Re: [Flightgear-devel] New Bugs at SourceForge

[Durk T. <d.t...@ch...>]

David Megginson wrote:
> 
> Curtis L. Olson writes:
> 
>  > Take a look at the comments.  I think having flightgear sync it's time
>  > to real time is a 'feature'.  Having real time stop when paused would
>  > disrupt this syncronization.  Thus, I'd prefer that the current
>  > behavior remain the default.

Okay, I hadn't seen the comments area yet. 
> 
> I disagree; I think that there are only two combinations that make
> sense:
> 
> 1. FlightGear remains sync'd to real-world time, and the FDM cannot be
>    paused.
> 
> 2. FlightGear is set to any arbitrary time (possibly real-world time
>    initially), and when the FDM is paused, the clock stops as well.
> 
> I don't think there is any value in staying synced with real-world
> time when the FDM is not progressing; what research or entertainment
> value comes from leaving the plane suspended in the air while the
> clock keeps going?  Note that when you save and restore a flight, it's
> the original time that's restored, not the current one.
> 

I agree with David on this topic. Personally, I had various reasons for
syncing simulator time with real-world time *during startup*:

1.) Sync local real-world/local simulated/local time. 
   - Usable to start a flight under similar
     lighting conditions as I see outside
   - start a Flight under similar conditions as outside, 
     but see the effect of rapidly moving east/west, or nort/south. 

2.) Sync simulated UTC with real-world/UTC. 
   - Useful to see what lighting conditions exist in a particular
     part of the world now!
   - Useful in future network / multiplayer scenarios, to make sure
     everybody is synced.

3.) Start a flight/scenario at a specified time/date. 
   - Important to rerreate historic flights. watch solar-eclipses,
     etc, etc/ 

However, after initialization, I don't really see any point in keeping
times syncronized. Whenever you freeze either time or flightmodel, any
synchonization between the way a plane would have moved in real-life and
the way it moves in FlightGear is lost. So, in my opinion, the least
damage is done anyhow, when you sync both FDM and time progression.

Regards,
Durk