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The unofficial Google Earth Flight Simulator gets a new home and a slew of enhancements

April 9, 2012

Late in 2010 we told you about Xavier Tassin’s excellent GE Flight Simulator, a remarkable flight sim that is powered by the Google Earth Plugin. The name has recently been changed to “GEFS Online” and he’s added a ton of new features.

flight.jpg

The new features include:
• Dynamic suspension on all aircraft
• Runway lighting at night
• Concorde, Cessna 152 and Zlin 50
• Aircraft lights
• An aircraft carrier you can take-off from and land onto.
• Reworked flight models – prop wash
• Reworked multiplayer
• Mach indicator
• Flight Path utility in map (thanks to Gustav)
• Gear, flaps, brakes and spoiler indicators
• Smoke effects on touch down
• Multimonitor support (experimental)
• Performance and stability improvements
We had high praise for the game when it first game out in late 2010, and with this update it’s become even better. The multiplayer mode is amazing -you can see other players flying around with you in real-time. Fortunately, there is no collision detection with other planes, so you can literally fly through each other. This is a wise move, as it makes it impossible for other players to disrupt your flight. However, it does have collision detection on buildings, so fly carefully!
multiplayer.jpg

I also spent some time playing with the experimental multimonitor mode, which worked quite well. It was very similar to the fluid nebula experience (also created by Xavier). The game didn’t run particularly smoothly when going full-screen on all three monitors, but that’s to be expected when you’re trying to run three instances of the Google Earth Plug-in, each with 3D buildings and trees.
All in all, I’m incredibly impressed with this update. If you have any interest in flight simulators at all, you need to head over to gefs-online right now and give it a try. Great work, Xavier!

About Mickey Mellen

Mickey has been using Google Earth since it was released in 2005, and has created a variety of geo-related sites including Google Earth Hacks. He runs a web design firm in Marietta, GA, where he lives with his wife and two kids.

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Filed Under: 3D Models, Flying, GE Plugin, Sightseeing

Reader Interactions






PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.

Comments

  1. Job says

    May 5, 2012 at 2:57 pm

    How do you chat on gefs if your chat is on

  2. pete lutz says

    May 6, 2012 at 8:23 am

    how do u see the plane from the outside in flight simulator like in ms flight sim x??? thanx,pete

  3. Al Wittich says

    May 18, 2012 at 7:22 pm

    GREAT!

  4. Bob Marko says

    July 9, 2012 at 5:35 pm

    Add the Boeing 747-8 intercontinental in its prototype livery like the one in this picture to get a picture copy and paste the link below into the address bar.
    http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/yCEnaexYs7v/Boeing+747+8+Intercontinental+Aircraft+Makes/OTG86nHWSRy

  5. doo doo says

    July 21, 2012 at 11:46 pm

    add the new boeing 747-8 in the livery shown at this link
    http://thepop.wikispaces.com/747

  6. Andee Bax says

    August 1, 2012 at 6:14 pm

    add theadd the boeing 747-8 in the livery shown in the link below
    http://thepop.wikispaces.com/747
    add it in the livery shown in the picture.

  7. paul says

    October 4, 2012 at 11:31 pm

    My malware protection program detected a threat. I immediately aborted. FYI

  8. Best Freeware FSX says

    October 11, 2012 at 12:24 pm

    Can you use a control stick with GEFS or is it a keyboard only sim. I have seen some great shots of GE I hope that it evolves.

  9. Diego says

    January 2, 2013 at 12:33 pm

    The browser plug-in Google-Earth for Linux isn’t available yet!

  10. Christopher says

    February 7, 2013 at 11:29 am

    Add the new 747-8 as shown in this picture.
    http://www.boeing.com

  11. Jose Carvalho says

    April 3, 2013 at 6:41 pm

    Great job! The plugin works pretty well. Two questions:
    1. is it possible to get an image snapshot, and then save it in a file?
    2. is it possible to set the airplane actuators by sending commands from another SW application (instead from a mouse or joystick)?
    My idea is to use the GE Flight sim. to validate an autopilot.

  12. Mike says

    July 19, 2014 at 11:42 am

    Is it possible to add à third plane in the “choose your plane” bord?



PLEASE NOTE: Google Earth Blog is no longer writing regular posts. As a result, we are not accepting new comments or questions about Google Earth. If you have a question, use the official Google Earth and Maps Forums or the Google Earth Community Forums.

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