Flight Simulator Adventure Creator
The zip download contains two versions: the command-line tool which can generate a myriad of random routes anywhere around the world. And it can create MSFS plan files for ultimate ease of use.
and a Windows GUI version.
Both are currently beta, but are fully-featured, with many new features and updates planned for the coming weeks and months. If you spot any bugs, or have any suggestions for improvements, then please send me an email (or a direct message through here).
Both applications are written in C++ and are fully open source, a link to the source code can be found in the readme.txt.
Features
Generate a simple route from a random airport to another within a certain range
Generate a multi-leg route stopping off at any number of airports along the way.
Generate a list of real-world routes based on many customisable criteria
Export your route to an MSFS plan file.
Options
- Select from nearly 60000 real-world routes
- Distance between legs/hops.
- Pick a random start airport or specify your own.
- Fly your route in a specific continent (eg. Europe).
- Fly your route across a single country (eg. Australia).
- Fly your route across a specific region (eg. Florida).
- Generate the route randomly, or specify a direction or bearing to travel.
- Choose what kind of airports you stop at (small, medium, large (or any combination)).
- Choose the minimum elevation of your airports.
- Let the app pick a plane for you
- Filter by props/jets/turbos/twins/military/airliners (or any combination)
- Set the leg distance to that of your aircraft
- Use your purchased/free aircraft, or select only from one of the MSFS versions
- Pick an aircraft with a minimum and/or maximum cruise speed.
This is not meant to be a replacment for OnAir Company or Neofly, but it's a fun little addition that you will hopefully enjoy.
Installation
Download the zip file from here and unzip it to a folder of your choosing. It doesn't need installing in the traditional way.
How to use FSAC (command -line)
A full PDF manual is included in the downloaded zip file.
The readme.txt file in the FSAC folder is the first place to look. It will give you a good overview of everything the tool can do.
Running FSAC with the /? option will output a complete list of commands and information on how they work.
FSAC /?
The config_readme.txt file gives you a good understanding of how config files work. If you're really lazy you can let FSAC create them for you.
Once you have a nice set of command-line parameters, just add /save:filename to the end and it will create the config file for you!
How to use FSAC (GUI)
The Windows version should be easy enough to use. A full manual will appear very shortly.
Pick and aircraft type, an airport location (or locations), and select from various route parameters.
Customisation
All of the data files used by FSAC are text files that can be opened with any text editor (though I recommend Notepad++).
You'll find detailed information on how each data file works inside the file. If you have any questions or have ideas for new content then please don't hesitate to get in touch.
To have the application select one of your purchased/downloaded aircraft, you'll have to edit the "custom_aircraft.txt" file. It's not difficult, and all of the information can be found in MSFS 2020 and online (you'll likely have to find the minimum runway length from a google search, though it's not important).
If you do edit any of the files then make sure you keep a backup; future FSAC updates will overwrite these files.
Future features
There's a lot more that this application can and will do:
Adding Points of interest (POIs) to routes will come online at some point this year.
More route randomisation/selection options.
A human-readable text document of a generated route.
XPlane v11 flight plan file export.
And lots more.
Known issues
Airport names containing non-latin characters will be mangled (a bit). This won't affect your enjoyment, but it is annoying.
The included airport list has around 23000 airports, which is lower than MSFS 2020's stated count of 35000. Getting a definitive list of available aiports is very difficult, if you come across an aiport in MSFS that doesn't exist in the included data file then please let me know.
Likewise, if you find a definitive (or even partial) list of MSFS airports then please let me know.
Donations
My software is free and open source, and always will be.
Please help a local cat shelter or charity. Thanks.
Support
If you have any feature requests or find any bugs, then please email me.
If you can help flesh out the airport list that would be great too :)
Credits
All code: Paul A Freshney
Development cats: Rutherford, Freeman, and Maxwell
Data: ourairports.com
Brian for the MSFS compatibility data
r/MicrosoftFlightSim/ for ideas.
Technical
FSAC is written in C++ 20 with Visual Studio 2022.
FSAC GUI is written in C++ 17 with C++ Builder 10.4 Community Edition.
the concord is not on the list
1 years ago
Hello,
Concorde isn't a default aircraft (it doesn't come packaged with any version of MSFS).
If you select "Create custom_aircraft.txt" from the "Tools" menu, the application will scan your community folder and generate a list of downloaded aircraft (free and paid) and save it as "__custom_aircraft.txt". The underscores are a protection to ensure the old version is preserved, but it'll be gone in the next version now I'm sure the creation code works (though there are some parameters that are tricky to gather due to the nature of the file structures).
If you rename the file (remove the old version, remove the underscores) FSAC will load it next time, and it should give you access to all of your aircraft.
A similar file exists called "default_aircraft.txt" that contains information on those aircraft that come packaged with the various versions of MSFS.
if you find a bug with the file creation then please send me an email.
Paul
1 years ago
TelemachusUK
Revil2000
I really like the basic idea behind this tool and would be ready to test it heavily and report back with feedback and suggestions. It´s just, having a "CLI only" tool in front of you really isn´t, what a lot of users will attract.
Why no GUI? It does not have to be an award winning super fancy voodoo layout. Just something in a lean and clean looks, checkboxes and popup menues to select input values, without the need to look for a lis tof available commands...
If there are too many options to fit on one scree nreasonably, just let it have two ot three pages, where you can "switch" forward and backward till you have your desired setup.
I think, you should definitely consider, adding a GUI to it.
Btw: do you export a flightplan file, which can be imported into MSFS directly? It´s another "must have" for sure.
2 years ago
I'm working on a GUI version. I'm hoping to have it ready before the end of the October 2022. Keep an eye out here, and the source code on github. FSAC can already export to MSFS plan (.pln) files. It doesn't yet export to flight plan files (.flt) as these lock the user in to an aircraft, but it could if people want it.
2 years ago
TelemachusUK
Scooty
Good idea, but it would be better if there were also airfields and not just large and medium-sized airports.
2 years ago
Hello, there a good mixture of small, medium, and large airfields. There're over 23000 in total. Until I find a definitive list of MSFS airports, there's not much I can do. If you find an airport/airfield in MSFS that isn't in the list I'll do my best to add it.
2 years ago
TelemachusUK
albarelys