The FlightGear devs had the pleasure of announcing earlier today, February 17, the immediate availability for download of the FlightGear 3.4 open-source and cross-platform cooperative flight simulator. The new release introduces a number of improvements and new features in various areas, such as aircraft, graphics, scenery, and JSBSim.

According to the official release notes, the frame rates have been greatly improved for various systems so that the Uniforms can be efficiently used. Scenery tiles will now use less memory, AI (Artificial Intelligence) models will no longer be rendered based on range but on display size, and both MP and AI modes can define objects.

“The FlightGear development team is delighted to announce the v3.4 release of FlightGear, the free, open-source flight simulator. This new version contains many exciting new features, enhancements and bugfixes. Highlights in this release include frame-rate improvements on some systems, reduced memory usage and enhancements to the built-in web server” was stated in the official release announcement.

The built-in web server gains a screenshot grabber and a moving map

In order to make the flight simulator more usable, the development team implemented a screenshot grabber, a moving map, and support for SVG-based panels in the built-in web server, as well as a Qt5-based in-application launcher for Mac OS X operating systems.

FlightGear 3.4 has been synchronized with latest JSBSim open source flight dynamics model (FDM), supports spotlight and landing, and improves rendering of runways and other lights for Atmospheric Light Scattering (ALS). Last but not least, the scenery has been improved with procedural rock material definition, and better materials XML format, in order to make customer material definition as easy as pie.

FlightGear 3.4 introduces new and improved aircraft

In addition, several aircraft models have been improved and new ones added, including Cessna Citation II, Extra EA-500, F-14b, and North American P-51D Mustang. Also, aircraft was moved to a Subversion (SVN) repository. Download FlightGear 3.4 right now from Softpedia. It is also available for Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.