Slope Soaring Flight Sim

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Shaun
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Joined: 15 Feb 2018, 21:49
Location: West Yorkshire

Slope Soaring Flight Sim

Post by Shaun »

Hi all,

Just came across this. Not had time to try it out yet but I will asap.

http://rowlhouse.co.uk/PicaSim/index.html

Shaun
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Mike_K
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Joined: 16 Feb 2018, 06:35
Location: Hertfordshire

Re: Slope Soaring Flight Sim

Post by Mike_K »

Hi Shaun

I've got the Android version on my phone and it works OK once you get used to the on screen joysticks. Even then I have to use rates of some models. But it's probably the best R/C sim for a phone that is out there. And you can fly anytime you have your phone with you.

I tried it on my PC when I upgraded to Win 10 (if upgrade is the correct word) as my faithful old RealFlight didn't want to run. It wasn't as realistic as RealFlight with powered aircraft, though it was probably more realistic when flying slope soarers. When I got my RealFlight running under XP in VirtualBox and then got it running naively (the problem was a 16 but installer that isn't supported under Win 10 64 bit, but I substituted a 32 bit installer) I haven't tried it since. However it is a remarkable sim considering it was written by one person and not a team.

Mike
NeilMac
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Joined: 04 Feb 2019, 22:07
Location: Nth Somerset

Re: Slope Soaring Flight Sim

Post by NeilMac »

I was recommended Picasim by a slope soaring buddy, unfortunately I use a Mac and the iOS software will most likely not run on OSX. I did try using Blue Stacks to run the Android version, it worked, but would not recognise my USB Tx at all. My 'holiday' laptop runs Windows 10 (unfortunately) and I have not been brave enough to give that a try yet as I fancy it would be easier to walk up Crook Peak backwards than get new software running on the laptop.

If anyone has got Picasim running on a Mac I'd love to know about it as it really looks like a fun simulator.
"I'm your huckleberry, that's just my game"
FBMinis
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Joined: 25 Feb 2018, 17:59

Re: Slope Soaring Flight Sim

Post by FBMinis »

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Mike_K
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Location: Hertfordshire

Re: Slope Soaring Flight Sim

Post by Mike_K »

NeilMac wrote: 05 Feb 2019, 13:22 If anyone has got Picasim running on a Mac I'd love to know about it as it really looks like a fun simulator.
My son has a Mac running Parallels with Win 10 as a guest operating system and I tried loading it and it runs flawlessly (Parallels is a program/app that let you install Windows (or Linux) on a Mac and run programs written for Windows. You can even drag and drop bits between the ordinary Mac applications and Windows applications. The downside is you'd need to buy a copy of Parallels and Windows.

Alternatively you could download the free but very capable VirtualBox from Oracle and buy an older version of Windows that you can get off eBay for a few pounds (the minimum is Win XP). My son also has VirtualBox on his Mac running Win XP, 7 and Ubuntu. Again Picasim ran perfectly on XP and 7, albeit the graphics weren't quite as smooth and the sound was not as clear as Parallels, but very usable. This combination should work perfectly on any Mac that has two cores (or more) and enough memory to allocate 2GB ram. The only other downside is that every time you use Windows in VirtualBox you have to click on a check-box to re-attach the USB joystick (either RealFight Interlink or OrangeRx USB dongle that wirelessly connects to my transmitter with FrSky module in this case), whereas on Parallels you didn't. But given VirtualBox is free and a copy of Windows XP on eBay is a fiver compared to £100+ for parallels + Win 10, Id give it a go.

Mike
NeilMac
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Location: Nth Somerset

Re: Slope Soaring Flight Sim

Post by NeilMac »

Thanks Mike,
Sounds like a plan.

My son is a front end developer (writes code), he will most likely have access to or copies of all the software needed, if not I think I can run to a fiver for some 'obsolete' software.

Neil
"I'm your huckleberry, that's just my game"
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Igull
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Joined: 16 Feb 2018, 21:11

Re: Slope Soaring Flight Sim

Post by Igull »

Neil
I'm all Mac and I had a slope soaring flight sim a number of years back (it may also have had F3F and thermal ??) - it might have been the CRRC sim - worked fine. The interface was via the mic port and you just needed the pwm signal from the tx. IIRC, I used an old skyleader unit (since being converted to 2.4).
I'm sure there will be a google link somewhere.
The other Neil :D
NeilMac
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Joined: 04 Feb 2019, 22:07
Location: Nth Somerset

Re: Slope Soaring Flight Sim

Post by NeilMac »

Ohhh, thanks Neil, I shall go a searchin'.

Of course I could just take a glider up Crook Peak and chuck it off, but where's the fun in that?

Ummm, hold on......
Last edited by NeilMac on 09 Feb 2019, 13:30, edited 1 time in total.
"I'm your huckleberry, that's just my game"
GarydNB
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Joined: 15 Feb 2018, 23:12

Re: Slope Soaring Flight Sim

Post by GarydNB »

Downloaded this and all I've proved is that I'm just as crap at slope soaring as I am at drone flying. *Sigh*
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Carl
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Re: Slope Soaring Flight Sim

Post by Carl »

I've downloaded this as it allows a lot of configuration options. The MULTIFlight simulator I've been using is good to a point and is fine if you are jammy enough to have a nice open flat field to fly from. The site I fly at is only a 5 min drive + 5 min walk, but even though calm at home at the site it can be very breezy and turbulent. This continues to present me with problems and catches me out because of my lack of flying experience. So this weekend I thought I'd give PicaSim a go. I used the low hills scenery and set a wind speed equivalent to 9mph as it's mostly at least that where I fly. The sim has proved to be very much like flying at my site :D The model is twitchy with the turbulence, it struggles when flying into the wind, then gains great speed when the wind is behind. It suddenly drops height if you get into a dead air spot. I think it's great :D I've also tried changing wind direction, upping turbulence and gust settings which make for very lively flying.

I can thoroughly recommend this flight sim if you like me find you're having to fly at challenging sites.

Thanks to Shaun for bringing this flight sim to our attention.
Carl

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