Improved virtual wind tunnel

[torn grotto]

Instead of a drag point UI that only shows drag distribution in perfect level flight,
a new virtual wind tunnel:

Allows player to set speed, altitude, craft attitude & any input slider

displays lift distribution, drag distribution, net force & net moment vector, also vector components on each craft axis

calculate actual center of lift by running in-flight physics so body lift is included
center of lift in pitch & yaw 2D plane should be displayed separately

potentially display flight envelope like min/max speed VS altitude, min turn radius, max G, max angular velocity, etc.

show warning if any component would disconnect from stress overload in the given flight condition

[mystic dove]

Just the the good ol' days

Of SP

[cobalt orbit]

This is pretty cool in concept, but it should be considered what kind of processing power it would take to do all of this.

You might be able to do some of this with very watered-down fluid simulation (I have seen one application that runs decently even on Core i3, but it's hardly refined), but beyond that would require users to have some more hefty processors/memory.

[mystic dove]

The first version of sp had one

[cobalt orbit]

SP1 doesn't use a whole fluid simulation system

It's much more rudimentary and performant in comparison, at the cost of accuracy

[torn grotto]

The drag simulation is certainly simplified as nose shape in game is important while tail doesn't need any smooth transition for low drag

[cobalt orbit]

Right, Unity just sort of estimates how much drag a part should have (very roughly) based on its dimensions and the parts around it

I did a fluid simulation on an SP craft a couple years ago
It was on the lowest software/hardware settings configuration for the site I was using, and it took 11 hours

[torn grotto]

Forgot to mention influence from inlet & engine, their own drag & drag on nearby parts should depend on engine's properties & throttle position

[lapis obsidian]

I think the suggestion is that you could simulate how a craft would behave in a given flight state, according to the game's physics -- not a CFD wind tunnel

[dark hawk]

like the old wind tunnel