flight, dog, shadow - simulate the flight of any of several aircraft
flight [ -fhns ] [ -i infile ] [ -o outfile ] [ -D datadirectory ]
Flight is an interactive flight simulator. One large viewport shows the world; several smaller ones simulate instruments. The world is shown from the cockpit of an aircraft or from a control tower. The mouse and keyboard control the aircraft and its environment.
If the -h option is selected a "heads-up" display is used instead of the instrument panel. This kind of display is commonly used in the military. It allows for a larger view, which may result in a slower update rate.
Flight -n (dog)is a multi-player version of flight that allows players on two or more networked SGIs or PCs to battle each other in a ``dogfight.'' Several times a second, each workstation or PC sends status/location packets to the other machines using UDP broadcast packets, and receives the other planes' packets. All known planes in the current field of view are displayed on all systems. Pilots may cooperate by attempting formation aerobatics or compete by trying to shoot each other down. The coordinates of projectiles are included in the packets, hits are detected, and scoring is maintained.
If either -i or -o is selected, the status/location packets are read and/or written to files as described later under Airshow Option. Otherwise, the broadcast medium is the Ethernet. Newer versions of flight on the SGI machines with IRIX releases later than 3.3 use multicast packets. To have a dogfight with those systems, start the program with the -b option on the SGI machines. (Note: using dog in broadcast packet mode may be harmful to other computers on the same network. Unfortunately the current version of WINSOCK does not support multicast.)
Flight -s (shadow) allows passive observation of the dog environment. The shadow operator sees a full-screen view of the world from a selected aircraft or of a selected aircraft from the control tower.
For maximum framerate on PC's, flight changes the screen resolution to 640x480. Specifying the -f option overrides this behavior; if you have a 3D graphics accelerator you may wish to take advantage of higher screen resolutions.
Flight provides two pages of help information. The first help page briefly describes the program. The second page offers descriptions of available aircraft: one two-place trainer (Cessna 150), one heavy transport (Boeing 747), and several fighters.
Type 1 to select the Cessna 150. The view you see is from the cockpit of the Cessna. Type d to see the Cessna from the control tower. Type x a few times for a closer view. Type d to return to the cockpit and strike s three or four times to advance the throttle. The aircraft will start to taxi towards the runway. Type F twice to raise the flaps - Cessnas normally take off that way. When the plane is almost on the runway, tap the right mouse button five or six times to apply right rudder. The plane will start to turn right. The left mouse button moves the rudder one increment to the left; the center one sets the rudder to zero. Move the mouse till the cursor is centered on the bottom edge of the windshield and tap s until the thrust indicator shows full thrust. When the airspeed indicator passes 50 knots, move the mouse smoothly toward you. The cursor should be in the upper center of the horizon indicator. When the rate-of-climb indicator shows positive climb, you are flying! Congratulations!
Now turn around and land.
Flight is controlled by the mouse, the mouse buttons, and the keyboard. The mouse holds the primary flight controls.
Rightmouse and leftmouse move the rudder one increment to the right and left, respectively. middlemouse centers it. The rudder position is shown by a small red triangle at the lower edge of the artificial horizon. The rudder is used primarily to maneuver the aircraft on the ground. Airborne turns are made, as in real aircraft, by coordinated application of aileron and elevator.
The mouse position control the ailerons and elevator, emulating a control stick. Left-right motion controls roll; forward-back motion controls pitch. The stick position is indicated by a square cursor. Both controls are at their neutral position when the cursor is centered at the bottom of the windshield. Stick position for level flight is slightly below center.
The s key increases the throttle setting; the a key decreases it. Thrust goes to zero when the plane climbs through 50,000 feet and the engine flames out. It can be restored by descending and applying throttle. Thrust also goes to zero when fuel goes to zero. Fuel can be restored only by making a safe landing.
Secondary flight controls include the landing gear, flaps, and spoilers. To raise or lower the landing gear, type l. To increase or decrease the flaps, type f or F. To increase or decrease the spoilers, type c or C. Flap and spoiler ranges are determined by the aircraft. The Cessna has no spoilers and its gear is down and welded.
The landing gear has two functions: to protect the fuselage from the ground and to add drag. You may lower the gear to slow the plane down and make handling easier.
Flaps and gear are structurally unsound at high speeds. They fall off if you exceed approximately 400 knots while they are deployed. Missing flaps make good landings difficult. Missing gear makes a good landing impossible.
Flaps increase lift, increase drag, and decrease stall speed. Takeoffs are normally made with partial flaps; landings are made with full flaps.
Spoilers decrease lift and increase drag dramatically. They are most useful in dissipating excess altitude without increasing speed. While spoilers are deployed, it is difficult to recover from a stall.
Several controls allow the viewer to alter his view of the world.
The left-arrow and right-arrow keys rotate the pilot's point of view 5 degrees to the left or right respectively. The viewing angle is displayed on the windshield. The up-arrow and down-arrow keys can be used to quickly set the view to front or rear respectively. The keys are useful for looking around, but remember to set the view back to the front for any but the simplest flying.
The d key switches the viewpoint from the cockpit to the control tower or back. The control tower always looks toward the plane. The x key decreases the tower's field of view, effectively magnifying the aircraft. The z key increases the field of view. If there is doubt as to whether the view observed is from the cockpit or the tower, observe the center of the window: an orange cross marks the cockpit view.
The W key switches the viewpoint to that of an imaginary wingman. The x key moves the view toward your aircraft. The z key moves the view away from your aircraft.
The n and N keys adjust the time of day forward and backward. There is an interesting city visible at night NNW of the airport.
The Q key switches the viewpoint from the cockpit to just above and behind your missile or back. The view automatically switches to the cockpit after the missile explodes. If you don't have a missile in the air, this key has no effect.
The thrust indicator shows thrust and throttle as a percentage of full. Reverse thrust is indicated by the REV light and is possible only on the ground and is used for braking.
The airspeed indicator is calibrated from 0 to 700 knots. (100 knots is about 118 miles per hour.) Negative airspeeds can happen during such acrobatic maneuvers as hammerhead stalls. Since wind is not simulated, airspeed = groundspeed.
The mach meter is used to show speeds greater then 700 knots.
The climb indicator shows rate of climb in feet per minute. It has a range of -6000 to 6000 fpm.
The G-meter indicates vertical acceleration. Each aircraft has maximum stress limits. If they are exceeded, the the G-LIMIT warning light will come on.
The WING STALL warning light comes on if the maximum angle of attack is exceeded The more severe the wing stall, the less control you have over your plane. Very severe stalls may throw your plane into a violent spin.
The artificial horizon helps orient the plane when the real horizon is not visible.
The heading meter displays a combination compass and radar screen. The compass rotates and indicates your heading. Your plane's location is always at the center of the radar screen. The radar screen shows the positions of the runway and planes that are within a few miles of your aircraft. The blue line indicates the position of the runway. In dog, other planes are shown on the heading meter as red blobs if they are above you or green blobs if they are below you.
The fuel gauge shows remaining fuel in pounds. When fuel is below 10 percent the fuel warning light will come on. To reduce fuel consumption to zero (for tests only) type ~. Note that this forfeits all your missiles and is considered cheating.
The landing gear indicator show the current state of your landing gear. Green indicates that your gear is down and locked. Yellow and black stripes indicate that your gear are up and locked. Red is shown when your landing gear is retracting or extending. Red is also shown if your gear has been ripped off or otherwise damaged.
The stores indicator shows your current load of sidewinders and rockets.
The flaps/spoilers meter shows the percentage of flaps and spoilers currently deployed.
A good landing is a landing on the runway, with gear down, a descent rate of less than 600 fpm, and wings level. Good landings are rewarded with scores from 0 to 100 points. Points are subtracted from a perfect score of 100 based on touchdown location, descent rate, roll, heading, and drift. For every point scored, fuel on board is increased by 1% of total capacity until your tank is full. For every ten points scored you re- ceive a missile up to the plane's limit.
Landings with the gear up, descent rate, roll, or drift too high, but not disastrous, count as crash landings. You can keep flying, but get no more fuel nor ordnance.
Landings off the runway are ``crashed into the swamps'' landings. Landings with excessive descent rate, roll, or drift are ``EXPLODED ON IMPACT'' landings. In either case, all you can do is look at the wreckage from the tower or restart the game.
Your plane is destroyed if it crashes, taxis too far off the runway, raises the gear while on the ground, or is shot down. After your plane is destroyed, r, R, u, or U reincarnates your plane and restarts the game at the second help page. You then choose which type of plane you want to fly. These different restart options are included to make it easier to restart in intense dog combat. Without them, some pilots simply hang around the runway and blast new planes as they appear.
The r key restarts you at the original starting location. The R key restarts you at the south end of the runway. The u key reincarnates your aircraft at a random location in the sky with some randomly low airspeed and full throttle. The U key is similar but starts your plane at a fixed location beyond the hills.
Flight models aircraft weight accurately. Ordnance and fuel have substantial weight. As you fire weapons and burn fuel, your plane becomes lighter and more maneuverable.
Weapons Fighters are armed with rockets, sidewinders, and cannon. The number of rockets and sidewinders available on each type of fighter are indicated on the help display. Landings replenish missiles as well as fuel. The number of missiles replenished depends on the quality of the landing. Ammunition for the cannon is inexhaustible.
Each weapon has a different kill radius. Weapons detonate themselves when they are within their kill radius of a plane other than the one they came from. All planes within the kill radius of an exploding weapon are destroyed.
The q key fires a rocket. Rockets have about ten seconds of fuel and follow ballistic paths after the fuel is exhausted. They explode when they strike the ground, come within range of an aircraft (except the one they came from), or are destroyed by their owner. Rockets have the largest kill radius of all the weapons.
The w key fires a sidewinder. Sidewinders are like rockets but track, or steer themselves towards, other aircraft if they are ``locked on''. Sidewinders are locked on if they are fired while a target aircraft is in the orange tracking rectangle or if locked on with the t key. The t key identifies the target and locks a sidewinder onto the target for one second without firing the weapon. This is useful for identifying other planes as friend or foe. Sidewinders will not lock on aircraft lower than 150 feet, but once they are locked on, they will track a plane below 150 feet. Sidewinders stop tracking and follow ballistic paths when they run out of fuel. The Cessna 150 does not generate enough heat to attract sidewinders. A good pilot can usually outmaneuver a sidewinder unless his plane is traveling slowly with a heavy load. Sidewinders have a smaller kill radius than rockets.
The e key fires a cannon round. The cannon has a limited range-each cannon shell exists for only one second. Cannons have the smallest kill radius.
The r key destroys the current missile. Any aircraft in range of the explosion is destroyed. Each aircraft can have only one projectile in the air at a time. Missiles may take a long time to fall back to the ground after they have run out of fuel. It is therefore wise to destroy missiles that are out of fuel, allowing new ones to be fired. In flight, or in dog with no competition, strafing the airport can be good practice for the real thing.
Dog keeps track of victories and defeats. A pilot scores a ``won'' when a projectile fired by his plane destroys another aircraft. A pilot scores a ``lost'' when his aircraft is destroyed by a projectile or crashes.
Each pilot's score is displayed on his instrument panel. The scores of all the current players are shown to each new player when he joins the game and when he reincarnates himself after destruction.
When a player joins the game, an announcement is broadcast to all players. Messages are also broadcast whenever a player quits, destroys another plane, or is destroyed.
The -o option will record the path of your aircraft on outfile rather than broadcasting it to the network.
The -i option replays a recorded flight. You will be in another aircraft, able to join the other recorded planes in formation or shoot at, but not really destroy them (your missile will explode, but the other plane will continue flying).
Specifying both the -i and -o options replays a recorded flight and produces an outfile containing your aircraft's path as well as the other planes' paths. infile and outfile cannot be the same file. Repeated use of the command can make formations of many aircraft.
The time of day is set according to when flight is started up. As the real time changes so does the position of the sun. The n key adds five minutes to the time of day. The N key subtracts five minutes from the time of day.
Sound
Flight plays sound effects on machines capable of WAVE audio. The S key switches between three sound modes. By default, all sound effects are played. Pressing S once causes all sound effects except thrust to play. Pressing a second time turns off all sound effects. Pressing S a third time turns on all the sounds again.
By setting the environment variable FLIGHTSOUND to a path with sound effect files, a user can override the default sounds. The following list gives the filename and description of each sound effect. Each file should be a WAVE file. The data should be two channel, 16 bit wide, 16 kHz sound samples. No warnings are given for missing or corrupt files.