They removed the crash system in FS2004 but it was easy to re-enable by adding the line: visual_damage=1 to the aircraft.cfg file. The settings for crash detection would then allow a wing to be torn off and a flip, flaming crash if you hit a building, tree or other aircraft.
Wow. I have both FS2004 and FSX and did not know about that feature to FS2004. Can you add that line anywhere to an aircraft .cfg file, or does it need to go in a specific place? I want to try this out.
In FSX you can still hit the building but it wont invoke any visual damage to the aircraft and have it spin burning to the ground. The sim just stops dead at the point of contact.
I don't care about buildings but what is WRONG with this is if I slightly clip a tree branch at a GA airfield in the mountains, that clip SHOULD NOT STOP THE SIM DEAD. If its a clip it should damage the aircraft allowing me to attempt putting it down. Furthermore if I tag another plane in taxi or clip one with my wheels in a situation like we discussed earlier, I SHOULD KNOW IT.
I can only imagine that programming for realistic damage would be one of the most mind-bendingly impossible challenges one could undertake. I have seen real-life examples of a Cessna spin off and crash from clipping a tree during take-off. And yet, there are other instances of aircraft flying back to an airport and landing after sustaining horrific damage. I cannot remember the two aircraft involved in specific (one was an Embraer and the other was a Boeing, I believe), but two aircraft collided in Brazil and one flew safely back to the airport to land while the other was crippled and crashed. And it was the larger of the two aircraft that crashed. Of course, their have been aircraft that have also survived explosive decompression and partial hull loss.
Everything from fires to fuel leaks to decompression to hydraulic loss to hull damage . . . they would all be fascinating features to add to FSX to improve upon realism, but the variables involved would be astronomical.
That being said . . .
There should be some elementary physics that govern aircraft interaction with the virtual world. Flying through buildings and other aircraft should be a no-no, while clipping that azalea near your workplace while doing a fly-by shouldn't result in an immediate crash.
What surprises me is that people are having both experiences. I would have thought it would be all one or the either; either you go through everything like a ghost or contact with anything and everything would make you crash.
I will have to explore this and play around with the settings a bit to see what happens. Until I popped into this thread, I had not known about these realism issues with FSX (just got the game on vacation about three weeks ago). All I ever fly in FSX are the Cessnas, and this out in the middle of nowhere from sparesly-used airports. Buildings and AI traffic have yet to be an issue for me. But, I want to find out more.
If the overall measure of realism has actually decreased from FS2004 to FSX, that would truly be a shame.
