It would be very nice to see our character location in the EFB map when we are in walkaround mode. This would allow to us to see where we are in relation to trails and various other geographical features near where we land the plane. It would also help us wayfind back to the airplane we left parked.
There could be additional features with this - showing the view direction and/or rotating the map with the view, leaving breadcrumbs or other personal markers, and more. Maybe some stats - distance walked, distance from plane, elevation.
But even a simple location and heading pointer would be a fantastic addition.
Ran into this again last night during walkaround and forgot I made this wishlist back when 2024 launched.
There are so many cool roads and trails to explore as seen on the EFB, but from ground level in the sim it’s nearly impossible to tell where I’m walking. Also would be nice to find my way back to the plane without guessing.
I’ll list a couple ideas, take it a couple steps further - all should be toggle-able:
- Obviously show the avatar’s location
- Show the direction the avatar is facing
- (higher level) Show the width of the field of view
- Add droppable placemarkers/waypoints to the map that appear like POI markers in walkaround mode
- (high level) allow several of the above to string together for waypathing
- Add breadcrumbs (history of where you’ve been)
- Show friends avatars
- Show a map/compass in walkaround (kind of like rdr/gta, or even the one we get in the plane’s external hud)
- Add a “show the plane” beacon, on demand, that puts a POI marker on the screen where the plane is
- integrate with save states for recall of avatar and plane position so that long-distance walkabouts can be accomplished
2 Likes
FS2024 PC
We all know FS is roll play so I wish to expand that to my avatar. When I land on a lake with my amphibian, for example, I like to leave the aircraft select 3rd person, and walk away from the plane to investigate the surroundings. However, I sometimes get lost. I can’t find my way back to the plane so I would like a compass to be shown, or some other item, to show me where I left it.
Doesn’t Shift + C work? It does for me.
We’re not talking about warping back to the cockpit, we’re talking about wayfinding. It’s really hard to discern footpaths and oftentimes smaller roads in the sim because they often have autogen brush and grasses rendered over them or they are under dense tree canopies, which also prevent detection and rendering in many cases. So our natural visual methods of wayfinding on the ground are a little skewed.
Thus, it would be nice if a heads-up display and/or EFB would show our avatar’s position and orientation to the notional roads and other geographic features, as well as that of our aircraft so we can find our way back to it using a realistically suitable way. Sometimes the journey is the point, but we also don’t necessarily want to take an unrealistic path or get lost and spend forever working our way back to the aircraft.
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OK, got you, I then agree it is a necessary thing to have to enjoy the great outdoors.
Voted 
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Adding to this - add a topo map layer to the EFB. Preferably a real USGS topo map (or from wherever they’re produced outside the US)
but even Bing topo layer would be fine. This way we can wayfind like we’re hiking.
And after all is said and done - we’ve been taking about all of this in terms of native ability of the EFB. Can we just get avatar location and orientation (body and view) exported as a simvar so third parties can take a crack at this? That would be the most simple thing.