It seems that the latest release of Google Earth has some hidden features that Google didn’t tell anyone about! In addition to Google Sky, a flight simulator mode has been added too. It’s been possible to fly around in Google Earth using a joystick for a while now but this is more of a full on flight sim with two aircraft to choose from.
Your probably better off starting with the SR22 as the aircraft can be hard to control with the keyboard. You can view a full set of the controls and instructions in the Google Earth documentation. When in flight sim mode you have a Head’s Up Display (HUD) which shows your direction, rate of climb, altitude, speed and flaps setting.
It’s much more playable when using a joystick as with most flight simulators. It’s not on a par with MS Flight Simulator quite yet, however with Google looking to compete with MS on every front, who knows where development on this might go in the future? Will Google allow people to develop add-ons in a similar fashion to MSFS?
There are utilities that allow you to plot your location from MSFS in Google Earth and the free Flight Gear using Google Maps data for it’s own multiplayer servers and I’ve always wondered if someone would ever develop an add-on to Flight Simulator 2004 or X to use Google Earth or Maps data as scenery within the game itself. Now it appears there might not be a need. You can find more information and some more screenshots at Marco’s Blog and the Google Earth Blog.
Flying with GE-FS F-16 looks nice but that HUD looks like something out of a comic book. So I went and changed a little here and there. Looks a lot more like an F16 now! I cant get the compass to show heading every 10 degrees. Can anyone help??
Copy this into generic.ini (C:\Program Files\Google\Google Earth\res\flightsim\hud):
% Generic Head Up Display Config
AirSpeedX = -0.4
AirSpeedFactor = 0.194384 % 1/kt
AirSpeedY0 = -0.2
AirSpeedY1 = 0.1
AirSpeedRange = 16
AirSpeedDV = 1
AirSpeedSmallInLarge = 5
AirSpeedLargeX0 = -0.05
AirSpeedLargeX1 = 0
AirSpeedSmallX0 = -0.03
AirSpeedSmallX1 = 0
AirSpeedValueX = -0.06
AirSpeedValueTextFlags = [left middle]
AirSpeedPointerX = 0.005
AirSpeedPointerAngle = 3.14159265
AirSpeedPointerLength = 0.015
AltitudeX = 0.4
AltitudeFactor = 0.0328084 % 1/ft
AltitudeY0 = -0.2
AltitudeY1 = 0.1
AltitudeRange = 16
AltitudeDV = 1
AltitudeSmallInLarge = 5
AltitudeLargeX0 = 0
AltitudeLargeX1 = 0.05
AltitudeSmallX0 = 0
AltitudeSmallX1 = 0.03
AltitudeValueX = 0.06
AltitudeValueTextFlags = [right middle]
AltitudePointerX = -0.005
AltitudePointerAngle = 0
AltitudePointerLength = 0.015
VerticalSpeedFactor = 196.85 % min/ft
VerticalSpeedRound = 10.0
VerticalSpeedX = 0.4
VerticalSpeedY = -0.25
VerticalSpeedTextParams = [center middle]
VelocityMark =
[
-.01 .00 .00 .01
.01 .00 .00 .01
-.01 .00 .00 -.01
.01 .00 .00 -.01
-.03 .00 -.01 .00
.01 .00 .03 .00
.00 .02 .00 .01
]
VelocityMinSpeed = 0
CompassSmallInLarge = 2
CompassLargeInHuge = 3
CompassTextParams = [center bottom]
CompassSmallY0 = -0.310
CompassSmallY1 = -0.295
CompassLargeY0 = -0.325
CompassLargeY1 = -0.295
CompassHugeY0 = -0.330
CompassHugeY1 = -0.295
CompassTextY = -0.331
CompassRange = 20
CompassX0 = -0.15
CompassX1 = 0.15
RollScaleHalfAngle = 60
RollScaleR = 0.2
RollScaleCenterX = 0
RollScaleCenterY = 0
RollScaleLarge = [30 60]
RollScaleSmall = [10 20 45]
RollScaleLargeR0 = 0
RollScaleLargeR1 = 0.025
RollScaleSmallR0 = 0
RollScaleSmallR1 = 0.0125
RollScaleTextR = 0.07
RollScaleTextParams = [center bottom]
RollScaleSegments = 10
RollScalePointerR = 0.005
RollScalePointerL = 0.02
SkidIndicatorMark =
[
-.01 .005 .01 .005
.01 .005 .01 -.005
.01 -.005 -.01 -.005
-.01 -.005 -.01 .005
]
SkidIndicatorY = 0.17
SkidIndicatorX0 = -0.1
SkidIndicatorX1 = 0.1
SkidIndicatorMin = -2.5
SkidIndicatorMax = 2.5
PlaneMark =
[
-.01 .04 .01 .04
.00 .05 -.00 .03
]
PitchLadderDV = 5
PitchLadderSmallInLarge = 2
PitchLadderSmallMark =
[
-0.08 0.0 -0.04 0.0
0.08 0.0 0.04 0.0
]
PitchLadderLargeMark =
[
-0.13 0.0 -0.04 0.0
0.13 0.0 0.04 0.0
]
PitchLadderY0 = -0.35
PitchLadderY1 = 0.35
PitchLadderXOffset = 0
PitchLadderLetterOffset = 7000
HUDColor = 65280
StallColor = 255
StallX = 0.7
StallY = -0.65
StallText = STALL
StallMinSpeed = 6
StallTextParams = [center bottom]
GearX = -0.85
GearY = -0.65
GearText = GEAR
GearTextParams = [center bottom]
FlapsX = -0.7
FlapsY = -0.65
FlapsText = FLAPS
FlapsTextParams = [center bottom]
HUDLineWidth = 1.3
HUDLineSmooth = true
ThrottleIndicatorX = -0.95
ThrottleIndicatorY0 = -0.8
ThrottleIndicatorY1 = -0.8
ThrottleIndicatorWidth = 0.00
ElevatorIndicatorX = -0.7
ElevatorIndicatorY0 = -0.5
ElevatorIndicatorY1 = -0.5
ElevatorIndicatorWidth = -0.0
AileronIndicatorY = -0.5
AileronIndicatorX0 = -0.8
AileronIndicatorX1 = -0.8
AileronIndicatorWidth = 0.0
RudderIndicatorY = -0.6
RudderIndicatorX0 = -0.8
RudderIndicatorX1 = -0.8
RudderIndicatorWidth = 0.0