors used. 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 to change FoV. Zooming in and out is meant to be used 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 are 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 limit once unlocked. Unlock FPS throttle from in-sim menu > view > rendering.
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, and interfacing for custom/complex hardware configurations.

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.

The sim supports various hardware for headtracking (video) such as input devices supported by protocols/software like OpenTrack (lot of input sources including Occulus and wiimote ), FaceTrackNoIR (camera input), Linux Track (TrackIR, camera, wiimote input), Wii remote head tracking - see head tracking. There are addons for a lot of these.

Keyboard and mouse, touch	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
Touchscreen optimised
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

FlightGear has it's own native multiplayer network, with dual control for aircraft that support it (genuine shared cockpits - not just switching control between players). Multiplayer supports activities like mid-air refueling, aerotow, or fire fighting. See How to: Multiplayer.

FlightGear also supports connecting to the cross-sim VATSIM network with the ability to render craft flown in other sims with the equivalents from its large database (Sept. 2022 - the beta VATSCIM client, swift, is also supported).

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

FlightGear has been shown working on Steam Deck (July 2022).

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

System requirements for high-ish settings. FlightGear can run on much lower spec hardware.

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

System requirements for high-ish settings. FlightGear can run on much lower spec hardware.

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

System requirements for high-ish settings. FlightGear can run on much lower spec hardware.