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The Freeflight Experience B1.25C Instant Download
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A new release (Beta 1.25C) of the Freeflight Experience is available. Please review the release notes for a summary of changes. If you are getting started with the program, be sure to check out the Quick Start Guide for step by step instructions and tips.

March 3, 2023 Release 1.25 Open Beta

The most obvious addition in 1.25 is the addition of the amazing site in Monroe Utah, the site of the Red Rocks Fly-in, planned for this summer.

The addition of persistent weather settings in 1.24 uncovered a few issues that have been corrected in 1.25. The biggest problem was how I went about predicting cloud base from the dewpoint spread when thermals were formed. The cloud base code has been completely rewritten and now agrees with published techniques. Selecting “Use Clouds from Sounding” and “Use Advanced Heating Model” together should provide a realistic daily thermal cycle. When “Use Clouds from sounding” is selected, the cloud base slider will be immediately set automatically. Over time, the cloud depth and percent sky coverage will increase, as thermals climb to the cloud base altitude. Unchecking “Use Advanced Heating Model” will allow you to set the thermal birth temperature directly using the slider. If 24-hours thermal cycle is checked in the Options menu, the value you set using the slider in the environment setting widget will represent the peak temperature, and depending on the time of day, the actual temperature will be somewhat less.

“Use Winds from Sounding” does just that. Unchecked, the slider value for direction and strength is used, and the setting is constant for all altitudes.

Once I got the clouds working well, I realized that the rendering cost of a sky filled with clouds would bring most computers to its knees, so I set out to improve the rendering performance of clouds. There is now a new setting in the options page to choose high quality but slow clouds (the old way) or the new faster clouds. The new clouds come with some visual artifacts when they first appear in the sky, but the rendering performance improvement is significant. The fast clouds are the new default.

One of the beta testers admitted to me that he is very susceptible to VR simulator sickness, and while OK flying around, if he crashes, the ensuing visual chaos ruins him for the day. At his suggestion, I have introduced a crash detection option (in the options menu) that will pause the sim if you hit the ground hard enough. This is enabled 5 seconds after launch, otherwise the launch impulse was detected as a crash, and caused the sim to freeze immediately.

Also new in 1.25A, display on the vario of both indicated and true airspeed, adjustment of atmospheric density calculations to support high altitude sites, automatic calculation of seal level air pressure based on soundings, scaling down of turn point markers at close range, improvements in usability for pull down selections in the “Options” menu, and background shading in the “Environment Settings” widget to make clearer the grouping of labels with their sliders.

What’s coming next? I’m thinking about allowing you to enable or disable (separately) each visual helper, like LZ markers, turn point markers, thermal particles and spheres. Might also add start and turn point cylinders. Now, you can choose the type of thermal rendering you like in the options, and can toggle it on and off, along with all other “cheats” using “A & B” buttons on the controller or keyboard shortcuts. You can also override your selected preference temporarily, using “s” and “S” to hide and show spheres, and “p” and “P” to hide and show particles, regardless of how you have set your options.

I’m also considering adding a slider to allow you to adjust the amount of cloud coverage when using the automatic cloud mode. Right now, coverage increases as cloud thickness increases, but there are times when you have lots of coverage, even with a cloud layer that is not that deep. I could probably adjust the factor automatically based on the level of atmospheric stability, but first, I’ll probably let you tweak it with a slider.

Thank you all for your patience while waiting for the Open Beta release of the "Freeflight Experience". If you would like to joint the Open Beta test team, you can buy a license and download the software today!

Just go to the the menu at the top left corner of the start page, and select "Shop".

The game is continuously being improved with more flying sites, hang glider models, and launch methods.

The Freeflight Experience B1.25C Instant Download