bultodepapas/OpenRCsimulator

Open-source RC airplane simulator built with Godot. USB radio, gamepad or keyboard controls, 240 Hz flight physics, and reproducible scenery

Summary

OpenRC Simulator is an open-source RC airplane simulator built with Godot, written in GDScript and released under MIT. It pairs a custom float64 six-degree-of-freedom flight solver running at 240 Hz with multiple playable aircraft, ground vehicles, and a configurable field. The project is currently labeled an early alpha, with explicit notes that flight models still need independent RC measurements and pilot validation.

What it is useful for

The simulator targets RC hobbyists and engineers who want to practice on a USB transmitter, gamepad, or keyboard before flying real aircraft. Useful scenarios include trimmed airborne practice with the Ugly Stik, runway takeoffs with piston, turbine and electric powerplants (Ventage Jet, P-51D, Turbo Lumber Evolution), and a hover-capable helicopter trainer. Engineers can also use it to study coupled propulsion models (glow two/four-strokes with finite fuel, electric motor/ESC/battery, spooling turbine), ground handling with per-wheel tire slip, and weather effects such as editable wind, gusts, turbulence, QNH, humidity, and time-of-day lighting from day through night.

Beyond pilot practice, the project is a reference for Godot-based simulation work: it documents a "shared simulation kernel" reused by aircraft, helicopters and ground vehicles, an openrc-aircraft v2 contract that validates aircraft configs by quantity, unit, evidence and source, plus headless regression tests, golden flights, schema/trace checks, and CSV flight-log replay (F10 records, F11 marks maneuvers).

How engineers can use it

To run the simulator, the README points to the v0.1.2 release page; downloads are ZIPs for Windows, Linux and macOS. You extract the archive and launch the executable, with no Godot install required. Packages are unsigned, so first-launch notes (controls, radio calibration, diagnostics) live in docs/FIRST-LAUNCH.md. For practice, the project suggests starting a new session with Aircraft: Airborne, Wind: Calm, Lighting: Day.

For development, the simulator lives under app/, uses pinned Godot 4.7.2 with the Compatibility renderer, and ships developer docs at docs/TOOLS.md, architecture notes in STACK.md, and contribution rules in CONTRIBUTING.md and AGENTS.md.

Documented limits to keep in mind: collision proxies, damage thresholds and wreck deformation are engineering estimates; flyable aircraft structural damage is unimplemented; lake impacts do not simulate buoyancy; the Turbo Lumber's prescribed 4S bus does not yet model battery depletion; and the P51-22 acceptance, Stik rudder recovery and R02 yaw-damping work were still open at the v0.1.2 snapshot. Brand assets sit outside the MIT code license; see site/BRANDS.md for permissions.