Simviation Forums

Hello, old friends!
I haven't been around this place in ages, nice to see it still looks and feels the same
Anyways...

What began as a pair of teens making a 737 for FS2004 back in the day, escalated into two careers in game development. One of which, brought us Kerbals and sent them (mostly) to space. The other one, since last year, has been working hard on this:

MotorWings is a flight sim where you build your own airplane. It is currently free to play in a very early access stage.

Among fellow simviators, I find the whole concept can be easily explained, with accurate sub-textual implications, as: Kerbal Space Program + Crimson Skies.

There's more to it than that, of course, such as the planned RPG-esque crews&careers based gameplay, that will eventually wrap around the build-your-airplane sandbox core and turn the whole thing into a compelling gaming experience.

Naturally, since as of yet I am working basically all alone on the whole thing, I have taken a sandbox-first approach to development and intend to build up the game by layers, like the airspace around a class B airport or say, like an onion... Each update will bring more and more into the game, while the fundamental elements become playable very early in the process, then evolve by cycles of attention over each periodic release.


These are some features already implemented:

* Realistic flight model. "Open State Parametric Airflow Simulation" works out airflow around each part and their effects on each other.
* Physics based simulation, based on Unity3d's built-in PhysX platform (same setup as KSP)
* 1000km² of Procedurally generated terrain to play around in.
* Various parts to assemble your planes with. Wings can be reshaped by tweakable settings.
* Mouse-and-Keyboard accessible controls, Joystick support coming soon.
* A vast array of upcoming features planned for ongoing development. See: Feature Gallery

At this time, the game can be played for free, no strings attached. This is so that we can build up a community of players around it for support as development unfolds.

So enjoy! And tell your fellow airmen about it. This is a brand new flight simulator in its infancy. I hope to be able to make it into a self-sustaining endeavor.


Download and Start Flying


Cheers!

Wow! This looks like quite a project.

I'm downloading it now. Looking forward to trying it.

Great to see you back on the forum.

Wow sounds quite a project!
Great to see you again Moach!

Me too downloading now

++++++++++++
Edit: I must be missing something. I click download and nothing happens

Edit 2: OK it worked when I clicked open link in new window

First impressions after a quick try:

This will take some getting used to without joystick support. I've never flown any sim using just keyboard or mouse. Learning the unfamiliar key commands will take me a while.

Unless I'm missing something there is no obvious way to exit the sim or toggle from Full Screen mode. The usual commands didn't work. I had to use the 3-finger salute to bring up the Task Manager.

Anyway, it's an interesting project so keep up the good work. I wish you luck.

Yeah, I haven't gotten around making a proper main menu where you can go in and out of the hangar or flight modes - Normally you should be able to exit by alt+f4, but I found that recently the game seems to prefer to hang and crash instead of shutting down quietly... I couldn't tell if it was just my PC doing it though, so it'd be nice to see if everyone's getting that every time or it's just a random nuisance now and then.

Either way, it's somewhat a relief that this is the biggest issue you've found right up front - there were just so many bugs and things that could randomly come apart that it's kinda incredible the whole thing even works...
To be fair, even though I got a pretty good understanding of how computers essentially work, it still amazes me that something as mind-bogglingly intricate as a PC can somehow work at all


I wonder why it crashes on exiting.... something to puzzle over a bit, indeed.

On the bright side, during shutdown is really the least inconvenient time any program could choose to stop working.

I figured out the exit problem. Pressing the Windows key (if you have one) should minimise the sim to the Taskbar. You can then exit or restart it from there.
No problem with it crashing.

So, quick update:

New build just up!

Just added trees that you can fly around and crash into.

Hey, everyone!


New build today!


Now you can use your joystick(s) to fly your glorious/infamous creations around!

It also includes the plane in the picture above, the Hellcaster Sovereign

And I've fixed a bunch of weird bugs that were making the drag model act all weird (basically, induced drag was acting backwards - it's correct now)



Get it while it's hot!

Looks like fun, will download it and try it out later.

Now you can use your joystick(s) to fly your glorious/infamous creations around!

This is what I've been waiting for.

Sadly it doesn't recognise my trusty Sidewinder Precision Pro.

New stuff!


]

see https://www.motorwings.net/updates for details and download link!


Also, now the game has its own original soundtrack too! I composed it myself, and found that writing orchestral music isn't really difficult, the problem is just getting them all to fit in your room... (J/K, it's MIDI and samplers alright)

Looking great! As long as you can turn that music off! Nothing against your music but I like engine sounds when flying.

Impressive looking!

Glad you like it!

And no worries, I also strongly believe the only music a pilot needs while flying is the one long note played by his engines. Soundtrack is gonna be only for menus and such, just for setting the mood and all; You should find that it already works that way. (If not, then you might have found a new bug)

Just a sneak peek at what's coming up next