Parallel 42 originally started as a way to bring immersive experiences to flight simulators. With their immersion packs and then Chase Plane, each product was designed around improving the user experience. After a stint of creating ‘scene’ packages and aircraft, Parallel 42 is back with a new product focusing on interacting with Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Flow for Microsoft Flight Simulator brings a new intuitive and easy-to-navigate in-game interaction wheel that is configurable in almost an unlimited number of ways. Instead of using the default toolbar at the top of the simulator, Flow will allow you to control the sim using the interactive wheel which is based on modern design, usability, and customisation.
The video demonstrates initially that basic interactions such as changing the time, weather, and camera selection can be done through the Flow menu. Doors for aircraft can be opened, your friends can be found online and changing servers is all done via the intuitive new wheel menu.
More advanced functionality is also included, such as being able to calculate TOD (top of decent), finding METAR information and also converting units. Many of these functions can be done by using the internal ‘Otto search bar’, allowing you to type pretty much anything to give you the answer you’re looking for. The search option appears to also scan pretty much every function available to you through Flow, giving you the ability to quickly change a setting or option without having to scroll through menus.
For those wishing to have control over the menu itself, you have full control of Flow. You can change it depending on the aircraft type and make general edits to the ordering of the options in the wheel.
In the ‘Pro’ edition of Flow, you can also create custom scripts. Thanks to an array of script templates included, you can run any number of commands with a simple button press. There are tonnes of options to play with, giving you access to a number of ways to interact with the simulator. The one thing it certainly won’t do is make you a coffee.
Flow for Microsoft Flight Simulator will be coming soon to Orbx. There are going to be different versions released: Flow, Flow Essentials & Flow Pro. Specific details about what’s included in each version (and cost) hasn’t been revealed yet, but once we learn more, we’ll let you know.
Update: URL fixed for the video.
