YS Flight Simulation System 2000

YS Flight is a freeware flight simulation programmed by Soji Yamakawa, a staff member of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. The simulation is popularly referred to as YS, and was originally called YS Flight Simulation System 2000, until a name change by the author in 2008 to simply YS Flight Simulator. The program is compatible with Linux, Mac, and Windows. In 2001, it won a Japanese software award.
The simulation includes a broad selection of types of aircraft, which is greatly expanded by unofficial vehicle add-ons. Planes range from historic models, through to small, modern fighter jets and full size passenger jets. The quantity and quality of available aircraft and sceneries is greatly expanded by user-created free modifications, which are relatively easy to produce since the program was also designed "for... 3D graphics programmers".
As of version 20090601, released on 3 July 2009, the main package of YS Flight includes three versions, each utilizing a different graphics API for rendering the 3D graphics: non-OpenGL, OpenGL, and DirectX.
Game play
YS Flight can be played as either solo play on a single computer, or as online play connecting to a server (a computer running YS Flight in server mode) either through a LAN or the Internet.
There are various different game modes, either based on standard flight simulation, or involving combat. The non-combat sections of the game involve open ended play with no fixed objective. The user may also to choose to fly accompanied by computer controlled wingmen or other players via a network. In this mode, players can mimic aerobatic teams by flying in advanced formations. It is possible to fly an aerobatic routine, save this flight, and then choose a different plane and fly in formation with your (earlier recorded) aircraft. Another mode requires the player to successfully perform a landing in variable weather conditions.
Combat in the game is usually based around more specific objectives. These include defending airbases and surviving waves of enemy aircraft. Less structured combat modes involve one-on-one dogfights, and fights between several combatants. These modes can also be played with human opponents and allies via a network.
Before each flight the user has the option to change the weapons load of the aircraft. Unlike more realistic combat flight simulators (such as Falcon 4.0 or Lock On: Modern Air Combat), YS Flight uses generic weapon types (e.g. air to air missiles, iron bombs) and does not differentiate between different models of the same type of weapons, both from a visual and performance perspective.
Certain aircraft also feature gun turrets that are either controlled by the user, or controlled by the computer.
The scenery which the user flies in may also include SAM sites or
anti-aircraft guns that attack the user's aircraft. These anti-aircraft artillery can also be deactivated by the user and shoot these ground units at the player's will without being hit.
The program can also be used in a network environment, whereas one user can set up the program to run as a server while other users of the program can then connect to it as a client via a LAN connection or through the Internet. This way a user can fly in the presence of other human users instead of AI-controlled aircraft.
If another player has dowloaded an unofficial modifcation to the game in the form of extra planes and another player does not have the said installed extras he will see grey aircraft which are extremely low detailed and are the most basic shape.There are three of these one looks like a propeller plane without a propeller,One looks like a fighter aircraft and one is a box with a stick sticking out of one side and a rotor on the top to make it look like a helicopter.Any of these can be shown depending one what the aircraft you can't see is a heli,civil airplane or a fighter jet.
Aircraft
There are 80+ airplanes in YS Flight version 20090601 including the Concorde, Boeing 747, F-18C Blue Angels, which are catagorized into several different catagories. A variety of World War II era aircraft are also available. It is possible to (unofficially) install add-ons for the game, commonly in the form of maps and planes. Maps are able to be made through the release of an official map editing program.
Reception
Some reviews have criticized YS Flight for the low quality of the stock aircraft and limited realism, particularly the way the game simulates physics and flight dynamics, noting that ground effect, rudder control, and stalls are not realistic. Other game reviewers, such as David Jordan, have also applauded these characteristics because of YS Flight's simplicity and efficiency on low-end computers. In 2009, YS Flight received the Editors' Choice Award from PCFreunde.de, a German-language software website where YS Flight has an 81% rating from users and 90% from the editors.
Community
The communities of the YS Flight regular users is notably split between the English and Japanese language groups. Nonetheless, these groups are cooperative and both form the crucial repository of user-made YSF content. Both of these communities are located in different forums and websites. The English community is mainly based around the forum YSF HQ, with most western traffic occurring there and Soji Yamakawa supporting the forum via a link on his main website. The Japanese community is slightly less centred, but does have its current roots in websites such as raptor.ddo.jp and . Communication between the two communities is not frequent due to the language barrier, but both communities do pay attention to the other's work.Both commuties have virtual millitary or civillian groups.All work almost exactly like real squadrons or VA's.

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See Also

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