Commodity flight simulation: a SWOT analysis

Description/Abstract

The development of commodity flight simulation, in the form of PC game technology, continues to advance at a rapid pace. Indeed, the software industry is now being driven primarily by the requirements of gaming, digital media, and other entertainment applications. This has largely been due to the commoditisation of computer hardware, which is apparent when considering recent trends in CPU and graphics processor development. The Flight Simulation industry has benefited from this trend of hardware commoditisation, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. In this paper we present a SWOT (Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) analysis of the commodity flight simulation software industry, including flight modeling, scenery generation, multiplayer technology, artificial intelligence, mission planning, and event handling. Issues such as data portability, economics, licensing, intellectual property, interoperability, developer extensibility, robustness, qualification, and maintainability are addressed.

Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX) is used as a case study of how a commodity flight simulator has been extended to include extensive programmatic access to its core engine. Examples will be given on how the base platform of this application can be extended by third party developers and the power this extensibility model provides to the industry.

This paper is presented to highlight particular technology trends in the commodity flight simulation industry, the fidelity that commodity flight simulations can provide, and to provide a high-level overview of the strengths and weaknesses thereof.