JarDesigns, known mainly for their work in X-Plane, has been exploring developing add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Specifically, it would appear that they have been looking at bringing a fully animated and voiced co-pilot to your virtual cockpit.
In the teaser video shared on J.A. Romanov’s YouTube video, he takes us through a very early build of a virtual co-pilot being in a number of aircraft performing a number of tasks. At first, we see the AI co-pilot responding to some basic questions such as how it works, her name (Linda), and even some questions around age that generates a humorous response.
The video then goes into a bit more depth, showcasing how the AI co-pilot can read out checklists in a number of aircraft types. This is all done through an in-sim menu as we then see the co-pilot then interact with the aircraft using distinct animations.
Later on in the video, we watch the co-pilot then do an engine start procedure within a Boeing 737 cockpit.
This is a complex of an executable file, an animated copilot object and a WASM module. It combines speech simulation, speech recognition, systems engine based on Visual Avionic, visual pose editor, visual system editor and many more.
This preview video is still very early in development, but clearly demonstrates a great proof of concept for a more advanced co-pilot that can virtually sit alongside you in a number of environments. We hope to see more progress of Linda the virtual co-pilot in the future.
As usual, we’ll keep you posted. For more on JarDesign, check out their work on on the A340-500 for X-Plane.
