Po-Han Huang's Flight Simulator

Instructions: (Click anywhere to close this page)

Goal: Fly over the mountains and land on the runway on the other side.
Operations: (The keys inside parenthesis are for the left-handed.)
- Use the mouse on the thrust slider to control thrust force (moving forward).
  (Thrust can also be controlled with keys X (L) and Z (K))
- Press Up-arrow (W) and Down-arrow (S) to control Pitch. It only works when the speed is sufficiently fast to overcome gravity.
- Press Left-arrow (A) and Right-arrow (D) to control Roll. It only works in the air. When the plane is on the ground, Yaw (Direction) is changed instead.
- Press C (J) or click on the Toggle Reverse button to enable reverse thrust (used to decelerate after landing).
- Press R to restart.
Useful hints:
- At takeoff:
  1. Use full thrust (100%). Hold "Up-arrow (W)" key until the plane finally leaves the ground.
  2. Control the Pitch to be about +20 deg. Climb to height at about 5000 ft.
  3. Make a big U-turn by adjusting Roll, and you'll see the beautiful mountains.
- In the air:
  1. Reduce the thrust such that the velocity is around 200 knots. (This is the steady state.)
  2. Adjust Pitch to get to desired Height. Be aware not to hit the mountains.
  3. Right after you pass the mountains, start decreasing hieght and speed to prepare for landing.
- Landing:
  1. Make a big U-turn again. Aim the runway from afar.
  2. Decrease height by keeping Pitch at about -10 deg.
  3. When the height is close to zero, control Pitch at around 0 deg carefully so that you don't crash into the ocean. If you find that you cannot lift the pitch, that means your airspeed is too slow. (140-160 knots are good values.)
  4. If you touch the gorund too hard or with large pitch or roll, you will crash.
- After touchdown:
  1. Make the thrust -100% to decelerate.
  2. Control direction so that you don't crash into the mountains.
  3. It's fine if you don't land exactly on the runway. You can cruise to runway after deceleration.
  4. The winning condition is such that you stop on the runway.

Finally, practice makes perfect!

attribute vec3 aVertexPosition; attribute vec3 aVertexColor; attribute vec3 aVertexNormal; uniform mat4 uPMatrix; uniform mat4 uMVMatrix; uniform vec3 uViewOrigin; uniform vec3 uLightDirection; uniform vec3 uAmbientLight; uniform vec3 uDiffuseLight; uniform vec3 uSpecularLight; const float shininess = 12.0; varying vec4 vColor; void main(void) { gl_Position = uPMatrix * uMVMatrix * vec4(aVertexPosition, 1.0); vec3 normalizedLightDirection = normalize(uLightDirection); vec3 vectorReflection = normalize( reflect(-normalizedLightDirection, aVertexNormal) ); vec3 vectorView = normalize( uViewOrigin - aVertexPosition ); float diffuseLightWeighting = max( dot(aVertexNormal, normalizedLightDirection), 0.0 ); float specularLightWeighting = pow( max( dot(vectorReflection, vectorView), 0.0), shininess ); vColor= vec4( ( uAmbientLight * aVertexColor) + ((uDiffuseLight * aVertexColor) * diffuseLightWeighting) + ( uSpecularLight * specularLightWeighting), 1.0 ); }

precision mediump float; varying vec4 vColor; void main(void) { gl_FragColor = vColor; }

attribute vec3 aVertexPosition; attribute vec3 aVertexColor; attribute vec3 aVertexNormal; uniform mat4 uPMatrix; uniform mat4 uMVMatrix; uniform mat4 uModelMatrix; varying vec3 vWorldPosition; varying vec3 vWorldNormal; varying vec3 vVertexColor; void main(void) { vec4 worldPosition = uModelMatrix * vec4(aVertexPosition, 1.0); vWorldPosition = vec3(worldPosition); vWorldNormal = normalize(mat3(uModelMatrix) * aVertexNormal); vVertexColor = aVertexColor; gl_Position = uPMatrix * uMVMatrix * worldPosition; }

precision mediump float; const float shininess = 50.0; uniform vec3 uViewOrigin; uniform vec3 uLightDirection; uniform vec3 uAmbientLight; uniform vec3 uDiffuseLight; uniform vec3 uSpecularLight; varying vec3 vWorldPosition; varying vec3 vWorldNormal; varying vec3 vVertexColor; void main(void) { vec3 worldPosition = vWorldPosition; vec3 worldNormal = normalize(vWorldNormal); vec3 normalizedLightDirection = normalize(uLightDirection); vec3 vectorReflection = normalize( reflect(-normalizedLightDirection, worldNormal) ); vec3 vectorView = normalize( uViewOrigin - worldPosition ); float diffuseLightWeighting = max( dot(worldNormal, normalizedLightDirection), 0.0 ); float specularLightWeighting = pow( max( dot(vectorReflection, vectorView), 0.0), shininess ); gl_FragColor = vec4( ( uAmbientLight * vVertexColor) + ((uDiffuseLight * vVertexColor) * diffuseLightWeighting) + ( uSpecularLight * specularLightWeighting), 1.0 ); }

attribute vec3 aVertexPosition; attribute vec3 aVertexColor; attribute vec3 aVertexNormal; uniform mat4 uPMatrix; uniform mat4 uMVMatrix; uniform vec3 uViewOrigin; uniform vec3 uLightDirection; uniform vec3 uAmbientLight; uniform vec3 uDiffuseLight; uniform vec3 uSpecularLight; varying vec4 vColor; void main(void) { gl_Position = uPMatrix * uMVMatrix * vec4(aVertexPosition, 1.0); vec3 normalizedLightDirection = normalize(uLightDirection); vec3 vectorReflection = normalize( reflect(-normalizedLightDirection, aVertexNormal) ); vec3 vectorView = normalize( uViewOrigin - aVertexPosition ); float diffuseLightWeighting = max( dot(aVertexNormal, normalizedLightDirection), 0.0 ); vColor= vec4( ( uAmbientLight * aVertexColor) + ((uDiffuseLight * aVertexColor) * diffuseLightWeighting), 1.0 ); }

precision mediump float; varying vec4 vColor; void main(void) { gl_FragColor = vColor; }

Instructions: (Click anywhere to close this page)

Finally, practice makes perfect!

Welcome to Po-Han Huang's flight simulator!

Thrust

Height

Pitch

Roll

Horizontal Velocity

Position and Orientation

Fuel