WrightSim User’s Manual
WrightSim was developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Getting Started

Introduction
System Requirements
Setup and Installation
Special Setup for ATI/NVIDIA Owners
Removing WrightSim

WrightSim

Choosing A Pixel Format
Navigating Menus
Main Menu
Options Menu
Graphics Options Menu
Hardware Config Menu
Control Reference Menu 
Taking the Controls

Appendix

PFDChooser:  Choosing the Pixel Format for WrightSim
Known Bugs/Limitations

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GETTING STARTED

"For some years I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man. My disease has increased in severity and I feel that it will cost me an increased amount of money if not my life."
-- Wilbur Wright

On the morning December 17, 1903, two bicycle makers stepped onto the cold sand near Kill Devil Hill in North Carolina.  The sky was dark, the ground wet, and the air chilled by a nor’easter that had rolled through the night before pummeling their tiny camp among the dunes. But these two brothers were there for a reason:  to achieve the impossible.  By the day’s end they would pilot a self-propelled heavier-than-air craft from level takeoff through the air and finish the flight with a controlled landing.  By way of a coin toss, Orville Wright was to be the first one to make an attempt that day.  He studied the plane and prepared as best he could, checking the controls, manipulating the elevator, wing, and rudder.  Orville’s older brother, Wilbur, made last minute preparations as well encouraging the small crowd (the Kitty Hawk Lifesaving Crew) to look lively and laugh, holler, and clap, to cheer on his brother.  At 10:35am Orville, who lay in position along the wing of the Wright Flyer, released the restraining wire that held the craft in place.  As Wilbur ran alongside, the craft took to the air powered by a custom-build engine and a gusting 27 mph headwind.  The crowd cheered.  Twelve seconds and 120 feet later the younger Wright brother skidded safely to a stop.  The Wright Brothers proceeded to make three other flights that day, the fourth flight taking Wilbur 852 feet in 59 seconds, although the landing snapped the elevator support ending their groundbreaking attempts for the day.  They had done it: Orville and Wilbur Wright, preacher’s sons from Dayton, Ohio, had proven that man could achieve controlled, powered flight in a heavier-than-air craft.

WrightSim is a flight simulator developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.  It places you on the wing of the Wright Flyer with the opportunity to relive that fateful day and see how you measure up to the Brothers themselves.  Special attention has been paid to the detail of the physics and flight model of the Wright Flyer 1 in an attempt to present the most accurate simulation possible.  We hope you enjoy our recreation of Kitty Hawk circa 1903 and wish you the best of luck in you endeavors to take flight.  Hold on to your bowler, this could be a bumpy ride....

SETUP AND INSTALLATION

Run the file WrightSimInstaller.exe to install WrightSim.  The installer will ask you where to install WrightSim on the hard drive and will create a desktop icon as well as an icon for WrightSim, this document, and the uninstaller under the Start Menu in Programs->WrightSim.

The following is not a requirement for running WrightSim.  However, owners of ATI or NVIDIA graphics cards can increase the image quality of WrightSim by following the steps below.  These instructions are optional and recommended only for more experienced users and those who enjoy getting the most out of their computer hardware.

For increased image quality some users may want to enable anti-aliasing on their graphics cards for use with WrightSim.  Anti-aliasing smoothes the edges of onscreen lines to overcome "jaggies" or the stepladder effect sometime seen.  Enabling antialiasing increases image quality while sacrificing performance.  The amount of performance lost depends on the graphics card. 

ENABLING ANTIALIASING ON ATI RADEON SERIES CARDS

The following steps should be valid for all ATI Radeon cards.  These steps are, however, taken from a Radeon 9800 Pro so some steps may vary between cards or driver releases:

1. Right click on the Windows desktop and choose PROPERTIES.
2. Choose the SETTINGS tab and click on the ADVANCED… button.
3. Click on the OPENGL tab.
4. Look for “Anti-Aliasing” and uncheck the box next to “Application Preference”.
5. Set the slider for the desired amount of antialising (2x, 4x, 6x). 2x should be sufficient.
6. Click APPLY and then OK to close the advanced properties.
7. Click OK to close the display properties.

ENABLING ANTIALIASING ON NVIDIA GEFORCE SERIES CARDS

The following steps should be valid for all NVIDIA GeForce cards.  These steps are, however, taken from a GeForce FX 5600 Ultra so some steps may vary between cards or driver releases:

1. Rick click on the Windows desktop and choose PROPERTIES.
2. Choose the SETTINGS tab and click on the ADVANCED... button.
3. Click on the GeForce tab.
4. Click on the PERFORMANCE AND QUALITY SETTINGS tab on the left side of the window.
5. Move the slider for IMAGE SETTINGS to the far right.
6. Select 4xfor antialiasing.
7. Enable Texture Sharpening.
   

WRIGHTSIM

"Wilbur and I could hardly wait for morning to come to get at something that interested us. That's happiness."
-- Orville Wright

If upon starting WrightSim you are presented with a popup window entitled "VTree - Please Select A Pixel Format" proceed to the Appendix of this document under PFDChooser:  Choosing the Pixel Format for WrightSim.

NAVIGATING MENUS

The menu system for WrightSim can be navigated with the mouse or the keyboard.  When the cursor is over a menu button a small indicator will appear next to the button to indicate you can click there (with the left mouse button).  The arrow keys on the keyboard allow you to cycle through menu buttons as well, and the enter key serves as the equivalent to the left mouse button.  Buttons which navigate through the menus or change screens are always blue.
Some screen such as the Options Menu contain hotspots that allow you to configure certain parameters.  These configurable options appear as yellow buttons with a box following them listing the current value for a given parameter.  If the box is followed by up and down arrows these can be clicked (or navigated to using the cursor keys) to adjust the value up or down.  For example, in the Options Menu you can click on the arrows following the Wind Turbulence parameter to adjust the number up or down from 0.0 to 1.0.  If there are no up/down arrows following a configurable option then clicking anywhere on the option or its current value will cycle through possible value.  For instance, on the same menu you can click anywhere on Skip Flight Intro or the box next to it to toggle between "Off" and "On".
Whenever an option is highlighted text at the bottom right of the screen will indicate what the button or parameter does.  Any values changed in the menu system (for configurable options) are saved to the file WrightSim.cfg located in the WrightSim config and are loaded each time WrightSim starts.

START A NEW FLIGHT - Take the controls of the Wright Flyer.
OPTIONS - Navigate to the Options Menu
HARDWARE CONFIG - Navigate to the Hardware Config Menu 
CREDITS - List of the hardworking individuals that contributed to this simulation.
LEAVE KITTY HAWK - Exit WrightSim and return to Windows.

WIND TURBULENCE - Adjust the turbulence of the wind in the simulation.  This value can be set from 0.0 to 1.0.  Default: 0.5.
NUMBER OF TRIES - Adjust the number of flight attempts allowed before the final stats screen appears.  Default: 4.
SKIP FLIGHT INTRO - Skip the black and white intro at the beginning of each set of flight attempts.  Default: Off.
REPLAY IN B&W - Show demo replays in black and white.  Default: Off.
REPLAY AUDIO - Turns audio on/off during replays (i.e. demo mode).  Default:  Off.
ONSCREEN TIPS - Reserved for future use.
FLIGHT PATHS - Display paths of previous flight during cu rrent flight.  Turning this off has no effect on the display of flight paths shown after each attempt.  Default: Off.
REPLAY FILE - Specifies the replay file played when WrightSim is in demo mode.  Clicking this allows the user to choose a different file to use as the demo.
QUAD STEREO - Sets WrightSim to run in quadbuffer stereo mode to be viewed in 3D with active shutter glasses (appropriate 3D hardware is required).  Default: Off.
ANAGLYPH STEREO - Sets WrightSim to run in anaglyph stereo mode to be viewed in 3D with passive red-blue, red-green, or red-cyan glasses.  Default:  Off.
ANAGLYPH COLOR - Sets the color of the stereo pairs used in anaglyph stereo mode, either red-blue, red-green, or red-cyan.  Default:  red-blue.
STEREO IPD - Sets the interpupilary distance (i.e. eye seperation) used in calculating stereo pairs in quad or anaglyph stereo mode.  Default: 6.00.
VOLUME - Adjust audio volume up or down, from 0 (off) to 10 (full volume).  Default:  10.

DEFAULTS - Reset Options to their default values.

GRAPHICS OPTIONS - Navigate to the Graphics Menu.
MAIN MENU - Return to the Main Menu.

These parameters can be tweaked to improve performance of the simulation on various graphics hardware.  Adjust these if you find WrightSim runs too slowly.

RAIN FX - Rain effect on/off.  Default: On.
FOG FX - Fog effect on/off.  Default: On.
LENS FLARE FX - Lens Flare effect on/off.  Default: Off.
SHADOWS - Flyer shadow on/off.  Default: Off.
SMOKE FX - Engine smoke effect on/off.  Default: Off.
SKID FX - Landing sand/dust effect on/off.  Default: On.
SHOW CHARACTERS - Display the two animated character who run along with the Flyer.  Default: On.
SHOW BIRDS - Display animated seagulls.  Default: On.
MODEL DETAIL - Quality of the models used in the simulation.  Lowering this will decrease the fidelity of the models (lower polygon counts) but potentially increase performance on older graphics cards.  Changes to model detail will not take effect until the next time WrightSim is run.  Default:  Med.
TEXTURE DETAIL - Quality (size) of textures used for menus, some effects, and black and white rendering in simulation.  Lowering this will decrease the image quality but potentially increase performance on graphics cards with less memory.  Changes to texture detail will not take effect until the next time WrightSim is run.  Default:  Med.
OVERALL QUALITY - Adjust other options on this page to preset values.  Default:  Med.

DEFAULTS - Reset Graphics Options to their default values.

OPTIONS MENU - Return to Options Menu.

RESOLUTION - Adjust the resolution under which WrightSim is running.  You may wish to reduce the resolution if you are suffering from poor performance.  You may wish to increase the resolution if you have a good graphics card and want higher image quality.  Note:  these options are only valid for the refresh rate at which the monitor is currently set.  VisionStation note:  Please set WrightSim for 1024x768x32 resolution.  Resolution changes will not take effect until the next time WrightSim is run.  Default:  Desktop resolution first time WrightSim is run.
VISIONSTATION - Enable this option if WrightSim is being run on an Elumens VisionStation.  This allows WrightSim to adjust placement of text, instruments, etc. to accommodate a curved display device.  Changes to this parameter to not take effect until the next time WrightSim is run.  Default: Off.
HIP CRADLE INPUT - Enable this option if WrightSim is being run on the in house hip-cradle device.  This allows WrightSim to adjust the values read from the joystick to accommodate the hip cradle (which mounts the joystick backwards).  Default: Off.

CONTROL REFERENCE - Navigate to the control reference screen.
CALIBRATE JOYSTICK - Run the joystick calibration routine.  Follow the onscreen instructions to calibrate your joystick.  This only needs to be done once as the calibration information is saved to a file.  You may recalibrate the joystick at any time.  Calibration is necessary in order for WrightSim to center the joystick values correctly and assure accurate translation from the device to the Flyer.  This button does nothing if no joystick is connected.
MAIN MENU - Return to the Main Menu.

This page lists the controls and hotkeys for WrightSim.  They are as follows:

PITCH		Moving canard up and down, moving plane up and down, is controlled by pushing forward/pulling back on joystick or moving the mouse up/down is there is no joystick.
ROLL		Turning/banking is controlled by pushing joystick left or right or moving the mouse left or right if there is no joystick.
START ENGINE		Starting the engine is done by pulling the trigger.  The 'enter' key is equivalent to the trigger.
CYCLE FORWARD THROUGH VIEWS		Joystick button 4, 'Spacebar'.
CYCLE BACKWARD THROUGH VIEW		Joystick button 5, left 'Alt' key.
HIDE/SHOW HEADING AND WIND DIRECTION		Joystick button 6, 'c' key.
DEMO MODE ON/OFF		'd' key .  Demo mode plays a recorded flight from a file.  Demo replays can be saved at the end of a flight attempt by clicking on the SAVE REPLAY button that appears on the screen.  Note:  demo mode can only be entered from an active flight (that is to say, pushing 'd' during end of flight attempt screen or in the stats screen does nothing).  The flight path used in demo mode can be specified in the OPTIONS menu.
ORBIT AROUND FLYER		After a flight attempt use the joystick or arrow keys to orbit around the Flyer.
ZOOM IN/OUT OF FLYER		After a flight attempt use joystick buttons 2 and 3 or 'z' and 'x' key to zoom in and out of the Flyer.
SKIP TO END STATS		At the end of a flight attempt pressing F12 will take you immediately to the end stats (cancelling any remaining flight attempts).
GO TO MAIN MENU		'Esc' key.
QUIT		'q' key during simulation or click the button on the Main Menu.
PAUSE		'Pause' key.
SHOW PREVIOUS FLIGHT PATHS		't' key or enable in Graphics Options Menu.
SKIP FLIGHT INTRO		'Enter' key, joystick trigger , or turn it off in the Options Menu.
NAVIGATE MENUS		Mouse, arrow keys.
ACTIVATE MENU OPTIONS		Left mouse button, 'enter' key.
START NEXT FLIGHT, ADVANCE STATS SCREENS, START NEW FLIGHT, etc.		Joystick trigger, 'enter' key.

MAIN MENU - Return to the Main Menu.

Clicking the Start A New Flight button from the Main Menu will start the simulation. If you are using a joystick please make sure you have calibrated the joystick in WrightSim to assure optimal performance (see above).  As and introduction you will be greeted with a quick flyby, rendered as a black and white movie, to give a sense of the scene:  December 17, 1903, Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina.  If you are tired of seeing this little intro you can push the spacebar, joystick trigger, or disable it from the Options Menu (see above).  Each flight attempt starts in the 'cockpit' of the 1903 Wright Flyer.  You will receive onscreen prompts on what to do.  Initially the plane is on a rail waiting to be flown.  Pulling the trigger (or pushing enter) will start the engines and get the plane moving.  Recommendation:  The plane will gain some lift by the end of the rail but to get off the ground you will need to pull back on the stick (more than just a gentle nudge, but not quite pulling back fully).  Once in the air, pushing/pulling the joystick will move the canard and adjust the amount of lift the craft has.  Pulling all the way back will usually end in an immediate crash as a result of what is known as 'stall' (insufficient lift).  Pushing left/right on the stick will allowing banking to turn. If there is no joystick connected to the machine the mouse can be used to control the flyer. Moving the mouse left/right controls roll (the further away from center the greater the roll).  Moving the mouse up will pitch the nose down and vice versa.  Again, distance from center point controls amount of pitch.  Before you start flying you may want to iterate through the different views available.  By pressing the spacebar or buttons 4 and 5 on the joystick you can cycle through the following views:  Forward, Overhead, Chase (the camera will follow the plane from behind), Stationary (the camera will remain wherever it was when you switched to this view).  In addition, you can use the hat switch (pointy knob on top of the joystick that is like a little joystick itself) to quickly look around.  Holding it forward will give you the first person forward view, pushing down (toward you) will give you the rearward view, and left and right looks left and right across the wings.  A flight attempt ends when the flyer crashes, lands, or runs out of gas.  Upon crashing the simulation will give you the statistics for your flight (max altitude, airspeed, distance, and flight time).  It will also indicate which flight attempt you were on.  After each flight the program will render the path of each previous flight (different colors for each flight attempt).  At this point one can orbit around the Flyer by using the joystick (buttons 2 and 3 on the joystick, or the z and x keys, allow you to zoom in and out).  This affords a better view of the flight path.  An icon will appear in the corner of the screen that says “SAVE REPLAY”.  Clicking this with the mouse will allow the user to save the flight as a replay file.  The program will prompt you to pull the trigger (or press enter) to try again and you will be placed back on the rail for another attempt.  After x number of tries (defaults to 4 but can be changed in the Options Menu) you will be prompted to pull the trigger (or press enter) for your results.  You will be greeted with a telegram (like the one Orville sent home to his father) giving you a highlight of your best performances.  Pulling the trigger (or pressing enter) to continue will show a table of the best flights, with the Wright brothers’ flights given first, then the user’s, then a list of record flights from previous attempts.  Pulling the trigger (pressing enter) will then restart the simulation.

Wind Direction and Heading:
Located in the upper left corner of the screen during flight is the Wind Direction and Heading gauge.  At the top of the gauge, under the word "Heading" is a small stationary arrow.  A rotating ring with compass points moves beneath it as the Flyer moves.  Whatever direction this small arrow points to is the direction the Flyer is travelling in (regardless of your camera viewpoint).  In the blue circle beneath this is a small representation of the Flyer with an arrow marked "Wind" circling it.  This represents the wind direction with respect to the Flyer at any given moment.  On the rail at the beginning of each flight the plane is pointing into a 25-30 mpg headwind.  The Wind Direction and Heading gauge can be toggled on and off with button 6 on the joystick or the 'c' key.

Demo Mode:
Pressing the ‘d’ key puts the sim into demo mode.  Demo mode replays a path of a recorded flight (one that has been saved after a flight attempt by clicking on the SAVE REPLAY icon).  Although demo mode initially plays back in the chase view, joystick buttons 4 and 5 or the spacebar to cycle through views.  The replay file played in demo mode can be set in the OPTIONS menu.

Best Flights:
WrightSim keeps track of the best flights flown. It does so by writing to a file called records.cfg in the WrightSim directory.  The file keeps track of the best flights with respect to time, distance, altitude, and speed, and the date they were achieved.  It also keeps track of the date on which record-keeping began. The file records.cfg can be safely deleted (so long as WrightSim is not currently running) if you wish to delete all the records and start over again the next time WrightSim is run.

Usage Statistics:
WrightSim keeps track of usage statistics including number of flight attempts, number of full flights (by default, each user gets 4 ‘flight attempts’ which together count as a ‘full day of flight’), best distance, time, altitude, and speed, for a given time period, and average distance, time, altitude, and speed for a given time period.  The file usagestats.txt can safely be deleted (so long as WrightSim is not currently running) to start recording usage statistics from scratch.

APPENDIX

"They were pretty good boys, but mischievous. I had little trouble with them."
-- Milton Wright

PFDCHOOSER:  CHOOSING THE PIXEL FORMAT FOR WRIGHTSIM

The first time WrightSim is run at a given resolution and monitor refresh rate a dialog box may appear similar to the one seen here with the title "VTree - Please Select A Pixel Format".  This is used by the application programming interface on which WrightSim is built and allows it to initialize the application and your graphics card.  Under "Pixel Formats" please find the entry furthest down in the list (you may have to scroll).  After finding the last entry on the list (it should be the column with the highest number at the beginning, for instance in the screenshot shown here it is 6: followed by a string of letters and number) make sure you highlight the entry by clicking it.  You may then click the SAVE button.  You will only be asked this once for a given resolution/refresh rate but should you change the resolution at which WrightSim is running you may be prompted again.  The information selected here is stored in a file called VTree.ini located in the Windows directory on your computer (either Windows or WinNT depending on your operating system).  Should you accidentally choose a different option under "Pixel Formats" other than the last one you can always find this file and safely delete it.  The next time WrightSim runs it will bring up the "VTree - Please Select A Pixel Format" dialog window again.  It should be noted that choosing a "pixel format" other than the one specified here will not prevent WrightSim from running, nor will it cause problems on your system, it may simply result in WrightSim not running at its full potential on your graphics card.
Important Note:  If you ever change the graphics card on your computer, update your graphics drivers, or modify OpenGL settings under the Advanced options of your graphics card you will have to manually delete the above mentioned VTree.ini file.  It is important that WrightSim rebuild that file after a change of hardware/driver or modifying OpenGL settings in order to correctly display the application.  You can, however, safely change other graphics settings (refresh rate, color depth, resolution, etc.) without touching the VTree.ini.

KNOWN BUGS/LIMITATIONS

• Some menu buttons have not yet been implemented (those marked in the documentation as Reserved for future use .)
• Some parts of the plane may intersect the ground/rail on takeoff or when crashing.
• No collision detection with the sheds.
• Moving the "Save Replay As" or "Choose Replay" results in artefacts caused by the WrightSim app not being able to redraw areas of the screen that have been exposed.
• If WrightSim is set to run in a resolution different than that of the desktop it may move desktop icons when the resolution changes.  This is unintentional and undesired behavior.

Paul was the walrus.