The Future of Flight Simulation

As developers, we aim to create immersive experiences like no other. We want simmers to experience the world from an aircraft as well as enjoy the freedom of flight. A great amount of time is spent to understand the details of a specific region, airport or building, in order to build scenery exactly as it is found in real life. The excitement of “recognition” is quite something in the sim world. 

Usually one of the very first destinations people go to when given a flight sim is their house and neighbourhood. It is this emotional connection with the digital world that makes the experience so unique. There are various reasons why people spend time in a simulator, some like the precision of the avionics and controlling an aircraft which they may never be able to fly in real life, others enjoy the exploration of regions and airports in exotic locations and looking for “easter eggs”. 

We believe a key component of what makes flight simulation great is the living world. To date, we’ve seen elements that make the sim feel more lifelike, but there is still opportunity to remove the feeling of synthetic ghost towns. Instead of cars driving aimlessly along fake highways, they will be going somewhere, like real people. You’ll see trains pulling up to virtual platforms, with people and vehicles interacting meaningfully. Road traffic densities in the simulator will be based on real-world traffic conditions. Weather patterns are already drawn and replicated from real-life ones. These real-life-like details will turn the world into a realistic digital twin, which can be inhabited and interacted with. The responsiveness of hardware peripherals will complete the picture.

Our industry has been lucky as we have been largely untouched by the effects of COVID, as opposed to the real-life aviation sector, which has suffered the brunt of the lockdowns, especially in Australia with state and overseas borders being closed off and reopened intermittently for the past 15 months. During this time many pilots have turned to flight simulation to retain their skills in a time when they may not have access to real aircraft. Flight simulation allows both aviators and enthusiasts to explore the world, providing access to activities and places they can’t physically be.

The entertainment factor goes beyond the flat screen. You can don very affordable VR goggles and explore the planet in a fully immersive environment. That sense of “being there” is what simmers love, being engaged in a feast of images, colours and sounds. The future of flight sim lies in the increased level of immersion that the simulators, together with the scenery and the real-life details, will provide, thanks to advanced hardware capabilities. 

Our goal at Orbx is to make the line between the real and simulated world indistinguishable. We want to create a true digital twin of the planet, making it easy to interact with and fascinating to explore. Replicating small details, having the correct vegetation, reproducing building surfaces the way they look in reality, having accurate signage on the taxiways and perfectly placed markers visible from above. It may sound a little crazy, but we know that you – aviators – physical or digital, appreciate why we think these are important and ask for this level of detail and precision. We have come to expect a level of interaction that was unthinkable at the beginning of flight simming in the mid1980s; the next 10 years will see rapid advancements in interactivity and richness of the digital twin. This is the future we are creating.