Francois_Dumas Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 I know this is not AOPA's forum, but I thought to put this up here anyway. What you will see in the next few pictures is the world I fly over in the summer, and ride and drive through in al seasons..... part of the French Alps, including our own Méribel Valley... I hope you enjoy the flight with me...... Just took off from Chambéry Airport and heading north-east towards Grenoble and then (turning east) to Albertville. That's Albertville coming up, we'll turn right around the corner and head for the valley leading to Moûtiers and into the Tarentaise and its famous ski areas... Approaching Moûtiers and looking up towards Valmorel, one of the first ski resorts on our little trip.... By this time I got bored of the Cessna and hopped into the Maule. ready for take-off on the beautiful (and dangerous) Courchevel Airport, courtesy of LLH Creations ! What I like about the (early) Summer in the French Alps is that there are almost no tourists..... nice and quiet. Unfortunately that also means the restaurant is closed :-( When you take off from Courchevel you will find yourself 'below apartment level' ..... Flying over our house (yes, really), with my home 'altiport' Méribel on the left, perched on the slopes of the Dent de Burgin. Méribel ski resort down below and Mottaret at the end of the valley where the Vanoise National Park begins. Heading northwards, Moûtiers down below and looking towards Albertville.... below the left wing, that's our village !! Enough detail in spite of my lowly graphics card.. I can easily find my way following roads much traveled and mountains much hiked.... Some blurries when flying over Courchevel.... Flying east towards Bourg St. Maurice and the Mont Blanc .... which we can make visible in the sim. In real life there aren't many days she is not covered in clouds ! The long way up..... in the distance the Small St. Bernard Pass leading to Italy on the top ! Another view towards Italy, Mont Cenis Pass and its lake..... we passed the the Col de l'Iseran already, Europe's second highest pass.... Of course it is 100 times better to be there oneself and make photos..... but I find this is a nice alternative for those months we can't be there..... Hope you enjoyed the flight! Francois Link to comment
russell_bynum Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 It is amazing what they're doing with the graphics on sims these days. I remember the first time I played Flight Simulator (back then it was made by SubLogic, I think) on my Apple IIc. When FS95 came out, I thought, "Man...this is it...it can't get more realistic than this." Incredible. Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted February 4, 2008 Author Share Posted February 4, 2008 Yes, that was Flight simulator BEFORE Flight Simulator 1.0 If you want to indulge a bit in melancholic FS memeories, check this site: http://fshistory.simflight.com Cheers! Francois Link to comment
ghaverkamp Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Yes, that was Flight simulator BEFORE Flight Simulator 1.0 It was probably SubLogic FS2, given the //c vintage, which would have been after MS FS 1.0. (It's all covered in the site you provided.) I used to fly around in SubLogic FS1 on my ][+. It was one of a handful of free programs we got with our ridiculously expensive computer. I remember vividly that it came in a zip-lock bag with a thin, daisy-wheel-printed manual. Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted February 4, 2008 Author Share Posted February 4, 2008 Ah yes, the one Russell meant, you are right. I had FS1 as my first, early 1980, way before MS muscled in Link to comment
Mister Tee Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 What's interesting about the simulator technology is that already, it's being applied on synthetic vision displays coupled with GPS for real aircraft. Chelton has a 3D terrain display which shows crude graphics, similar to the first generation MS Flight Simulator, but these things will only get better. I learned to fly instruments using "steam gauges." The stuff they have out now is incredible. Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted February 4, 2008 Author Share Posted February 4, 2008 Yes. I think we're going to see amazing things in not too far a distance. Also Microsoft's new ESP program promises a lot of new things to come based on stuff you see in my pictures Link to comment
ghaverkamp Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Also Microsoft's new ESP program promises a lot of new things to come based on stuff you see in my pictures That does sound cool. We'll see the ground the way it will be. Link to comment
Joe Frickin' Friday Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 It is amazing what they're doing with the graphics on sims these days. Back when I got my first PC in '97, I read an interview with John Carmack, one of the evil geniuses behind the Quake video game series. He spoke of the rapid pace of development in the field of computer graphics capabilities, saying "In five to ten years, we will be able to do things that are truly reprehensible." The last video game I played through was Far Cry. I wouldn't call the gore "reprehensible," although the hyper-realism of the environments (grass waving in the wind, waves/ripples on the water, etc.) was really amazing, and my PC was able to render it all in at high resolution in high detail with a pretty smooth frame rate. That was in spring '06. Last fall I tried the demo for Crysis, a new game from the same company. My brand new PC was overwhelmed and struggled to display more than a couple of frames per second; characters' lips were still moving long after their dialogue had ended. Sounded like a fun game, but jeez, not if I have to buy all new hardware. Link to comment
russell_bynum Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 That was in spring '06. Last fall I tried the demo for Crysis, a new game from the same company. My brand new PC was overwhelmed and struggled to display more than a couple of frames per second; characters' lips were still moving long after their dialogue had ended. Sounded like a fun game, but jeez, not if I have to buy all new hardware. That's why I switched to a console for games. Yes, they're always coming out with new consoles, but at least I know I can buy an xBox 360 game and it will work on my xBox 360 without me having to go upgrade everything again. Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted February 5, 2008 Author Share Posted February 5, 2008 Yeah, same problem with the latest FS version, FSX. Too advanced for current (and near-future) hardware..... Link to comment
KrazyHorse Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 You're bringing back memories for me! My husband and I visited friends SW of Toulouse about 6 years ago. They were keeping there Stinson in the US, but decided to move it to France where they had recently moved (he is a Lufthansa Captain) but they kept it registered in the US, or something like that....and needed my husband to come over and do the annual. So we got to fly around that part of Pyrenees and see all kinds of awesome things. For the life of me I can't remember the names of any of the places, though I do have them written down in my scrap book at home. Two airports do stick out in my memory. One that was on the top of the mountain and sloped down, supposedly it was used in one of the James Bond films. That was something to fly in and out of! We also flew into a little town inside a valley. It was completely surrounded by huge mountains. Totally breathtaking, but I gotta admit kinda made me sort of claustraphobic. The mountain flying was just unreal. We had a blast and are hoping to go back when my son is a little older and can appreciate it more. Patti Link to comment
ESokoloff Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 Francois, thanks for the "spin around the block" Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted February 5, 2008 Author Share Posted February 5, 2008 Heh ! I've got a REAL one lined up too..... only need to find a few spare hours to tinker with my photos.... Link to comment
Hermes Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 Thanks for that Francois, for a moment I actually thought I am looking at photographs. I heard that MS FS is contemplating to include Google Earth for real life scenery, any truth to that? (also heard they already incorporate Google Earth in Streets & Trips??) Guess you would need a real fast 'puter for that and one heck of a bandwidth. BTW, the scenery you are showing, is it out of the box or is it additional scenery? One more thing, I enjoy playing your Run-ORF Ski Challenge, you got to love those flailing arms. Jurgen Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted February 6, 2008 Author Share Posted February 6, 2008 Thanks for that Francois, for a moment I actually thought I am looking at photographs. I heard that MS FS is contemplating to include Google Earth for real life scenery, any truth to that? (also heard they already incorporate Google Earth in Streets & Trips??) Guess you would need a real fast 'puter for that and one heck of a bandwidth. BTW, the scenery you are showing, is it out of the box or is it additional scenery? One more thing, I enjoy playing your Run-ORF Ski Challenge, you got to love those flailing arms. Jurgen Google Earth images (or from two other similar providers) canbe 'linked' into FS now, yes, but as a 'freeware' add-on made by someone else. The program that does that is called TileProxy. Requires a 'good bit of' bandwidth (and a fast PC with preferably lots of Gigs of extra disk space for caching). The scenery I show is add-on, made by a company called FranceVFR ( http://www.francevfr.com ). You can find their products (with English descriptions) on simMarket.com, here: http://secure.simmarket.com/default.php?manufacturers_id=172 (which is where we sell our products too). Heheh.... I ended up at the 15.020 th place on the World List with Ski Challenge... it was fun, but totally impossible to beat the screen kiddies that won it !!! Link to comment
too old to care Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 Great photos, thanks for sharing them. Nice place to be too. Link to comment
Whip Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 Thanks Dutchy.....that was fun!!!! Can ya take me on a tour of my choosin next time???? Say Torrey, so I can throw things out the window at Killer's house. Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted February 6, 2008 Author Share Posted February 6, 2008 Like this ???? Link to comment
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