Not sure if something like this has been discussed before or ever have been tried by any developers…I know there are tools like FS2Crew and FSFO to bring more realism into the simulation for multi crew environments.
However, those add-ons do ONLY simulate a specific set of tasks that a pilot monitoring would perform leaving the human pilot always to the role of pilot flying (performing the same tasks over and over again). And while I understand that this is what most of us want to do, I think it would be really interesting to switch roles have an add-on around that would leave the role of PF to an AI Pilot while the role of PM could be taken by the human side giving the “full” experience of multi crew simulation.
Don’t get me wrong: I am totally aware of the complexity such kind of software would have to deal with and the effort and resources it would require to bring such and idea to life. But looking at what is possible already on the ATC side, it makes me really thinking if a “virtual PF and captain” is something that could be achieved.
I just wonder if something like t hat has ever been discussed or even planned or if this would be simply something no one would be interested in.
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Sounds like a good idea.
I would bet that not Microsoft would develop such a function, but 3rd party developers.
Something like that that looks good and has smooth animations will be very demanding on framerates and memory, certainly on consoles you will run into issues. I have looked several times over the years at doing a good looking, interactive FO, but never saw that work at the 60Hrz we needed for professional use.
Mathijs
I was not thinking about something visual (at least not for an initial iteration), so 3D models would be - at least for me - not a concern in the beginning. I was more thinking of an external agent providing the inputs and running the procedures like the pilot flying. But, and that is the important thing, not like the AI moving the injected traffic around (as this is simply said only moving models along given vectors with a given speed and angels).
So, this agent would provide control surface and throttle input, switching systems on and off, commanding tasks for the PM (i.e. Gear Up, Flaps xyz) and so on. In a “Captain”-Mode it would command a go around - i.e. on unstable approaches - etc.
Personally I would believe this is at least technical doable. as this system would simply follow a set of strict logical procedures and rules and can be enhanced with some LLM and dynamic rule evaluation. However, I cannot judge if the interfaces the Sim provides (or Fenix, or PMDG) would be sufficient for the amount of control necessary.