A keyboard-first SimCade flight simulator — GTA V-style handling, a procedural 16×16 km world, and a spring-damper chase cam.

In flight at 136 kt / 1446 ft — compass tape, pitch ladder and instrument HUD, rendered entirely by the engine's own code paths.

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Overview

AeroCade Sim is a native C++20 flight simulator that trades hardcore systems depth for instant, low-friction fun: responsive keyboard flying with smoothed analog response, forgiving ground handling, aerobatic authority (360° rolls in 1.5 s), and an optional auto-level assist that catches the aircraft when you let go. The world is fully procedural — no asset downloads — and the whole renderer is written by hand on top of OpenGL 4.6 core with a vendored GLFW, so the only external dependencies are GLM headers and a working GPU driver.

Build & run

cmake -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build
./build/aerocade_sim          # game window
./build/aerocade_selftest     # headless physics validation (24 checks)

Requirements: a C++20 compiler, CMake ≥ 3.24, Ninja or Make, GLFW's system dependencies (X11 and/or Wayland dev packages), GLM headers, and an OpenGL 3.3+ driver. GLFW itself is vendored — nothing else to install.

Controls (GTA V standard, keyboard-first)

Input	Key
Throttle up / down (airbrake at idle, wheel brake on ground)	W / S
Rudder left / right	A / D
Pitch down / up	Numpad 8 / Numpad 5
Roll left / right	Numpad 4 / Numpad 6
Landing gear	G
Camera cycle (chase / far / cockpit)	V
Auto-level assist	T
Orbit camera	Mouse or KP7/KP9/KP1/KP3
Toggle NUMPAD ↔ TKL layout	F9
Reload configs	F5
Reset to runway / pause	R / P
Debug overlay (fps, pos, AoA, G)	F3
Free cursor / recapture	Esc / click

The TKL profile (F9) flies with the arrow keys — yoke-style, Up = push = nose down, mirroring the numpad profile's geometry — with Q/E/Z/C as camera orbit. Every action is remappable in config/controls.cfg (both profiles, plus analog shaping: attack/release rates, sensitivity, expo, deadband). config/settings.cfg covers resolution, vsync/fps cap, physics rate, base FOV, sun position, fog and terrain seed.

Feature map

• Flight model — lift Cl(α) with smooth stall, induced + parasitic drag with a hard rise near Vmax, speed-lapsed prop thrust, weathervane stability, toggleable auto-level assist (bank-level + pitch-hold + climb-arrest), wheel spring/damper/brake/steering ground model, gear state machine (UP / DOWN / TRANSIT) with belly contact, gust turbulence.
• Sim loop — fixed 120 Hz accumulator, decoupled render with per-system interpolation; thread pool for terrain generation.
• Camera — second-order spring-damper chase rig with partial bank follow, bank slide, velocity look-ahead, dynamic FOV, orbit with auto-recenter, procedural shake, cockpit mode.
• World — procedural heightfield (fbm hills, ridged mountains, flattened runway apron); the GPU mesh and CPU collision read the exact same data, so wheels can never float or sink.
• HUD — pitch ladder, compass tape, IAS in kt/km-h, altitude ft + VS fpm, throttle, gear, assist/profile/camera indicators, event messages, stall warning.

Debug flags

Flag	Effect
--screenshot N:path	render N frames, save a BMP, exit
AC_AIR_START=<meters>	spawn airborne instead of on the runway
F3 in game	fps, position, AoA, G-load overlay

Project layout

docs/ARCHITECTURE.md   module breakdown, conventions, extension points
assets/                logo + hero screenshot
config/                settings.cfg, controls.cfg (hot-reloadable)
src/core               log, config parser, math, noise, thread pool
src/input              platform-neutral keys, InputManager + profiles
src/physics            FlightModel, TerrainWorld (shared heightfield)
src/camera             CameraController (spring rig)
src/game               World (sim orchestrator), Engine (window + loop)
src/render             GL loader, shaders, terrain quadtree, aircraft, HUD
src/audio              AudioEngine interface + null backend
selftest/              headless scenario tests (takeoff → landing)

Versioning

Releases are tagged vX.Y.Z following Semantic Versioning; every notable change is recorded in CHANGELOG.md. The latest tag: v0.1.0 (initial playable release).

Roadmap

Multi-draw-indirect terrain path, compute-based weather particles, cascaded shadow maps, velocity-buffer motion blur + speed lines, a real audio backend (the AudioEngine interface and cue points already exist), and a Vulkan backend behind the same render/ interface. Deep dive: docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.