Flight Unlimited II
Encyclopedia
Flight Unlimited II is a 1997 flight simulator
Flight simulator
A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and various aspects of the flight environment. This includes the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they react to applications of their controls and other aircraft systems, and how they react to the external...

 video game developed by Looking Glass Studios
Looking Glass Studios
Looking Glass Studios was a computer game development company during the 1990s.The company originally formed as Looking Glass Technologies, when Blue Sky Productions and Lerner Research merged....

 and published by Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive Ltd. is a British video game publisher and is a label of Square Enix Europe. As an independent company Eidos plc was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....

. The sequel to Flight Unlimited
Flight Unlimited
Flight Unlimited is a 1995 aerobatic flight simulator video game developed and published by Looking Glass Technologies. It allows players to pilot reproductions of real-world aircraft and to perform aerobatic maneuvers. They may fly freely, race through floating rings against a timer or take...

, it eschews its precessor's focus on aerobatics
Aerobatics
Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in normal flight. Aerobatics are performed in airplanes and gliders for training, recreation, entertainment and sport...

 in favor of general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...

. Photo-realistic 3D mesh terrain, real-time air traffic control
Air traffic control
Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...

 communications and a large amount of non-player-controlled air traffic are used to create a realistic flight environment. A series of flight lessons covers basic flight manoeuvres. Support for IFR flying and approach vectoring is included. Flight challenges provide "missions".

Flight Unlimited II was conceived soon after the release of Flight Unlimited. While the earlier game's designer, Seamus Blackley
Seamus Blackley
Seamus Blackley is a former agent with Creative Artists Agency representing video game creators.After entering Tufts University to study jazz piano, Blackley switched to study physics and graduated Summa cum Honore en Tesis. As a sophomore, he published his first paper in the Journal of Magnetic...

, had wanted to create a combat-oriented sequel, he was fired after disagreeing with a manager who wanted a more direct sequel. The game was instead designed by Constantine Hantzopoulos, and Blackley's computational fluid dynamics
Computational fluid dynamics
Computational fluid dynamics, usually abbreviated as CFD, is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical methods and algorithms to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate the interaction of liquids and gases with...

 simulation from the previous game, which was too complex to reproduce without his help, was replaced by a simpler "force-based" system. Its "ZOAR" engine was created by programmer James Fleming.

The game was followed by Flight Unlimited III
Flight Unlimited III
Flight Unlimited III is a 1999 flight simulator video game developed Looking Glass Studios and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to Flight Unlimited and Flight Unlimited II. The game includes ten user-flyable aircraft in total, and several new features...

. A fourth, combat oriented game based on the ZOAR engine used in the third and second games, called Flight Combat: Thunder Over Europe, was in development when Looking Glass folded. It went on to become Jane's Attack Squadron
Jane's Attack Squadron
Jane's Attack Squadron is a World War II flight simulator computer game for the PC. It was created by Looking Glass Studios, then finished by Mad Doc Software. It was published by Xicat Interactive, Inc.. It was released in the North America on March 22, 2002.-Gameplay:In Jane's Attack Squadron,...

, which was released in 2002.

Gameplay

Like its predecessor Flight Unlimited
Flight Unlimited
Flight Unlimited is a 1995 aerobatic flight simulator video game developed and published by Looking Glass Technologies. It allows players to pilot reproductions of real-world aircraft and to perform aerobatic maneuvers. They may fly freely, race through floating rings against a timer or take...

, Flight Unlimited II is a flight simulator
Flight simulator
A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and various aspects of the flight environment. This includes the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they react to applications of their controls and other aircraft systems, and how they react to the external...

 video game: its gameplay is a simulation of piloting real-world airplanes. As with its predecessot, between flying sessions most functions are accessed via an FBO
Fixed base operator
A Fixed-base operator or commonly abbreviated FBO is a term developed in the United States after the passage of the Air Commerce Act of 1926...

 screen representing the inside of a small building. However, this interface is two-dimensional, as opposed to the traversible 3D rooms of the first game. The main cockpit interface is also two-dimensional, allowing mouse control of the radio stack, landing gear, OBS knob, external lights, and throttles. It is viewable in two forms: IFR
Instrument flight rules
Instrument flight rules are one of two sets of regulations governing all aspects of civil aviation aircraft operations; the other are visual flight rules ....

 (full instrumentation) and VFR
Visual flight rules
Visual flight rules are a set of regulations which allow a pilot to operate an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better than basic VFR weather minimums, as specified in the rules of the...

. In the VFR view, only the top instruments are visible, and more of the view outside the windshield is visible. There is also a 3D cockpit mode.

The game is played in the region of the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

, with approximately 13,400 square nautical miles, or 46,000 square kilometers of area covered. Most landforms such as mountains, hills, valleys, and other changes in land height are modelled from geographical data on the region. Most of the buildings, such as houses, are nothing more than flat textures, but some special objects and landmarks, such as bridges, stadiums, etc. are modelled. Some "ordinary" buildings are modelled, but only those over ten stories (according to the back cover of the game box). Unlike the first game, this game does not have a recording feature.

There are 6 flyable planes: the Piper Arrow
Piper Cherokee
The Piper PA-28 Cherokee is a family of light aircraft designed for flight training, air taxi, and personal use. It is built by Piper Aircraft....

, Beechcraft Baron
Beechcraft Baron
|-See also:- Further reading :*Harding, Stephen. U.S. Army Aircraft Since 1947. Shrewsbury, UK:Airlife Publishing, 1990. ISBN 1-85310-102-8.*Michell, Simon. Jane's Civil and Military Aircraft Upgrades 1994-95. Coulsdon, UK:Jane's Information Group, 1994. ISBN 0-7106-1208-7.*Taylor, John W. R....

, De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver
De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver
The de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver is a single-engined, high-wing, propeller-driven, STOL aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, primarily known as a bush plane. It is used for cargo and passenger hauling, aerial application , and has been widely adopted by armed forces as a utility aircraft...

 seaplane, Fokker Dr.I
Fokker Dr.I
The Fokker Dr.I Dreidecker was a World War I fighter aircraft built by Fokker-Flugzeugwerke. The Dr.I saw widespread service in the spring of 1918...

 triplane (provided by a patch), P-51D Mustang
P-51 Mustang
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and in several other conflicts...

 and Trainer 172
Cessna 172
The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is a four-seat, single-engine, high-wing fixed-wing aircraft. First flown in 1955 and still in production, more Cessna 172s have been built than any other aircraft.-Design and development:...

. All player controlled aircraft have callsigns ending with Lima Golf (LG), for Looking Glass. There are also many other aircraft controlled by the computer, ranging from the flyable ones (except the Fokker), to larger corporate jets, passenger jets, military transports, and (off-duty) fighter craft. These aircraft fly on their own flightpaths around the map and can be the focus of view of the player. The player can be affected by jet-wash from large planes. Most of the larger commercial aircraft have several different skins representing differing companies, several of which parody real airlines. The game allows players to take off from and land on water with a seaplane. The Beaver can land almost anywhere there is water. There are three maritime airfields in the game, for seaplane use only. The AI controlled Beavers do not use the maritime airfields.

Systems

Players can set the plane starting point, time of day, rough wind speed, rough wind direction, cloud height, haze, fog and rain. However, the weather system is universal, and does not change over time. The same weather effects will be present throughout the map, throughout play, varying only by height above sea level. Players can set up complex flight plans to aid in navigation, though these are purely optional. The game has pre-scripted missions, often with individual settings and events. These vary greatly, from challenges involving maneuvering and navigation, to sudden system failures, to night missions, strong weather, or a combination. Details of some missions make humorous references to various games or movies, using parodical names, such as Boston Flowers (Austin Powers
Austin Powers (film series)
The Austin Powers series is a series of action-comedy films written by and starring Mike Myers as the title character, directed by Jay Roach and distributed by New Line Cinema...

), or Mox Fulder (Fox Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...

). Several more missions are added by a patch.

The game features a fully functional air traffic control
Air traffic control
Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...

 system, with the busiest airfields having some form of control tower, ground control and ATIS
Automatic Terminal Information Service
Automatic Terminal Information Service, or ATIS, is a continuous broadcast of recorded noncontrol information in busier terminal areas. ATIS broadcasts contain essential information, such as weather information, which runways are active, available approaches, and any other information required by...

 systems, each accessible via different radio frequencies. Various uncontrolled airfields may have only a UNICOM
Unicom
Unicom may refer to:* UNiCOM, or [UNiCOM] photo, UK based News & Sports Photography Agency* UNICOM, or Universal Communications, air-ground communication facility*China Unicom, telecommunication operator in China...

 frequency shared with some other airfields. Private and maritime airfields have no radio at all. There are also three radar approach controllers, who can give vectors direct guidance, vectors ILS
Instrument Landing System
An instrument landing system is a ground-based instrument approach system that provides precision guidance to an aircraft approaching and landing on a runway, using a combination of radio signals and, in many cases, high-intensity lighting arrays to enable a safe landing during instrument...

 guidance (with the official patch installed), and airport status advisories. The player can also utilise VOR
VHF omnidirectional range
VOR, short for VHF omnidirectional radio range, is a type of radio navigation system for aircraft. A VOR ground station broadcasts a VHF radio composite signal including the station's identifier, voice , and navigation signal. The identifier is typically a two- or three-letter string in Morse code...

/DME
Distance Measuring Equipment
Distance measuring equipment is a transponder-based radio navigation technology that measures distance by timing the propagation delay of VHF or UHF radio signals....

 systems for navigation. Players can contact the radio facilities for a variety of services and information. They have to share these facilities, however, as the many computer aircraft also make use of the system. The game also features Pilot Controlled Lighting
Pilot Controlled Lighting
Pilot Controlled Lighting , also known as Aircraft Radio Control of Aerodrome Lighting or Pilot Activated Lighting , is a system which allows aircraft pilots to control the lighting of an airport or airfield's approach lights, runway edge lights, and taxiways via radio. At some airfields, the...

. At certain uncontrolled airports, the player can dial in the appropriate frequency on their radio, and press a button to broadcast a series of clicks to activate or increase the runway and taxiway lighting intensity. AI controlled craft also make use of the system. Depending on installation choices, there are up to six different voices used by pilots; four male, two female. The player chooses one, the AI controlled planes use the rest. There are four separate voices, for UNICOM, tower, ground, and radar controllers respectively.

The damage system is more sophisticated than the previous game. Unlike the first game, the plane does not simply break into many pieces when it crashes or the airframe breaks under strain. Instead, when the plane structure breaks, it will break appropriately. However, it will only break into four pieces at maximum (front, tail and both wings). This game can also simulate engine and equipment failures. Using the flaps at high speeds can cause them to become stuck in their current position. The left and right wheels of the landing gear on the Baron, Mustang and Arrow can be crushed individually (or both at once) by landing too hard.

Development

Flight Unlimited II was created by Looking Glass Studios
Looking Glass Studios
Looking Glass Studios was a computer game development company during the 1990s.The company originally formed as Looking Glass Technologies, when Blue Sky Productions and Lerner Research merged....

, and its development was led by Constantine Hantzopoulos, a designer for the original Flight Unlimited
Flight Unlimited
Flight Unlimited is a 1995 aerobatic flight simulator video game developed and published by Looking Glass Technologies. It allows players to pilot reproductions of real-world aircraft and to perform aerobatic maneuvers. They may fly freely, race through floating rings against a timer or take...

. Hantzopoulos assumed the higher position after the first game's project leader, Seamus Blackley
Seamus Blackley
Seamus Blackley is a former agent with Creative Artists Agency representing video game creators.After entering Tufts University to study jazz piano, Blackley switched to study physics and graduated Summa cum Honore en Tesis. As a sophomore, he published his first paper in the Journal of Magnetic...

, was fired by a new manager who disagreed with Blackley's plan to create an air combat title rather than a direct sequel. Although Flight Unlimited had been based on aerobatics
Aerobatics
Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in normal flight. Aerobatics are performed in airplanes and gliders for training, recreation, entertainment and sport...

, Flight Unlimited IIs focus was changed to general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...

, as with the Microsoft Flight Simulator
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Microsoft Flight Simulator is a series of flight simulator programs for the Microsoft Windows operating system, although it was marketed as a video game. It is one of the longest-running, best-known and most comprehensive home flight simulator series...

series.

The game's technology was rewritten from scratch, with a new renderer, ZOAR, coded by programmer James Fleming. Hantzopoulos stated that Blackley "impressed upon me the importance of that visceral feel of actually flying", but, because of his departure, the physics code had to be completely redone. Blackley's advanced computational fluid dynamics
Computational fluid dynamics
Computational fluid dynamics, usually abbreviated as CFD, is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical methods and algorithms to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate the interaction of liquids and gases with...

 simulation—which, according to Hantzopoulos, was "all black box spaghetti code"—could not be reproduced. Instead, the team used a "force-based flight model" created by programmer Jim Berry, who had previously worked on Falcon 4.0
Falcon 4.0
Falcon 4.0 is an air combat simulation originally released on December 12, 1998 by MicroProse. It is a realistic simulation of the Block 50/52 F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighter in a full scale modern war set in the Korean Peninsula. Falcon 4.0s dynamic campaign engine runs autonomously...

, among others. Multiplayer features were planned, but were cut before release. A patch was planned to introduce them.

The game's terrain textures were derived from black and white USGS aerial photographs taken in 1993, which were then colourised. The textures used approximate to 4 metres per pixel. According to the manual, it was the first game with terrain detailed enough to allow for Dead reckoning
Dead reckoning
In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating one's current position by using a previously determined position, or fix, and advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds over elapsed time, and course...

 navigation. Some out-of-the-way areas use mirrored textures and terrain, but this was presumably for areas the aerial photographs did not cover. AI-controlled planes use lower detailed models than the player aircraft, without any moving parts (such as propellors or control surfaces).

Reception

The game received mostly positive reviews from critics. Stephen Poole of PC Gamer US stated the game's predecessor's limited environments did not create a believable flight experience, but wrote, "However, with its exquisite terrain, impressive flight-physics models, and meticulous attention to the details and procedures of civilian aviation, Flight Unlimited II now offers the closest experience to actual flight that you can get on a PC." He praised its air-traffic communication system, which he believed was "so real that it’s almost scary". He summarized, "Flight Unlimited II is so impressive that to even whine about little details shows a shortsightedness that’s all too common amongst us gamers."http://web.archive.org/web/20000229144056/www.pcgamer.com/reviews/444.html

John Nolan of Computer Games Magazine
Computer Games Magazine
Computer Games Magazine was a computer gaming print magazine. It was formerly Computer Games Strategy Plus, and before that, Strategy Plus, which had been founded as Games International in the UK in 1988. While its initial focus was on strategy games, it covered a wide range of game genres...

stated that, with the new flight model, "The results are generally good, although there are some questionable areas." However, he believed that, "All in all, the flight model is more than adequate for the task at hand, which is to immerse you in the experience of general aviation." He praised the graphics and air-traffic communication, but noted AI glitches with the latter. He summarized, "Overall, this simulation is somewhat above average".http://web.archive.org/web/20030704222714/www.cdmag.com/articles/009/191/flight_unlimited_2_review.html Denny Atkin of Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World
Computer Gaming World was a computer game magazine founded in 1981 by Russell Sipe as a bimonthly publication. Early issues were typically 40-50 pages in length, written in a newsletter style, including submissions by game designers such as Joel Billings , Dan Bunten , and Chris Crawford...

also praised the game's air communications, stating that it drastically increased realism and immersion. However, he noted the game's limited terrain size, and stated that, while its flight physics were "fairly good", they were "not up to the level of Flight Simulator 98". He summarized that game as "a must-have for any general-aviation enthusiast."http://web.archive.org/web/20000816005540/www.gamespot.com/simulation/flight2/review_cgw.html

External links

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