I picked this up last night. I would say it is more of an evolution than a revolutionary change. There have been some graphical enhancements but most of the work has been under the hood. If you have Condor 2 and have purchased any of the DLC gliders, you can activate them in the new version with your license keys, which is nice (I already have most of them).
A pleasant surprise was that my Moza FFB stick works great with this sim. Also, just like with Condor 2, it is super smooth in VR (Oculus).
Was it worth the rather steep price for the upgrade from v2? That remains to be seen but the flight dynamics seem more alive (they were already good on v2). With Force Feedback doing it’s thing, the gliders can be quite a handful as you feel the turbulance, buffet, trim forces etc.
I haven’t bought yet. We were active for a spell during COVID. But then my friend Daniel crashed, injured his back and got married. Not to worry. He is fine and happy and god knows where. I sorta lost touch. He was quite a mentor and I really miss him. I miss the Condor group as well including old Jim Smiley who I used to tow for when I was 17 and he was a 40-something PanAm 747 Captain. Several of us have written about Condor on Mudspike in the past. I would bet that it has a user population that rivals DCS, yet few DCS players know much about it. It also has a huge following of active real-world soaring pilots who use it to “fly good don’t suck” (to quote Rob Holland).
Don’t let the dated scenery throw you off. There are community contributors who’ve have photo-realistically recreated hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of the best soaring spots in the world.
I watched some of the launch streams and I have to say I couldn’t really see any big changes - looks just like Condor 2. I may have missed, but is VR working on non-Oculus headsets in this version?
Graphical differences are minimal or, if I’m being generous, subtle. The clouds look a little better but it is obviously still basically the same 3d engine as V2.
The flight model is a bit more lively and the weather is more complex. You can now have thunderstorms and rain.
The standard flight computer is redesigned and you can use the LX9070 if you prefer (I haven’t tried it yet).
As for VR… no, C3 only has native support for Oculus headsets. Evidently they will be adding OpenXR support sometime in the future, but they have been saying that for several years now.
I forgot about the voice coms and the ability to have two players fly a two seater together.
I am sure there is more to it, but I would say that unless you are an avid Condor 2 pilot, it is probably not worth the money to upgrade. The good news from my perspective is that this version will be current for the next few years and I definitely want to get back into the multi-player races again.
The server list is about 50/50 between active Condor 2 and 3 servers. Even C1 is still supported.
I think from their perspective and (assuming they know their users) players as well, looking like MSFS is not possible and is not the point. Those users probably want improved ground and atmospheric physics, and view ultra smooth performance on the kind of PC/laptop setups found in the school or clubhouse as essential. That I suppose is what Condor 3 is offering.
Weather:
Up to eight weather zones on top of the base weather to give changing conditions through the day.
Zones each have their own weather settings, wind speed and direction.
Movement of each zone speed and direction is adjustable.
Thermal and inter-thermal turbulence improved.
Inter-thermal sink added.
Mountain thermals rewritten for more realism.
Cloud streeting improved.
Convergences can be created using zones.
New setting for thermal overdevelopment added. At higher values this generates cumulonimbus clouds with rain and thunder.
Cloud models are completely new.
Instrumentation. Flarm inclusion is a great upgrade. As @PaulRix can attest, collisions in the online 40 - 80 person mass launches can be a sad display of falling glider parts.
Authentic Flarm collision detection and display developed in cooperation with Flarm Technology AG.
Air Avionics Air control display on some planes.
New Condor 3 flight computer.
LXNav S10 style vario.
Airspace warnings on flight computer.
LX9070 flight computer developed in cooperation with LXNav d.o.o.
FES instrument for control of speed and battery state.
This I had never heard of. I am sort of “soaring adjacent”. I belong to a club but haven’t touched the place since Daniel left. I know none of our ships have technology like this:
The Total Energy vario in Condor measures static and dynamic pressure to compute the total energy. When the glider flies through a turbulent airmass, wind gusts are interpreted as energy gains and the TEC vario becomes more nervous and often shows lift where there is none.
The HAWK vario algorithm in Condor XC combines inputs from the weather and physics engine to eliminate the unwanted effects of horizontal wind gusts and gives a fast and accurate measure of climb rate. This gives more precise information on when to stop for circling and helps to center thermals more efficiently.
Or this:
(Live Wind) This shows the actual wind direction the glider is flying through. When close to a thermal this helps with indicating when to turn, and in which direction for faster centering.
