The "eye-candy" of the graphical model presented in the RealFlight simulation output I'm not concerned about. Yes, it's very complicated using 3ds Max, setting up the texturing, naming the model components to what RealFlight expects, but what I want to understand is how the physics model relates (or doesn't relate) to the 3D eye-candy model. I'll read up on this, so don't think you need to respond in this thread, but the way it's looking to me at the moment is the pretty graphical model has several virtual "puppet strings" attached to the moving control surfaces, then an existing physics model that matches the basic plane configuration (fixed wing, power plant in front, tail feathers on a long arm at the rear) is mangled, hammered, and manhandled until the model creator thinks it behaves in RF as in the real world.
What I need to find out is if things like thrust line or thrust angle of the powerplant affect the physics, or if prop wash over control surfaces affect it. In other words, how does the physical 3D description of the aircraft tie in to or influence the physics model. Included with that would be how does wingtip washout affect the physics, if at all. Is this why I see few flying wings for RF? I need to spend a few hours reading and let it come together in my head.
