Contents
Intent Statement ........................................................................................................................................ 3
Research, Thesis, & Process ..................................................................................................................... 3
System & Mechanics................................................................................................................................... 5
Explanation.............................................................................................................................................. 5
Video Overview Storyboard .................................................................................................................. 6
Visual Design Document ........................................................................................................................ 7
QA Testing ................................................................................................................................................... 8
Test Plan .................................................................................................................................................. 8
Test Results ............................................................................................................................................. 9
Post Mortem .............................................................................................................................................. 12
Annotated Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 15
Additional Sources ................................................................................................................................... 18

Intent Statement
By creating a jet fighter operation system that uses realistic cockpit heads up display
controls and reticles, visual and auditory feedback to indicate the speed, orientation & fuelsupply of the plane, and realistic flight physics all within a carrier landing scenario, I intend tocreate an immersive and realistic flight simulation and carrier landing experience where players
feel like an ace Navy pilot.

Research, Thesis, & Process
My goal is to create a highly immersive flight and carrier landing simulation system
which revolves around the player controlling an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet in order to take offfrom the starting runway, fly towards the carrier, and land on it successfully before running out
of fuel, all while using realistic flight physics and cockpit heads up display information to guidethe landing. The main objectives with this system are to make the player feel like a real pilot in
the cockpit with visual and auditory feedback from the flight controls display and control
surfaces, provide a diegetic cockpit heads up display the provides the player with all theinformation they need to take off, fly, and land successfully without breaking immersion, userealistically calculated forces of flight to provide immersion through simulation, and emulate areal carrier landing process with visible “arresting wires” and “optical lenses” to guide theplayer towards a successful landing.
A lot of games revolving around flight and airplanes (that aren’t full blown simulations)
often use more “arcadey” controls for flying the planes, which is a useful design choice formaking the player feel more empowered, but can hurt immersion for many players looking for
more realistic feeling controls. These sorts of games also usually revolve around combat andneglect things like realistic landings, especially when it comes to aircraft carriers. I wanted to do
the opposite of this with my system; instead of providing immersion through combat, I aimed
to fully immerse players through the feeling and visuals of the plane and cockpit as well as
more realistic simulations of take off and landing.
To do all this, I planned to place the player inside the cockpit of a common navy plane(the F/A-18 Hornet) and allow them to look around from a fixed position to see the cockpit
HUD, the flight stick and throttle, as well as out the back of the plane to see the wings and such.
Players would be able to move the plane forward and steer it in all directions, but it would not
be easy and smooth; real physics forces of lift, gravity, drag, and thrust would all be applied tothe plane in real time, making flight more of a balancing act to provide immersion. I alsoplanned to give players the ability see their inputs reflected on the throttle and flight stick
inside the cockpit as well as on the various control surfaces on the outside of plane to provide

even more immersion. The cockpit HUD displays information such as speed, pitch angle,
altitude, and orientation in real time to not only provide immersion but also assist landings.
Lastly, to give the player an objective to use these immersive flight mechanics and HUD with, I
aimed to make the context focused on returning to the carrier before running out of fuel, which
provides both a win and loss state as well as immersion, since the plane is stopped by arresting
wires instead of just landing on the deck and the optical lenses of the carrier assist players withgetting a level slope to the deck.
After thinking about how to implement these mechanics, I turned to one of my favorite
games to see how it handles realistic military vehicle interiors: Squad. I deconstructed thevehicle immersion systems within the game in order to find out how immersion could be
provided through a diegetic interface and visual and audio feedback, as well as camera
positioning and angles. Since the game doesn’t feature planes, I investigated the mechanics
that make the tank simulation so immersive. I came to the conclusion that the heads up display
being diegetic and providing actually useful information to the player was a main mechanicalcause of this, as well as the limited camera view and “lens” like filter affect applied whenlooking through the various turret cameras. I used what I learned from this deconstruction
process to inform the decision to make the heads up display not only useful and accurate (i.e,
not just for show) but also diegetic to preserve immersion.
With the deconstruction done, I was faced with a problem; I knew the bare basics ofaircraft physics but had no idea how to program them. I conducted further research into theforces acting on a plane and how they work and eventually stumbled upon a book called Physics
for Game Programmers, which has an entire chapter dedicated to airplanes and the physics
that drive them as well as information on how to program them. The chapter gets very in detailabout all of the forces acting on planes and includes the various and complicated physics
formulas needed to calculate such forces. I learned quite a bit about lift, drag, thrust, andgravity from this chapter and used pretty much everything I learned from it in the design of mysystem. While not all of the complicated physics are at play in my system (I’m not calculating
the air density for example), this chapter gave me a great overview of the physics as well as an
idea of how to implement them programmatically.
Now that I had an understanding of flight physics and knew how to implement theminto Unity, I wanted to learn more about carrier landing procedures and the various plane
metrics and data that were useful in helping pilots land on carriers. My research yielded two
informative articles about the subject, one titled “How Aircraft Carriers Work” which takes amore third person perspective and the other titled “How To Land A Fighter On An Aircraft
Carrier On A Dark And Stormy Night”, which is told in a story format by an actual pilot. Both ofthese articles provided me with what I was looking for; the speed at which landings are
conducted (around 150 knots), how pilots are guided to the carrier deck (the “meatball” fromthe Fresnel Lens Optical Landing System, or IFLOLS), and what actually stops the fast moving

planes in an instant before they can fall off of the other side of the deck (the landing hooksnagging an arresting wire). I used all of this information to inform the design of the carrier
landing mechanics, trying to model them as accurately as possible. I also used some of theinformation to inform the information I wanted to display on the HUD that was relevant to this
scenario: speed in knots, altitude in feet, pitch angle, roll angle, angle of attack value, and angleof attack index.

System & Mechanics
Explanation
The system gives the player control of an F/A-18 Hornet fighter plane in a first person,
cockpit perspective that features a fully functioning and accurate heads up display, as well as aflight stick and throttle. The heads up display has readings for airspeed, altitude, pitch angle,roll angle, angle of attack, angle of attack index, velocity vector, and fuel supply. The throttle
and flight stick move according to player input. Players can look around inside of the cockpit toobserve the terrain around them as well as the cockpit interior and the sides of the plane. There
are also two other cameras, one that follows the plane from outside and a freelook camera thatallows players to look at the plane model, which has fully operating control surfaces and jet
effects. These cameras can be switched between by pressing the C key. The plane starts in astationary position on a runway on land and must successfully perform a carrier landing before
fuel runs out.
Players control the pitch and roll of the plane using the WASD keys on their keyboard.
Yaw is controlled with the left and right mouse buttons. Holding down the spacebar causes thethrottle to increase, while holding left control causes it to decrease. Higher throttle values
produce more thrust and drag, while lower values decrease thrust while still maintaining dragfrom gravity, meaning players must carefully balance their thrust to not fall out of the sky.
Pressing the F key will lower the flaps by 15 degrees, while pressing the G key will raise them by
15 degrees. These are used to provide additional lift and drag when landing.
To take off, players must be at full throttle. The plane will naturally lift off of the runway
once the thrust is high enough to produce enough lift to exceed the weight of the plane. Oncein the air, pitch, roll, and yaw can be controlled to move the plane around. Rolling causes theplane to automatically perform a slight banking turn, which can quickly force the plane’s
altitude to decrease if the rolling angle is too sharp. Pitching while rolling can provide tighterand more controlled turns at the risk of increasing drag. After an understanding of the flightmodel is achieved, players proceed to fly towards the carrier in order to perform a carrier
landing.

The carrier landing procedure requires the following: firstly, the player wants to be
going around 130-180 knots in order to touch down without crashing, meaning careful throttle
balance will need to be maintained during the entire process. Putting down the flaps also helps
control the descent. Secondly, a balanced angle of attack must be maintained in order to stayangled appropriately to the carrier deck. This is achieved by monitoring the angle of attack
indexer: if the green upwards arrows are displayed, the angle is too high; if the red downwards
arrows are displayed, the angle is too low; if the orange circle is displayed, the angle is on
target.
Thirdly, players must also use the altimeter on the HUD and the meatball from theoptical landing system on the ship to indicate their altitude relative to the plane; if the ball isabove the center, the altitude is too high; below the center, too low; in the center, on target.
Finally, the roll angle must be on center with the deck, which can be easily monitored with therotation of the attitude meter; when it is in the center, the roll angle is centered
Once the speed, angle of attack, and altitude are all on target, landing the plane is assimple as touching down on the deck, as the arresting wires should be snagged by the hook andstop the plane. When the plane is landed, the win state is achieved. If all fuel is used or any partof the plane besides the landing gear touches another object, the loss state occurs.

Video Overview Storyboard

Visual Design Document

QA Testing
Test Plan
Test Intent: The goal of this test is to determine if the desired intent of my altered states
prototype has been successfully achieved in a playable form. Survey questions relate to thetesters’ sense of immersion while piloting the plane, using the heads-up display, and landing
the plane on the carrier. The prototype will be considered a success if players report having
enough visual and auditory feedback to feel like they are in the pilot seat, if the heads-up
display and cockpit controls are both useful and contribute to immersion, if the flight model
made the plane feel like an actual physical object, and if the HUD information and the meatball
were used for the carrier landing. I plan to get feedback from at least 4 different people, andwill hold the test informally outside of the testing lab.
Testing Setup & Procedure:
1. Explain concept of the system and controls to tester
2. Launch game and observe if tester notices instructions in game world. Record
observation.
3. Observe tester behavior as they play the system until they are finished.
4. Have tester fill out form
5. Thank tester for their time and feedback
Test Questions:
1. Did the cockpit view make you feel like you were in the pilot’s seat?
2. Which of the following factors contributed to the feeling of immersion, if any, whenin the cockpit view: heads-up display indicators, flight stick and throttle movement,
camera shake, audio, movement of the plane?
3. Was there enough feedback to feel immersed in the cockpit view?
4. Did you understand the various parts of the heads-up display?
5. How often did you reference the heads-up display information and throttle/flightstick movement in the cockpit?
6. Did the heads-up display and throttle/flight stick movement contribute toimmersion? Why or why not?

7. Did the plane feel like a physical object with weight to it? Why or why not?
8. When attempting a carrier landing, did you reference the heads-up display
information?
9. When attempting a carrier landing, did you reference the moving “meatball” light on
the deck of the ship?
10. Did you successfully land the plane?
11. Would you describe the overall experience as an immersive simulation?
Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdbn6K51FpuczIAbIqg2Bo6YTO94g4bja8_pfT-A6GV4JJaw/viewform

Test Results
Summary: Overall, the test was a resounding success based on the criteria for success. I got
four testers to play the game and leave feedback. One of the testers is a game production
major at Champlain College, while the other three are from outside the school. All of the testers
have little to no knowledge of piloting an aircraft or the physics behind it. Despite this, all of thetesters seemed to have fun with the system and reported it as an immersive and detailed
simulation, but also had difficulty landing the plane on the carrier due to the complexity of thecontrols.
Survey Responses:
1. Did the cockpit view make you feel like you were in the pilot’s seat?
A) Yes: 4B) No: 0
2. Which of the following factors contributed to the feeling of immersion, if any, whenin the cockpit view?
A) heads-up display indicators: 4B) flight stick and throttle movement: 3C) camera shake: 4D) audio: 4E) movement of the plane: 4F) control surface movement: 2

3. Was there enough feedback to feel immersed in the cockpit view?
A) Yes: 4B) No: 0
4. Did you understand the various parts of the heads-up display?
A) Yes: 4B) No: 0
5. How often did you reference the heads-up display information and throttle/flightstick movement in the cockpit?
A) 1 (Not at all): 0
B) 2: 0C) 3: 0D) 4: 0E) 5: 1
F) 6 (All the time): 3
6. Did the heads-up display and throttle/flight stick movement contribute toimmersion? Why or why not?
A) yes because it made me feel like i was actually controlling a placeB) yes, very sensitive to movementC) Yes the heads up display made me feel like I was flying.
D) Yes7. When attempting a carrier landing, did you reference the heads-up display
information?
A) Yes: 4B) No: 0
8. When attempting a carrier landing, did you reference the moving “meatball” light on
the deck of the ship?
A) Yes: 3
B) No: 1

9. Did you successfully land the plane?
A) Yes: 0
B) No: 4
10. Did the plane feel like a physical object with weight to it? Why or why not?
A) yes because it felt heavy and that you needed skill to control itB) Yes, as it moved it seemed realisticC) It did because of the audio and the shaking; and of course when I crashed!
D) Yes, controls were good.
11. Would you describe the overall experience as an immersive simulation?
A) Yes: 4B) No: 0
12. Additional comments and feedback?
A) this is a well put together experience, however i am no pilotB) Very cool!
C) This was very detailed and I could tell a lot of work was put in to make theexperience as real as possible.
Resulting Observations:
1. Testers felt immersed in the pilot’s seat because of the visual and auditory feedback
2. The heads-up display information was not only useful but also contributed largely to
immersion
3. Flying felt realistic, as the plane was reported to feel like a physical object because of
the realistic physics
4. None of the testers were able to land on the carrier in the time they spent playing
despite the usefulness of the HUD and the optical landing system
5. The experience was a successful simulation of flight and was detailed enough toprovide immersion
Analysis: Based on the survey responses, the prototype was a complete success in regards tothe criteria for success, but had a singular major issue with the gameplay objective. The

prototype succeeded in immersing players into the game world, largely due to the detail in theflight model, heads-up display, visual effects, and sound effects, as well as the detail in the
carrier landing simulation. The HUD was useful both for flying and attempting a landing, andtesters were all able to understand how to use it despite its complexity and lack of experience
with aircraft. All of the real physics forces acting on the plane made the plane feel like aphysical object in the world with weight to it. The HUD information and the optical landing
system were used for attempting carrier landings, meaning they were successful in theirfunction and immersive qualities.
The problem with the system lies in actually landing on the carrier itself. While testers seemed
to understand the process, the current controls made it too difficult for them to do it
successfully without playing the system for longer and adapting to the controls. There areseveral ways to correct this. An “arcade style” flight model could be made that reduces theimpact of drag forces on the plane and tightens up the controls so they’re not as sensitive, andplayers could choose between “arcade” or “simulated” flight before starting. The current flightmodel could also be tweaked to reduce the sensitivity of the flight stick movement related
controls to make the plane easier to control and recover from too much drag.
Survey Results:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/14BQg4bDp33XT87FI1Spo0kI_pPXWIVnNl4wjZd6Nto/edit#responses

Post Mortem
Based on the test results and from watching the testers play the game, I can conclude
that this system was a resounding success. It succeeded completely in delivering an immersive
experience that accurately simulated the flight of an aircraft as well as the procedures anddetails surrounding a real-life carrier landing. While there are some visual bugs, bugs with thegame loop, and it may be too difficult for an inexperienced player to land on the carrier, thesystem managed to induce players into an altered state where they felt like they were piloting areal fighter jet.
What Worked:
1. The flight model accurately replicated the forces acting on a plane
2. The visuals, sounds, controls, and interface of the plane simulated the real thing
accurately and were the primary sources of immersion
3. Flying the plane was easy to understand yet difficult to master4. The heads-up display accurately reflected its real functions and helped immerse
players in the experience
5. Landing the plane was easy to understand despite its complexities due to theaccuracy of the HUD
6. Deciding to add the optical landing “meatball” was a wise choice since it added evenmore authenticity to the experience

What Didn’t Work:
1. The fact that testers never managed to land the plane is troubling from a “game”
standpoint. While I didn’t bill this experience as a game when explaining it to testers(instead as a simulation), the objective of landing on the carrier was crucial to theimmersion of the experience, and the fact that testers understood how to do it but
couldn’t because of the complexity/skill ceiling of the flight model took away fromthe experience to some degree.
2. I spent a lot of time and energy on this project, mostly because I got really into all of
the physics and equipment surrounding the simulation. While this isn’t a bad thing (Ihad an absolute blast making this), I feel that I put way too much time into some ofthe smaller details like the meatball. I could’ve used that time to polish up the win
state surrounding the landing, which is currently really buggy. Which brings me tomy next point…
3. Getting the cables to accurately stretch when the hook collided with them wasextremely difficult and didn’t work entirely as I wanted it to in the end. This is partly
due to limitations with Unity; there isn’t any sort of “rubber” like system, meaning I
had to use the cloth component to make the wires stretch. Additionally, I had tobootleg the slowdown of the plane when it hits the wires due to time constraints. It
currently just applies the force of the plane back on itself, but nothing stops it fromdoing this when the plane halts, causing it to either fly forwards or backwards off ofthe deck. More time would be needed to get this whole thing working correctly.
What I Learned:
Perhaps my biggest takeaway from the experience of designing this system was thatmodeling simulations after their real life counterparts is the core of creating an immersive
simulation. While this may seem like an obvious takeaway (a simulation exists to simulate
reality, after all), I never understood the importance of this until actually building a simulation
myself. It takes a true understanding of and appreciation for the real thing in order to succeed
in making an immersive simulation, and I feel that I conducted the research necessary in orderto do so. My second biggest takeaway was that making an interface part of the game world
goes a long way in immersing players into the experience. Choosing to make a fully diegetic UIthat accurately replicated the real thing was perhaps the most immersive part of theexperience, and it was a far more effective way of conveying information than placing UI on an
overlay. Overall, I learned that creating an immersive experience takes a keen attention todetail and relies heavily on visual and auditory feedback, as well as a clean and unobtrusive
interface to relay important information.

Annotated Bibliography

Offworld Industries. Squad. Offworld Industries. 15 December 2015. Video Game
Squad is a tactical multiplayer simulation FPS available on Steam in Early Acces. The gameplay
revolves around working together with large teams of players divided into 9 man squads tocomplete objectives and create bases and spawn points in a realistic and immersive simulation
setting.
Key takeaways:➢ Vehicle immersion created through the heads up display➢ First person perspective inside of a vehicle gives a sense of place➢ Diegetic UI through the vehicle turret heads up display gives information while keeping
immersion intact
The expertly crafted vehicle immersion was the main design influence I took from Squad.
While the game doesn’t feature any planes, the way the game handles the tank gunnerperspective by using a realistic depiction of the heads up display is integral to not only providing
players with information but also keeping them immersed in the experience. I learned theimportance of keeping the interface grounded in the reality of the game world in order tocreate immersion, which is reflected in the HUD panel and instruments featured in my F/A-18
cockpit as well as the movement of the various control surfaces and input devices.
Harris, Tom. “How Aircraft Carriers Work.” HowStuffWorks Science, HowStuffWorks, 28 June 2018,
science.howstuffworks.com/aircraft-carrier4.htm.
Page 5 of this article discusses the various parts of aircraft carriers that are designed to assist
pilots with carrier landings. The article provides details and specifications about arresting wires,
optical landing systems, the ‘meatball”, and how all of these items work. Diagrams and pictures
are provided to give visual reference.
The relevant page of the article begins by explaining how planes need a “tailhook” in order toland on the flight deck of a carrier using the deck’s “arresting wires”, which slow the plane
down instantly when the tailhook snags one of them. The article then discusses how pilots aim
for the third arresting wire and how air traffic controllers help them orient themselves to landon the deck. The article concludes with a detailed description of the Fresnel Lens OpticalLanding system, specifically how the lights move depending on the pilots orientation to thedeck and how the “meatball” signifies that the pilot is on target.

Key takeaways:➢ Navy pilots don’t just land straight onto the carrier deck, they have to precisely target awire with a hook on the back of the plane➢ The wires can stop a plane moving at 150mph in 2 seconds.
➢ Pilots push the throttle to “full military power” when the plane hits the deck in case thewire isn’t snagged so they can take off again, or “bolter”➢ “If the plane is right on target, the pilot will see an amber light, dubbed the "meatball," inline with a row of green lights. If the amber light appears above the green lights, the plane
is coming in too high; if the amber light appears below the green lights, the plane is coming
in too low. If the plane is coming in way too low, the pilot will see red lights.”
This article was the first thing I looked to when I decided I wanted to focus the system aroundlanding on a carrier deck. It provides real world information and metrics that I used when
designing the system and interface, as the plane has to be moving around 150mph in order tostop when it hits an arresting wire for example. I learned about some of the science and metrics
required to land a plane on a carrier as well as how it looks from a visual standpoint both insideand outside of the cockpit.
Palmer, Grant. “Chapter 10: Airplanes.” Physics for Game Programmers, by Grant Palmer, Apress,
2005, pp. 275–319.
Chapter 10 of this book breaks down step by step the various different forces acting on an
airplane and how they work, as well as the equations required to find calculate themeffectively. Lift, drag, thrust, gravity, air density, and more are discussed at length, providing adetailed overview of the physics behind aircraft.
The chapter begins with an overview of the early days of flight and leads into various
terminology about airplanes (wings, ailerons, fuselage, etc). After this the chapter explains thevarious forces acting on an airplane, what airfoils are and how they generate lift, how engines
generate thrust, aerodynamic drag, and stability. The chapter gets in depth about all of thevarious physics calculations and curves that cause planes to act the way that they do, finishing
off with a programming example flight simulation.
Key takeaways:➢ Lift, gravity, thrust, and drag are the four main forces acting on an airplane➢ When a plane produces enough thrust to counteract drag and enough lift to counteract
gravity, it is in balanced flight➢ Once lift exceeds gravity, the plane takes off.
➢ Flaps are used to increase lift for takeoff and landing procedures➢ Drag increases as airspeed increases
This book was fundamentally important in the design of the flight simulation part of thissystem. It helped me understand how airplanes fly and how the various forces present

contribute to the flight. It also allowed me to see an example implementation in a game sensethat helped me create my flight model. I learned all about flight physics, terminology, howdifferent components work, the four forces acting on a plane, and more from this book.
Ruzicka, Joe. “How To Land A Fighter On An Aircraft Carrier On A Dark And Stormy Night.” The Drive,
19 May 2016, www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/3559/how-to-land-a-fighter-on-an-aircraftcarrier-on-a-stormy-night.
This article is a hands-on explanation from a navy pilot of the procedures followed during acarrier landing. It is told in a story like form and has several diagrams and videos to visually
illustrate what the pilot is describing.
The article begins with a description of the various types of landings, or “CASE”s that can takeplace depending on the weather, an explanation of the 4 arresting wires and which ones aremost optimal to aim for, and the different flight patterns (bolter, tanker, marshall) related tocarrier landings. The article then provides details about radio conversations with air traffic
control, interface to the pilot about their conditions and location relative to the deck,
descending, missing the wire and “boltering”, refueling, coming back around, and finally landing
the plane by hitting one of the wires.
Key takeaways:➢ Communication between the carrier personnel and pilots are key during a landing➢ Various flight patterns are used to keep the pilots on track➢ Importance of the optical systems can’t be understated➢ Information about flight speeds needed for landing
This article influenced the design of the immersive aspects of my system, mainly the radio audio
that plays to help immerse players as well as the optical systems HUD indicators that help
players stay on target. I learned about just how much of an involved and dangerous process
landing on a carrier can be, and how various types of technology are used to mitigate the risks
and help the pilots as much as possible.

Additional Sources➢ Ocean effect made using CREST Open Source Ocean Renderer for Unity:
https://github.com/huwb/crest-oceanrender➢ Terrain, jet particle effects, and throttle sound effect from Unity Standard Assets package