[Iceman]

Seems like you'd have to put senors on a plane all over it like the are doing for modeling...and map it back to an in game model...but alas...still just a sim of a sim...not same as RL....I talked to a guy once who told me first time he submerged in an older sub that it sounded like it was going to crack apart or something...and I don't think you could simulate the pressure on your body or the cold like is in the deep...the other guys laughed at him he said ..teehehe..newb.

[Torgen]

CB, if I still had Rick Burgess's blog URL, I'd give it to you. He's the type that solves advanced physics equations as recreation. In fact, he's nuts about physics. He's also the lead programmer on WWIIOL's sim engine. Great reading if you're interested in the comprimises necessary to get a detailed flight engine working.

They model each part of the aircraft as it's own airfoil then put the parts together and let it react to the game environment as it will. They usually get pretty spot-on to RL wind tunnel data, and when they don't, they work at it (programming priorities permitting) until they get it right.

It's been 3 years since launch, and they're still tweaking the flight model, trying to get it to the highest possible fidelity. Been interesting seeing people scream for 3 years that they didn't get it right, when all they (the players) have is the memory of how other, table-based sims have done it, then are shown the flight envelopes of the models in the game and the RL info