Fly Command Guide

Introduction

Contents

• Quick Summary
• Keyboard Controls
  • Flight Controls
  • Throttle
  • Other Flying Controls
  • Autostab (Autopilot)
  • Viewing
    • Viewpoints
    • Viewing Directions
    • Other Viewing Commands
  • Sound
  • Navigation Aids
    • Maps
    • Instrument Navigation
  • Game Controls
• The Choices Dialogue
  • The Controls Dialogue
  • The Display Dialogue
  • The Simulation Dialogue
  • The Conditions Dialogue
• The FST Menu
• The Cockpit Shape
• Joystick Calibration on a PC
• Joystick Calibration under RISC OS
• Notes on Flying an Aircraft
  • Taxiing
  • Refueling and Repairing an Aircraft
• Command Line Options
  • Common Options
  • Sim Environment Options
  • Other Options

Quick Summary

Keyboard Controls

• Flight Controls
• Throttle
• Other Flying Controls
• Autostab (Autopilot)
• Viewing
  • Viewpoints
  • Viewing Directions
  • Other Viewing Commands
• Sound
• Navigation Aids
  • Maps
  • Instrument Navigation
• Game Controls

Flight Controls

Pitch and roll controls

The first five of these, the pitch and roll controls, only work when the keyboard has been selected as the main flight control. The others, the rudder and trim controls, work whatever is being used for flight control.

Trim controls

The trim controls are very important. They affect the elevator trim and most aircraft in FST sims will need a large amount of trim. The trim is increased or decreased each time the key is pressed. The rule is:

• Decrease trim (keypad -) if the nose pitches up
• Increase trim (keypad +) if the nose pitches down

Keep increasing the trim until the aircraft's nose stops pitching up or down. This may take a while as the aircraft is slow to react and it is easy to go too far. If this happens, trim it the opposite way until the aircraft is stable.

The idea with the keypad is that the main controls are all arranged together thus:

Num Lock	/	Zero trim	Decr trim
7	Pitch down	Incr throttle	Incr trim
Roll left	Centre stick	Roll right
1	Pitch up	Decr throttle
	Rudder left	Rudder right	Enter

Control Sensitivity

The control sensitivity can also be set from the controls dialogue.

Note that autostab can be used to regain control of the aircraft when you lose control (something that is all too easy with the mouse and keyboard).

Return to Keyboard Controls

Throttle

Fixed throttle settings

The fixed throttle settings vary from 1 (25%) to 9 (95%) and 0 (100%). The keys used are the normal numeric keys along the top of the keyboard. The engine RPM settings as percentages for each key are as follows:

1	25% (engines idling)
2	30%
3	40%
4	50%
5	60%
6	70%
7	80%
8	90%
9	95%
0	100%

Reheat (afterburners)

Reheat can only be used if the aircraft is a jet. It gives a 50% boost in engine power but at the cost of very high fuel consumption.

Other Flying Controls

Lower and retract undercarraige

The undercarriage should be raised before the aircraft's speed exceeds 300 knots and not lowered if it exceeds this otherwise the undercarriage will be damaged and rendered unusable. The same is true of the flaps. Note that raising and lowering flaps and undercarriage takes several seconds so do not leave it to the last moment.

Flaps

The flaps are lowered by ten degrees each time the s key is pressed. The maximum flap angle is thirty degrees.

The flaps are raised by ten degrees each time the x key is pressed.

Eject

You can eject from an aircraft it has an ejector seat at any time except when on the ground. Your aircraft crashes after this. You can either restart the game if you eject or quit it.

Altimeter type

Fly has two types of altimeter available, radar and barometric. The radar altimeter gives the height of the aircraft above the ground. The barometric altimeter gives it above sea level. The altimeter type can also be set from the Simulation dialogue box (The Simulation Dialogue).

Autostab (Autopilot)

Turn autostab on or off

This turns on or off Fly's autopilot. The behaviour of the autopilot is affected by the next two options. If neither of these are in use, the autopilot continues to fly the aircraft in the same direction and at the same height as when the autopilot was engaged except that it will cause the aircraft to climb to avoid crashing into the terrain. The height at which the aircraft flies can be changed by means of the 'Fly at fixed altitude' option in the 'Autostab' box in the 'Simulation' dialogue box. The height can be changed when the autopilot is engaged and the aircraft will climb or descend to the new altitude. See The Simulation Dialogue for more information.

The direction the aircraft is flying can be adjusted when the autopilot is on by pressing the rudder keys. Left rudder turns the aircraft to port and right rudder, to starboard. Note, however, that this has no effect if flying towards a waypoint and the autopilot will just turn towards the waypoint again.

The autopilot can only be engaged if the aircraft's speed exceeds 50 knots.

Fly towards waypoint

Fly's autopilot can fly the aircraft towards a waypoint, or, to be more accurate, towards a NDB (Non-Directional Beacon). The key Ctrl-d turns this feature on and off. Note that autostab must be 'on' before this feature can be used. It is also necessary to select a NDB (by the / and Shift-/ keys) beforehand. The autopilot will lock on to this NDB and fly the aircraft towards it. The autopilot puts out a message to say which NDB it is flying towards giving its coordinates and distance in nautical miles when Ctrl-d is pressed and also if a new NDB is selected. It is up to the player to turn off this feature when the waypoint has been reached or to select another NDB otherwise the aircraft will fly in circles around the one just reached.

Tip: pressing Ctrl-d twice makes the autopilot turn off this feature and then turn it back on again. This means the details of the NDB will be shown, including its current distance. This can be used to check how far away a waypoint is.

Flying toward a waypoint can also be turned on and off via the Simulation dialogue (see The Simulation Dialogue).

Ground following

Ground following can also be turned on and off via the Simulation dialogue (see The Simulation Dialogue). The dialogue also gives you the option to set the autopilot to fly at a fixed height.

In the normal course of events, the autopilot continues to fly the aircraft on the same heading and at the same altitude as when the autopilot was engaged. It is different if the 'fly at fixed altitude' option is in effect in that the autopilot will cause the aircraft to climb or descend to the set height. The autopilot follows the contours of the ground, climbing to avoid hills and mountains and then descending to the original height. This tends to give a bumpy flight and something more akin to a rollercoaster ride in mountains, which is where the 'ground follow' option comes in. If 'ground follow' is turned off, the aircraft still climbs but remains at the new height for a while, slowly descending to the original over a distance of several kilometres. The 'ground follow' option is normally turned on.

The autopilot works by moving the aircraft's control surfaces. It is not infallible and will sometimes fly you into mountains if it cannot change the aircraft's course fast enough or just gets it wrong.

The autopilot can be used as a 'cheat mode' to recover control of an aircraft if you lose it. Turn it on, move the flight controls to their 'rest' position and then turn off the autopilot once the aircraft is stable again. It is of most use in this way if flying using the keyboard or mouse.

Return to Keyboard Controls

Weapons

Fire weapon

The 'fire' button on a joystick and left mouse button can also be used to fire the weapons. Button 2 and the right mouse button cycle through the weapons available.

Flares

Flares are for defending an aircraft against heat-seeking missiles, which are always air-to-air missiles in FST.

Chaff

Chaff is for defending against radar guided missiles. These are surface-to-air missiles in FST.

Jettison stores

'Jettison stores' gets rid of all the external weapons, that is, everything except for guns.

Radar

The radar has three modes:

Standard FST

The normal FST radar which shows all air and ground targets around the aircraft.

Air targets

This shows all aircraft in a 90 degree cone in front of the aircraft.

Ground targets

This shows all ground objects in a 90 degree cone in front of the aircraft.

Pressing the t key cycles through these modes from standard FST to air to ground and back to standard FST.

Note that Green dots on the radar are friendly aircraft and ground objects and red ones are hostile.

Radar ranges

The radar has three range settings, 20, 10 and 5 kilometres (approximately 12, 6 and 3 miles). The r key cycles from 20 to 10 to 5 and back to 20 again.

Viewing

Viewpoints

Pilot's viewpoint

This is the normal pilot's viewpoint.

Camera (chase) view

There are two possible viewpoints with the camera view:

1. The observer rides with the aircraft as if sitting on an imaginary plank attached to it.
2. The observer is at a fixed position relative to the aircraft watching the aircraft as if in another aircraft flying alongside it.

The viewpoint used is set by the option 'Use camera viewpoint in chase view' on the 'Display' dialogue box (The Display Dialogue). Another option here is the 'Chase view lag effect'. This affects the 'ride with aircraft' view. The viewpoint lags slightly behind the aircraft when it manoeuvres.

Tower view

With the 'tower view', the observer is fixed in place but follows the movement of the aircraft. The observer is place a couple of hundred metres ahead and to one side of the aircraft to get a 'flyby' effect if the aircraft is airborne.

Other aircraft's view

This allows you to see what is going from a computer-controlled aircraft's point of view. It puts you in the cockpit of one of these aircraft but you are a passenger: you do not have any control over the aircraft is flying. Pressing 'tab' repeatedly jumps from aircraft to aircraft. Note that the aircraft has to be within a short distance of your aircraft for 'tab' to work. The HUD (Alt-h) and padlock (p) keys can be used. The padlock view tracks the aircraft's target if it has one.

Other object's view

"Other object's view" is like the tower view except that the viewpoint is moved to another object within a short distance of the aircraft. The viewer follows the movement of the player's aircraft. This can give rise to some strange effects such as being able to see through walls and so forth. It is really a matter of luck as to which object the viewpoint jumps to. The object can be one that is moving, for example, a truck or another aircraft, in which case the viewer moves with the object.

Viewing Directions

Fixed angle viewing keys

The keys key F1 to key F6 give views around the aircraft at fixed angles. The panning keys are more flexible but slower.

'Look up' view

The 'look up' view (moves the cockpit bitmap up and down. It depends on the cockpit bitmap how far it moves.

Panning keys

The four pan keys F7, F8, F9 and F10 pan continuously in the given direction.

Zoom keys

The zoom keys, Page Up, and Page Down, increase or decrease the magnification of the view by two each time the relevant key is pressed. The maximum magnification is times eight.

Reset view key

The key Alt-F1 resets the viewing direction and elevation to forwards and the zoom factor to one.

'View when key pressed' views

The actions of some of the keys are changed if the 'view when key pressed' option is in effect (see the section The Display Dialogue below). The view only switches to the one for the key pressed for as long as the key is pressed; it returns to the forwards view when the key is released. The action of the F1 key is changed: a 'look forward' key is pointless so it is used to look backwards instead.

Other Viewing Commands

Target tracking

This draws a line on the screen pointing in the direction of a target after it has been acquired, for example, after obtaining a missile lock on an enemy aircraft.

Padlock view

This locks the view direction to follow an enemy aircraft. Turning on padlock view will make Fly look for enemy aircraft close to your aircraft (up to two kilometres or 1.25 miles away). The viewing direction is changed so that you are looking at the nearest one if any are found and it will follow that aircraft keeping it centred on the screen.

The padlock view can also be used when watching proceedings from one of the computer-controlled aircraft. The view tracks the aircraft's target, if it has one.

Use 'night vision goggles' at night

This gives the effect of using night vision goggles when flying at night. It can be turned on or off at any time of the day but only comes into effect when it gets dark.

This option can also be turned on and off via the 'Display' dialogue (See The Display Dialogue).

Show figures and show HUD

These options are related. 'Show figures' displays the aircraft's bearing, height and speed at the top of the screen when using either the camera or tower views. 'Show HUD' displays a HUD for aircraft that have HUDs instead of the figures, otherwise it shows the details as per the 'show figures' option.

The 'Show figures' and 'Show HUD' options are also available when the sim's viewpoint is another aircraft, in which case the figures relate to that aircraft.

Show stick position

The 'show stick position' option displays a graphic in the top right-hand corner of the screen showing the position of the stick, rudder and elevator trim as follows:

• White line at top: stick
• yellow line at bottom: rudder
• green line on left-hand side: trim

A red dot means that the control is in its central postion.

This option is of most use when flying using the keyboard or mouse to give an idea of the positions of the controls.

Switch to window

This option is only available in the Windows version of the program. It switches the display to a window rather than running full-screen, provided that window is not larger than the screen.

Sound

Navigation Aids

Maps

• Area map
• Navigation beacon map

Area Map

The area shown by the map depends on the size of the simulation's world but it will never be less than 50 kilometres (roughly 31 miles) square. The maximum is 100 (roughly 62 miles) kilometres square, and this is the size of the above map Each square on the map represents an area 500 metres by 500 metre in size (very roughly 550 yards by 550 yards).

It is possible to zoom in on the square containing your aircraft and to move around the zoomed-in map, for example:



The keys for this are:

Zoom in	Page Up
Zoom out	Page Down
Move left	Cursor left
Move right	Cursor right
Move up	Cursor up
Move down	Cursor down
Go to aircraft's square	Home

It is only possible to move around the four squares shown on the zoomed-out map view at present.

The Home key returns you to the square containing your aircraft.

The game is halted when the map is being displayed.

Press any key to return to the game when the map is shown.

Navigation map

Instrument Navigation

Game Controls

Quit the game

Pressing the Alt-x key brings up a dialogue box thus:

You are given the choice to continue, restart or leave the game.

Restart does not restart the entire simulation from the beginning again: it just puts you and your aircraft back on the starting runway ready to go again.

Pause the game

To restart the game after pausing it, press p.

Screen grab

The Alt-g key writes a copy of the screen to a file. under RISC OS, then name of the file is GRABx where x is a number starting from 1. The screen is saved as a RISC OS sprite in the simulation directory.

Under Windows, the file is called either GRABx.PCX or GRABx.BMP where x is a number starting from 1. The screens are saved as .BMP files is the command line option -b is used. These are Windows bitmap files and are easier to work with. PCX files are an older type of image file and modern versions of Paint, for example, the one in Windows XP, will not read them.

Show Information on Game

The alt-t key provides some information on how Fly is running. It shows:

• Version number of the Fly program being used
• Time according to the simulation
• Frame rate (the higher the better)
• Number of objects in simulation
• Number of objects visible (objects within 16 Km of player)
• Amount of memory currently being used
• Time program has been running in 1/100th seconds
• Time last frame took in 1/100th seconds

The most important figure is the frame rate. The higher this is the better, and if it reads 50 then the program is running as well as it can. The performance can be improved by reducing the screen size, for example, from 1024 by 768 to 800 by 600, but it is not always possible to do this due to the size of the cockpits.

Show choices dialogue

Press the Alt-o key to show the 'Choices' dialogue at any time. It can also be displayed by pressing the Menu key on a PC.

Show FST menu

There is not much on the menu. It provides an alternative way to show the Choices dialogue and to exit from the game. The only extra item is an 'About' dialogue box.

Show 'help' screens

Pressing 'h' pauses the game and shows a sim's 'help' screens, if the sim has any. Press any key except for 'backspace' or 'page up' to move on to the next screen. Press 'backspace' or 'page up' to go back to the previous help screen or 'Esc' to stop showing them.

Reset joystick

Sometimes the joystick is unusable at the start of a game. Pressing Alt-C will sometimes cure this. If not, it is a case of quitting the game, calibrating the joystick and then starting again.

Fast time

This causes the game to run at three times the normal rate. Press Alt-z again to return the game to normal speed. Everything is speeded up but some things such as the autopilot do not operate very well when running fast.

The Choices Dialogue

The dialogue is split into four parts:

Controls	Main flight controls
Display	Screen size and visual effects
Simulation	Aircraft options and sound
Conditions	Time of day, wind speed, etc

You can either click on the tab in the normal way to select which one to show to press a function key as follows:

Controls	F1
Display	F2
Simulation	F3
Conditions	F4

The following sections cover each dialogue box in more detail:

• The Controls Dialogue
• The Display Dialogue
• The Simulation Dialogue
• The Conditions Dialogue

Keyboard Control

The dialogue boxes can also be closed by pressing the key corresponding to the first letter of the action button label, for example, s for 'save' to save the current settings. Pressing 'return' in fact selects the default button for the dialogue box. This is always the right-hand most action button.

Return to Contents

The Controls Dialogue

Click on the Save button to save the settings as the defaults for the sim. Cancel abandons the changes in the normal way and OK sets them for the current game but does not save them. You can also press the return key to choose the OK button. Press the s key to save the options or c or the Esc to cancel changing anything.

Flight Controls

The joystick can only by selected if one is attached. The keyboard or mouse can be used at all times.

The mouse is used to fly the aircraft in the traditional way where moving the mouse left or right affects the roll and up and down controls pitch. The left mouse button (select) fires the currently selected weapon and the right one (adjust) cycles through the available weapons. The middle mouse button (menu) can be used to centre the stick.

The sensitivity of the mouse can be changed via the 'Mouse sensitivity' menu. The options are 'low', 'medium' and 'high'. 'low' and 'medium' are probably best for normal flight with 'high' being used during combat. The sensitivity can also be changed from the keyboard using Alt-1, Alt-2 and Alt-3 respectively.

It is probably worth ticking the 'Show stick position' option if using the keyboard or mouse. This displays a small graphic in the top right-hand corner of the screen showing the position of the 'stick' thus:


In the above example, the stick position is the white line. Two other pieces of information are shown: the rudder position (the yellow line) and the elevator trim (the green line). Incidently, this is the only way to get a visual idea of the current trim setting.

Hint: It is easy to lose control of the aircraft when flying with the keyboard or mouse. if this happens, press the A key to turn on autostab, centre the stick and then turn off the autostab once the aircraft is stable again.

Joystick Buttons

• Fire
• Weapon cycle
• Increase thrust
• Decrease thrust
• Afterburner on/off
• Airbrakes out/in
• Lower flaps
• Raise flaps
• Wheel brakes on/off
• Gear up/down
• Engine on/off
• Look back
• Look left
• Look right

One possible combination is:

Button 1	Fire weapon
Button 2	Weapon cycle
Button 3	Decrease thrust
Button 4	Increase thrust
Button 5	Afterburner
Button 6	Airbrakes
Button 7	Lower flags
Button 8	Raise flaps

Return to The Choices Dialogue

The Display Dialogue

Screen

Screen size

The 'size' menu list lets you select the screen resolution to use. The possibilities are:

• 320 by 200 with 256 colours
• 640 by 480 with 256 colours
• 800 by 600 with 256 colours
• 1024 by 768 with 256 colours

The smallest screen size, 320 by 200, is there for compability with very old simulations. Use is not recommended, especially as the 'Choices' dialogue box is too large for the screen!

Using a larger screen size just increases the size of the field of view. It does not increase the amount of detail visible. The aircraft's cockpit is drawn at the bottom of the screen in the middle with black boxes either side of it if is narrower than the screen width. It is not possible to use a screen size where the width is narrower than the cockpit bitmap.

Run in a window

This only works with the Windows version of the program. The game switches from full screen to running in a window, as long as the window is smaller than the screen size.

Display Options

Show view only whilst key pressed

This affects what is shown when one of the fixed viewing directions available via F1, F2) and so on is selected. In the normal course of events, the view switches to that direction and stays there. If this option is ticked, the view only switches whilst the key is held down. It jumps back to the forward view when the key is released.

Draw cockpit shape

It is possible to have a shape for the aircraft cockpit that is drawn whenever the view is out of the aircraft's cockpit. This button turns on and off this feature. See the section The Cockpit Shape below for more information on cockpit shapes.

Use larger digits in cockpit

Fly draws some very small digits (5 pixels by 3) which are almost unreadable at a screen resolution of 640 by 480 or more. This option allows larger (7 by 4) digits to be drawn instead. These might not fit quite so well in a cockpit layout so the option to use the smaller digit is still available.

Use camera viewpoint in chase view

There are two versions of 'chase' view: one where the observer follows the aircraft moves as if sitting on a plank attached to the aircraft and 'camera' view where the observer watches the aircraft as if from another aircraft. Tick this option to select the 'camera' viewpoint.

Show altitude, airspeed and heading

This and the next option control what information is shown on screen when using either the 'camera' or 'tower' view. This one displays the aircraft's altitude, airspeed and heading at the top of the screen.

Show chase HUD

This and the previous option control what information is shown on screen when using either the 'camera' or 'tower' view. This one displays a HUD if the aircraft has one otherwise it shows the figures described above. The information on the HUD is fixed, as the diagram below shows:

The HUD makes it possible to fly the aircraft from outside.

Chase view lag effect

When this option is ticked, the viewer lags behind the aircraft slightly when it is manoeuvering when viewing the aircraft from the chase view. It is not used when using the 'camera viewpoint' mode.

Effects

Horizon shading

This option controls whether bands are drawn to simulate horizon shading. They are drawn when it is ticked.

blackout/redout

If ticked, Fly simulated blackout and redout effects when the aircraft is performing high-G manoeuvres. Blackouts occur when large positive forces are experienced by a pilot causing blood to drain from the head. Redouts are the opposite: large negative forces cause redouts, which is when blood is forced into the head.

Vary light level

This options controls whether or not the light level varies during the day according to the position of the sun. (This used to be the 'Change lighting during day' option in the 'Display Options' box.)

Night vision

This option switches the sim to a 'night vision goggles' type of view when it is dark. Basically everything is a shade of green. (This used to be the option 'Use night vision goggles' in the 'Display Options' box.)

Sky

Draw Sun

The Sun is drawn if this option is ticked.

Draw Moon

The Moon is drawn if this option is ticked.

Draw stars

Stars are drawn at night if this option is ticked.

The star information is found in the file stars or stars.dat. There are nearly 900 stars listed. They are drawn accurately for the time of day and latitude at which the sim is set but only on the Greenwich meridian.

The Simulation Dialogue

Aircraft Options

Plane

This lets you pick which aircraft you want to fly if the sim has more than one aircraft available. Your current aircraft has to be on the ground and stationary before you can change.

Reliability

This controls how reliable your aircraft is, that is, the probability of suffering hydraulic, electrical or other types of failure in flight.

G effects on aircraft

This controls whether or not manoeuvres that lead to forces outside the range the aircraft can handle will cause airframe failures.

Barometric and radar altimeter

These set the altimeter to read either the height above sea level (barometric) or the height above the terrain (radar).

Autostab

Fly on fixed course

Ticking this option causes the autopilot to fly the aircraft towards the currently selected waypoint, or, to be more accurate, the currently selected NDB (Non-Directional Beacon). The sim world therefore has to contain one or more NDBs to use this feature. Changing the current NDB by means of the / and shift-/ commands automatically cause the aircraft to change course for the new NDB. It is up to the player to turn off this feature when the aircraft reaches the NDB otherwise it will just fly in circles around it.

This option can also be turned on and off by the Ctrl-A key.

Ground follow

The autopilot tries to keep the aircraft at the same altitude above the ground, climbing to avoid hills and mountains. Normally it will climb and then stay at the new altitude, only slowly descending to the old height. Ticking this option means that the aircraft will follow the terrain more closely. This can lead to something of a rollercoaster ride as the aircraft will climb over the smallest bump.

Fly at fixed altitude

The autopilot normally flies the aircraft at the same altitude it had when autostab was engaged. Ticking this option means that it will fly at the altitude set by the next option, 'Autostab altitude'.

Altitude

This sets the altitude at which the autopilot will fly the aircraft. It the the height above sea level, not the terrain. The aircraft will still climb to fly over obstacles but will then descend to the set height.

Sound

AI Aircraft

Active fighters

The computer-controlled aircraft follow preset flight paths refered to as 'paths'. There is an indicator at each waypoint on the path which says whether or not military aircraft act aggressively on that leg of the flight path or simply continue flying as normal. This applies to all types of aircraft except for fighters, which are normally aggressive, or active, at all times. This option changes this behaviour. If ticked, fighters are active all the time. If not ticked, they behave like other aircraft and are only aggressive on the 'active' part of their flight path unless they are attacked, in which case they fight back.

Other Options

Refuel on landing

In Fly 3.25 and later, you can only refuel, rearm and repair the aircraft if you land on a runway (a runway object) and come to a halt. Previous versions of Fly would do this wherever you landed, so you could land in a field and the aircraft would be instantly refueled. Ticking this option makes Fly revert to this behaviour.

Exit after crash

If 'Exit after crash' is ticked, the game ends if you crash or are shot down. You do not get the option to start again, which is what normally happens. (This is really for sims that have a front end program.)

The Conditions Dialogue

Flight Conditions

Time and date

The date and time can be set in the sim to representative values such as 'early morning' and 'May', or, alternative they can be set to the present date and time as supplied by the computer's clock. The lighting level will be set according to the time of day. Stars will be drawn at night.

Clouds

The cloud density varies from 'no clouds' to 'dense', although 'dense' is not really that dense. Clouds will only be drawn if the sim contains cloud shapes. The program complains if you set this to anything other than 'none' and there are none. It may take a while for the clouds to appear as they have to drift across on the wind.

Haze

The program simulates the effects of haze and this menu list lets you set just how hazy it is. It is more like fog when set to maximum.

Wind

Moon

Sim Conditions

FST Menu

Choices...

Clicking on this menu item displays the Choices dialogue box.

About

Clicking on this menu item shows an 'About' dialogue box.

Exit Simulation

This menu item provides an alternative way to exit from the game.

The Cockpit Shape

At present, the cockpit shape has to have the name COCKPIT.FSD and the same shape is used for all the aircraft the player can fly.

Notes on Designing the Cockpit Shape

• The shape can take any form, but one thing to be careful about is to not block the view out of the cockpit. The pilot's eye line corresponds to the Y coordinate in the shape being set to zero and so the top of the shape has to be below this. In the forward view, a maximum Y value of -0.5 metres is probably best.
• The cockit bitmap is drawn on top of cockpit shape when looking forwards so it is best to design a shape with no forward view unless care is taken to ensure that everything lines up with the cockpit bitmap.
• The size of the cockpit can be realistic.
• There is no point in having more than one level of shape.
• The cockpit shape cannot be textured at the moment.

Joystick Calibration on a PC

    Move stick to the top left then press a key

    Move stick to the bottom right then press a key

Note that it is not possible to request that the joystick be reconfigured. If the joystick starts to misbehave, the only option is to delete ALLEGRO.JOY and start from scratch.

Return to Contents

Joystick Calibration under RISC OS

Notes on Flying an Aircraft

Taxiing

Refuelling and Repairing an Aircraft

Command Line Options

The general format of the Fly command is:

Fly <world file name> <options>

where:

<world file name>

This is the name of the world file to use. The name of the file can be given here or after the option -w. It omitted it defaults to WORLD.FST.

<Options>

These are the command line options, described below. They are broken into three groups:

• Common Options
• Sim Environment Options
• Other Options

Common Options

Set screen size

This sets the screen size. The possibilities are:

-v3 or -s3

320 by 200, 256 colours

-v6 or -s6

640 by 480, 256 colours

-v8 or -s8

800 by 600, 256 colours

-v1 ot -s1

1024 by 768, 256 colours

It is also possible to start the game running in a window. Use -vw3, -vw6, -vw8 or -vw1 to do this.

-s can be used instead of -v for compatibility with old versions of Fly.

Choose player aircraft

It is possible to have more than one player aircraft in a simulation. This option gives the name of the player aircraft to use. It omitted it defaults to Player.

Specify world file

This allows the name of the world file to be given if the program is not to use the default of WORLD.FST. It is possible for more that one world file to be used; the program merges their contents.

Sim Environment Options

Set cloud density

The density can be between 1 and 4 with 1 the least dense and 4 the densest.

Do not recolour clouds

Clouds are normally recoloured using the horizon band colours. This option leaves the colours as specified in the shape files for special effects.

Set wind direction

This is the direction the wind is blowing and is the direction in degrees.

Set wind speed

This is the wind speed in knots.

Set wind gust strength

This can be between 1 and 3 with 1 as the weakest gusts and 3 the strongest.

Do not redraw sun and stars

These two options stop the program drawing the sun and the stars.

Set month and day

This is the date on which the simulation is supposed to take place. It is an integer number mmdd which gives the month and date, for example, -km1122 is the date November 22nd.

Set time

The -ktallows the time at which the simulation takes place to be specified. It is an integer number hhmm which gives the time in hours and minutes, for example, -kt1520 is 3.20 p.m.

Set latitude

The program allows the latitude at which the simulation take place to be specified (but not the longitude at present). The latitude is given in degrees with negative numbers for latitudes in the southern hemisphere, for example, -kl-35 set the latitude to 35 degrees south.

Other Options

Disable sound completely

Does what it says on the tin.

Do not use palette in cockpit bitmap

Normally the first sixteen colours in the cockpit bitmap palette overwrite the first sixteen colours in the simulation palette. This option stops this from happening. It can lead to some strange colour effects.

Do not warn if shape not found

Fly normally puts out a warning message each time it cannot find a shape file listed in the world file. It asks if a default should be used or whether it should halt. This command line flag stops this and the program automatically uses a default.

Do not display intro screens

Fly looks for two files, SFST.PCX and SINTROn.PCX. These are a title screen and a introduction to the simulation. This command line flag stops Fly looking for them.

Do not change screen resolution on startup

Fly will change the screen resolution when it starts a sim if the screen width is less than the width of the cockpit bitmap. This option stops it doing that.

Put out extra warnings

Fly normally only puts out a warning message if it cannot find a shape needed for a sim. With this option, it will put out warnings about other types of file as well, for example, aircraft model files.

Special Files

Name of menu file

The program normally looks for a file called menu or menu.cfg or for the sim preferences and so on. This option allows a file other that this to be used.

Name of alias file

The alias file contains a list of file names and the names that Fly should really use when looking for those files. The name of any file can be changed in this way. The main purpose of alias files is to make it easier to have simulations which have a number of different scenarios where the scenario is picked by means of a program that front ends Fly. It allows alternative shapes, palettes and so forth to be used.

Name of palette file

This allows the name of the palette file to be given. Normally the program will look for the file COLS.FCD or the one named in the file FST.FPJ. This option allows it to be given on the command line and takes precedence over any other.

File directory name

Fly normally writes files such as the score file to the directory that contains all of the other simulation files. This option allows files to be written elsewhere.

Other Flags

Change lighting

Fly varies the lighting level during the day if this option is specified.

Save screen grabs as BMP files

This option tells the Windows version of Fly to save screen grabs as BMP format files rather than PCX format. It has no effect in the RISC OS version.

Engine noise on

Start the game with the aircraft engine noise running (or once the engines have been started).

End immediately after player crashes

Quit the game when the player's aircraft crashes instead of displaying a dialogue box requesting whether to end or start again.