Free In-Browser RC Flight Sim in Development

February 4, 2014|R0n0

I have been into RC Aircraft and cars since I was 14 years old, I remember saving for ages to buy my first plane. The great people at FliteTest have shown me how cheap and easy it can be to get into flying RC foamy aircraft, I wish someone like you was around when I was a kid! Flite Test inspired me to contribute something to the RC community, I thought that the one thing I could add to help them to increase the popularity of the hobby was to make a free RC Flight simulator that was focused on sheet foamies and home built RC. My goal is to create a free web site that lets people easily create and share their own foamy designs online and even fly with friends over the net.

I have been working on this simulator/game since December in my spare time, and it has progressed to the point where I wanted to show it to other people to get their opinion of what I can add to make it fun and useful at the same time. It currently has a pretty realistic flight model with 6 planes and a quadracopter! I hope to improve the physics engine as I try new things. I also added airsoft bullets and bombs drops to make it a little more interesting while I finish the flight physics engine. I will be posting my changes weekly so you can see the progress of the project.

There are some technical limitations to making this simulator run on a web browser:

It runs on Chrome and Firefox and now Android Tablets! It won't work on Internet Explorer or Safari because they do not support the Gamepad API yet.
If running on a PC it requires a USB game controller that is compatible with the Gamepad API built into the browsers. You can use the numberpad on the keyboard to fly, but that is pretty painful. I use a Logitech Dual Action Gamepad, and I hear it works with an Xbox controller. On windows a PS3 controller is not easy to get working. On linux pretty much all controllers seem to work. I do not know if it works with any of the USB transmitter interfaces as I do not own one, but I have ordered one to try out.

You can check out the current working version at my website. http://www.ostafichuk.com/rons-rc-sim

There is also a new shorter easier to remember url now http://RonsRCSim.com

I just ordered and OculusVR developer kit (on Feb 8), so once I get that I will be making the simulator work with the worlds first affordable Virtual Reality headset!

Please send me comments on features you would like to have in the simulator/game!